Sheikh Ahmad Abubakar Gumi, a prominent Islamic cleric, has directed a message to President Bola Tinubu, advocating for negotiations with the numerous bandits causing chaos and fatalities nationwide.
In his plea, Gumi, a former military officer, criticized the spending of billions on weapons to combat insurgency, deeming it an outdated and wasteful use of taxpayer money.
He stressed the necessity for the government to focus on non-violent approaches to tackle the escalating insecurity.
Highlighting banditry as a social issue stemming from the longstanding farmer-herder crisis in Northern regions, the controversial religious figure urged an earnest dialogue with the perpetrators as a potential solution to the menace.
Regarding the military’s actions in Tudun Biri, Kaduna State, Gumi expressed a strong opinion against military involvement in internal security challenges.
“This is not the first time such is happening. The military should fight the military. Tank by tank. Jet by jet. Military should be out of fighting insecurity. We are not fighting Cameroon or Togo,” Gumi told Trust TV.
“And the jet fighters should not be used on citizens. I cannot imagine any American president, no matter how instructive, would use F16 to bombard Americans. Impossible. He would go down the next day.
“What we need are very good policies. Then stronger policing. That’s where our money should go. All those people should be involved in community policing.
“In every society you have very good people and they are the majority. Nigerians are very humble people; very resilient who can sustain a lot of hardship. So I don’t see why good governance and good policing should be a big deal.
“All the money we spend on buying all these Second World War aeroplanes and artillery and jets to fight insurgency is an archaic way of dealing with this issue. And billions of naira are spent on that.
“Negotiate with these people. Build for them schools and hospitals. Let them have future. Build for them markets. Even the people we call bandits, what they sometimes complain is that they no longer have cattle markets because whenever they establish market, it gets destroyed.
“So the military should be out of this picture completely. We are not fighting a foreign country. We should develop our internal security,” he added.
