Birnin Gwari Emirate Progressives Union (BEPU) has rejected former Zamfara state governor, Sani Yerima’s advice to President Bola Tinubu to negotiate with bandits, noting that such a move will undermine Nigeria’s sovereignty and seemingly grant legitimacy to criminal elements.
Speaking in a statement signed by its Chairman, Malam Ishaq Usman Kasai, on Tuesday, Birnin Gwari Emirate Progressives’ Union said such calls reflect the advocates’ lack of understanding of the structural formation and divergent goals of the armed bandits in Nigerian forests who have been causing mass destruction, death, and destabilisation within the country.
“Birnin Gwari Emirate Progressives’ Union (BEPU) urges President Bola Tinubu to disregard calls by Sen. Ahmed Sani Yeriman, former Governor of Zamfara state, and some other advocates, for negotiation with armed bandits.
“To successfully bring an end to armed banditry business in Nigeria, all bandits’ camps in our various forests must be dislodged; as anything short of this will only be a window dressing not lasting solution. Engaging in negotiations with armed bandits will never yield significant positive outcomes because past experiences have demonstrated that criminal elements such as armed bandits view negotiations as a sign of weakness of government, which embolden them to exploit negotiations as a means to buy time, regroup, and strengthen their positions to continue their violent activities.
“Experiences from many of such negotiations carried out with bandits by many states, local governments and communities in the Northwest region of the country show that the bandits only exploited the opportunity to receive more money, easily trafficked illicit drugs, acquired more arms and raped women including teenagers and married ones. In fact, all the communities and governments that entered such negotiations with the bandits later regretted it.
“Therefore we want to draw the attention of Mr President to the fact that going for such negotiation will bring setbacks and distraction in his administration’s perceived determination to bring lasting solution to the insecurity situation bedeviling Nigeria. Negotiating with the bandits will also send a dangerous message to Nigerians particularly rural dwellers signaling government’s incapacity, weakness and official acknowledgement of parallel governments within the Nigerian state,” the statement said.
BEPU wondered which of the bandit groups Federal Government intends to negotiate with since they don’t have a centralised leadership and operate independent of each other.
“Are those bandits groups’ leaderships in Zamfara, Katsina, Sokoto, Kebbi, Niger, Plateau, Benue, Nasarawa or Kaduna state? We are aware that the armed bandits in Nigeria lack a centralized leadership structure, making it difficult to ensure compliance with negotiated terms. We could recall that Zamfara and Katsina states, as well as various local governments and communities in the Northwest region tried the said approach,” he said.
According to Kasai, first negotiation with bandits was by Zamfara state government in 2016 but it failed despite the government then under Governor Abdulaziz Yari sinking five solar boreholes for the Fulanis in Subulu, Fakai, Maniya, Gangara and Manawa villages in Shinkafi local government with artificial ponds for feeding livestock.
“Government also gave huge amount of money and properties to the bandits to appease them. The Zamfara state government then established Ruga communities within the state for nomads with first Ruga project at Maradun local government area.
“The bandits didn’t respect the deal thinking they are doing the government and the people a favour. Some of the bandits leaders who dropped arms and received monies from government used it to purchase additional arms. Negotiating with armed bandits in Nigeria will continue to fail because the bandits lack central command/ leadership and common goal. It will be difficult to bring them to common negotiation and the agreements made with one group are or may not be binding on others.
“Federal Government can only negotiate and sign a peace deal with segment of bandits but not all; and those who agreed with the government would have no power to direct or instruct other bands of criminals who are not under their control. There are different bandit groups and leaders and each of the groups will want to be recognized by government in the negotiation. Another problem is that government may even end up negotiating with wrong groups or people who may only want to gain financial or political advantage, instead of the actual bandits which will amount to waste of time and resources,” he said.
