Prominent Islamic cleric, Sheikh Ahmad Gumi, has said sustained engagement between credible Islamic scholars and bandits could have helped reduce banditry in Nigeria’s North-West since 2021.
Gumi made the statement in a Facebook post on Wednesday while reflecting on his efforts to engage bandits through preaching and dialogue over the past several years.
According to him, greater involvement of respected Islamic scholars could have produced more significant results if they had been systematically deployed to engage bandits across the region.
“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,” he said.
Gumi said the purpose of such engagement would be to teach bandits about the sanctity of human life, respect for people’s property and Islamic teachings prohibiting killing and oppression.
He argued that sustained religious engagement could complement security operations and, in some circumstances, reduce reliance on a predominantly military approach.
The cleric also attributed part of the banditry crisis to ignorance, deprivation and social neglect, saying these factors had contributed to the conditions in which armed groups operate.
“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,” Gumi said.
He added, “People are the victims of their own prejudice!”
Gumi has been involved in dialogue efforts with armed groups in the North-West since 2021 and has consistently advocated non-kinetic approaches alongside security operations.
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