The callous response of the Northern
governors to the horrendous events in Enugu State has compelled me to write
this contribution as something of a follow-up.
These are difficult and troubling
times and these are times that the truth needs to be spoken. I appreciate those
who publish my contributions in my various columns because, in a country that
hates to hear the truth and that finds it difficult to comprehend and grasp
reality, that in itself takes courage.
I also appreciate the increasingly
large number of Nigerians from all over the world that take the time to read my
contributions because without them there would be no point in writing.
On April 30th, 2016 Mr. George Akinola
wrote the following words on Facebook:
“When the Fulani exploded on the
geographic space later christened Nigeria in 1804, they did not negotiate power
with the Hausas, they seized it from them on the battlefield.
When the same Fulani appeared in Ilorin in 1823, purportedly to assist
Afonja, the Are-Ona-Kakanfo of Oyo and the ruler of Ilorin, in revolt against
his sovereign, Alafin Aole, the Alafin of Oyo, it was to gain his confidence
for a while and a vantage position to murder him. Ilorin has been under Fulani
rule since then and up until today.
When the British colonised all these
empires, kingdoms and fiefdoms in the 19th century, it was not out of love for
the black man.
It was an imperialistic push for more land, more territories to exploit
minerals and other resources from. If you did not agree by subtle pressure,
they simply applied the brute force. To hell with you and all you cared for!
When the Fulani attacked Yorubaland in 1825, they gave all our
ancestors notice that they intended to bury the Quran in the sea at the
backyard of the Yoruba empire and kingdoms.
Meaning? They will kill, destroy, maim, trample on men, women, children
and all that we hold dear to achieve this goal. This was not by negotiation or
a bargaining deal.
Blood was on the cards and red was its colour. Thank God for the fierce
resistance of the Yoruba, rallying at Ibadan.
If not, maybe we will be doing
“ranka dede” to one clown Emir of Ado-Ekiti or another comedian Emir of
Abeokuta today.
Power does not give way to persuasion. Power only succumbs to superior
power.
Fast forward to 1960. The new nation had just gained independence. But
the drums of drunken power was already pulsating with madness in the heart of
Ahmadu Bello, the leader of NPC, the party that won the 1959 elections, and
which assumed the reins of power to lead Nigeria at independence.
Note that this was the great grandson of Uthman Dan Fodio, the leader
of the 1804 Fulani Jihad. He made his intention, and the intention of the
Fulani, clear in this now infamous statement: Hear Ahmadu Bello in the Parrotnewspaper of October 12th, 1960:
“The new nation called Nigeria should be an estate of our great
grandfather Uthman Dan Fodio. We must ruthlessly prevent a change of power. We
use the minorities in the North as willing tools and the south as a conquered
territory and never allow them to rule over us and never allow them to have
control over their future”.
I am sure you did not read any entreaties of love, affection and
camaraderie disposition in that statement. It was harsh, callous, wicked,
sadistic, exploitative, intimidating and wholesomely damning.
That is drunken power talking with
inspiration from the lunatic fringe.
When he eventually paid for it with his life, his inheritors found a
way to re-invent their stranglehold on Nigeria.
They came in through the military and continued, in a more draconian
fashion, the bleeding exploitation of Nigeria. What we inherited from the
British was “self-governing Regions of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.”
Now we are forcibly united by an un-feeling centre. What we inherited
was a revenue allocation formula that was largely derivative.
Now it is almost ‘allocative’. At a point, Mohammed Buhari reduced the
50 percent derivation formula to one percent.
These parasites are barracudas and Shylocks of the highest order.
The only language these savages understand is the one that brought them
there in the first case: force.
This may be subtle through the use of the instrumentality of guerrilla
journalism, protests, occupation, civil resistance, civil disobedience,
referendum, United Nations appeal, international coalition of forces, etc.
On the other hand it may boom
through the barrel of the gun in a violent uprising or revolt, civil or
guerrilla warfare.
Either way, force is force.
The irreducible decimal is that the Yoruba reject enslavement, the
appropriation of their resources without their approval and illegal occupation
of their God given land with all iota of their soul and with all the power in
their being.
Whether for one second or for 200 years, the enemy shall not feel
comfortable until they leave.
