Gumi’s Discordant Tunes, The Tears Of Minority Tribes In The North And How It Shows How Desperately Wrong He Is
The Oasis Reporters
December 28, 2022
The social media space has been abuzz with the speech allegedly made by Fulani born cleric, Sheikh Ahmad Gumi urging northerners to vote for someone who would not shoot bandits in the forests but rather, negotiate with them shows that the self acclaimed spokesman for the bandits is clearly out of sync with present day realities.
Don’t vote for politicians that will kill terrorists, Gumi has told northern Nigerians, according to a screaming news headline.
If you’ve never been to the north, the wrong impression you’d get is that the north is one people, one religion, one culture etc.
They are not.
See this tweet and know what is going on in the north, a situation caused by banditry.
Spent my Christmas day visiting displaced Nigerians in IDP Camps in Benue State. They were forced to abandon their homes due to the perversive insecurity. It is disconcerting that the government is failing in its responsibility to protect her citizens. This must change. -PO pic.twitter.com/5pC53N6hty
— Peter Obi (@PeterObi) December 25, 2022
But the reality is that in the north, there are hundreds of different languages, cultures, religious beliefs and what have you.
So which northerners are buying the jaded views of the cleric ?
It so happens that there are minority tribes, and even the largest tribe in the north, the Hausa people who have suffered grievously from the activities of unrepentant bandits, the folks that Sheikh Gumi is calling their “warriors”.
An outcome of this assertion unwittingly alienates a large majority of Nigerians who share the same ethnicity and religious beliefs with these same bandits. Many Nigerians want to live their normal lives without interference from the warrior bandits that people have been complaining bitterly about for over two hundred years.
An essay written by Nigeria’s first and only Prime Minister, Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, long before he even knew that he would be Prime Minister proves that these same bandits are the successors of the kidnappers that were responsible for selling captured human beings into slavery. A horrible and wrong practice that the British abolitionists forcefully put a halt to. Some of the Fulani emirs were even sent to jail in Lokoja over their persistent in continuing with the horrible practice.
Another book by Bishop Samuel Ajayi Crowther who detailed his sad journey into slavery, his rescue and how he became a Christian about two hundred years ago, further points out the culprits behind the ugly and abhorrent business.
The former business of enslaving people has now metamorphosed into the business of killing people in the process of hunting them down, capturing many others that they hold in the forests until huge ransoms are paid.
So one can now understand the history of the evil practice.
The controversial preacher, Sheikh Ahmad Gumi is doing his best to glamorize the so called bandits, deodorize them and to pamper them while he remains their chief advocate.
Gumi is a medical doctor as well. It’s amazing that he doesn’t seem to understand how the practice is hated even in the north.
Northerners are laughing bitterly at Gumi’s urge to “Northerners not to vote for politicians that will not negotiate with terrorists”.
Did he asked the kidnapped train victims whether they would vote for politicians who would continue to pamper the bandit kidnappers?
Even if according to the cleric, bandits are warriors who shouldn’t be killed but negotiated with, a view the Islamic cleric disclosed during one of his recent sermons.
He said: “Don’t vote for those who will fight bandits. The fighters are our warriors in the forest……. Our people in the forest.
“So vote for those who after attaining power will call and negotiate with our people (bandits) so as to give them what they want for peace to reign.”
Gumi has over the years been accused of ‘sympathizing’ with bandits, who have brought untold hardship on families and communities through their violent onslaught, kidnappings for ransom, and mindless killings, but he has denied that.
Rather, he said his concern is for his country, his state, and humanity which made him advocate peaceful dialogue with the bandits.
In 2021, he advised people in the terrorized North-west of Nigeria to treat terrorists branded as bandits with dignity.
Mr. Gumi said people can develop a “mutual relationship with the bandits without being harmed,” PRNigeria had reported.
“My interaction(s) with the bandits have been easy because I always ‘go through the door’”, the cleric was quoted as saying while delivering a lecture at Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria.
“I go through the door, not the window. If you go through the door, you will go in and come back safely,” Mr. Gumi said, responding to questions from students at the event.
Mr. Gumi said, “if people listen to the bandits, they would become amenable to abandoning their violent ways”.
Sheikh Gumi has obviously not listened to the victims of the bandits. Not all of the victims are Christians. Many are Muslims. They include women and children.
A student had asked why the bandits did not kidnap him during his numerous visits to their hideouts.
Mr. Gumi explained thus: “When we meet them, we don’t speak, we give them the microphone to speak even for one hour.
