Gumi and bandits
Popular Islamic cleric, Sheikh Ahmad Gumi has been accused of being the most dangerous individual in Nigeria.
This is according to newspaper columnist and public affairs commentator, Majeed Dahiru.
Dahiru made the statement on Tuesday describing Gumi as an unabashed terrorism sympathizer.
Gumi had taken to his Facebook page to declare yesterday that bandits who are terrorizing states in the northern region of the country are going nowhere.
The pundit, who said he had taken time to read Gumi’s write up, summarised some of the arguments contained therein as follows: “Gumi was trying to claim that the bandits are actually victims rather than perpetrators, basing his claims on the sending of troops after some cattle rustlers in 2014.
“He also wrote about how Sharia was introduced in Zamfara State but was opposed by some people who made it not to work such that it became a political experiment; that if it had succeeded in 1999, maybe Islamic rule in Zamfara State would have prevented what is happening today.”
Dahiru, who spoke on AIT breakfast show monitored by Naija News, then declared that “Gumi has become the single most dangerous individual in Nigeria today”, wondering why security agencies in charge of intelligence gathering and evaluation are yet to invite the cleric over for debriefing.
He pointed out that Gumi’s latest defence of bandits, which comes at a time the military are carrying out a major offensive against the bandits ordered by President Muhammadu Buhari, is akin to a challenge of the authority of the state to secure its territory.
“I don’t know why the government is not taking a decisive action on Gumi as a person. Is he speaking for the government or flying a kite? Gumi has now become a terrorism sympathizer. If the Buhari government knows that its views and opinion is not in alignment with what Gumi has consistently talked about, it then needs to classify Gumi as a person of interest,” he said.
Dahiru further asserted that the inverted and warped logic being spewed by Gumi should not even get media attention, stressing that “If there is any reason for any media house to be sanctioned in Nigeria, it should be because they have given audience to somebody like Gumi to air such kind of views”.
He maintained that Gumi is helping in no small measure to create an ideological leaning for terrorists in the North-West by giving them a religious ground to continue with their atrocities.
According to the newspaper columnist, “Gumi is a mainstream Islamic authority in Nigeria. He preaches in one of the most important mosques in northern Nigeria. The Muslim community in Nigeria should rein in Gumi. Gumi is giving the Islamic faith and northern region a horrible image, an image that is difficult to cleanse.
“Gumi’s advocacy for Sharia law is not Islamic because it is dishonesty of the highest order to agree with people of other faith to put together a constitution and then turn around to implement a religious law in a plural society. It is a fundamental violation of the rights of Nigerians who do not share your views.
“For those still talking about Sharia law in Nigeria, they forget that under a Sharia-governed territory, a Christian or any other non-Muslim do not enjoy equal rights with a Muslim. They become second-class citizens. This is what is called Islamization; that’s the kernel of the matter.”
