By Joshua Tosin Ogunsakin 
The Sokoto State Governor, Ahmed Aliyu, has said the government’s engagement with repentant bandits is a deliberate step towards achieving genuine reconciliation and lasting peace in communities ravaged by insecurity.
In a statement on Friday by his Special Adviser on Security Matters, Col. Ahmed Usman (rtd.), Aliyu said his administration’s peace efforts were guided by a genuine desire to end the cycle of violence, not by weakness or fear.
Usman was responding to recent criticisms by a social media commentator, Basharu Giyawa, who questioned the rationale behind ongoing peace overtures to armed groups willing to lay down their weapons in the state.
He noted that Giyawa had previously expressed willingness to act as a mediator between the government and the armed elements, making his current criticism contradictory.
According to Usman, the administration is not negotiating from a position of weakness, but rather implementing a balanced, human-centered approach to end years of violence that have devastated communities in Rabah, Goronyo, Isa, Sabon Birni, and other local government areas.
“Our meeting with bandits is for genuine reconciliation. It is a strategic decision aimed at restoring peace and rebuilding communities destroyed by years of armed attacks.
“Our people are living with the daily trauma of displacement. Farmers have abandoned their fields, food production has collapsed, and economic life has been crippled. The impact is visible in rising food prices and growing insecurity,” he noted.
Usman clarified that only those who show sincere commitment to peace, and agree to strict rehabilitation and monitoring, would be considered for dialogue.
He maintained that security forces remained actively deployed where necessary, and that dialogue was only extended to those who sincerely wish to renounce violence and undergo strict rehabilitation and monitoring.
Usman stressed that the dialogue was part of a broader security strategy that still involves the active deployment of security forces across volatile areas.
“This is not appeasement. It is a human-centred approach to peace and development.”