Islamic cleric questions government reluctance to negotiate with insurgents

Islamic cleric Ahmad Gumi has questioned why no government official has visited Boko Haram terrorists and bandits to negotiate an end to their violence, drawing a comparison to how past leaders engaged Niger Delta militants.

 

He made the comparison in a Facebook post on Saturday, recalling how former President Goodluck Jonathan and former Vice President Yemi Osinbajo both visited militants in the creeks to broker peace. Gumi noted that both leaders had, at different times, gone into the creeks to meet militants and had returned with programmes designed to end the militancy in the region.

“The former President Jonathan visited delta militants in the creeks, so also the former vice president Osinbajo. They all came up with a program to tame the militants,” he wrote.

 

​Sentencing and legal actions

​This call follows the sentencing of three suspects — Abdulrazak Umar, also known as Abu Khalifa or Abu Khalid, Yunusa Musa, and Shamsu Adamu Sani, also known as Abu Itisar—to life imprisonment for their involvement in the Oriire schoolchildren kidnapping and beheading of one of the school teachers. Meanwhile, the Department of State Services (DSS) has vowed to appeal the judgement, seeking the death penalty for the suspect who are also linked to the Ansaru terrorist group.

 

​Gumi noted that Osinbajo and Jonathan had, at different times, gone into the creeks to meet militants and returned with programmes designed to end the region’s militancy.

 

​”The former President Jonathan visited Delta militants in the creeks, so also the former vice-president Osinbajo. They all came up with a program to tame the militants,” he wrote.

 

​Call for engagement

​The cleric asked who would extend similar engagement to Boko Haram and the bandits terrorising parts of northern Nigeria without facing public backlash.

 

​”Who is going to visit BH and Bandits to tame them without fools castigating them?” he asked.

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​Gumi has positioned himself for years as an advocate for dialogue with armed groups in the North-West and North-East, repeatedly visiting bandit camps in Zamfara and other states to hear their grievances.

 

​He has consistently argued that negotiation, rather than military force, successfully ended militancy in the Niger Delta and should be replicated in the North.

 

​Controversy surrounding advocacy

​The cleric’s interventions have drawn both support and criticism. Some Nigerians accuse him of legitimising armed groups responsible for kidnapping, killings, and cattle rustling, while others credit his engagements with securing the release of kidnap victims.

 

​The retired soldier has repeatedly denied backing terrorism, insisting his advocacy aims solely at ending the bloodshed through dialogue and rehabilitation.

 

​The Niger Delta amnesty programme, launched in 2009 under the late President Umaru Yar’Adua and sustained by Jonathan, saw thousands of militants disarmed in exchange for training, stipends, and reintegration support. This initiative significantly reduced attacks on oil infrastructure in the region.

​Jonathan first waded into the Niger Delta crisis in 2007 as vice-president, entering the creeks without an armed detail to meet ex-militant leader Government Ekpemupolo, widely known as Tompolo, in Warri, Delta State. He later stated that the meeting laid the groundwork for the amnesty programme granted to militants, which remains in place.

​Osinbajo similarly toured Niger Delta communities as acting president in 2017, engaging militants and traditional leaders directly. He justified the outreach by arguing that those in the creeks were citizens with genuine grievances rather than mere security threats.

 

Earlier in the month, the Nigerian Senate urged the federal government to halt the policy of pardoning and rehabilitating former insurgents, demanding they face prosecution instead. Members of the House of Reps similarly demanded an end to the program, arguing it undermines security efforts and emboldens criminal groups.

 

The lawmakers argue that such rehabilitation seem to emboldened terrorists and compromise  vital intelligence pointing to a rising wave of violence, kidnappings, and killings targeting active and retired military officers by armed groups. Citizens, victims’ families, and civil society groups also argue that the program rewards violent criminals while leaving victims traumatised, uncompensated and bitter.