With reference to how they will leave, however, the choice remains
theirs: either on foot, running helter-skelter, on stretchers, in trailers,
buses, straddled on horses or loaded in coffins.
But, leave, they shall, when
superior power speaks!”
These are harsh and frightful words
yet Mr. Akinola’s historical analysis and assesment is first class. He has
spoken nothing but the truth no matter how bitter that truth may be. This takes
courage and I commend him for it.
I deplore violence and I do not
advocate or condone it in any shape or form. I do not want anyone to leave our
land “loaded in coffins” or in body bags and neither do I believe that violence
and bloodshed leads to anything but even more violence and bloodshed. It is
nothing but a vicious cycle.
However the type of rhetoric that is
now being expressed by our Southern youth and intellectuals about the situation
in Nigeria, and particularly about the excesses of the Fulani cannot be ignored
or downplayed.
We ignore the words of people like Mr.
George Akinola, Mr. Babatunde Gbadamosi, Mr. Grandson Soyemi and so many others
at our own peril.
Clearly
there is tension and anger in the land. The spirit of division is rife and it
is getting stronger by the day. Things are getting hotter and tempers are
flaring. Nigeria is begininning to unravel at the seams. We must all be very
careful not to set a match to the tinderbox.
Thankfully there are still a number of
Fulani and non-Fulani voices in the North who represent a moderate and sane
disposition and who have nothing to do with the hegemonist or religious agenda
of the bigots and the hardliners.
I am talking about men like Colonel
Abubakar ‘Dangiwa’ Umar, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, Alhaji Kashim Ibrahim Imam, Alhaji
Ibrahim Turaki (SAN) and so many others. I know every single one of these
individuals and I can vouch for them.
These are the sort of people who are
still holding the country together by giving Southerners hope that the voice of
moderation, reason and restraint still exists in the North, and that that voice
may eventually prevail. Yet the fire continues to burn on the mountain and
tempers are still rising.
The insulting warning to the South
from the 19 Northern governors just the other day made matters worse. That
contribution did not help to calm the storm but instead it has further frayed
nerves. Simply put the Northern governors have rubbed raw salt into our
Southern wounds.
They said that Southerners should “not
insult the Fulani again” and that even though they deplored what their kinsmen,
the Fulani herdsmen, did in Enugu the other day, that does not mean that “their
people” ought to be insulted.
This is all they had to say after
thousands of Southerners have been killed, maimed, raped, abducted and tortured
in the sanctity of their own homes and land by the Fulani militants and
herdsmen over the last one year alone, and after over one hundred Igbos were
slaughtered in Enugu State just a few days ago.
They even went a step further by
saying that they intend to take the cue from Kaduna State and introduce the
licensing of all Churches and preachers in all the states of the North.
This is a deep insult to every
Christian worth his salt, to the clergy and to the Church. It is also a
surreptitious attempt to curb the spreading of the gospel in Northern Nigeria.
If ever the Northern governors had an all-time low, this is it.
Instead of them burying their heads in
shame and appealing to the rest of Nigeria to forgive them and their kith and
kin for their collective and historical sins, the Fulani leaders are still
issuing threats to the rest of us through their surrogates, leaders and
governors.
This is unacceptable. Such reckless
arrogance and callous insensitivity does not serve them well and neither does
it engender peace and reconciliation in our country. Instead it is provocative
and insulting and can only lead to a greater degree of alienation and more
misunderstanding.
Sadly the 17 Southern governors could
not even muster the resolve to organise their own meeting and respond to the
slur in a virile and responsible manner. Instead they all ran for cover and
chose to dwell in the safety and comfort of a cowardly and conspiratorial
silence.
How I wish that men like Chief Obafemi
Awolowo, the Leader of the Yoruba; Dim Odumegwu-Ojukwu, the Ikenga of Igboland
Dr. Chuba Okadigbo, the former Senate President; Chief Alfred Rewane, one of
the greatest and most fearless southern elders that ever lived; and Chief
Harold Dappa Biriye, the Leader of the Ijaw nation were still with us. How I
wish that men like Chukwuemeka Ezeife, Orji Uzor Kalu and Chimaroke Nnamani
were still governors. How I wish that people like Ojo Maduweke and Ebenezer
Babatope were still Federal Ministers.
