For more than a decade, banditry and kidnapping have hollowed out communities across northern Nigeria. Villages have been razed, farms abandoned, children taken, and silence has too often filled the space where leadership should be.
According to Sons and Daughters of Hausa Land | Via: Hausa Activism Network | #hausaactivist, that silence was broken recently when former military President General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida, IBB, called on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to act decisively: no negotiations, no appeasement, no protection for bandits or their sympathizers. The statement has ignited a fierce debate. Now, a group identifying as the Sons and Daughters of Hausa Land (SDHL) has issued a full-throated endorsement of IBB’s position. Their message is blunt: the North has bled long enough, and the time for half-measures is over, writes Ekuson Nw’Ogbunka, Our Managing Editor from Abuja.
“We, the Sons and Daughters of Hausa Land, issue this rejoinder in solidarity with General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida (IBB). His recent call for President Tinubu to be ruthless and uncompromising against Fulani-led bandits and their sympathizers has resonated far beyond Abuja’s corridors of power.
“The facts on the ground are grim. For over ten years, the North has bled. Our villages have burned. Our children have been kidnapped from schools and homes. Our women have been violated. Our farms, once the backbone of the region’s economy, have become graveyards. Through it all, too many leaders kept silent.
Today, a former head of state has spoken. A man who understands war, security, command, and strategy has told the truth without fear or favour. That truth is now shaping public conversation across Hausa land,” the SDHL, stated.
We Stand With Ibb: “No Bandits, No Terrorists, No Negotiators, No Sympathizers Should Be Spared”
IBB was direct: “No bandits, no terrorists, no terrorists negotiators or terrorists sympathizers should be spared for disrupting the peace of Nigerians.” For many in the North, this is the boldness they have been waiting for.
“This is the leadership our people were denied for years. This is the truth that political and traditional elites often refused to speak aloud. IBB’s words cut through years of denial and political calculation.
His statement exposes the hypocrisy of those who defended bandits, negotiated for them, carried money to forests, blamed “foreign Fulani”, and misled the nation with propaganda. According to the Hausa group, IBB has cut through those lies.
IBB Has Openly Warned President Tinubu: Do Not Negotiate with Bandits
“If I were the President, I would never negotiate with bandits and kidnappers,” IBB said. “Negotiating with criminals funds your enemies against your own citizens.”
He highlighted the dangers of ransom payments, the weakness of using clerics as middlemen, and the betrayal inherent in paying terrorists. The group says this is a direct challenge to the culture of appeasement that allowed terrorism to grow.
IBB’s Words Expose Sheikh Gumi and All Other Bandit “Negotiators”
IBB warned: “Those who sympathize with bandits or pose as bandits’ negotiators must face the law.” The Hausa group aligns this with years of public demand that Sheikh Ahmad Gumi be investigated.
Their grievances against such negotiators include defending bandits, blaming government instead of criminals, moving from forest to forest as their ambassador, praising them on national TV, undermining the Nigerian Army, and justifying kidnappers under the banner of “amnesty.”
For victims of kidnapping and violence, the group says IBB has confirmed what they always knew: negotiators are part of the system that enables terror to persist.
Ibb’s Position Destroys the False Myth: “Bandits Are Foreigners”
For years, some elites argued that bandits were foreigners from Sudan, Mali, Senegal, Chad, or Guinea. IBB rejected that narrative.
“Nigeria must take action against those enabling and protecting bandits within,” he said. The Hausa group interprets this as confirmation that the criminals, their sympathizers, protectors, and negotiators are here in Nigeria, not abroad.
They argue that every top bandit commander is a Nigerian Fulani, well-known by name and village. In their view, IBB is telling the truth that others, including the Sultan of Sokoto, have refused to tell.
Ibb’s Message to the Military IsWhat Our Victims Have Been Praying for
“If I was the President… We can go band for band… We are NOT negotiating!” IBB declared. The group says this is the military doctrine that should have been used since 2010.
Their reasoning is simple: you do not negotiate with child kidnappers, rapists, arsonists, mass murderers, or terrorists. Negotiation, they argue, only breeds more terror. IBB has finally confirmed that truth.
Ibb Has Given Tinubu the Political Cover to Act Decisively
For years, every president feared backlash: “What will northern elites say? What will clerics say? What will Fulani associations say?” IBB has now spoken for the oppressed, not the oppressors.
The group says he has created a historic opportunity for President Tinubu to arrest sympathizers, crush networks, shut down supply chains, neutralize commanders, investigate clerical allies, and end the culture of appeasement. “A former president has given the green light. Now the current president must act.”
We Rejoice Because for the FirstTime,a Northern General Is Speaking the Truth
IBB’s courage stands in contrast to politicians who lied, traditional rulers who defended criminals, clerics who justified killers, elites who blamed foreigners, and opinion leaders who misled the public. For once, the truth is shouted from the top.
Conclusion
“We, the Sons and Daughters of Hausa Land, completely stand with IBB’s position. His message is clear, fearless, patriotic, long overdue, and aligned with the will of the people. He has spoken for justice, for victims, and for the truth. Now President Tinubu must act. Arrest the bandits. Arrest the negotiators. Arrest the sympathizers. Peace has no price. Terror has no tribe. Nigeria has bled enough,” Sons and Daughters of Hausa Land | Via: Hausa Activism Network | #hausaactivist appealed.
