Truce with Turji must be a big NO-NO

The past few weeks have yet again seen suggestions that the government should hold peace talks with the terrorists wreaking havoc in the North West. The latest spark was the release, last week, of 52 captives by the most notorious bandit terrorist currently active. Bello Turji is said to have released his victims unconditionally in a bid to show that his recent reconciliation letter was genuine. In fact, some reports have it that the release was part of ongoing peace talks with government.

In his Hausa-language letter addressed to President Buhari, the Governor of Zamfara State and the Emir of Shinkafi, the bandit kingpin called for peace under five conditions. Firstly, that vigilante groups should be dissolved, saying Turji’s group won’t lay down their arms if vigilante groups were not required to, and that enforcement of law and order must be the exclusive purview of the state. Secondly, he called for a summit between bandit terrorists and politicians, traditional rulers and imams so that they can air their grievances and reach an agreement on how to resolve them. Turji promised that if this happened, he would take the lead in disarming the terrorists.

Turji’s third condition is an end to the “marginalisation of Fulanis”. Fourthly, he required that traditional rulers and politicians agree to not go back on any promises that may be reached as they have done previously. Finally, Turji emphasised that the summit that he demands must include all first-class emirs and senior imams, specifying particularly Sheikh Ahmad Gumi, saying that he is the only person that understands them and has met with and admonished them previously. Naming Gumi won’t come as a surprise to anyone given that he is the chief proponent of negotiating with bandits.

Turji’s letter may sound reconciliatory; some of his demands may even look reasonable. But to me it looks brazen and barefaced. That a terrorist leader, who is responsible for the death of hundreds, possibly thousands of people, had the guts to identify himself by writing directly to the Commander-in-Chief is simply inconceivable. That he feels he is in a position to make demands and stipulate conditions beggar belief. Except for his demand that law enforcement should be left to security forces, every other demand is unreasonable, but even that call was not well-intentioned. He wants the destruction of the vigilante groups because he is afraid of those who use his own tactics. His claim that the Fulani are “marginalised” is bizarre given one of his addressees, the President of Nigeria, is Fulani. You can say Buhari is an urban one, but he is still closer to rural Fulani than to other tribes. But even if his claim is true – and I deny that it is – how is the answer to kill, rape and kidnap the innocent?

If Turji has forgotten in his haste to seek peace the horror he unleashed on the innocent, we will never forget or forgive. His latest widely reported madness was the burning of at least 23 travellers alive on December 6. Their ‘crime’ was that security forces with no connection to them had killed the father of one of his commanders. How could he set 23 human beings, including a pregnant woman, and watch with delight as they burnt, and think it reasonable within two weeks to set conditions for talks to save him from punishment and legitimise his loot? This is beneath contempt. Turji is a merciless beast who deserves no mercy here or in the Hereafter. Allah may, in His infinite mercy, forgive him if he repents certainly, but that is for the Hereafter. As for here, we must punish him severely.

Meanwhile, Buhari has finally smelt the coffee. It has dawned on him that he wouldn’t be in power forever. The presidency said earlier in this month that Buhari wants end insecurity in the 17 months left of his tenure. It is probably in his attempt to clear his mess as the countdown starts that he finally declared bandits as terrorists. We have been calling for this step for a long time, but the presidency kept downplaying the threat, disputing our evidence and dithering. At long last, they had no option but to face the reality and do the right thing. Even this came after more delay. 

The federal government’s application for the court to declare bandits as terrorists was granted on  November 26, 2021, Buhari waited until the January 6 to implement the order, and only after much outcry by civil society organisations and critical media stories. For a president to sit on a court order sought by his own government for 40 days is the definition of foot-dragging. 

It is this reluctance that emboldened the Turjis of this world, who are now publicly identifying themselves through video and audio messages and granting media interviews. Last month, a song eulogising Turji as “the hero of heroes and slayer of men” was released to the indignation of all of us. Just yesterday, a footage of some bandits dancing on the road with their AK47 riffles went viral. They were not afraid to show their faces or the road they were on because they are confident nothing would happen to them.

But, welcome as it is, merely declaring bandits as terrorists won’t defeat them. The federal government has got to treat these monsters as terrorists by deploying enough resources to confront them. Abuja claims that it is already doing so, but the facts belie the claim.

We are just 12 days into 2022, but hundreds of people have already been killed by these terrorists, thousands of livelihoods have been destroyed and thousands of families displaced. When over 200 people were killed in Zamfara last week, President Buhari claimed that it was “an act of desperation by mass murderers, who are now under relentless pressure from our military forces who are well equipped…” I couldn’t agree more that they are mass murderers, but they don’t look desperate to me. They rode in hundreds on their motorcycles into five villages in two different local governments slaughtering and destroying for 48 hours. This is not an act of desperation.

Tagging the horrific attacks “desperate” as though that is any consolation to the victims has been Buhari’s theme from 2016. He took the same line last October when at least 30 were killed in Goronyo, Sokoto State, saying the attackers were “are currently under desperate pressures because of the intense and sustained air and ground operations”. If bandit terrorist have been under “intense and sustained” attacks by the military, how are they able to match into villages or operate in broad daylight on the highways?

Some people, including those who have directly spoken to Turji, claim that he is tired of the bloodshed and now wants peace. Well, if Turji is tired of killing, kidnapping and violating women and girls, I will tell him what to do. He should lay down his arms, return the remainder of his loot and hand himself in to face justice. To expect that he would just be allowed to go after the horror he unleashed is to expect the impossible. Government should never contemplate letting Turji get away with his horrendous crimes in the name of reconciliation. To do this is to mock his victims in the most disgraceful way and to teach upcoming Nigerians that one can get away with anything.