Usman Yusuf, the former Executive Secretary of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), has revealed what controversial Islamic preacher, Sheikh Ahmad Gumi, told bandits they met in the thick forests of eight northern states in 2021.
Newsbreak.ng reports that according to Yusuf, Gumi told the bandits (now designated terrorists) that killing, raping, maiming and burning of private and public assets were unacceptable and served no justification for their grievances.
He said he and Gumi ventured into the “lions’ den” and visited the bandits in thick forests of five North-West states and three North-Central states to “listen” to their grievances.
“We are in a very serious situation (in Nigeria). The security situation in this country has gone out of hand. I’m a doctor, Sheikh Gumi is a doctor and instead of sitting in our offices and hearing it, we went to the lions’ den; we visited eight states, deep in the forests – five on the frontlines in the North-West states and three in the North Central states.
“Why did we go? The reason we went was to listen… we went to listen. What we heard all over, the problems were local and solutions must be found locally. In none of the eight states that we went to did we hear any of the bandits tell us that they had a problem against the Nigerian military or against the Federal Government,” Yusuf said in an interview on Channels TV’s Politics Today on Monday night.
Furthermore, Yusuf said Gumi, during the visits, strongly criticised the bandits for their criminal acts.
“When we go to the forests, we sit down on the carpet and they (bandits) surround us and Sheikh Gumi hears them, listens to all of them and stands up and speaks to them in the sternest of voices: ‘We’ve heard your grievances, your grievances are real, they are genuine but there are no reasons for what you are doing; this is not us, this our upbringing, this is not our culture, this is not anywhere in our scripture. Just the way we come to you, we go back to our leaders, to our governors, we hear and tell them everything but whatever you are doing, your grievances are no reason for what you are doing; killing, raping, maiming and burning cities?
“Nobody, no scripture, no culture, no cleric will accept what you are doing’. He (Gumi) says that with the sternest of voices.”
Discussion about this post