By Abdulraheem Kawthar Adenike | Fact Frontier.
Click here to read more about the reporter.
A famous Islamic preacher, Sheikh Ahmad Gumi, is making people talk about a very difficult question. His ideas about the bandits in Nigeria make us wonder: if the bandits are also victims, then who is it okay for them to attack?
Sheikh Gumi has been talking to these bandits. He says they are not just bad people. He says they became criminals because the government forgot about them. He says they have no good schools, no clean water, no hospitals, and no help. So, they picked up guns to survive.
But this idea leads to a big problem. If the bandits are fighting back against the government, why do they almost always hurt ordinary people?
Gumi's Idea: Are the Bandits Protesting?
Sheikh Gumi's main point is that the bandits are angry at the government. In his view, their violence is a way of protesting against being ignored.
This makes it sound like a simple story: The government was bad to them, so they became violent.
If this is true, you would expect them to attack government buildings or police stations. But that is not what happens.
The Sad Truth: It's Normal People Who Suffer
Look at what is actually happening in the villages:
• Schoolchildren are kidnapped from their schools.
• Farmers and villagers are killed in their own homes.
• People traveling are taken from buses and roads.
• Poor communities are forced to pay money to get their loved ones back.
These people are not the government. They are victims too! They also don't have good schools or hospitals. They also feel the government has forgotten them. So, why are the bandits hurting people who are in the same difficult situation?
What Does This Mean? A Confusing Situation
This is the main reason many people disagree with Sheikh Gumi. They say his thinking is confusing and unfair.
It seems like he is saying: because the government did something bad first, the bandits are not so wrong for doing bad things to others.
But this doesn't make sense to most people. A person can be a victim of a bad situation and still make a choice to do a bad thing. The bandits are choosing to hurt innocent people, not fight the government.
Think of it this way: If the government failed to fix a dangerous road, that is the government's fault. But if a driver gets angry and deliberately hits a person walking on that road, that is the driver's fault. The bad road doesn't make it okay to hurt someone else.
The Big Unanswered Question
So, we are left with a big, tough question.
Sheikh Gumi wants to talk to the bandits to make peace. But his ideas don't answer this: If the government is the one to blame for the problem, why are regular citizens the ones paying the price with their lives?
Until someone can answer that, many feel that making peace with the bandits will feel like a betrayal to all the innocent people who have already suffered.
