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Dr Bashir U. Kurfi is the convener of the Katsina Security Community Initiative. The Katsina-born activist had taught International Finance at the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, for a long time. In this interview, he explains why he doesn’t believe signing peace treaties with armed groups is a way out of the current insecurity in the North.
You are the convener of the Katsina Security Community Initiative, which was established to help bring lasting peace to the state. What is your take on peace deals with bandits generally?
This so-called peace deal, realistically, I can understand from a certain perspective where people can say it has some value. But attaching value to the peace deal shows the failure of the state. Failure of the states in the sense that the local people are looking for assistance from the governments but the government cannot protect them.
Government cannot help them. They have nowhere to go and report. You remember when Muhammadu Buhari was in office, he was in Daura and 238 children were abducted and they had to pay money to bring those kids.
Victims must be compensated before any deal — Major Shinko
Negotiations won’t end banditry in Northwest – Retired Major Galma
So, the people now see that there is nothing they can do. That the only way they can get some breath of fresh air, is to get accommodation with the so-called bandits so that maybe they can go to work and harvest their crops.
The common man now thinks that since he cannot be helped by the establishment, by the government, he wouldn’t mind talking with these guys to allow him to live in peace.
On the side of the bandits themselves, because they were so squeezed, they couldn’t come into towns and couldn’t even spend the money they had collected as ransom. So, they want a breathing space and also have to enrich their armoury.
So, they want to negotiate under this so-called peace deal with some members of the government.
A peace deal is an international system in which there are certain conditions upon which you do it. Number one among it is disarmament.
Unfortunately, when they come for these meetings, the bandits dictate where it should be held, who should come, and they come with their arms. In the case of our local government, Kurfi, I know the bandits direct that the peace deal should be held in one village about five kilometres out of the main town. They said the meeting will take place by 9.30 in the morning and that no police should come with uniforms. And this was accepted by the district head and everybody involved. The local government chairman and the police were there from 9.30 am but the bandits didn’t come until 3.30 pm. And they came with their guns, with their ceremonial dresses. But what was even very striking, one of the commanders of the bandits, Abdur-Rahman Jankare, the person who led the killing of a former assistant commissioner of police came to the meeting with the uniform of the latter, with his name on it, to show that, yes, he killed him and he came here for the negotiation with his various tons of guns and ammunition. So, when you talk of the peace deal, I see it as an intimidation by the bandits or an act of surrender.
It is a problem like what Okonjo Iweala said yesterday. She said if not irresponsibility, how can officials of the government sit and be negotiating with murderers and rapists and they are coming with their guns? Now, this is not tenable anywhere in the world.
Repeatedly, the Katsina state governor said he is not part of the deal but then we see local government chairmen, district heads and other traditional leaders. What is your take on this?
How can the governor say he has no hand in it when the local government chairmen, district head are there and all these are under him? You think any chairman of the local government can go for any peace deal without the consent of the governor? And money was given to the bandits.
Do you have evidence?
Of course, because the bandits say that was why the peace deal was delayed, that they were not given the complete money they were promised to be given.
How much was involved?
Well, from what I heard, they said they couldn’t come that day for the deal, because they were promised N100 million but were given only N80 million! So, they wanted a balance of N20 million for them to come for the meeting.
Is it the communities that are providing the money or you think it’s coming from somewhere?
Which community? If you are selling the whole local government I don’t think they can raise up to N20 million themselves, because the area, the entire environment is completely degraded, because for the last five years, basically, you have no farming.
What is even worse is that 70 per cent of primary and secondary schools are not operating; health care centres are not operating. So, now, the danger even is what is the consequence of this in the future? And what is also very disturbing is the proliferation of drugs in these areas. Looking at it at a wider level, this banditry, from what you see, is basically targeted at where you call the food basket of the country.
Can the government tackle the bandits?
There must be if you have quality leadership in the country. And I do believe no leader destroyed Nigeria like Buhari.
What do you mean?
Yeah, because for the eight years he was in power, that was the time the entire government was collectively incompetent.
Secondly, at the time he came in, there was no banditry in the North West. How can you, as president of a country, on vacation in your own state and they kidnapped 243 kids from a boarding secondary school and you’re there? They had to go out and organize money and pay money to the bandits to rescue them.
On the peace deal, who is not doing what?
Number one, the Katsina Social Security Initiative didn’t start yesterday or last year. It has been on for the last three years.
And it’s not to attack the government or whatever. No, we thought that as elites, we have a responsibility at least to see what is going on and to see what we could do to solve the issues. Some of these people who are released, will come to my house in the village. I live there (Kurfi), once I’m in the area. And the reason why we started even this, when they came and invaded Kurfi, kidnapped people around somewhere, the bandits had to be paid.
