Sheikh Gumi declares war on Southerners

– They’re satanic and unfit for power

Adebayo Obajemu

Sheikh Abubakar Gumi, a Kaduna- based medical doctor turned Islamic cleric recently expressed outrage and indignation over the push for political power in the country, stressing that they incapable and unfit to handle power for the good and safety of all Nigerians. He said that southerners have been responsible for the killing of northern leaders and people, and therefore should not be entrusted with power again.

Referring to the hosting of Israeli Ambassador in Nigeria by Mr. Nyesom Wike, minister of FCT, as the war in Gaza rages, Gumi condemned the action, citing it as proof of Southern betrayal of the Muslim north, insisting it was unpatriotic and criminal against the country.

Gumi, according to emeritus professor Usman Yusuf, ” Is a pampered, spoilt adult, tolerated to a ridiculous limits by Nigeria , even as the country over the years, refused to punish him for incendiary remarks that consistently border on sedition, treason and all manner of crime hiding behind Islamic demagoguery. It’s about time Nigeria punished him before it’s too late.”
Sheikh Gumi, the son of Sheikh Abubakar Gumi the elder, who joined his ancestors decades ago, is a true child of his father, who when he was alive nearly turned the country asunder through incendiary, divisive comments. He got away with it, and now as many have remarked, the son, who is even recklessly wilder in his attempt to sow discord between Muslims and Christians, North and South, is enjoying his impunity with relish.
He came from a genealogy of islamic scholars with his father being the first Grand Khadi of the old Northern Region. His father was instrumental in the revivification of Islam in Northern Nigeria, particularly under Sir Ahmadu Bello.
In a reckless pour of incendiary, inflammatory statements that ought by now to have drawn the attention of the Department of State Security (DSS), he alleged that the Southern part of the country cannot be trusted with power, high office, not to talk of security appointment because history and hindsight have shown that they are killers, and infidels.