“When we first approached them, we saw that they were holding their warrant (weapons) ready to fire. By the time we finished our meeting, they will hand in their weapons and we will be taking pictures.
“So this is the power of human interaction which is what we are here to study as social scientists. That is the approach,” the outfit quoted Gumi as saying.
Mr. Gumi, a retired military officer, said he was able to gain the bandits’ confidence because he “treats them as human beings and respects them”.
“That is the respect I give them. I say come, come and sit with me. Come and sit down. I want to hear from you. With that respect, the Fulani man, you can get him.
“So don’t be surprised, if you are nice to him, if you are ready to listen to him, if you are trying to understand his problem, if you put your legs in his own shoes, he will listen to you, you will go to the forest and return safely, God willing,” the cleric said.
Mr. Gumi had visited some bandits in their forest hideouts and advised the government to negotiate with them in order to bring an end to banditry in the region”.
Perhaps Sheikh Gumi sees Nigerians as people without memory.
Pls, find time to pay visit to Southern Kaduna people and attend the Pan Mana Cultural Festival in Kaltungo, Gombe state.
— Dr Great Oracle (@AbdulMahmud01) December 26, 2022
If insecurity in Southern Kaduna makes any visit UNLIKELY, pay a condolences visit to SOKAPU Secretariat – Southern Kaduna Peoples Union. E get why, Sir! https://t.co/dPb9iBzOMq
A few more tweets show how desperate the situation is in the north.
"I feel very bad, I thought in my 5th or 6th year, I would have returned to my village, but I'm still here at IDP Camp. I pray that this Peter Obi that came, God will help him to govern us so that the situation will calm down"
— Obidient Soldier🕊️ (@King_Inspires) December 26, 2022
Peter Obi is the hope of the hopeless! God 🙏 🙏 🙏 pic.twitter.com/mvfSsaC2i4
Dear @PeterObi,
— ntong v.s. (@vsntongs) December 26, 2022
For us in Southern Kaduna, only your presidency can wipe our tears and give us the ultimate justice. And i've boasted to my people that you're coming to grace the annual Kagoro Afan-Festival 1st,Jan 2023. We desperately awaiting our father coming
Thank you sir. pic.twitter.com/9qqAuPs8W7
Trail of memories of loss, pain that other people in Nigeria feel, traumatic memories, tribal panic. Horrible terrorist state the bandits had put Nigeria in.
Lasisi Olagunju published some lines by quoting Nigeria’s Labour Party’s presidential candidate, Peter Obi, who said in Akwa Ibom last week that: “The structure they have today is what we want to dismantle. It is a structure of criminality,” he lashed out at the establishment people who have forever held the knife and the yam of Nigeria. The big men, especially Obi’s opponents, taunt him repeatedly that he ‘lacks structure’ to translate his mass appeal and mass following to electoral success in the coming poll. And for them, he had bad news. He said the structure his opponents gloated about “is the structure that produced 133 million people living in poverty, 20 million out-of-school children, and made Nigeria surpass India in infant mortality. It is the structure that destroys us; we want to destroy that structure.” He spoke well, very well – the best words he has uttered since the beginning of this contest. There is no doubt about it that the killer-structure deserves to go if we must save ourselves and the country.
Adewumi Okunola wrote: Nigerians are one of the most resilient people I’ve seen. They strive to be the best in EVERYTHING, good or bad.
Nigerians are the most psychologically strong people ever created. We have seen a lot – slavery, wars, constant terrorism, corruption, daily emotional batter, poverty, ritualistic killings, sufferings, and too many more evils.
We have however not allowed these things to bury us. The average Nigerian is working and striving so hard, yet they still find time to believe and smile and hope for something better each day”.
But there seems to be a way out. The best way out is to bring in someone as leader who can forcefully put an end to the banditry which is a criminal venture, and at the same time, unlock all the hidden potentials in the business of animal husbandry which is the primary business of the Fulani people.
It’s shameful that about five years ago, the Fulani cattle herders had about 30 million cows. They’ve never had a factory producing tinned or powdered milk that can yield billions of naira.
The Netherlands had about 5 million cows five years ago. They still sell dairy products around the world yielding billions of dollars without killing or hurting a single crop farmer.
Why is the Fulani case different ?
Nigeria needs someone who can radically change the tide in that business for the good of the Nigerian economy.
Additional sources:
Info Nigeria
PMNews
Quora
