By Dr Abubakar Mahmoud Gumi
As we pray for their quick release. The victims are all of us and we are them all of them.
We need to teach the kidnappers that they have nothing to gain by their evil acts. We need to plead on their victims’ behalf, but we cannot get access to them directly now.
We are seriously handicap and constrained by the negative responses we got from some authorities and some Nigerians that are ready to castigate people who believe that negotiations at this material time and space are the lesser of TWO evils confronting us.
We have lost our negotiating prowess by the negative campaign against us.
Before we ventured into the forest to meet the willing militant leaders, we are in total darkness. We can now almost identify them by name even whose rouge bandit leaders that, still continue with their atrocities. Had we had the encouragement, by now we would have covered almost all of them. At least the most important leaders that can carry out such big operations.
We pray, the authorities will listen and give negotiations another chance.
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Below was my speech yesterday at first experts and stakeholder’s forum on:
THE ARMED HERDSMEN DEBACLE: PEACE AND RECONCILIATION – AN ALTERNATIVE SOLUTION
Place: Arewa House Kaduna
Date: 22nd March 2021
Time: 11 am
In collaboration with:
• ZAMFARA STATE GOVERNMENT DELEGATIONS
• National Chairman NORTHEN YOUTH PEACE AND RECONCILIATION INITIATIVE (NYPARI) Amb. A. A. Lawan Uba (dan Maliki Shikasoro Adamawa)
• SHEIK ABUBAKR GUMMI SULTAN BELLO MOSQUE FOUNDATION
• President FOUNDATION FOR PEACE AND NONVIOLENCE IN NIGERIA – (FOFPEN) Mr. Erekosima Onengiya
• CHAIRMAN/coordinator NETWORK FOR JUSTICE Dr. Bashir Kurfi
• CEO HEALTH AND INTEGRITY OF WOMEN & CHILDREN DEVELOPMENT INITIATIVE (HIWOCDIN) Haj. Aishatu Abdu Gusau
• Prof. Umar Labdo professor of Islamic political thought at Maitama Sule University, Kano.
• Prof Usman Yusuf prof. of hematology USA
• CEO DH. Dan Iyan Fika M. Tukur Mamu
Good morning Ladies and Gentlemen!
Assalamu Alaikum which means peace be upon you,
As we are all aware, the issue of armed herdsmen is thorny and very sensitive. This calls for the meeting of peace-seeking organizations to lend their voice in quest of a permanent non-military solution to the debacle.
The participants in this first experts and stakeholder’s forum are drawn from a pool of many
conscientious Nigerian organizations and individuals that want to give peace mission a chance to change the tide and arrest the drift to haemorrhage and more bloodshed on our soil.
We are not oblivious of the fact that undertaking to resolve violent conflict, peace broking, and confidence-building is slow but yet effective, difficult but achievable, insidious but can be frank and honest. It’s never an easy task, but its greatest advantage is that it cost no blood or loss of precious life.
let us borrow some words of wisdom from world peacemakers:
Albert Einstein says: “Peace cannot be kept by force; it can only be achieved by understanding.”
“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.” ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.
If you want peace, you don’t talk to your friends. You talk to your enemies. Desmond Tutu
Peace is a daily, a weekly, a monthly process, gradually changing opinions, slowly eroding old barriers, quietly building new structures. John F. Kennedy
To cap it all, our noble Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said, “God is compassionate and loves compassion. He gives for leniency and compassion what He does not give for violence and harshness.”
On this note, it became relevant to remind us of what the President said sometimes in 2014 when he was in opposition in a VOA Hausa interview:
I Quote:
“I place this responsibility (i.e of security) squarely on the shoulders of the federal government because the federal government owns the police, they own the Judiciary, they own the army, the air force, and the navy. Who owns the judges? How did the terrorists of the South-South begin? Who are still causing mayhem. It is today reported that the bodies of 11 or 12 policemen whose arms were confiscated by the militants were then killed and burned.
The president was then asked by the VOA reporter:
Do you think amnesty will assist in extinguishing the flames of this crisis (of BH)?
He said: “Definitely, it will be useful if their leaders are known? were those (i.e. Niger Delta Militants) who were known, were they not given money, Jobs and were sent abroad to do this … and these (BH), if they are known too, if they come out of their hiding, there should be a way that negotiations with them should be carried out, the issue is that those (Niger Delta Militants) their leaders are known”
unquote
With this logic, I ventured into the forest to know these bandits, and listen to their grievances and excuses.
To my surprise: they are known. Every one of them is known. They have demands and they are not out of the ordinary. And most beautiful, they are ready to negotiate.
So, what do we want?
how do we achieve it?
Why did the initial negotiations fail?
What is the future?
These are some of the questions this forum will like to discuss.
—
Having now identified the Bandit leader in this particular case, I promised them to revisit the authorities and get some of these repentant leaders to intercede on our behalf.
May Allah continue to protect us all and bring them back safely to their families. Amin
