Moral values and discipline are widely considered as a prerequisite for religious leadership. This given that they are supposed to be disciples of God who teach their followers to identify right from wrong, good from evil and to always place the interest of the society with paramount importance.

Sheikh Ahmad Gumi must have skipped that part of his Islamic education. He is a religious cleric who abuses his liberty of expression by encouraging terrorism in Nigeria. Impulsively, his utterances and actions threaten the democratic fabric of the Nigerian government, as well as the peaceful coexistence in the country.

As a religious leader (either as claimed or seen), instead of him supporting government through contributing useful advice and information towards addressing challenges confronting the nation at this trying time, Gumi tore the path of inflicting more tension and fuelling insecurity.

In recent times, when one has been following security updates unfolding in the country, one might have encountered some of his controversial stances, especially on banditry that has engulfed the north. One will be tempted to conclude whether Gumi is now the official spokesperson of the bandits just like the fallen Abu-kaka of Boko Haram during President Jonathan administration who was always speaking for the terrorists.

For instance, Gumi in one of his numerous controversial video clips was telling bandits that soldiers who are hunting them down are not Muslims. Subsequently, that his singular utterance triggered the bandits to go on a rampage attacking Christian dominated communities in southern Kaduna State.

How do we begin to grade a religious leader who opines that “kidnapping of children from school is a lesser evil”? And those terrorists should be pardoned and compensated. This is without recognising the victims of terrorists who lost their lives and properties or victims who suffered displacement from their ancestral homes.

It beats one’s imagination that, Gumi who graduated as a medical doctor and was enlisted in the military finds it difficult to differentiate freedom fighters from terrorists engaging in criminalities including Kidnapping, murder, arson, among other heinous crimes.

I was left in perpetual shock during a virtual interview on Arise TV when Sheik Gumi categorically defended killer herdsmen saying “And you call them killer herdsmen; how many people do they kill? When they kill, it is mostly accidental, maybe somebody they took who is sick. But tell me who they have killed? How many? Few!.”It was at this point that I expected the government to call him to order because it became obvious that the self-acclaimed Islamic scholar was encouraging terrorism, Or maybe better addressed as his boys, considering this stance.

His actions and utterances over time have clearly shown that he harbours primordial sentiment and sympathy for criminals who have sworn by their actions to put the country on a warpath.

How can somebody who parades himself as a cleric be banned for life from visiting Saudi Arabia where Islamic faithful consider as their dreamland, Hajj is one of the pillars of Islam and is only performed in Saudi Arabia? Or maybe, Gumi thinks we have all suffered collective amnesia too soon to have forgotten that he was arrested and detained in 2010 by Saudi Arabia authorities for aiding Farouk Abdulmutallab, a terrorist, who attempted to bomb a Detroit-bound Aeroplane in 2009.

It is rather sad that Gumi has declared he will no longer take part in negotiating with bandits following the official designation of the criminals as “Terrorists” by a Federal High Court. This would have been considered the best window by the State to bring him in for questioning. He is clever after all to have escaped the hook. This is especially as the penal code clearly provides for the investigation and prosecution of any person enabling or aiding any criminality.

This man walks free today on the streets of Nigeria but I strongly hope that the day of his judgement is near if at all his criminal mind will lead him back to the terrorist path. They say “a leopard never changes its colour”.

James Maikasuwa
Writing from Nasarawa state.

We knew all along…facts are just emerging

Fact from heaven

This man has cleverly made a u-turn that the federal government has declared his boys terrorists, I hope his cup will soon be full.