Adebayo Shittu, a former minister of communication, has encouraged the federal government led by President Bola Tinubu to engage in negotiations with bandits and offer them a bright future.
The majority of these bandits, according to Shittu, are physically fit men that the federal government need to keep.
During his Tuesday appearance on Politics Today on Channels Television, the former minister stated that dealing with banditry in a non-kinetic manner would yield significant outcomes.
It’s not too late to employ non-kinetic tactics to negotiate with robbers and offer them a bright future if I’m in the right position. Let’s hold onto them. Many of them are physically fit and highly intellectual,” Shittu remarked.
The millions of youngsters in Northern Nigeria who are not in school, according to the former minister, serve as a “production factory for banditry” in the nation.
This is in response to Ahmad Gumi, a divisive Islamic preacher, who pushed the federal government to hold talks with robbers.
Gumi had advised Tinubu not to follow in the footsteps of the late President Muhammadu Buhari, who declined to hold talks with robbers.