ICHEOKU says he gives them money, he frequently meets with them, he speaks on their behalf, he regularly defends their actions, he acts as a middle man between them and the government, he accuses security agents of using excessive force against them, he butts head with the government for not being fair to them, for not granting them general amnesty and for not creating a ministry of Nomadic Affairs to cater for their needs. Yet he wants everyone to believe that he is not a bandit lover?
May be he delineates love to strictly "sexual" and because he has not slept with any of the bandits, convinced himself that it is a misnomer for anyone to identify or refer to him as a bandit lover. This, no matter how remotely rational, possibly explains why he is protesting the appellation, having not slept with them and because all the acts which he has been doing on their behalf do not qualify as exemplary acts of love which only a lover would carry out. As far as he is concerned, he was only being their advocate and only using his voice to make known their plight and such a "humanitarian" service which he is providing for them should not be interpreted as a bandit lover's action or the reason to brand him their lover.
Shiekh Ahmad Gumi wants Nigerians and the rest of world who tunes in to believe that all he is doing for the bandits is devoid of love and are purely without any bias whatsoever, and you wonder why he did not extend the same services or his voice to other Nigerians, including the victims of his Fulani bandits. What more does he need to see or hear before accepting the undeniable fact that it is only his love for bandits that propels him into rendezvousing with them in the forests, negotiate with them, hand them supplies and money, counsel them, pray for them and encourage them to stay strong in their quest to get a better treatment by the Nigeria authorities.
His actions have rightly earned him the befitting moniker bandit lover as it is quite appropriate to denote his peculiar circumstances of palling with bandits. He should instead of protesting it, accept it as another earned status and find a way of exploiting it further in his dealings with the bandits. He could possibly use it in leveraging them to mend their ways, renounce violence, stop killing and maiming Nigerians and revert to being good citizens of the country. But no, he felt disparaged by being so branded and therefore came out swinging on all cylinders, to remind Nigerians of his steeped pedigree as a neurosurgeon and an intellectual who got his Ph.D from abroad.
ICHEOKU says is there any Ph.D awarding institution called "abroad" and where is it located? Possibly too, he has this prevailing complex in Nigeria and Africa in general that anything and everything from outside the shores of Nigeria and the continent of Africa is usually superior. May be he got his Ph.D in Islamic studies from a religious institution in Sudan where the disgraced former Emir of Kano Sanusi Lamido Sanusi also studied; and now Nigerians will not rest because he got his "Ph.D from abroad." Why did he need to reiterate that he got his PhD from abroad or are Nigerian institutions awarded PhD no longer acceptable as good PhDs?
ICHEOKU says while not begrudging him of his academic and intellectual accomplishments or needlessly denigrating his PhD, but that is not the issue triggered by his extensively demonstrated acts of love for bandits. This is what he has not convinced Nigerians on and in the alternative, he should accept the honor proudly and wear it like a badge or crown. But if he is serious that he is not a bandit lover or wants to shake off the tag of a bandit-lover which has stuck on him like a velcro, he must renounce all his previous pronouncements on their behalf and start behaving like someone who is not taking side with the common enemy of Nigerians, the Fulani bandits.
Sheikh Gumi must not because he shares a common heritage and lineage with Fulani bandits, being a fellow Fulani man, begin to underplay the murderous activities of those Fulani marauding herdsmen who have been terrorizing Nigerians for quite a long time now. Fulani herdsmen have been killing and maiming Nigerians; they have been burning and destroying farmers farmlands and products; they have been destroying people's properties including vehicles, homes, dwellings, businesses and worship centers. In some places, they have completely wiped out natives and replaced them with Fulani.
So for Sheikh Gumi to deny these terrors of his Fulani bandits or feign ignorance of them or simply try to explain them away is simply an intolerable act of a jaundiced and unrepentant lover of bandits who sees nothing wrong in the mayhem they are visiting on Nigerians almost daily. Any person doing what Gumi is doing is in absolute fellowship with bandits and should not be heard to deny that he, in fact, is a bandit lover.
He said that he is not a bandit lover yet cuddles bandits. He said that he is his country's lover but "his country" as envisaged by his Fulani people is a Nigeria absolutely owned by Fulani. Fulani people who have repeatedly publicly asserted their ownership of the entire Nigeria landscape from the Niger Republic border all the way to the Atlantic coast, which according to their warped mindset was bequeathed to them by their Allah. He said he is his region's lover and that region is Northern Nigeria, to the exclusion of Southern Nigeria. The reason he is trying so hard to denigrate IPOB and Oduduwa, while carrying aloft the mantra of Fulani bandits.
He said that he loves his state, Kaduna State, the epicenter of bandits killing and kidnapping in Nigeria but he has not made them to stop terrorizing the State he supposedly loves. His said that he loves people, the Fulani people, and no one else; and then for effect, he added that he is a humanity lover. ICHEOKU says his thinking and precedent serving a guide, it is safe to conclude that the humanity he mentioned is strictly the Fulani stock and no one else. Where was his "humanity lover" when he was advocating for the complete annihilation of IPOB saying that they are more dangerous than killer Fulani herdsmen, who according him, are "only" kidnapping school children for ransom.
He also made a point about his Fulani people being marginalized and having misgivings against the Nigeria State, but purposefully ignored the marginalization against other people in Nigeria particularly the Igbo people of Southeast Nigeria. May be in his own understanding, their own marginalization is as egregious to also make them bandits and force them to pick up arms and start kidnapping, killing and maiming Nigerians just like his people the Fulani bandits.
For him, IPOB are worse than his Fulani bandits because they are attacking government officials and burning government properties and therefore deserves to be completely wiped out. Why did he not acknowledge the misgivings which IPOB have against the same Nigeria government, which if weighted against his logic, should also excuse their actions. The same fella did not condemn the wanton killings of Christians in Northern Nigeria particularly in his beloved State of Kaduna, yet he loves humanity. How about hundreds of churches that have been burnt and destroyed in Nigeria by his Fulani bandits? How about the genocidal killings being carried out by his Fulani herdsmen bandits in various parts of Nigeria particularly in Benue State and Southern Nigeria?
For someone who claims that he loves humanity to have kept quiet all these years of unmitigated murders and mayhem being perpetrated by his Fulani herdsmen and bandits, says a lot about his strict construct of humanity. His bias is glaring obvious and therefore it does not matter that he denied being a bandit lover, his actions tell a different story all together about his unflinching and undiluted love for his Fulani people and his Fulani people are the bandits terrorizing Nigeria. He cannot eat his cake and have it; it is either he condemn the evil of full bandits or be grouped together with them. So, until he renounces them and distances himself from them by condemning their actions, it is safe to say that Sheikh Ahmad Gumi loves bandits and therefore is a bandit lover.
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