From Femi Oyelola, Kaduna
Popular Kaduna-based Islamic Scholar, Sheikh Ahmad Abubakar Gumi has warned that military action against criminal herdsmen and bandits will not solve the security challenge, but “will only worsen the situation”.
He stated this in a post on his known Facebook page on Monday morning titled’ ‘Zamfara: The Flaring Of Crisis’,
Sheikh Gumi also warned that the herdsmen terrorizing the North-Western region of the country are going nowhere, as he noted that they are battle ready.
The cleric who cited the “recent victory of the Taliban in Afghanistan is a factual warning for those that contemplate,” argued that conflict can be resolved by active engagement of the government with the agitators.
The post read that, “Every time they kindle the fire of war, Allah doth extinguish it; but they (ever) strive to do mischief on earth. And Allah loveth not those who do mischief.”
“Zamfara state is unique in many aspects. In early 2000 AD the state ignited a wildfire of states constitutional amendments that accommodated the application of sharia law beyond personal law (i.e. marriages, divorce, and inheritance) to include the Islamic criminal law. It was well received by the local populace with eleven other northern states adopting it. However, it goes without saying, that the international community ruled by leaders that are promoting sodomy and lesbianism in the garment of secularism were at the forefront of fighting it. In a short time, it became political and fizzled away.
“If such shariah implementation move had concentrated in literacy and economic empowerment the kind of which we see in Saudi Arabia, with its rich resources, Zamfara would have become a shining example of the blend of a religiously modern state proud of its development and modesty. Unfortunately, it turned out to became the den of criminality and instability in the region.
“From the blues, in 2009 cattle rustling became rampant. Most of the cattle rustled were headed to the south in trailers where they are sold and slaughtered. This massive movement of rustled cattle greatly reduced their population. Most of the rustling first affected the rural herdsmen and it became more elaborate in the north-western region.
“Herdsmen were left with only one of three options. To join the rustlers or pay tribute to rustlers for protection or lose their cattle. In 2014, the military ‘intervention’ in the Birnin-Gwari Forest to fight cattle rustling changed the headsmen into a resistance movement as many innocent Fulani Ruga settlements were murdered, men, women, and children in hundreds.
“By 2015, banditry has replaced cattle raring that is becoming nearly impossible. Drugs were introduced into the herdsmen that are known to be illiterates or semi-illiterates. The reaction of the town local vigilantes (a natural reaction to any communal aggression in self-defence) pitched the herdsman against the local rural helmets, villages, and adjacent towns to the forests as they are lynched and maimed whenever they enter markets. Therefore, everybody became an enemy and a target. Fulanis and other tribes, Muslims and non-Muslims were equally kidnapped for a ransom most of which goes to buying weapons.
“Profiling of Fulani herdsmen became another motivative factor of more resistance and more kidnappings which has now led to their metamorphosis into the monster the nation is facing today.
“We should also know that because of their educational status and lack of an effective unified leadership they have faced untold hardship at the hands of authorities where they were extorted and stereotyped. It has been imprinted in the psyche of nomadic pastoralists that the authorities and their town dwellers are ‘evil people’ that should be resisted because they have no place to secure justice for their cases no matter how innocent they may be.
“With their acquisition of weapons, they realized how easy it became to be masters of their abode the forest.”
