Jonathan, Osinbajo Visited Militants, Who’ll Visit Boko Haram, Bandits?— Sheikh Gumi Queries
Controversial Kaduna-based Islamic cleric, Sheikh Ahmad Gumi, has questioned why successive governments have not adopted the same dialogue approach used in resolving the Niger Delta militancy to engage Boko Haram insurgents and armed bandits ravaging northern Nigeria.
In a Facebook post on Saturday, Gumi drew parallels between the peace efforts undertaken by former President Goodluck Jonathan and former Vice President Yemi Osinbajo in the Niger Delta and the ongoing security crisis in the North.
According to the cleric, both Jonathan and Osinbajo personally visited militant groups in the creeks and subsequently initiated programmes that helped reduce violence in the oil-rich region.
“The former President Jonathan visited delta militants in the creeks, so also the former vice president Osinbajo. They all came up with a program to tame the militants,” Gumi wrote.
He then posed a question over whether any political leader would be willing to adopt a similar strategy in engaging Boko Haram and bandits without attracting widespread criticism.
“Who is going to visit BH and Bandits to tame them without fools castigating them?” he asked.
Gumi has consistently advocated dialogue as a means of ending insurgency and banditry in the North-West and North-East, arguing that negotiations could achieve results where prolonged military operations have struggled.
Over the years, the cleric has visited camps of armed groups in states such as Zamfara, maintaining that his engagements were aimed at understanding their grievances and persuading them to embrace peace.
His position, however, has remained controversial. While critics accuse him of lending legitimacy to criminal groups responsible for kidnappings, killings and cattle rustling, supporters argue that his interventions have contributed to the release of several abducted victims.
The retired military officer has repeatedly denied supporting terrorism, insisting that his advocacy is driven solely by a desire to end bloodshed through dialogue, rehabilitation and reintegration.
The Niger Delta amnesty programme, introduced in 2009 under the administration of late President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua and sustained by Jonathan, encouraged thousands of militants to surrender their weapons in exchange for vocational training, stipends and reintegration support, leading to a sharp decline in attacks on oil installations.
Jonathan had earlier revealed that, as vice president in 2007, he entered the Niger Delta creeks without an armed escort to meet former militant leader Government Ekpemupolo, popularly known as Tompolo, a move he said laid the foundation for the amnesty initiative.
Similarly, Osinbajo, while serving as acting president in 2017, toured Niger Delta communities, meeting militants, traditional rulers and community leaders. He defended the outreach at the time, saying those in the creeks were Nigerian citizens with legitimate grievances that required engagement rather than being viewed solely as security threats.