‘Genocide Against Fulani’: What Does Sheik Gumi Want!

Gumi

 Sheik Abubakar Gumi has been on a self-appointed mission of listening to the ‘grievances’ of the bandits terrorizing parts of the country particularly in the North West and North Central Nigeria and helping to secure the release of innocent Nigerians abducted by these bandits. 

His latest port of call is Niger State where he had gone to speak with the bandits that went to Government Science College Kagara and abducted about 30 students, three teachers and relations of the teachers and also killed one student in the process. In the course of his interaction with the bandits, Sheik Guma has become a sort of spokesperson for them, letting Nigerians into their thoughts and the reasons why they maim, kill, rape women and destroy communities and have become a potent threat to food security in Northern Nigeria where farmers now pay them to be allowed to till the land,plant crops and harvest them in due season. 

He has called for Niger Delta militants’ styled amnesty for the bandits and played down the havoc these outlaws have caused society. He wants us to see the bandits who he also acknowledged were of Fulani descent as victims of genocidal killings by the Nigerian state. In a viral video of his interaction with the bandits, he claimed that they do what they do as revenge over what the Nigerian soldiers had done against them. He went ahead to tell them that Muslim soldiers do not attack them. He said he got this information from a soldier, and that it was non-Muslim (reads Christian) soldiers that attack them therefore they are revenging on the wrong target. He even told them that the picture of women in hijab that they abducted ‘spoil’ what they had done. He then reassured them that they should not border about the non-Muslim soldiers attacking them, saying the Nigerian Army would take care of them. 

If people thought that the Sheik was misinterpreted in the viral video in which he spoke in Hausa Language, they were wrong as the cleric appearing on live television owned up to the content of the video and more. The Islamic cleric alleged that the Fulani herdsmen are committing banditry all over the country in revenge of the genocide committed against them by non-Muslim soldiers in the Nigerian Army. The cleric spoke on AIT Kakaaki programme while justifying the viral video where he was seen talking to the bandits and telling them that they were attacking the wrong targets. He said that he told the bandits that they are taking revenge against the wrong people and that those that attacked them were non-Muslim soldiers because Muslim soldiers would never attack them. He claimed that a soldier told him that Muslim soldiers never attacked the bandits and that it was the non-Muslim soldiers that attack them, adding that he believed his soldier informant. He said that he believed the soldier because as a former soldier himself he is aware that there are fifth columnists among Nigerian soldiers. 

He said that these fifth columnists are non-Muslim soldiers. He said that these non-Muslim soldiers carried out the 1966 Coup. These non-Muslim soldiers are also the ones that killed the former head of state, the late General Murtala Mohammed in 1976 and also executed the Gideon Oakar Coup in 1992. Asked when this genocide was committed by non-Muslim soldiers against the Fulani for which the bandits are on a revenge mission, he said that it was between 2010 and 2015 when he claimed the chain of command in the army was under the control of non-Muslim commanders. 

Many have found the cleric’s intervention troubling and polarizing. On one hand, he wants amnesty for bandits that have killed thousands of Nigerians and created thousands of internally displaced persons (IDPs) particularly in the North and on the other he is giving the impression that there is a division in the Nigerian Army along religious lines. If this cleric is to be believed there are two armies in Nigeria; Muslim Army and Christian Army. The Muslim Army is the good guys, while the Christian

Army contains those who don’t follow rules of engagement. They are the Fifth Columnist that gives the military a bad name. They are the ones that committed genocide against Fulani herders. If this man’s actions and utterances do not trouble this government, nothing should. This begs the question, what does Gumi really want? Peace or division. I am happy that many discernable Muslim did not buy into his gambit. Here I quote lavishly from a Muslim, who was angry that the cleric is sowing the seed of division in the Nigerian Army and appreciates the danger that poses for our national unity. 

Na-Allah Mohammed Zagga wrote: “ #My_support for any leader is qualified, so I don't follow anybody blindly. I have just watched a video clip of Sheikh Gummi claiming that non-Muslim soldiers attack the bandits in order to divide Muslims. Are the bandits representing Muslim interests? Are their victims in Sokoto, Katsina, Zamfara and Niger States not Muslims? Our soldiers are not deployed to kill Muslims or Christians; they are deployed to kill criminals and mass murderers. 

“I'm thoroughly outraged and disappointed with this video. I am feeling stupid for defending Gummi's peace efforts or his negotiation with the bandits for the release of the Kagara students. One wrong word can destroy your efforts. Sheikh Gummi did just that. It's dangerous seeking to spread division among our military members. Terrorists and bandits kill Christian and Muslim soldiers and policemen. They also kill civilians that include Muslims and Christians. 

“I will under no circumstances give comfort to the enemy by supporting the ill-founded notion that bandits are being killed by non-Muslim soldiers in order to divide Muslims. The duty of our soldiers is to kill our enemies; the bandits are our enemies, and they should be killed. Malam has goofed big time. He should withdraw the allegations and apologize. We can't afford to divide our security forces on religious grounds for the sake of idiots who neither value the lives of Muslims, nor Christians. With this reckless video, Gummi has dampened my enthusiasm for supporting his peace efforts.”