Politicians should unite to stop banditry —Gumi

Member representing Gummi/Bukkuyum Federal Constituency of Zamfara State, Honourable Suleiman Abubakar Gumi, is a member of House Committees on Appropriations and Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs). He spoke to KEHINDE AKINTOLA on the menace of banditry in his state, efforts of the government’s in tackling the menace; the Electoral Act Amendment bill and the forthcoming All Progressives Congress (APC) convention.

Nigerians are alarmed at the recent massive killings in Zamafara State, especially the aged, children and women on their farms…

One life lost is like killing the whole of humanity. Having tens of people killed in cold blood is a cause for concern for every human being. So, it’s a worrisome development, especially which after the long silence of reduced killings. The sudden escalation, definitely calls for concern. We lost about 56 souls in one attack and a lot of properties and people are living from hand to mouth and still the little they have is being destroyed; their animals are being killed or charted away; children especially male child being killed; it is a worrisome development.

 What are you doing as a lawmaker on the menace of the bandits; what steps are being taken by the state government to restore sanity?

A lot is being done. Recently the governor of the state, Governor Bello Matawalle went to the Niger Republic. The visit is another strategy to cut the supply of arms and ammunition because Niger is the main route for the influx of weapons into the state If we can get Niger Republic to block all access to all entry points then what the bandits have will definitely depreciate and naturally the cessation of the fight too will cease. That’s one angle and another angle is using the same strategy, initially are the main problem that the extra judicial killing engaged with Fulanis brought the whole issue to this end, to retrain them and give them the right equipment to guard villages. The Military is over-stretched, the Police can’t be everywhere and if we can get the Vigilantes to guard the villages that are within the outskirt of Local Governments and bigger cities, then we would have a very good arm of security for people that are not covered by the security agents. At least that will give the people some buffer before the security agents come for reinforcement. That’s another angle he’s looking at. He (Governor) has once engaged those bandits that are trying to stop the act. You know, going by the antecedents of what is happening in Zamfara. We have two sets of bandits; we have those that are just trying to defend themselves from being profiled because of the actions of others, and they are forced to pick arms to defend themselves. And at the end of the day they all go back to banditry because once you seclude yourself in an area where you cannot have the economic gains, what do you do, the easiest thing is to kidnap and get money to buy more weapons and feed your army. So if we can get those ones to stop their act and come back to the main folk through some form of amnesty, then what is left in the forest can be easily dealt with, those original bandits we can kill them, you can show them that government is stronger than any individual in this country and based on that it is only way we can have peace. Let them see the force of the government them they will accept peace by force. Otherwise we will just go into a killing frenzy, they kill, we kill, they kill, we kill and before you know it a lot of people will lose their lives before we achieve peace. So, there’s a lot to be done especially in the area of re-strategizing on how to engage them. You know at the beginning, the Army and the police are alien to this method of criminality in our society, but they had enough time to learn the way in which to operate so that we can stop this thing. But without re-strategising, we will continue to do the same thing the same way. We have to re-strategise and find ways so that we can stop this carnage.

In the bid to stop the menace, the government shut telecoms facilities in Zamfara. Would you say the decision was in the right direction?

It was. To an extent successful, the action alone really brought a lot of reprieve. There was the problem of some elements leaking information to criminals before the Army or the Police will response to a crime. So, before they could get there, the bandits could run away. It means the informant have always been a hindrance to the security approach. So, without the network, there were lots of success. Right now the bandits in Shinkafi where the so-called Turuji that people are talking about are being dislodged.

At that time Nigerians have asked the Federal Government to seek help from the international community but that didn’t come into the picture at all, do you think international community will go a long way to help us?

It’s in the interest of the international community to help because if Nigeria breaks up, no country in the world that can contain Nigerian population. So, it’s better to solve the problem before it becomes a catastrophe. Nonetheless, it’s our local problem we can solve ourselves; all we need is cooperation of civilians and the military. Once there’s sincerity of purpose, I think this thing would be solved. The governor of Zamfara he’s sincerely wants to stop this problem; but is he getting all the support that he needs? No. Even internal fighting among the local politicians is not making things easy for him because it is assumed that if he fails, that means the people will now turn their back on him and they will look elsewhere. And that’s a very unpatriotic thing. All politicians should keep partisanship aside and face a problem that can consume all of us. We need to come together.

Don’t you think the time is ripe for state police?

