01/06/2025
FATHER AUGUSTINE IKENNA WROTE:
*Nigeria Reaps Its Rot: The Return of Sheikh Ahmad Gumi and the Deafening Silence of a Failing State*
When Sheikh Ahmad Gumi began his descent from the revered corridors of Islamic scholarship into the dark alleyways of extremism, many watched in disbelief. Draped in the garb of a cleric, Gumi transformed from a once-respected Islamic apologist to a brazen sympathizer of bandits and a mouthpiece for terror. In the face of a nation trembling under the weight of insecurity, his voice—loud, unapologetic, and dangerous—rose in defense of bloodstained warlords, and the Nigerian state looked away.
The recent deportation of Sheikh Gumi from Saudi Arabia is more than just a diplomatic gesture; it is a moral indictment—a sharp slap to the face of a nation too timid to reprimand its own monsters. In the sacred lands of Mecca, where Islam finds its purest expression, Gumi’s presence was not merely unwanted—it was scandalous. The Saudis, known for their own rigid religious codes, nonetheless found his rhetoric too volatile, too divisive, too toxic for a spiritual pilgrimage. They acted with swiftness and clarity.
In stark contrast, Nigeria, under the leadership of the All Progressives Congress (APC), has coddled and even protected Gumi. Shielded by political allies and Wahhabi sympathizers in high places, Gumi roamed freely across states, meeting with bandits, defending terrorists, and spewing inflammatory rhetoric without consequence. Where was the outrage when he described Boko Haram as misunderstood warriors of faith? Where was the clampdown when he called for amnesty for killers while their victims rotted in shallow graves?
Saudi Arabia’s action is a symbolic moment in the global war on terror. It sends an unambiguous message: that religious extremism disguised in the robes of clerical respectability will find no sanctuary—even in the holiest of lands. But in Nigeria, the government watches, complicit in silence, paralyzed by the weight of its own cowardice.
The deportation of Gumi should mark a turning point. It is a mirror held to our national face, reflecting the rot, the hypocrisy, and the utter ineptitude of a state that has lost its moral compass. If Saudi Arabia—the birthplace of Islam—can say “enough,” what excuse does a secular, multi-religious nation like Nigeria have for nurturing its own preachers of hate?
The Nigerian government must act. It must draw from the example set by the Saudis and begin to dismantle the networks of religious extremism poisoning our national unity. Gumi is not just a divisive figure—he is a symbol of everything wrong with a nation that rewards impunity and punishes honesty. He is a monument to our failure to defend religious freedom, peace, and justice.
And now he is back—deported, disgraced, and deflated. Nigeria has received what Saudi Arabia rejected: its ideological trash, unfit for the global stage. And in that return lies a question we can no longer ignore—how much longer will we allow our soil to nurture what the world deems too vile to tolerate?
The time to act is now. Or risk becoming the landfill of global shame.
Fr Augustine Ikenna Anwuchie