So, I decided to go and stay there for 28 days. I had to go out of the town to mobilize people that you have to sort yourselves out. The last time, one of the ladies was released. She was raped.
She was basically destroyed. Now, even in some communities where we went, nine women were raped by 40 bandits the whole night. We took them to the hospital. After they finished the test, the doctor told me, ‘there’s nothing we can do except take them for VVF’. In one case, they raped the mother, they raped the daughter. And now, it has become a new normal in that area. Bandits will call you and say, bring your wife or your daughter. Where is the peace deal? Where is the peace deal then? There is no peace deal.
They use these securities issues as a business. And in any case, morally, who is the government to say that, okay, come, we made this deal, so we have forgiven you?
No government can forgive a criminal because the crime was not done against the children of the governor or the children of the local government chairman. It’s the children of some people. But if you look at the so-called peace deal, those who are the victims, nobody is talking to them.
Some would say that the same offer was made to the Niger Delta. Is there a comparison between the two?
No, it’s not the same. The Niger Delta militants, they don’t go and kill an ordinary palm wine tapper and ask for ransom compelling him to sell his palm to raise money. One of the first mistakes the government made was when they brought them for discussion in Abuja and they put them in Hilton. They said to themselves this is where they spend your whole money and you are there. So that aggravated them.
So, the Niger Delta people, were fighting the government for them to have a better life considering that they are from the area where the resources of the country are built.
To be fair to them, if you go to some of those areas, you will know it. This is the area which you can turn it to like another Dubai if you want, the resources that you have in the Niger Delta. So the Niger Delta is different because they are popular among the people, because they protect the interests of the people.
On the other side of the banditry, or Boko Haram, you terrorize the common man. So you don’t have the support of the community. You sack them, take them out of their houses, stop them from farming, fishing, or whatever.
Why are the bandits allowed to move back to the bushes with their weapons?
Because the bandits dictate the tone; so, even now when you go to the villages, even last time I was in the villages, you see them on the motorcycle, with their AK-47. But you see, this also has political coloration. Politicians bring this so-called peace for their own political interest for election. Most of these villages, nobody can go to those areas, and during elections, like what they did last time, they will give the boxes to the chief bandits. So your opponents cannot access the area. They cannot vote. And the bandit will arrange those boxes to be thumb print for the political party.
Is this an allegation or…
It’s a fact. Ask any politician, all these different groups and let them swear that they didn’t give money to the bandit when they were in the election. These are facts.
How many local governments in Katsina have gone into the peace deal or you didn’t count?
No, but most of the local governments. However, the terrible thing is that the bandits move from the ones (LGAs) that had peace deals to the ones that don’t. They will go and steal from those who didn’t have peace deals. And then they come with stolen people and they kidnapped people to the local government who have peace dealing, they will say, okay, I have agreed with you. You don’t touch us. You don’t talk to us whatever we do. One old man, around one of the villages called for help but while they contacted the authorities, the authorities said, look, we have made peace deals with them. We promised not to touch them in this local government. This is what has happened.
There was this story last week that those who are spearheading the peace deal have monetized it in a way, because there was this report that some people who are not even bandits were paraded as bandits in order to beef up the money that would be given to them. Have you heard of that?
That is true, because some of the bandits, you see them in one local government, they are part of the peace deal and when you go to another local government, you see them.
But why is it that the peace deal cannot work?
Most of these big bandits have boys, up to 200, and all of them are with AK 47s.
Where are they getting them from?
Of course, they are buying them in the open market.
But it’s very expensive.
They kidnap people and make demands. There was one that they paid them over N300 million. When they attacked the train (Abuja-Kaduna) it’s over N2 billion worth to them. So, on a daily basis, this is what they do.
Why is it difficult for the government to disarm them?
The government is not serious and the governors are also not serious. For a governor to come and say that he doesn’t control the army, he doesn’t control the police, it’s total nonsense. Because if the governor sits and organizes the police, with the army, who are posted to this area, and gives some funding. And when you require feedback, it must be done.
Masari, when he was governor, was able to organize the GOC, the police commissioner, the DSS and the vigilante, because they know everyone, because these people are not foreigners. They are from that locality.
Is there a link between the peace deal and what we’ve started seeing in Kano?
Bandits or Boko Haram are not interested in capturing cities. They are interested in capturing villages. They encircle the city so that you, from the city, cannot go to the village. There are people from Maiduguri, for the last 15 years, they have never gone to their place or birth. They also squeeze the economy.
