It Pays Well to be a Bandit.
You're never prosecuted.
One of their own is the President.
That defines our helplessness.
Which Strengthens their Resolve.
No one gets caught. They enjoy unqualified (without limit) immunity. And no arrest is ever contemplated. The family of the victims and the security agencies negotiate with the Bandits/Terrorists openly. Therefore, the talk of being caught is simply an oxymoron. And that's the Nigeria of Sheikh Ahmad Gumi - the apostle of kidnap-for-ransom.
We didn't send them to school, comes a bizarre narrative. Thus, excluding them from participating directly in the social and economic largesse available to other Nigerians. False. In other words, they are simply harnessing their shares of the national cake by any means necessary. That's what Dr. Gumi wants the world to believe.
Yet, none of them, not even Sheikh Gumi, a Medical Doctor, had the scruple to raise a voice of dissent when President Buhari's administration abandoned the Almajiri Educational Initiative begun by President Goodluck Jonathan.
Guess what, the almajiri of today is the hoodlum, the bandit, the terrorist, the kidnapper, and the Boko Haram sect of tomorrow under the incitement and tutelage of highly placed community and political leaders.
Meanwhile, hundreds of other Nigerian youths are wasting their lives, dying painful death every day while traversing the hostile terrain of the Sahara Deserts and the unfriendly waves of the Mediterranean Sea trying to make it to Europe in search of a greener pasture and better life for their family members back home.
No one, no other tribe is having it on a platter of gold in Nigeria, except the privileged few like Dr. Gumi. So, what's all this fuss about bandits being left out of the economic equations?
And he has threatened Armageddon if the bandits are ever prosecuted or killed by the military. You can understand why the Presidency or Aso Rock is yet to declare the group a terrorist organization and why they have been able to continuously obtain their ransom and disappear into the thin effortlessly. Only to come back again and again for more kidnapping and much more ransom.
The leadership knows what to do to stem the tide of terrorism and banditry in Nigeria. Political correctness aside, if it is another tribe or region where this lawlessness is happening, President Buhari would have long ago ordered ground, sea, and air bombardments on the entire tribe and the territory until no one is left standing.
President Idris Debby of Chad came to Nigeria and gave the Boko Haram sect members a bloody nose - hundreds of them were killed and hundreds of weapons were confiscated. Where is Mr. Debby, today? Assassinated in a bloody coup orchestrated by the same people he tried to vanquish in Nigeria.
And that's the extent of the immunity they enjoy, bolstered by the pronouncements and conduct of a President who has difficulties separating ethnic chauvinism and bigotry from national pride. The "we are untouchable" philosophy that underscores their actions, began to gain currency under the present administration.
You cannot serve God and mammon. You are either a Nigerian, serving the interest of Nigeria and protecting lives and properties in Nigeria, or you park and go and leave us to fight our war our own way and for the best interest of all Nigerians. Nigeria is greater than all the Dr. Gumi and Bandit and Boko Haram sympathizers, and the interest they represent.
The President should stop being neutral and deliberately indecisive. If we can boast of the technological expertise that culminated in the kidnapping and shipment of Nnamdi Kanu from Nairobi to Abuja, with or without the knowledge of the Kenya security agencies, certainly we can round up all the bandits and kidnappers who have turned Nigeria into a war zone.