He twisted history to fit his own logic, drawing attention to how Southerners killed Northern leaders. He said the South has always nursed evil agenda against the North, saying the first military coup was staged by the South against the North leading to the deaths of the first prime minister, Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, Sardauna of Sokoto, Sir Ahmadu Bello and others from the North.
In a twisted logic, he said the Christian South was behind the assassination of General Murtala Mohammed, former Head of State. He accused the region of being behind the abortive coup against General Babangida.
Hear him: “Now where are the proponents of the Muslim-Muslim ticket? You guys are hypocrites! Abuja has become a Tel Aviv because the security of a country is the people. Why are you silent? It is because you know what you’re up to.
“The FCT minister (Nyesom Wike) is a devil incarnate. I’ve said so ever since he was appointed. I cannot independently verify, but someone said he was quoted as saying he had already engaged Israeli security, but I can confirm that he said he would invite the Israeli Ambassador to help redesign the security architecture of Abuja to pattern after that of Tel Aviv so that bearded people like us would be hounded and killed on sight because we’ve been stereotyped as Bin Laden
This is not the first time Gumi will be making unguarded statement. It has become part of his DNA, and he will continue to do so since he always gets away with it.
In 2021 during the administration of Muhammadu Buhari, he again set his irredentism cloaked in illogic against the South when he said it was non Muslim soldiers that were killing bandits.
Many Nigerians took him to the cleaners, including the former Minister of Aviation, Chief Femi Fani-Kayode, who described the comment as “irresponsible, reckless, dangerous and incendiary”.
Gumi openly alleged that non-Muslim soldiers carried out orchestrated killings of bandits and consequently precipitating their anger.
Reacting in a statement, Fani-Kayode said Gumi’s allegations could spark off a chain of events that can cause Nigeria and West Africa to be engulfed in the fire and horror of war for the next 50 years.
He said: “I appreciate his (Gumi) efforts to rescue the kidnapped but must this be at the expense of Christian blood? Are the Christians of the North expendable?
“Should they be the whipping boy and the sacrificial lamb for the barbaric savages and terrorists?
“I really do wonder why the Gumi hates Christians so much? Is it genetic or are they just irredeemably heartless & insensitive?”
Gumi once allegedly said, “Don’t call bandits criminals or else…” He added: “Inciting Fulani terrorists to target & butcher members of the Christian community in Nigeria and appealing to them to attack and kill only Christian soldiers whilst sparing the Muslim ones does not augur well for national cohesion, peaceful coexistence and unity.
“It will only lead to further division and as a matter fact it is the path to a full scale and full blown ethnic and religious war the likes of which have never been seen. This must never be allowed to happen in our country.”
Many Nigerians have called for his arrest. Prof. Adebisi Oyetoye, a political scientist told Business Hallmark that “People like Gumi have been given licence to create discord in the country. This was how the Rwandan genocide started. When some reckless and irresponsible people are treated as sacred cow it morphs into bigger problem. I can’t understand why this man Gumi has not been arrested just in the name of political correctness. Is he not more dangerous than Emefiele or Bawa.”
The latest call for his arrest among numerous others came from the immediate-past Acting National Publicity Secretary of the ruling All Progressives Congress, Yekini Nabena, who urged security agencies in the country to arrest Gumi over comments wherein he described the Federal Capital Territory FCT Minister, Ezenwo Nyesom Wike as satanic.
Gumi has for years stoked the embers of disunity, promoting sectional agenda and openly proclaiming the North’s sense of entitlement, the ” most silly” according to Dr. Olufemi Omoyele ” Is the illogic of his argument that only Northerners should be appointed minister of Federal Capital Territory?
In scathing, highly acerbic criticism of Gumi’s delusion, Azu Ishiekwene, wrote “His most deadly however, was not for Wike. It was for Tinubu, the enabler of the “Satan” called Wike, and the hundreds of smaller Southern devils of all faiths roaming the woods of the country in a murderous rampage since 1966 but, who have resurged with Tinubu’s election, holding the trigger. Their poor, dispossessed Northern compatriots are left to occupy empty shells as offices. This translation is a mild version of what Gumi said.⁴
“He spoke for himself and not for millions of Muslims across the country who recognise that after an election whoever emerges president has an obligation not just to one religious group but to all citizens, whether they are believers or agnostics.
“He spoke for himself and not for exceptional clerics and Muslim leaders like the Sultan of Sokoto Sa’ad Abubakar, who have spent their lives building bridges across faiths. Gumi spoke for himself, and certainly not for voters in Abuja who, for the first time ever, elected a non-indigenous woman, Ireti Kingibe, and member of the Labour Party, instead of traditional candidates of the two dominant parties, to represent them in the Senate. Gumi was speaking for himself.
“His attack came from a much deeper place: resentment that Tinubu, who emerged president by the grace of the North had the effrontery to bring an “intruder” into a “sacred ground,” without the approval of the Landlord. This brazen sense of entitlement dressed up as a “religious wrong,” offends decency. It’s unacceptable.
“Abuja does not need to be saved from Wike. It is against people like Gumi that the capital and the country must now defend itself. The original builders of this place did not conceive of it as the Boys Quarters of one tribe, religion or ethnic group. It was precisely because of this sort of complication which Lagos presented, apart from it becoming a concrete jungle, that Abuja was conceived of as the new frontier of national unity.
Many, who spoke to Business Hallmark on the arrogant, divisive demagoguery of the Sunni cleric believed that successive governments have treated him like a sacred cow giving him carte blanche to say anything against our values and still get away with it no matter how incendiary.”

He was briefly taken into custody by the Department of State Security in 2021 over his self appointed mediation role with the bandits.
How he managed to locate the forest addresses of the bandits, how and why he contacted them and the subsequent blame game he heaped on government did not attract scrutiny from the security services.
Omoyele said that Gumi is yet to reconcile himself to a new Nigeria, where ethnic nationalities are equal.” I think the man still harbours colonial mindset in which he sees the entire Southern Nigeria and the political system as territories of the monolithic North. Government should stop treating him with kid gloves. He should be called out for severe consequences any time he opens his mouth to insult any nationality or sow seeds of discord.”
Continuing, Omoyele said “the last time we had ethnic bigots like that was Sani Kotangora. I will urge the current administration not to play politics with elements with incendiary mindset, they should be promptly arrested and dealt with, to serve as a deterrent to others. We can not continue to tolerate them.”