KADUNA, NIGERIA — Prominent and often controversial Islamic cleric, Sheikh Ahmad Gumi, has publicly called on the Federal Government to overhaul its counter-insurgency strategy by granting formal amnesty and rehabilitation packages to armed bandits across the country.
Speaking at a press conference at his Kaduna residence on Monday, Gumi argued that Nigeria’s 17-year reliance on a strictly kinetic, military-first approach has completely failed to curb widespread rural violence and banditry.
He urged the administration to extend the same restorative rehabilitation frameworks currently offered to repentant Boko Haram insurgents to bandit factions operating primarily within the nation’s northern and central forests.
“If the kinetic approach is not working for 17 years, why don’t you change the approach? Let’s change the method,” Gumi stated to reporters. “Let’s engage them.”
Root Causes Over Cash Payouts
The cleric heavily criticized previous localized peace pacts, specifically pointing to failed initiatives in Katsina State where authorities handed financial payouts to armed groups without dismantling the underlying socio-economic drivers of the rebellion.
Instead of superficial appeasement, Gumi proposed a institutionalized disarmament process focused on structural welfare and education:
- Forest Dislodgement: Securing a peaceful exit for armed combatants out of dense forest hideouts.
- Educational Integration: Enrolling the children of herdsmen and bandits into formal schooling pipelines to break the generational cycle of militancy.
- Fear of Prosecution: Gumi asserted that many bandits are actively willing to surrender their weapons but are paralyzed by the fear of state-sanctioned retaliation or post-surrender arrest.
“These people told us they are ready to lay down their arms, but what are their conditions? Has anybody listened to them?” Gumi asked. “They said they fear when they lay down arms, they will then be pursued and arrested. So give them the amnesty so that they don’t need to fear putting down their arms and see.”
Gumi Denies Allegations of Terrorist Sponsorship
The briefing also served as a sharp defensive pivot for the cleric, who has frequently faced intense public backlash and intense scrutiny from national intelligence agencies due to his direct access to woodland bandit camps.
Gumi forcefully rejected allegations labeling him an ideological sympathizer or sponsor of violent extremist networks, calling the claims malicious fabrications.
“I hereby state unequivocally that any video clip, written statement, or message attributed to me, whether directly or by innuendo, suggesting support for, justification of, protection of, or advocacy for banditry or terrorism in Nigeria or anywhere else does not emanate from me,” the cleric declared.
Concluding his address, Gumi stated that the country’s protracted security crisis cannot be solved on the battlefield alone, attributing the rise of banditry to systemic state failures, including mass ignorance, crippling rural poverty, and structural social injustice.
