A controversial Islamic cleric, Sheikh Ahmad Gumi, has questioned why no government official has visited Boko Haram terrorists and bandits to negotiate an end to their violence, the way past leaders engaged Niger Delta militants.
In a Facebook post on Saturday, Gumi recalled how former President Goodluck Jonathan and former Vice President Yemi Osinbajo both visited militants in the creeks to broker peace. He noted that both leaders had, at different times, gone into the creeks to meet militants and had returned with programmes designed to end the militancy in the region.
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“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.
The cleric then asked who would extend similar engagement to Boko Haram and bandits terrorising parts of northern Nigeria, without facing public backlash. “Who is going to visit BH and Bandits to tame them without fools castigating them?” he asked.
Gumi’s longstanding advocacy for dialogue
Gumi has for years positioned himself as an advocate for dialogue with armed groups in the North-West and North-East, repeatedly visiting bandit camps in Zamfara and other states to hear their grievances. He has consistently argued that negotiation, rather than military force, worked to end militancy in the Niger Delta and should be replicated in the North.
The cleric’s interventions have drawn both support and criticism. Some Nigerians accuse him of legitimising armed groups responsible for kidnapping, killings and cattle rustling, while others credit his engagements with securing the release of kidnap victims. The retired soldier has repeatedly denied backing terrorism, insisting his advocacy is aimed solely at ending the bloodshed through dialogue and rehabilitation.
Niger Delta amnesty programme as a model
The Niger Delta amnesty programme, launched in 2009 under the late President Umaru Yar’Adua and sustained by Jonathan, saw thousands of militants disarmed in exchange for training, stipends and reintegration support, significantly reducing attacks on oil infrastructure in the region. Jonathan first waded into the Niger Delta crisis in 2007 as vice-president, entering the creeks without an armed detail to meet ex-militant leader Government Ekpemupolo, popularly known as Tompolo, in Warri, Delta State. He later said the meeting laid the groundwork for the amnesty programme granted to militants, which remains in place today.
Osinbajo similarly toured Niger Delta communities as acting president in 2017, engaging militants and traditional leaders directly. He justified the outreach by arguing that those in the creeks were citizens with genuine grievances, not merely security threats.
