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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