Yarima under fire for asking Tinubu to negotiate with terrorists

Yarima under fire for asking Tinubu to negotiate with terrorists

Former Governor of Zamfara State, Ahmad Yerima, has come under attack for suggesting that President Bola Tinubu-led Federal Government to negotiate with terrorists to end the insecurity in parts of the country, especially in the North.

Senator Yerima called for dialogue with the bandits while speaking with State House correspondents in Abuja Monday after paying a visit to President Tinubu.

He said his suggestion was in line with what Umaru Musa Yar’adua did with the Niger Delta militants, to avoid collosal damage and killing of innocent people.

But a security expert, Bulama Bukarti, disagreed with Yerima, saying it would be counterproductive to negotiate with terrorists.

Bukarti, who spoke on Channels Television’s Politics Today on Monday, said that the Federal Government should instead use military force to end terrorism and banditry in Nigeria.

The security expert said, “Dialogue or negotiations implies sitting round the table and conversing with the bandits or the terrorists and giving them something in order to get something from them. It’s like a compromise and that is not how to deal with them.

“The way to deal with them is to start with the stick because Yerima suggests that we start with the carrot, give them an opportunity to defect or to repent and if they don’t, then go all in with the military. We have tried that before and it did not work.”

The Arewa Youth Assembly, a prominent youth body in the North, also slammed Senator Yerima for calling on President Tinubu to negotiate with terrorists.

The group in a statement by Mohammed Salihu Danlami, its spokesman, said, “We believe that the use of brute force, within legal and ethical boundaries may be necessary to decimate these renegades and restore peace in the country.”