Famous Kaduna based Islamic scholar, Sheikh Ahmed Abubakar Gumi has said that the killer herdsmen were hijacked into banditry by gunrunners and drug dealers.
Dr. Gumi revealed this yesterday at the advancing humanity conference with the theme ‘the challenges of advancing human dignity, sanctity of lives and values in the 21st century and way out’ organized by Center for the advancement of human dignity and value in Kaduna State.
“They are hijacked by evil people; drug dealers and gunrunners. We should not allow people to hijack them. Let us hijack them back to society; this is what we need to do. They have dignity too”.
According to the Islamic scholar, the government should enlighten the killer herdsmen and give them education.
“Why is blood flowing too much in the country? I realized one thing, lack of knowledge, ignorance is the cause of insecurity, enlightenment is the cure, when you enlighten them you can cure them, they will stop killings and kidnappings”.
He lamented that, too much blood is flowing in Nigeria unnecessarily and we have not yet understood the human dignity and value of both the leading and the led, he said.
Gumi who is also Chairman, Board of Trustee (BoT) Center for Advancement of Human Dignity and Values (CAHDV), said “ we left a big section of Nigerians with nothing ; we left them with animals we don’t do anything for them, nothing is taken serious in Nigeria , the nomadic education was left, no funding , how do you cure it?
“Some are suggesting, kill them all because they are killing, for 3 years you have spent 1 billion Dollars and now you need another 1billion dollars but, I said one third of that one Billion Dollars will enlighten them and they will stop killing, have you tried it? nobody tried it”.
“The bandits also have empathy like we have, they have families, children, the first step is to use psychology on them, they aired their grievances and they are ready to change”.
“They should be respected and should be given all the human right everybody have, I came out to address the authority, when I came out I wanted to look at the authorities to sit down and explain to them the way out , I found out that going on that difficult journey to the forest of Niger state is easier than to get the attention of somebody in ASO rock”.
“We think that we are educated, we are ignorant because we don’t understand the dignity of human lives, we don’t value humans. These criminals can turn into saints tomorrow”.
Earlier in his welcome address, the President CAHDV, Engr. Joseph John Ameh called on Nigerians to live harmoniously and stop killings and kidnappings, he said.