Stop terrorists by promising them better life, not bombing them – Shiekh Gumi Advises FG

Islamic scholar, Sheikh Ahmad Gumi has once again advised the government to negotiate with terrorists as a means of stopping them from committing more heinous crimes. 

Gumi made the suggestion on Arise News on Thursday while reacting to the abduction of over 280 school children from Kuriga Government Secondary and LEA Primary Schools in the Chikun LGA, Kaduna, the week before. 

He asserted that the government needs to adopt a non-kinetic approach and seek to speak with the assailants rather than bombing them. 

According to Gumi, promising the terrorists a good life and a program similar to the Niger Delta Amnesty program was better than attacking in full force. 

Dockaysworld recalls that earlier Gumi, had expressed intent via a press statement, that he was ready to engage the terrorists and ensure release of the children.

The cleric stated that terrorists were not hard to reach and suggested that the path of dialogue be the main route to peace. 

He said,

“We are seeing that these bandits are getting more and more vicious. Before they didn’t do what they do. Now they are heading to softer targets, as the military man has said.

“We can only attribute that to the kinetic approach, which is overemphasised when we talk. When we hear politicians talking about kinetics, nothing is done to overcome these people.

“But let me give you an example: we are fighting bandits. They are anonymous, they are phantoms. How can you fight somebody you don’t even know? We said let’s go in, let’s know them, let’s map them out. Map them means know who they are, where they belong or all this intelligence information is virtually not there.

“How can you know somebody from satellites, from drones? And the harsh-handed approach to the matter is what is making it worse. Now they are kidnapping small children and they are threatening death, which they didn’t do before. So I think what ought to be done is let’s go back to the drawing board and truly be non-kinetic.

 “You know when we had victims of the train attack, a committee was set by the military then and the former government and they were able to contact them, the same way journalists have been able to contact them. They are not that difficult to contact.

“But what you don’t know is their foot soldiers. You need a programme just like you have for the Niger Delta, a programme which will bring them out of their forest. With the promise of educating them, giving them healthcare, giving them a peaceful life.

“This is how you entice people to avoid violence and militancy. But when you continue dropping bombs. In fact, they drop bombs on their children and women so they will find no sympathy and empathy for our own children. ‘This is it. An eye for an eye. This is what is happening. So we have to change our tactics. We have to change our style. What we have been doing has not been productive, but we think that if we can have a chat with them, we can have a dialogue with them and understand them and promise them what we can do and I think that is a better way.”

This comes on the heels of President Bola Tinubu taking a hard stance against terrorists, claiming that no ransom will paid.