What Gumi told me after visiting bandits’ hideouts – Obasanjo

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has given a startling account of what he was told by Islamic cleric, Sheikh Ahmad Gumi, after the cleric’s visits to bandits’ hideouts across Nigeria’s forests.

Obasanjo, speaking in an interview, said he invited Gumi for a private meeting to hear firsthand what he saw during those widely reported encounters with armed groups deep in the bush.

According to Obasanjo, Gumi’s report contradicted official claims about the reach and effectiveness of security operations in those areas. He said the cleric told him the bandits had fortified their camps so strongly that security agents claiming to have infiltrated the spots were not being truthful.

Obasanjo added that Gumi became emotional while narrating what he saw, especially the state of the very young fighters he encountered — teenagers hooked on drugs and clutching weapons.

Quoting his conversation with the cleric, Obasanjo stated: “When Sheikh Gumi when to meet those boys in the forest, i invited him to come and see me. The first thing he said is that where those boys are they’ve fortified themself, and even if any security personnel claimed they had gone into the area, they were lying to you. He said what made him weep was [seeing] boys of 13, 14, 15 years, soaked in drugs and carrying gun.”

The former President said the condition of the children he heard about was devastating and reflective of a deeper national crisis.

“They are wrecked and that worried us. 20 million children that should be in school but are not in school. Those that have no employment, no job and they see in you in abstain affluence, what do you expect them to do?”, he said.