June 29, (THEWILL) — The decision by the Sokoto State Government to open negotiations with bandits with the aim to tame or eliminate insecurity in its enclave shows that it is not only insensitive to current situations but also failed to learn from the past.
At a time hundreds of Nigerians were killed in a wave of violence, particularly in Benue and Plateau States, this decision is unthinkable. Considering that governments in Kaduna, Katsina, Zamfara, even the Nigerian military, failed woefully with a project named ‘repentant terrorists,’ should be enough lesson for any government thinking of adopting the same pattern in tackling insecurity.
For the records, former Katsina State Governor, Aminu Bello Masari, who entered a well-advertised negotiation with terrorists in 2021, celebrated the handover of weapons by the terrorists and paid a huge sum of taxpayers’ money, later lived to rue his decision. Recall that Governor Masara acted with the support of the country’s security networks.
Apart from the Secretary to the State Government, SSG, Police Commissioner and Director-General of the SSS, who were actively involved in the negotiation, the security chiefs at the defence headquarters with whom the governor and his team held meeting sanctioned the talks. According to ex-Governor Masari, a dialogue with Fulani leaders and the vigilantes across the eight LGAs ensued led to an agreement that was signed at Kankara in the presence of all our traditional leaders, including the late notorious Buharin Daji. The bandits returned over 300 guns.
“Later, things gradually returned and life went back to normal before the whole thing took a different dimension, because those who entered the amnesty among the Fulani were murdered in the bush and that scared away others,” said Masari, explaining further that major reason the negotiations the state once had with bandits broke down was because those who entered into the amnesty programme among the Fulani were murdered in the bush and the development scared away the others. Frustrated, he had to ask the citizens of the state to “bear arms and defend themselves against the increasing attacks of the bandits, because it was the only way to go if the state must reduce the level of carnage by the criminals.”
The story is the same pattern with Zamfara under former Governor Bello Matawalle, ex-Governor Nasir el-Rufai in Kaduna State and the Nigeria army under a similar amnesty policy for repentant Boko Haram terrorists pushed by former Chief of Army Staff, General Tukur Buratai, retired. Called “Operation Safe Corridor” the amnesty programme meant to rehabilitate and reintegrate repentant Boko Haram insurgents into society after their de-radicalization, rehabilitation and reintegration, failed.
The dire insecurity situation in Borno and Yobe states are enough evidence that the project failed woefully.
The project failed largely because the people who had suffered pain, broken limbs, homelessness and grieving dead relatives fought against the reintegration of their killers amongst them while many of them still lived in Internally Displaced Persons camps.
In 2019 after the general election, Governor Matawalle vowed to continue with the dialogue and the IGP then supported the move. So too did with the military.
We understand that the Sokoto State government, like its counterparts in the states in the Northwest, is facing a dire situation and therefore needs to find a solution. But toeing the worn path of the past that has failed, would amount to a quick fix.
According to the Special Adviser on Security Matters to the governor, Col. Ahmed Usman (rtd.), the administration’s peace efforts were guided by a genuine desire to end the cycle of violence, not by weakness or fear. The administration, he said, is not negotiating from a position of weakness, but rather implementing a balanced, human-centered approach to end years of violence that have devastated communities in Rabah, Goronyo, Isa, Sabon Birni, and other local government areas.
He disclosed that meeting with bandits is for genuine reconciliation, whatever that means. Only those who show sincere commitment to peace and agree to strict rehabilitation and monitoring would be considered for dialogue, he further added.
With this declaration, it is obvious that the federal government’s September 2024 directive to the Service Chiefs and Minister of State, Defence, to relocate to Sokoto and tackle insecurity in the region, is yet to achieve its objective. We sympathise with the Sokoto government.
However, the aforementioned experiences support our view that negotiating with terrorists has not worked and will not work. It, in fact, sends the unintended message to the bandits that criminality pays. It empowers them and glorifies banditry. Bandits are like arrogant people. The only message they understand is humiliation and defeat. We urge the state government to abandon the idea and think of a better approach.
