Renowned Kaduna-based Islamic cleric, Sheikh Ahmad Abubakar Gumi has said that the insecurity in Nigeria was a dark cloud that would soon pass.
In a statement issued by his media consultant, Malam Tukur Mamu, Sheikh Gumi made the remarks in Lokoja, the Kogi State capital after a visit to the forest in the River Niger area on Wednesday, 24th November, 2021.
The visit which was a medical mission, which the cleric undertook together with a dedicated and fully equipped medical van, medical personnel and drugs worth N20 million also had a former executive secretary of the National Health Insurance Service (NHIS), Professor Usman Yusuf; retired Colonel Sambo Diri, Malam Nasiru Ayuba, as well as the representatives of some media organisations, the DSS and the police, among others in his entourage.
The group visited the strategic Rugan Zubairu settlement located in the forest in Kogi State where a large number of Fulani herdsmen relocated after the recent violence and attacks in the South East and South West displaced them.
Sheikh Gumi and his team also travelled in boats in order to see for themselves the enormous economic potentials available in the North, the release added.
They travelled on the waters of the historic River Niger for more than an hour until they reached River Benue.
He said after reaching its riverside destination, the team walked for more than two kilometres through the mountains and creeks until they reached the cattle herders’ settlement.
The mobile clinic provided by Sheikh Gumi at Rugan Zubairu in the Kaba forest will be there for two months with the medical team to provide primary and minor secondary services to the herdsmen, as well as anybody requiring such assistance.
Gumi called on President Muhammadu Buhari to intensify the dredging of the rivers as a lasting legacy and a solution to the lingering insecurity in the North, pointing out that even though the North is richer than the South, the past leaders did not prioritise the resuscitation and development of key sectors of the northern economy.
He called on all Nigerians to unite, saying with the abundant natural resources the nation has, they do not have any reason to be fighting each other.
