Former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar has warned that government negotiations with bandits often benefit the criminals more than their victims, describing the situation as a failure of state authority.
In a statement on Wednesday by his media adviser, Paul Ibe, Abubakar said bandits frequently break the terms of peace agreements with the government, undermining efforts to end violence.
He noted that it is difficult to achieve meaningful deterrence when governors are forced to plead with bandits in the name of peace. While he is not opposed to dialogue, he criticised arrangements where bandits dictate the terms.
“Those peace deals always favour the bandits more than their victims, and they have always fooled the government’s negotiators,” he said.
Abubakar stressed that the government should act proactively rather than waiting for attacks to occur.
“Nigerians are no longer impressed by the powerful language of condemnation by the government. They’re more interested in results than rhetoric,” he said.
“Experience has shown that if rhetoric were enough to deter the bandits, the menace would have ended a long time ago.”
Some states, including Katsina, have been negotiating with bandits to stop attacks and abductions. Katsina is reportedly facilitating the release of 70 suspected bandits in custody, describing it as necessary to consolidate community-based peace agreements with “repentant bandits” in certain LGAs.
However, Abubakar, an African Democratic Congress chieftain, said the President Bola Tinubu-led All Progressives Congress administration must be held accountable for its campaign promises to end insecurity.
“Nigerians cannot be comforted by excuses. As a former opposition party, the APC held the then government in power to the harshest and merciless standards, and therefore, the Tinubu administration must be held to the same standards,” he said.
He also condemned the abduction of over 100 residents in Kajuru Local Government Area of Kaduna State on Sunday, describing it as evidence of the audacity of bandits operating without challenge.
“It is colossally embarrassing to see non-state actors holding the country hostage and attacking people and taking hostages again and again unchallenged,” Abubakar added.
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