Kaduna-based Islamic cleric Sheikh Ahmad Gumi has reiterated his call for Nigeria to adopt non-kinetic strategies to address insecurity, stating that some armed groups are willing to lay down their weapons.
Speaking during an interview on Channels Television’s The Morning Brief on Tuesday, Gumi emphasized that relying solely on military force may not produce long-term solutions.
“We have people who are ready to put down their arms, so why must it always be kinetic?” he asked, pointing to the importance of negotiation and dialogue.
Gumi compared Nigeria’s security situation with global conflicts, noting that even powerful countries like the United States in Afghanistan and Israel in Gaza struggled against insurgencies. “No army is designed to fight the type of guerrilla warfare we are facing,” he said.
On the question of reintegrating remorseful offenders, Gumi distinguished between communal conflicts and individual crimes. “Communal clashes are different from individual criminality. After the civil war, atrocities were committed by both sides, yet the engineers were pardoned because it was communal. Individual crimes are treated differently. Right now, our priority is to stop the bleeding,” he explained.
