Sheikh Dr. Ahmad Mahmud Gumi, popularly known as Sheik Gumi was born in October 1, 1960. His father is Abubakar Mahmud Gumi, an outspoken Islamic scholar and Grand Khadi of the Northern Region of Nigeria. The father was a close associate of Ahmadu Bello. It was learnt that Abubakar Gumi was instrumental in the islamization of Northern Nigeria, particularly, under Sir Ahmadu Bello. His mother’s name is Maryam Gumi.
Gumi’s family, according to Wikipedia and other sources, originated from the present Zamfara State, but Ahmad was born in Kano state, unlike his father, who was born in the village of Gummi, a local government area in Zamfara State. Ahmad attended Sardauna Memorial College (SMC) for his senior secondary education, after which he proceeded to Amhadu Bello University (ABU), where he studied Medicine and Surgery. After the completion of his university education, he was enlisted into the Nigerian Defence Academy (NDA). He served in the Nigerian Army Medical Corp (NAMC), as a medical officer, where he left as a captain in a manner not really clear, but it was theorized that he resigned from Nigerian Army. Afterward, he decided to go into full time Islamic religious work. He migrated to Saudi Arabia, where he read Islamic Jurisprudence and Tafsir at the Umm-al-Qura University, where he obtained PhD in Usulul Fiqh.
Upon his return, he succeeded his father as the scholar of the central mosque Kaduna (Sultan Bello), and this further brought him into limelight in the North. However, he came to national limelight in February this year, when he volunteered, with the backing of the government to negotiate with hardened terrorists, which Nigerian government prefer to be called bandits, to backdown in their various terrorism acts including killing, maiming, kidnapping for ransom and raping.
The Islamic Cleric began to negotiate with bandits in February this year and as a result, his fame has spread to the entire nation with mixed feelings. His first negotiation was when he went to meet the deadly bandits in their forest hideout in Zamfara. Afterward, he had undertaken similar mission in Niger, Katsina and Kaduna states.
Gumi, who disagreed with President Muhammadu Buhari’s senior media adviser, Femi Adesina, calling him “Bandit lover”, but sees himself as his region, his people, state and humanity lover, has been at the forefront of seeking amnesty to bandits, who have killed in millions and displaced many people.
He was involved in negotiating the release of 27 students abducted in March from a forestry college in Kaduna, Nigeria.
In 2010, he was arrested in his Mecca residence in Saudi Arabia by plain cloth security men for undisclosed crime. The security men took his cassettes, books, and computers.
His recent visit to Igboho town in Oyo State, the home town of Yoruba Nation activist, Sunday Adeyemo, popularly called Sunday Igboho, is currently generating controversies, as many Yoruba people believe that the visit is with ulterior motive. He was in Igboho with a former Chief Executive Officer of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), Prof Usman Yusuf.
The eminent indigenes and residents of Igboho town condemned Gumi’s visit to the town, saying that he sneaked in and out of the town for a reason best known to him. They noted Gumi lied in the video he did that the residents of Igboho believe in Open Grazing and other demands of the Fulani ethnic group in Nigeria, stressing that Open grazing is totally condemned.
In a trending video on the social media, Gumi and his team, who were seen standing in front of a Muslim Grammar school sign-board in Modeke-Igboho, pointed out that there was no basis for an agitation for Yoruba Nation.
The team was silent on the causes of agitations by various ethnic groups to pull out of Nigeria, because of their subjugation by the Fulani ethnic group.
Gumi said, “Today we have visited this town Igboho, it is a muslim community and we can see some cattle grazing in their court yards. This is a place I think Nigerians need to understand that we need to live together. Because I have seen nothing here to warrant people to agitate that they should be separated from our beloved country, Nigeria”.
“This is Igboho made famous by a detainee in Benin Republic. Nigeria is one and we will always remain one. The towns we have being to which include Ilesha, you see churches, you see mosque, you see Fulanis, you see Yorubas all coming together. This is Nigeria we grew up in, not poisoned Nigeria. It is the elites that are dividing Nigeria not the common people; the common people are the same. We are here as Nigerians and we will continue to be one”, he added.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PrbYV0zMHiw
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