Killing soldiers worse than abducting schoolchildren – Sheikh Gumi insist

Kaduna-based Islamic cleric, Sheikh Ahmad Gumi, has stirred fresh controversy after describing the abduction of schoolchildren as a “lesser evil” when compared with the killing of soldiers confronting armed criminals.

Speaking in an interview with the BBC published on Tuesday, Gumi argued that while both acts are criminal and morally reprehensible, they do not carry the same weight in terms of severity.

According to him, his statement does not amount to justification of banditry but a “moral hierarchy” that distinguishes between different levels of wrongdoing.

“Saying that kidnapping children is a lesser evil than killing your soldiers — definitely it is lesser,” he said.
“Killing is worse than kidnapping, but they are all evil. Not all evils are of the same power.”

Gumi said no religious scripture or global standard supports the popular assertion that governments must never negotiate with terrorists.

He insisted that the notion is unrealistic and contradicted by the actions of countries that openly condemn such dialogue but secretly engage in it for national interest.

“That phrase, ‘we don’t negotiate with terror’, I don’t know where they got it from. It’s not in the Bible. It’s not in the Quran. In fact, it’s not even in practice,” he said.

“Everybody is negotiating with outlaws, non-state actors. We negotiate for peace and strategic interests. If negotiation will stop bloodshed, we will do it.”

Responding to long-standing criticism that his outreach to bandits emboldens criminal groups, Gumi dismissed those accusations as uninformed and disconnected from the realities of conflict resolution.

“Anybody who thinks that way doesn’t understand the intricacies and what we go through,” he said.

“I go there with the authorities. I don’t go alone. And I go there with the press.”

The cleric revealed that his last direct engagement with bandit factions occurred in 2021, facilitated with the backing of state officials.

He claimed, however, that the federal government “wasn’t keen” on deepening the dialogue.

Gumi emphasised that while a stronger military presence is needed in affected regions, the armed forces alone cannot resolve Nigeria’s banditry crisis.

He noted that military commanders themselves admit that combat operations are only part of the solution.

“We need a robust army… but even the military is saying our role in this civil unrest is 95 percent kinetic,” he said.

“The rest is the government, the politics, and the locals. The military cannot do everything.”

The cleric described the bandit groups largely as Fulani herdsmen fighting what he framed as an “existential war” linked to their cattle-based livelihoods and cultural inheritance systems.

“They are fighting an existential war. Their life revolves around cattle… They’ll tell you, ‘This cow I inherited from my grandfather’.”

“They are mostly Fulani herdsmen, not the Fulani in town. We have to differentiate between the two,” he added.

Gumi’s comments are set to reignite public debate over government strategy, the ethics of negotiation, and the widening security crisis across North-West Nigeria.

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