Gumi Blows Hot, Says ‘Nigerian Military Can’t Win War Against Bandits’
Kaduna-Based Islamic cleric Sheikh Ahmad Gumi has declared that the Nigerian military is incapable of defeating the country’s bandit groups through force, insisting that negotiations remain the only viable path to ending the escalating insecurity in the northwest and beyond.
Speaking in an exclusive interview with the BBC, Gumi argued that modern armies worldwide struggle against guerrilla fighters and that Nigeria is no exception.
“But even the military says that in dealing with this civil unrest and criminality, only 25% is kinetic action; the rest depends on the government, politics, and local communities. The military cannot do everything,” he said.
“Where have you ever seen the military defeat guerrilla fighters? Nowhere.”
His remarks come as President Bola Tinubu’s administration rolls out sweeping security reforms, including changes in military leadership and a nationwide security emergency aimed at crushing violent groups responsible for mass kidnappings, extortion, and rural attacks.
Gumi also addressed years-long accusations of maintaining relationships with bandit leaders.
He insisted he has had no contact with them since 2021, the year the federal government formally designated the groups as terrorists.
“I never went there alone,” he said.
“It was in 2021 when I was trying to see how we could bring them together. But unfortunately, the government at the time, the federal government, was not interested. They declared them terrorists, and since that time we have completely disengaged from all contact with them.”
Despite criticism that his advocacy emboldens armed groups and undermines state authority, the cleric maintains that negotiating with non-state actors is standard global practice.
“When they say we don’t negotiate with terrorists, I don’t know where they got that from,” Gumi said. “It is not in the Bible, it is not in the Quran. America had an office negotiating with the Taliban in Qatar. Everyone negotiates with outlaws if it will stop bloodshed.”
Gumi described the armed groups tormenting the northwest, and increasingly other regions, as largely “Fulani herdsmen” engaged in what he termed an “existential war” linked to threats to their traditional livelihoods of cattle rearing.
“They want to exist. That is their life. They know where to graze and how to care for their cattle,” he said, adding that the crisis has evolved from local farmer–herder tensions into widespread criminality.
The cleric has long faced public backlash for his engagements with bandits and for statements such as his earlier claim that kidnapping schoolchildren is a “lesser evil” than killing soldiers.