Meanwhile the people of the South are
still grieving and suffering immeasurable pain as a consequence of the
gratuitous violence and evil that we have been subjected to at the hands of
these murderous Fulani herdsmen over the last ten months.
We are still mourning our dead and
indeed all the innocent and defenceless souls, including women and children,
who were murdered in cold blood in Enugu State just a few days ago.
The truth is that as long as those
that represent the Fulani militants and herdsmen continue to try to justify or
rationalise their beastly behaviour and threaten the South there will be people
like Mr. George Akinola who will respond with the sort of rhetoric that he has
expressed in this contribution.
There would also be far more than mere
rhetoric and this, more than anything else, saddens me because I am a man of
peace and I deplore violence.
Yet you cannot expect people to sit by
silently and watch their loved ones and kith and kin being slaughtered like
Christmas turkeys and sallah rams on a daily basis by a bunch of uncouth,
vulgar and unlettered barbaric beasts who are suffering from some kind of
vampiric blood lust, and who are plagued and afflicted with a cult-like
Janjaweed syndrome.
It would be most unwise for the Fulani
leaders and indeed the leaders of the North to ignore such sentiments and
dismiss them with the usual contempt.
It is important that the Fulani
militants and herdsmen are reigned in and that they stop killing Southerners
and occupying our land.
It is important that the Buhari
administration stops encouraging and covertly supporting them in their mass
murder and savage butchery.
It is important that the greater and
wider agenda to conquer the South, to take our lands, to dominate and Islamise
our people and to discredit, destroy, jail and kill all vocal and credible
Southern leaders that have opted to stand up against them be brought to a halt.
It is important that the master plan
to subjugate the people of the South to perpetual bondage and slavery at the
hands of the Fulani be stopped.
It is only when that happens that we
can guarantee lasting peace in our nation. It is only when this is done that
people like Mr. George Akinola and all the other young rising Southern stars
will stop saying the sort of things that they are saying.
It is only when that happens that they
will stop speaking and reflecting the minds of millions of Southerners who are
fed up with what is going on in our country and who are prepared to stand up,
challenge the powers that be, break the yoke of bondage and slavery and fight
for their freedom.
Permit me to end this contribution
with the reaction of Afenifere, the leading Yoruba socio-cultural organisation,
to the insults of the 19 Northern governors.
On May 1, 2016 the Sunday Vanguard newspaper
reported as follows:
“The Yoruba group, which spoke
through their National Publicity Secretary, Mr. Yinka Odumakin, told Sunday
Vanguard:
“It (the northern governors’
position) is a sign of unfeeling, uncaring for any group today to come out and
say that those who have been causing problems and killing people in the Middle
Belt and the South are not Fulani herdsmen. They have killed in Agatu land,
Enugu; a traditional ruler was killed in Delta State; they killed Chief Olu
Falae’s guard and also kidnapped Chief Falae himself. For some people to gather
and call themselves northern governors, and have no sympathy for lives than to
be defending the Fulani herdsmen, shows clearly that it is a tragedy of
monumental proportion to be in the same country with these elements. You also
begin to wonder if the blood of human beings runs in their veins because
anybody that has human blood running in his veins will not come and say that
Fulani herdsmen are not responsible. What nonsense.”
The Afenifere spokesperson went on: “I think the northern governors should bury their heads in shame. I do
not think they are fit to be in the comity of civilised human beings. If the
attackers are not Fulani herdsmen, where have they struck in the North-West?
Why are their activities only in the Middle Belt and in the South? That is the
question these northern governors should answer. When militants were blowing up
pipelines in the South-South, were they not called Niger Delta militants? Do
they want us to call them Yoruba herdsmen?”
As always, Afenifere has done the
Yoruba, and by extension the entire South, proud with their courageous and
timely intervention. They have spoken for every single one of us that still has
his dignity and self-respect intact.
Let us hope that the Northern
governors and the murderers that they seek to defend get the message.
Let us hope that they can purge
themselves of the unwholesome and denigrating contempt that they clearly have
for the people of the South before it is too late and before the whole damn
nation explodes and breaks into a thousand pieces.
Femi Fani-Kayode, a lawyer and
former Minister of Aviation, is a leading member of Nigeria’s political
opposition, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
