Controversial Islamic cleric, Ahmad Gumi, has questioned why no government official has been willing to engage Boko Haram terrorists and bandits through dialogue, drawing parallels with how former President Goodluck Jonathan and former Vice President Yemi Osinbajo met Niger Delta militants in efforts to end insurgency in the oil-rich region.
In a Facebook post on Saturday, Gumi recalled that both Jonathan and Osinbajo personally visited militants in the creeks and returned with initiatives that helped curb violence in the Niger Delta.
“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.
The cleric wondered why a similar approach could not be adopted in tackling terrorism and banditry in northern Nigeria, saying anyone attempting such engagement would likely face public criticism.
“Who is going to visit BH and Bandits to tame them without fools castigating them?” he asked.
Gumi, a retired military officer, has long advocated dialogue with armed groups operating across the North-West and North-East, repeatedly visiting bandit camps in Zamfara and other troubled states to hear their grievances.
He has consistently maintained that negotiations, rather than military action alone, succeeded in ending militancy in the Niger Delta and should be replicated to restore peace in the North.
His approach has remained highly controversial, with critics accusing him of giving legitimacy to armed groups blamed for kidnappings, killings and cattle rustling. Supporters, however, argue that some of his interventions have contributed to the release of kidnapped victims.
Gumi has repeatedly denied supporting terrorism, insisting his mission has always been to end bloodshed through dialogue, rehabilitation and peaceful engagement.
The Niger Delta amnesty programme, introduced in 2009 under the late President Umaru Yar’Adua and sustained by Jonathan, led to the disarmament of thousands of militants through training, monthly stipends and reintegration programmes, significantly reducing attacks on oil facilities.
Jonathan first ventured into the Niger Delta creeks in 2007 as vice president, where he met ex-militant leader Government Ekpemupolo, popularly known as Tompolo, in Warri, Delta State. He later said the meeting laid the foundation for the amnesty programme.
Osinbajo also toured Niger Delta communities as acting president in 2017, holding direct talks with militants and traditional rulers. At the time, he defended the outreach, insisting those in the creeks were Nigerian citizens with genuine grievances and not merely security threats.
