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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