To defeat suicide bombers the government should empower
civilians to root out terrorists. Sheik Gumi made this declaration
during an interview with SaharaTV over the weekend.
“Boko Haram hides behind civilians,’ he said. “So I would never ever
use the military to fight them. I would use civilians, like them, to
track them and fight them, and bring them to justice. It is very
important to bring them to justice so I don’t fall into the same things
they do and kill innocent people.”
The Islamic cleric criticized the Nigerian government’s approach of
using the military to fighting terrorism. He told SaharaTV’s Rudolf
Okonkwo, “When you send the military, sometime they are worse than the
terrorists. This causes innocent people to turn against them and even join the terrorist’s cause.”
He also addressed the issue of fighting terrorism without fighting
Islam. “Muslims are the first victims of terrorism,” the doctor turned
cleric said. “The way to do it is to empower the Muslims to tackle this
terrorism. Not to come and hide behind fighting terrorism and cause harm
to Muslims like what is happening right now in Nigeria.” Sheik Gumi
stated that this as the way to fight terrorism without attacking Islam
or being perceived as doing so.
Ahmad Gumi was also critical of the claim by the Nigerian Army Chief
of Staff General Azubike Ihejirika that foreign terrorists from Mali
were entering Nigeria. “He made these claims but there are two countries
between Nigeria and Mali,” Gumi said. “You don’t hear people from Niger
or Burkina Faso complaining about Malian fighters crossing their
borders. So how can they cross these countries and suddenly appear in Nigeria?”
Sheik Gumi made headlines recently with sermons at his Sultan Bello
Mosque in Kaduna during which he said that Allah had caused the
helicopter crash that killed former Governor Patrick Yakowa and former
National Security Adviser General Andrew Azazi. The cleric claimed that
Yakowa and Azazi were planning against Muslims. Gumi deflected on the
question of what his evidence was, initially stating, “what was the
Governor and a former Christian head of state doing at the funeral of
the father of an assistant to a president.” He also questioned why these
individuals were traveling in a military helicopter. The sheik made
this claim, “now that he (Yakowa) died, everyone was sharing evidence
and it was clear that this man did not mean well for Kaduna state. The
evidence is there I did not need to convince anybody.”
When pushed on the issue of evidence to support his claims Sheik Gumi
said, “Nigeria is very volatile and that these actions by Yakowa &
Azazi were a cause of suspicion.” He went on to say that when Yakowa
came to Kaduna State many atrocities had occurred for which he did not
apologize. Sheik Gumi says Yakowa was an entity against Muslims in the
state. He raised the question of what the governor was doing with Azazi,
who had been known to give military equipment to the terrorist
organization, MEND. The Sheik alluded to a plot, including General
Gowon, to destabilize Kaduna in order to win the 2015 election, which if it was fair, Yakowa would be unable to win.
Following up on the comments he made that Allah caused the death of
Yakowa, Sheik Gumi was asked about the willingness of some people to
fight for Allah when Allah was capable of fighting for himself.
Sheik Gumi explained that, “Muslims have been instructed that when they see injustice, they should try
and fight it.” He went on to explain that part of the injustice is
terrorism and that Islam fights terrorism. “If evil escapes the
punishment of the worldly government,” he said, “then Allah will punish
them.”
The Sheik ended his interview on a political note, restating his
belief that the National Assembly should ban a number of Nigerian
politicians from office in order to ended rivalries which create havoc
in Nigeria.
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