Jonathan, Osinbajo visited Niger Delta militants; who will visit bandits, Gumi asks
Islamic cleric Ahmad Gumi has questioned why the federal government has not pursued direct engagement with Boko Haram insurgents and armed bandits in the same manner previous administrations negotiated with Niger Delta militants.
In a Facebook post on Saturday, Gumi drew parallels with the efforts of former President Goodluck Jonathan and former Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, both of whom visited militant camps in the Niger Delta in attempts to restore peace.
According to the cleric, the visits by the two leaders eventually led to initiatives that helped reduce militancy in the oil-rich region.
“The former President Jonathan visited delta militants in the creeks, so also the former vice president Osinbajo. They all came up with a program to tame the militants,” he wrote.
Gumi wondered why a similar approach could not be adopted for insurgents and bandits operating in parts of northern Nigeria without attracting criticism.
“Who is going to visit BH and Bandits to tame them without fools castigating them?” he asked.
For several years, Gumi has advocated dialogue with armed groups in Nigeria’s North-West and North-East, making repeated visits to bandit enclaves in states such as Zamfara to engage fighters and understand their grievances.
He has consistently maintained that negotiations, rather than military operations alone, were instrumental in resolving the Niger Delta conflict and believes the same strategy could help address insecurity in the North.
Nigeria’s Niger Delta amnesty programme was introduced in 2009 under the administration of the late President Umaru Yar’Adua and later sustained by Jonathan. The initiative encouraged thousands of militants to surrender their weapons in exchange for vocational training, stipends and reintegration support, contributing to a sharp decline in attacks on oil facilities.
Jonathan had first engaged Niger Delta militants in 2007 while serving as vice president, when he travelled into the creeks of Warri, Delta State, without armed escorts to meet former militant leader Government Ekpemupolo, popularly known as Tompolo.
The former president later said the meeting helped pave the way for the amnesty programme, which remains operational.
Osinbajo also embarked on a series of visits to Niger Delta communities in 2017 while serving as acting president, meeting with militants, community leaders and traditional rulers.
He defended the engagements at the time, saying those in the creeks were Nigerian citizens with legitimate grievances that required attention rather than being viewed solely through the lens of security.
