There Is Nothing Wrong With Negotiating With Bandits — Gumi

Kaduna-based Islamic cleric, Sheikh Ahmad Abubakar Gumi, has defended his long-standing advocacy for dialogue with armed bandits, insisting that the idea of refusing to negotiate with criminals was neither rooted in religious teachings nor reflected in global security practice.

Speaking in an interview with the BBC Pidgin News, Gumi argued that both the Bible and the Quran encourage peace-building approaches, including negotiation when it can save lives.

“What do you mean when they say we don’t negotiate with terror? That word, I don’t know where they got it from. It’s not in the Bible, it’s not in the Quran. In fact, it’s not even in practice. Everybody is negotiating with bandits,” he said.

He added that world powers, including the United States, also engage with non-state actors when necessary.

“America had an office where they were negotiating with the Dalai Lama in Qatar. Everybody’s negotiating with outlaws, non-state actors, everybody. So where did they get that belief from? We negotiate for peace and for our strategic interests. If negotiation will stop bloodshed, we do it.”

Responding to criticism that his interactions with bandits legitimise their activities and weaken the authority of the Nigerian state, Gumi said, “Anybody who thinks that way doesn’t know the intricacies of what we go through. I go there with the authorities. I don’t go there alone. And I go there with the press. I have never been there alone, never,” he stated.

He also disclosed that his last meeting with bandit groups was in 2021, during what he described as a “marathon” effort to unify various factions for peace. He noted that while some state governments supported the initiative, the then-federal government did not.

“When the federal government was not keen, they were declared terrorists. And since they were declared terrorists, we disengaged completely from every contact with them,” he said.

The cleric also addressed one of his most controversial statements, that kidnapping schoolchildren is a “lesser evil” compared to killing soldiers.

“Part of it is correct and part of it is wrong,” he said.

“Saying that kidnapping children is a lesser evil than killing soldiers. definitely, it is lesser. Killing is worse. But they are all evil. It is just a lesser evil. Not all evils have the same weight. In Kebbi, they abducted children and they were released. They didn’t kill them.”

Also, reacting to the recent abduction of over 230 schoolchildren in Niger State, the cleric described the act as “evil.”

“It is evil, and we pray that they escape,” he said.

Gumi also stressed that while Nigeria’s military remains the backbone holding the nation together, the country’s security challenges cannot be resolved through force alone.

“Even the military says its role in this criminality is 95% kinetic. The rest is government, politics, and the locals. The military cannot do everything, so we should not task our military with more than they can do,” he said.

The cleric also noted that most of the bandits are Fulani herders, distinct from Fulani urban dwellers.

He said the bandits see themselves as fighting “to exist,” with their lives and livelihoods tied to cattle rearing.

“Their life, immemorial, is based on cattle rearing. They don’t like anything except their cattle multiplying. That is their life. In fact, they will tell you, ‘This cow, I inherited it from my grandfather,’” he explained.

While acknowledging that banditry has spread across the North-West and even to parts of the South-West, Gumi insisted that the situation is “not worse” than before his early peace missions.

He claimed that the mass killings and village raids that were common in earlier years have reduced.