“Questioning the morals, motives, and actions of a nation-state is not an expression of hatred for it or its predominant religion”
― – Stewart Stafford
By Cosmas Omegoh
Is it right to say that Kaduna-based Islamic cleric, Sheikh Ahmad Abubakar Gumi is being beatified as an enigma –an enigmatic?
Yes, Gumi, a scholar, is getting rewarded for his continuous offer to negotiate and free kidnap victims from the vice claws of bandits. That is a niche he has carved out for himself, helping a seemingly helpless state and a clearly hopeless citizenry.
Every now and then, Gumi is at the centre of mass abduction narratives that now characterise the country’s Northwest, his name resonating as he offers definitive rescue plan.
For the wide latitude surreptitiously handed to Gumi, he comes out unveiled, offering to serve as either a mediator or a negotiator between the bandits and the government or between himself and the abductees’ relatives.
Candidly speaking, each time Sheikh Gumi takes up that role – perhaps for a fee, he succeeds. He follows through until he delivers; the abductees are released. He knows what to do; he demonstrates knowledge of the corners in the vast Birini Gwari forest.
Armed with his compass, he knows where the thorns and twigs lie. He navigates the gullies and the valleys, the mountains and the plains. Above all, he is in direct link with the bandits and the brigands. He knows how to resolve the riddle, how to break the deadlock when the Nigerian state peters out. No one else seems to possess the intel, respect, and under- standing he commands among the outlaws in the ungoverned wilds.
At the snap of the finger, Gumi can tell you which bandits’ cell took away massive numbers of people from perhaps anywhere in the North- west. And maybe if the agreement appeals to him, he will secure the victims and help them to once again breathe an air of freedom. His none-kinetic methods work.
But Sheikh Gumi’s ways are strange to many – and maybe the security agencies too. That happens only in Nigeria.
Each time Sheikh Gumi successfully negotiates kidnap victims’ release, many persons wonder what manner of country he operates in. They marvel at his style and his strategies. They wonder why the nation allows all of that to happen.
But Gumi remains unfazed. He knows his flock and his flock knows him. He speaks on their behalf in the manner a consummate publicist does. His advocacy plan for them is top notch. He sees them as an oppressed lot deserving loads of sympathy. He demands amnesty for them. Here is one of such. “If the country could pardon coup plotters who committed treasonable offences in the era of military administration, the bandits can as well enjoy similar forgiveness even better under democratic rule.”
Now, see who is an enigma or the enigmatic and whether Gumi qualifies as one, courtesy of Nigeria.
According to Cambridge Dictionary, an enigma is someone or “something that is mysterious and seems impossible to understand completely.” Then this is what Wikipedia says about an enigmatic: “someone who is a bit mysterious to others.”
Going by the two definitions, Sheikh Gumi may be the two combined because of his open romance with bandits, with the country watch- ing with glee. The way and manner Gumi goes about his business suggests there is an air of mystery or mysticism about his act and him- self. Otherwise how could he be in bed with felons without the government raising even a whimper?
Sadly, Gumi has for long been accepted as one coming from a realm alien to the government. Or as it is said in the local lingo, he is “untouchable.” Perhaps, Gumi hypnotises the government and its agencies and forces the rest of the citizenry into a mute mode.
Until recently, not many will vow knowledge of Gumi, 63. Here is a man who has lived a private life for some time, only known to a few.
For the records, Gumi is the eldest son of the late Shaykh Abubakar Gumi, first Grand Khadi of the old northern region. He was born in Kano State on October 1, 1960.
After his secondary education at Sardauna Memorial College (SMC), he attended Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria and later the Nigerian Defence Academy, and was commissioned in the Nigerian Army; he served in the Nigerian Army Medical Corp (NAMC) as a medical officer before resigning as a captain.
Upon leaving the army, Gumi attended Saudi Arabia’s Umm al-Qura University for his Islamic education, majoring in Islamic Jurisprudence.
For long, Gumi has been a regular feature at the Kaduna Central Mosque, where he delivers engaging sermons that keep his audience captivated.
But with the surge of banditry and abduction on a mass scale for ransom during the ex- President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration, Gumi found a new love. Each time there was an abduction he always offered to help.
He would hit the forest on a missionary journey to bend the bandits to abandon their loot. On some occasions, he claimed he wanted them to repent from seizing people for ransom. He has gone on such missions to Zamfara, Katsina, Niger and Kaduna states, mixing and mingling with the bandits, and treading the paths angels would fear to tread.
In another breathe,Gumi allegedly implored the bandits to lower their ransom demand, an act that has long become a trade from which many are making their mega box.
Yet in another breathe, Gumi was reported to have described kidnapping of school kids as a lesser evil since their release could be negotiated in the end. That, he allegedly said, is better than the bandits killing people in the communities.
Now, here is a few of his other accomplishments in his lingering Gumi-bandits relation- ship. He was pivotal to the release of the survived abducted students of Greenfield University, Kaduna, sometime ago. He offered to help free passengers of the Abuja-Kaduna train derailed by bandits. He engaged kidnappers of the Kagara students in Niger State. He was also credited to have met kidnappers of various persons across the vast northwestern region.
Equally as sour was Gumi’s most recent offer to dialogue with abductors of Kuriga schools’ students and pupils. It was a move that elicited outrage prompting mere routine invitation by the DSS.
Already, there are strident calls on the government to rein in Gumi to explain what he has been doing with the bandits and kidnappers for a long time now. Many Nigerians insist failure to do so is a clear sign of complicity, wondering if Gumi is in any way above the law. People belief information extracted from Gumi can be useful in extinguishing this fire of banditry raging in the Northwest. But that has not happened yet.
When Gumi returned from the DSS last Monday, he wrote on his Facebook page: “There is no cause for alarm.”
Then he added: “Yes, we had a productive interaction on how to curb banditry as we are all trying – each in his sphere – to tackle the monster bedevilling the nation. There was no animosity, but courtesy and full of respect,” signaling that he was given a mere pat on the back.
Then characteristically he urged President Bola Tinubu to avoid ex-President Buhari’s pitfall of shunning to dialogue with the bandits.
Now, everyone who listened to Gumi agreed that a big monster has been created. And the big question is how did the country arrive at this crossroads; how will it finally extricate itself from this self-made web?