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Prominent Islamic cleric, Sheikh Ahmad Gumi said sustained engagement of bandits by credible scholars could have reduced banditry in the North-West and lessened reliance on military force.
Gumi stated this in a Facebook post on Wednesday while reflecting on nearly six years of preaching to bandits.
The Kaduna-based cleric said, “Since 2021—now almost six years since we began preaching to bandits—one cannot help but imagine what could have been achieved if many credible Islamic scholars had been systematically deployed to engage bandits across the North-West.”
Gumi explained that such engagement would focus on “teaching them the sanctity of human life, the inviolability of people’s property, and the Islamic prohibition of killing and oppression”.
He argued that the results could potentially complement, and in some cases reduce the need for, a predominantly kinetic approach.
He added, “Very few people seem to understand that many of these bandits are themselves products of the same ignorance, deprivation, and social neglect that have allowed the crisis to flourish.
“People are the victims of their own prejudice!”
Gumi has been involved in dialogue efforts with armed groups in the North-West since 2021, advocating non-kinetic solutions alongside security operations.
