Amnesty for Bandits? Why Sheikh Ahmad Gumi’s Analogy to the Israel–Hamas Peace Deal Misses the Mark
- Oludare Ogunlana
- 1 day ago
- 3 min read
By Dr. Sunday Oludare Ogunlana, Dallas, Texas.
When Islamic cleric Sheikh Ahmad Gumi urged Nigeria’s government to negotiate peace with armed bandits, citing the recent truce between Israel and Hamas as evidence that “even terrorists can be engaged in dialogue,” his comments reignited a national debate.
But the comparison fails. The criminal networks terrorizing northwestern Nigeria are not freedom fighters or political insurgents. They are profit-driven gangs, closer to organized robbers than ideological militants. Equating them with groups like Hamas, which operates within a complex historical and territorial conflict, risks distorting both the nature of Nigeria’s crisis and the path to resolving it.
Different Motivations, Different Wars
Terrorism is widely defined as the deliberate use of violence to advance a political, religious, or ideological cause. It aims to coerce governments or societies through fear. Banditry, by contrast, is the systematic pursuit of profit through violence and extortion.
The bandits in Nigeria’s northwest do not issue political statements or campaign for reform. They raid villages, abduct schoolchildren, and demand ransom from farmers. Their only ideology is greed.
“These men are not insurgents; they are profiteers,” said a retired Nigerian intelligence officer familiar with the groups. “Negotiating with them is like negotiating with bank robbers.”
The Ghost of Boko Haram
Some observers conflate today’s bandits with the Islamist extremists of Boko Haram, but their origins differ. Boko Haram began as a radical religious movement in the early 2000s, opposing Western education and state corruption. After its leader Mohammed Yusuf was killed in 2009, the group radicalized further and aligned with the Islamic State, becoming the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP).
Those insurgents sought political power and territory. The new wave of bandits, however, emerged from economic despair—herder-farmer conflicts, arms trafficking, and the collapse of local governance.
Joint operations by Nigeria, Chad, Niger, and Cameroon have weakened Boko Haram and ISWAP. Banditry, however, has endured precisely because it lacks ideology. It is a business, not a cause.
Why the Hamas Analogy Fails
In the Israel–Hamas conflict, negotiations take place between two organized entities with political authority and international mediation. Hamas governs Gaza and pursues a nationalist agenda. Israel, a sovereign state, negotiates within an international legal framework.
Nigeria’s bandits are nothing like that. They are fragmented gangs with no command structure or political program. A peace deal with them would be less diplomacy and more extortion disguised as negotiation.
How Nations Fight Extremism
The United States, through the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), has developed a layered approach to counterterrorism that Nigeria can adapt to its context. It rests on five key pillars:
Diplomacy and Regional Cooperation: Nigeria must strengthen partnerships with Niger, Chad, and Cameroon to share intelligence and curb cross-border arms and trafficking.
Intelligence and Early Warning: Investment in surveillance, local policing, and community reporting can detect threats before they grow.
Law Enforcement and Justice: Empower investigators and courts to prosecute kidnappers and financiers swiftly and fairly. Justice deters more than violence.
Financial Disruption: Trace ransom payments, freeze criminal assets, and close illicit money channels while expanding economic opportunities for young people.
Military Action as a Last Resort: Precision operations can dismantle camps and rescue hostages, but must always respect human rights and serve as a bridge to governance, not a replacement for it.
The Way Forward
There is no single solution to terrorism or organized crime. As long as poverty and weak governance persist, violence will find space to grow. The realistic goal is mitigation—building systems that reduce incentives for violence and enforce justice consistently.
Amnesty alone is not a peace policy. Real peace requires law, equity, and development. Nigeria must demonstrate that crime leads to punishment, not pardon.
To Sheikh Gumi and others calling for dialogue: banditry is not terrorism, and the men who hold Nigeria’s villages hostage are not revolutionaries. They are predators. Engaging them politically will not bring peace. Upholding justice will.
About the Author
Dr. Sunday Oludare Ogunlana is a cybersecurity professor, counterterrorism researcher, and founder of Ogun Security Research and Strategic Consulting LLC. His work focuses on national security, intelligence analysis, and cyber policy development in Africa and the United States.
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