Dr. Ahmad Gumi, fearless cleric and son of the late
famous Sheik Abubakar Mahmoud Gumi, today kicked against amnesty for the
Boko Haram sect as has been proposed by the Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji
Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar III and several prominent Nigerians, saying they
ought to be crushed.
Gumi who once escaped being killed by some suspected terrorists, made
the remarks in a sermon monitored in our New York office from his
social media network.
In it, Gumi declared that were Prophet Mohammed himself to be alive
today, he would personally have led the way in exterminating the sect.
“Every individual in this nation is concerned about the future,” he
stressed. “Nigeria is catalytically deteriorating. Today the national
discourse is on corruption and amnesty for terrorism.”
He noted that many people have missed the crux of the matter.
“Corruption is incurable, it is only suppressed. That is by genuine
ethics/faith illumination campaigns like the ethical revolution, War
Against Indiscipline, Re-brand Nigeria etc. and …an effective system of
accountability (i.e. checks and balances) or what can be summed up as
good governance.”
Turning to the Boko Haram insurgency, he described it as
hypocritical, pointing out that as an ideology, Boko Haram respects no
law, the Quran or Hadith or Scholarly fatwa. “They have their own
interpretation, anything short of that is part of the enemy that should
be killed. So on what basis should there be dialogue or amnesty? It is a
creed that must be crushed; it is a creed the prophet – alaihis Salam-
wished he is alive to exterminate.”
Sheik Gumi regretted that the present dispensation in Nigeria lacks
the moral high ground to defeat the militants, otherwise that objective
would already have been achieved. In that regard, he pointed out that
more innocent people have been killed, maimed, tortured and incarcerated
by the JTF in the name of fighting Boko Haram than by Boko Haram itself
or those camouflaging behind them. “A whole region is made to suffer
economically, socially and politically because of this blind war on
terror. The present dispensation has everything to gain in refusing the
‘amnesty’ call for political reasons; that is why it is recalcitrant.
Otherwise, if the need to crush Boko Haram is genuine, it would have
been achieved since.”
Instead, he called for a “selected Muslim high-ranking officer” of
the armed forces take charge of the whole ‘operation’ from
investigations to incursions, arguing that the situation requires
careful excision and only someone who feels the pains of society has the
capacity can carry it out.
“Like removing a tumor from the brain, you don’t give that to an
orthopedic surgeon, no matter how good, to do that. It is an operation
of precision not brute force. This choice of tackling a peculiar problem
is the sign of good governance. Special missions have special
requirements if success is the objective.”
Sheik Gumi pointed out that Boko Haram consists of armed individuals hiding in a civilian population.
“They do not control any high fire power to be engaged in a war,” he said.
“Therefore there is absolutely no need whatsoever to deploy and
ultimately exhaust the military in road blocks all over the spheres of
their activities. What are needed are very good intelligence, special
strike squads and the genuine cooperation of the civilian population
which can never be achieved through intimidation.”
He warned that because the issue is being tackled with “the impulses
of vengeance and retaliation” as is currently the case,the entire saga
is gradually turning into another thing all together.
“This is what makes the future bleak and frightening,” he stressed.
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