By Peter Ovie Akusa
Nigeria is a theatre of the absurd. It is arguably one of the few countries in the world where the elite, who should know better, would call for the pardon of criminals, adducing puerile, infantile, and illogical claims to back their insane demands, when in reality the real reason is because they share some form of affinity with them. How else can one explain the call for amnesty for bandits by former governor of Zamfara State, Senator Ahmed Sani Yerima, in an interview with a national daily? Mind you, Yerima is not alone in this dance of shame. Majority of the Northern elite have at one time or the other also done the same. Senator Diket Plang from Plateau State, who paradoxically has been a victim of banditry on more than one occasion, shamefully canvassed for forgiveness for murderers and kidnappers, citing religious reasons on the floor of the Senate.
Senator Yerima, during his interview likened granting amnesty to bandits to the amnesty granted to the Niger Delta militants by former President Umar Musa Yar’adua. I find it difficult to believe that a former governor and senator doesn’t understand the difference between criminality and political agitation. Bandits are criminals who rustle livestock, collect tributes from villages, kill innocent citizens, and kidnap for ransom. They have no stated aims or political goals. Niger Delta militants on the other hand, anchored the armed struggle on the principle of resource control, citing environmental pollution and alienation of the natives from their God-given oil wealth as injustices that needed to be addressed. They did not kill innocent civilians but only engaged in economic sabotage in the form of blowing oil pipelines and kidnapping of expatriates. Hence, there is no nexus between bandits and Niger Delta militants.
Granting amnesty to bandits betrays insensitivity to the plight of their victims. It will deny them closure and is tantamount to rewarding criminality. According to some estimates, bandits have killed over 63,000 people between 2015 and 2023. It is repugnant to all sense of justice for these mass murderers to be granted amnesty.
Those clamouring for amnesty should remember that it has been tried before and it failed woefully. Between 2016 and 2019, some state governments in the North-West negotiated an amnesty deal with the bandits. Former governor Katsina State governor, Alhaji Aminu Bello Masari of Katsina, spent N30 million as stipends for bandits in return for them surrendering their arms. He regretted it as the bandits used the money to purchase more arms and continued with their nefarious activities.
The Northern elite should stop clamouring for amnesty for bandits. They sowed the seeds for banditry by pandering to religion which the bandits now use as a pretext for their crimes. Yerima, as governor of Zamfara State, introduced Shariah at the beginning of this millennium and looked the other way when the activities of its enforcement police (Hisbah) became excessive and uncontrollable. They also patronise incendiary and fundamentalist preachers in a bid to score political capital and win elections. And they do nothing to apprehend those involved in lynchings of those believed to have blasphemed the Prophet Mohammed. Recently, one of the northern governors openly supported the extra-judicial killing of a man believed to have blasphemed the holy prophet.
Military solution is the only answer to the problem of banditry plaguing most parts of Northern Nigeria. President Bola Ahmed Tinubu should pay deaf ears to the cries of the northern elite.
Peter Ovie Akus, a blogger, writes from New Jersey, United States of America.