Controversial Islamic cleric, Sheikh Ahmad Gumi, has said that if he were Nigeria’s President, he would give terrorists and bandits a six-month amnesty window to surrender their weapons, arguing that negotiation and rehabilitation could help end the country’s worsening insecurity.
Gumi made the statement in a video circulating online while speaking about Nigeria’s persistent security crisis and questioning the government’s reliance on military operations to confront terrorists, bandits and other armed groups.
“Why can’t we negotiate with them? If I’m the president, I will announce that I’m giving a six-month amnesty window for all the terrorists and bandits to put down their weapons,” Gumi said.
The cleric argued that insecurity should be treated as a domestic Nigerian problem and that the Federal Government should develop its own strategy rather than rely exclusively on international standards concerning negotiations with armed groups.
Gumi cited negotiations involving countries and groups such as the Taliban and Hamas as examples of situations in which governments have engaged their adversaries despite the groups being described as terrorists.
“You negotiate. You negotiate with Taliban, you negotiate with Hamas, you negotiate with everybody where you have problems. Why can’t we negotiate with them?” he said.
According to Gumi, an amnesty arrangement should not end with the collection of weapons. He argued that the government must also address the socio-economic conditions that, in his view, contribute to the recruitment of people into armed groups.
He proposed that the children of terrorists and bandits should be given access to education as part of a wider rehabilitation and reintegration programme.
“Most important, when you do that, entice their children to education. Build schools for them,” he said.
Gumi suggested that schools could be established within communities where affected populations live, arguing that access to education could help prevent younger people from being recruited into violent groups.
He also questioned the resources being spent on military hardware, suggesting that some of the funds could instead be channelled into economic opportunities and rehabilitation programmes for former combatants.
Referring to a reported $5 million cost for an aircraft, Gumi argued that such resources could be used to provide livelihoods for former bandits and keep potential recruits occupied.
“Let me tell you, $5 million, keeping a lot of them busy after the rehabilitation with cows would have gone a long way to end insecurity in Nigeria,” he said.
Gumi also recalled an alleged attempt by former President Olusegun Obasanjo to establish contact with Boko Haram during the early years of the insurgency.
According to Gumi, Obasanjo personally travelled to Maiduguri, Borno State, in 2011 and met with individuals associated with Boko Haram.
“General President Obasanjo told me himself, at the early stage of Boko Haram, he went to Maiduguri himself, met with leaders of Boko Haram. They agreed to lay down their arms,” Gumi said.
He claimed that Obasanjo returned from the meeting but that the government was reluctant to act on the understanding reached.
“He came back, the government was reluctant to take action, and he was bitter about that,” Gumi added.
Obasanjo later said in 2016 that he had visited Maiduguri in 2011 as part of an effort to initiate dialogue aimed at persuading insurgents to lay down their arms.
The engagement reportedly involved members of the family of the late Boko Haram founder, Mohammed Yusuf, and other figures associated with the insurgency. The group reportedly presented demands including an end to arrests and killings of its members and the prosecution of police officers accused of killing Yusuf.
Gumi’s latest comments are consistent with his long-standing advocacy for dialogue with armed groups as an alternative or complement to military operations.
In February 2021, following visits to bandit camps in parts of northwestern Nigeria, Gumi called on the Federal Government to grant bandits willing to make peace what he described as “blanket amnesty.”
A month later, he said bandits he had met were willing to negotiate and be reintegrated into society, but argued that the government needed to assure them of their safety before they would surrender their weapons.
Gumi also advocated education, healthcare and the registration of former bandits as part of a system through which the government could monitor and reintegrate them.
“When you offer them amnesty, they drop their weapons. Then you go in, build schools for them, build hospitals for them, get them censored; get them registered; then you can control them,” he said in an earlier interview.
The cleric’s position has repeatedly attracted criticism from political leaders and members of the public who argue that granting amnesty to armed groups responsible for killings, kidnappings and other crimes could undermine justice and encourage further violence.
In 2021, then Kaduna State Governor Nasir El-Rufai rejected Gumi’s proposal and said his administration would not negotiate with bandits.
Supporters of dialogue, however, have argued that military action alone has not permanently ended the violence and that rehabilitation, education, economic opportunities and community engagement should form part of a broader strategy to reduce recruitment into armed groups.
Gumi has continued to defend dialogue as a possible way out of Nigeria’s security crisis.
In 2022, he participated in a peace-building symposium in Maiduguri focused on the reintegration of former Boko Haram insurgents, where he linked insecurity to poverty, unemployment and lack of education.
His latest remarks have again reignited the debate over whether Nigeria should pursue negotiations and amnesty for armed groups alongside military operations, or focus primarily on prosecution and the use of force against individuals responsible for terrorism, banditry, kidnapping and other violent crimes.