By Lawal Ogienagbon
In the past few weeks, renowned Islamic cleric, Sheikh Abubakar Gumi, has been traversing some forests in the north to meet with leaders of the bandits troubling the region. The Sheikh is no doubt on a good mission. He desires peace in the land and he is working assiduously towards it. He is not sitting on his hands like some of our leaders who are watching, or is it fiddling?, while the country is burning.
My fear is will he achieve anything at the end of his self-assigned mission? Like every Nigerian, this writer wants peace in every part of the country, which today is under the siege of criminals, for that is what insurgents, bandits, kidnappers, rapists, armed robbers, or by whatever name they are called, are. Let us face it, there is no plausible reason for any person to take up arms against his fellow compatriots. Criminality, under any guise, cannot be justified, otherwise, everyone will take to crime.
If care is not taking, that will happen eventually because everybody has one reason or the other to be aggrieved with the system. The failure of the system should not be taking out on others, who are also battling with their own challenges of daily living. As a peace lover, I appreciate what the Sheikh is doing, but I fault his premise for doing it. We will be treading a dangerous path if we buy his submissions that the bandits have a genuine reason for waging war against the society, for that is what they are doing in the actual sense of it. They are breaching the laws of the land with impunity under the guise of fighting the system for not giving them justice when they were wronged.
If that is the case, should those they kidnapped and released after collecting ransom or the families of those they killed, also take to the bush in search of justice? This Mosaic law of an eye for an eye, which they are postulating is not the best for our society and the Sheikh, or even any other person for that matter, should not give them the impression that what they are doing is right. Otherwise, as Ghandi warned decades ago, an eye for an eye would leave us all with one eye. Ghandi was right because everybody has one reason or the other to be angry and could seek to assuage their anger through self defence. Any society that allows that will be the worst for it.
The bandits are not going about their so-called worthy cause in the right way. Going by their theory, every Nigerian who has been a victim of one crime or the other, has the right to take up arms and start terrorising the people to remedy the wrong done him. This is wrong logic and we should all condemn it. Gumi means well. Other public-spirited Nigerians like him should be encouraged to take up such duty in their localities before and not after things have got out of hand. These bandits are products of some homes, localities and communities. How were they brought up by their parents or guardians? What contributions did their teachers and religious leaders make towards their moral and religious growth?
Train a child the way he should go and when he grows up, he will not depart from it, so says the scriptures. These bandits need to be told the truth that things are not always as they look. They have the upper hand today because they have sophisticated weapons and are also masters of their terrain in the forests. Things will not always be like that. Sooner or later, the tide will change and if they do not mend their ways before then, they may live to regret their actions. This is the right time for them to drop their weapons and get reintegrated back into the society. Living in the bush and turning themselves into terror groups that come out now and then to kidnap people on the road or in their schools for ransom is wrong, no matter the cause they are fighting.
I commend Gumi for his courage to have gone into the forests to meet with the bandits. But, he will be failing in that duty if he does not tell them the truth that they are fighting their cause in a wrong way. Regrettably, while he is talking peace, the bandits are still thinking of war. A report, which quoted the Sheikh, said the bandits were planning to acquire anti-aircraft missiles to repel military attacks. This shows that the bandits have tentacles, which even spread beyond the country. Gumi needs to watch his back, if the bandits can be thinking of acquiring such weapons while he is talking with them.
For there to be peace, Gumi is calling for amnesty for the bandits. Amnesty, he argued, would enable them drop their weapons. Then, why are they contemplating procuring anti-aircraft missiles if they are ready for peace? Gumi has taken the initiative, what remains is for the government to build on it. Since the bandits seem to trust Gumi, the government should ride on his back to get across to them to end these killings and kidnapping, especially of school children, in the north. We need peace to grow as a society and ending this banditry will aid the process. But, the government must not give away too much in the desire for peace or the nation will remain at the bandits’ mercy.
The nation travelled this way before when Hajia Aisha Wakil popularly known as Mama Boko Haram and a journalist tried to broker peace between the Islamic sect, which believes that education is sin, and the government. Nothing came out of that initiative and till today, we do not know why the talks failed. For peace to reign, I will support the Gumi initiative, but not at the expense of turning over our country to criminals. There are fears that negotiations with the bandits may encourage criminality. These are genuine fears that must be addressed so that another group with its own tendencies does not arise tomorrow to also hold the nation to ransom.
The government should not negotiate from the position of weakness, but that of strength, so as not to create the impression that it is there, just for the taking by any group of armed men which feels that it must make some noise to be relevant. The way to do this is to ensure that the security agencies, especially the police, are well equipped to enforce the laws. The bandits, according to Gumi, are aggrieved because “they were the first victims of cattle rustling, who lost all their cows to rustlers because then, the rustlers were having the guns. Then when they lost their cattle, they joined the rustlers and they started to kidnap people”.
Hmmm! Hiding under the failure of law enforcement to commit crime! I do not agree with the Sheikh’s proposition, but then the rule of banditry will prevail where law enforcement fails. We should not allow this as a nation, otherwise criminals will overrun society.