The night 300 children vanished from their dormitories in Niger State, Nigeria woke up to yet another nightmare.
But while parents wept and soldiers combed the forest, one voice stood out, calm, controversial, and unapologetic: Sheikh Ahmad Gumi.
In a fresh BBC Hausa interview aired today, the fiery cleric declared that abducting schoolchildren is actually the “lesser evil” because nobody dies.”
He insisted Nigeria must sit down with the bandits, just like America negotiated with the Taliban.
“Even the Quran and the Bible do not forbid talking to save lives,” he said, adding: “If negotiation stops bloodshed, we do it.”
The timing could not be worse.
Over 150 pupils and a dozen teachers from St. Mary’s Catholic School are still missing after the November 21 raid.
While 100 traumatised children were dramatically released on December 7 amid heavy military escort, the rest remain in the bush, hungry, terrified, and waiting.
Critics are furious.
Christian leaders accuse Gumi of “romanticising terror” and giving kidnappers a PR boost.
Old whispers have resurfaced too: that the cleric once moved freely among bandit camps in 2021, posing for photos with AK-47-toting young men pictures he claims were taken with government permission.
Yet Gumi fires back that military action alone is only “5% effective” and that these bandits are mostly angry herders, not jihadists.
As another Christmas approaches with classrooms empty and ransom rumours swirling, one question burns hotter than ever:
Is Nigeria fighting a war it refuses to understand, or rewarding monsters every time it quietly pays?
For the mothers sleeping outside the Niger State Government House, the debate feels cruelly academic.
They just want their children home, however that happens.
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