I think the population of Nigeria is growing rapidly; it is almost doubling every year; about seven million new birth. So, the Federal Government alone cannot handle the security architecture; you need to involve the state and the local governments. Security requires a holistic approach and there’s required number of policemen to a particular number of people. What we have now is grossly under the standard. I think introducing state police is a very good initiative. It’s something that should be looked into. Eventhough it has its own setbacks, we can deal with those issues. One of them is the fear of state governors using the state police for political gains and what have you. Is the president not an elected position? Is he not controlling the Nigeria Police? Is he not controlling the Nigerian Army? Is the President using them to gain political points? So these are the questions we should ask.

What is your view on the controversy surrounding the APC convention? Do you see it taking place?

I think it will hold. Sometimes, we exaggerate things. I don’t think there’s any reason for the convention not to hold.

Are there crises in the APC?

You can’t say there is no crisis; there’s crisis. Just like crisis will not stop elections on an election day, the same thing. It’s just internal fighting and sometimes, it’s something good. You don’t fight where there are no resources. I remember someone asked my father long time ago: what happens when families are fighting over inheritance and are even going to court? One of his responses was like would you want your house to be silent when you die? He said, no. He said then go on. What does that mean? If there are resources or something to gain, people will always fight because it’s the survival of the fittest; everyone wants to survive when you have different interests and one goal; one particular chair, one particular governor’s seat, and 10 people are looking for it. That’s why when we have one football on the field and you have 22 players running after it to put into the net, there’s always chaos. But you have a referee; you have rules of engagement; you have fouls; you have a red card, and at the end of the game, no matter how hostile the environment, a winner will emerge. It’s a game. Why is the APC having crisis? It’s because it’s where the honey is. It is the strongest party and there’s no match to it. There has to be crisis; if there’s no crisis, then I will be worried.

Do you think the reason Mr President gave for withholding his assent to the amended electoral bill was justified, especially on the clause for direct primary? There is also the issue of e-transmission of election results.

I think the issue of transmission of result is being resolved and I think it’s a positive development. I think those opposing e-transmission of results is due to the fact that do we have the capacity to do that? It’s an unknown territory if we introduce it will it be a reason for more riggings or will it solve rigging? You know a lot of questions that are yet to be answered. But sometimes you take a problem head-on, now it’s not a problem, it’s a challenge. Now transmission of results to me I think should be viewed as a challenge so that we can resolve it and whatever anomaly we see along the way we should deal with it and move on. Because we can’t be doing things analog all the time, things are changing. So I think the superior argument won and I think e-transmission of results is going to be taken into consideration. But INEC still has the final say on it.

Then on the issue of direct and indirect primaries, you see it’s about perspective, it’s about the same game of survival.

As it is, governors have a lot of powers at the state level and now if you say those lawmakers or other seats that are not in unison with the state governors will want a direct primary where people will come and queue up behind who they want. That’s true democracy. That’s the right way to go, if all things are equal. But you know you have to consider the surrounding circumstances like security. In Zamfara, where would you queue up people? Are you bringing them out for bandits to come and have a field day? You can bring out people en-mass and keep them. We are having an issue of COVID-19, we are having some states have peculiar problems. Now if you say, one option, then what happens if that one option is not feasible in a particular location? Then they will be ostracized in the politics. So, having multiple options that would sooth particular location should be on the table. You can’t say this is the only option; we should have other options too. But if you want to practice democracy in any environment where everything is secure then direct primary is the best form of democracy because people get to choose who they want them to represent them with no ambiguity. But haven found ourselves in different climes and different particular problems then we should have options. Because if A doesn’t work, B should work, if B doesn’t work, definitely C will work. So I think it’s a double edged sword.

So, which option do you prefer: direct or indirect mode of primary?

All things being equal, I will prefer the direct primary because I know that’s the true test of a candidate of a democracy. It’s  a way you can test your popularity too because people will come and say it’s this person that we want and they will queue up behind him and say we want you to represent us before you are being fielded against other candidates. I think that’s the true test of democracy.

Do you foresee the resolution of both Chambers of the National Assembly on the bowing to pressure to do the President bidding to adopt expanded clauses?

To an extent, it’s a party issue whether to conduct primary or how they want to conduct their primary. So even if you’re having it in the bill, I think options should be in the bill so that you can be flexible, you can’t be rigged on it. I think once parties do what they think will make them popular with the people. Then I think they will adopt it. If the people say we want direct primary, because we want to choose our candidates, then whoever is in power will have to succumb to that because the power lies with the people. And the sooner the people realise that the faster they will liberate themselves from the people ruling them.