Is Tinubu afraid of ending banditry?, by Professor Abdussamad Umar Jibia

It is now eight years since my uncle was murdered. Imam Salisu’s offence, like I mentioned in several writeups before, is prayers. As the Imam of his village, he led his congregation in weekly prayers against banditry, a prayer they observed after reciting the whole Qurán every Thursday. Reports to the Police Commissioner, intervention of the emir and the cries of his children did not prevent Governor Masari from forgiving his killers and the killers of many other citizens which the Governor did two months after his assassination. At our end, we did not forgive his killers nor Governor Masari and his boss. We await the big judgement inevitably taking place after this life.

As at 2016 when Salisu was killed, it was much easier to arrest and prosecute the bandits who were in limited numbers. Unfortunately, Government decided to invite and beg them to stop crime. They were given money and hajj slots. When the money stopped, they reneged.
Let me go to the point.

On Thursday, May 30 2024 a video clip showing many blind-folded criminals arrested by Nigerien security operatives flooded the social media. The criminals, according to their Nigerien captors were 66 in number and a man identified as Baleri was said to be among them. Baleri is one of the senior gang members of Bello Turji, a criminal who committed many atrocities in Zamfara state including at one time burning alive of more than 30 travellers in their bus along Gusau Sokoto road.

According to the news, the suspects have been carrying out criminal activities in Madaroumfa district. They were arrested at a Ruga near a village called Tangama while planning to do what they know how to do best. The Governor of Maradi, Yousuf Mamman and his entourage that included the Chief judge of Maradi state were shown at the scene to see the criminals for themselves. Found with the bandits were motorcycles, drugs and weapons captured by cameras of journalists.

Few days later, in another viral video, a rifle-carrying middle-aged man who identified himself as Muhammad Bello Turji was shown in the company of several of his fellow armed criminals refuting the claim by Nigeriens of arresting his comrade Baleri. He showed a young man he referred to as the real Baleri claiming that those arrested in Niger Republic were innocent commoners whom he called upon President Abdourahamane Tchiani to release.

In the remaining part of the clip, Turji spouted the false narrative created and spread by bandits and their sympathizers that they were forced into banditry by continuous neglect and injustice.

Turji’s clip was replied by a young Nigerien officer who warned Turji that Niger Republic is not like Nigeria where he kills, kidnaps, collects ransom and gets away with it because he has the backing of Government.

As for whether or not the arrested person was the real Baleri, the officer said it was the person who gave his name as Baleri promising that Turji will himself be arrested if he tries any of Mali, Niger or Burkina Faso.

In these altercations between criminal Turji and Nigerien military, certain things are worth underlining. For example, the claim by the Nigerien military spokesman that Turji and his likes have the support of Nigerian Government is true. I opened this piece by narrating how the Government of Katsina state forgave and rewarded criminals who killed law-abiding citizens to the chagrin of the victims’ families.

The so-called peace accord sealed between bandits’ leaders and some Northwestern state Governors was done on the directive of the immediate past Federal Government. Even when the criminals broke the peace promises they made, they were begged to come and sign another agreement in 2019 which they breached not long after. If this is not support, I don’t know what is.

An additional reason to believe that Nigerian Government is supporting banditry is the fact that for all these years that huge amounts of money have been budgeted for war against terrorism, no bandits’ leader of note has been arrested or killed. None of Turji, Dan-Karami, Dogo Gide, Audu Lankai, Ado Aleru and others in their category has been touched in the so-called war against banditry. Some of them like Aleru have been turbaned as traditional rulers after killing dozens of defenceless Nigerians.

Again, we have not seen any effort from Nigerian Government to arrest/prosecute people who have openly supported and rationalized banditry. Sheikh Ahmad Gummi is an example of such people. Not only did Gummi advocates amnesty for such criminals, he has been interacting with them openly with the backing of Nigeria’s security operatives.

That bandits’ leaders have been meeting the likes of Gummi and granting press interviews show that their whereabouts are not unknown to Government. The will to end their reign of terror by Government is simply not there. We understand that most of them are of Fulani extraction and the immediate past President of Nigeria is a Fulani man. What about Tinubu? Is he afraid? Is he not worried that innocent Nigerians who queued up to vote for him are continuously butchered, raped and kidnapped for ransom while he is the president? Is he not worried that a group of ragtag bandits would camp somewhere on the Nigerian soil and be issuing threats to a neighbouring country? Is there nothing he can do about all these?

It is often believed that to win Northerners’ votes, a politician doesn’t have to worry about the masses as long as he satisfies the elite. The latter would manipulate the masses into voting for him. It is also well known that some of the Fulani groups have the support of very influential Northerners. Is Tinubu afraid of confronting these people to save ordinary Nigerians?

Professor Abdussamad Umar Jibia
Department of Mechatronics Engineering
Bayero University Kano
Nigeria