By Femi Fani-kayode
Mr. Gwnfor Evans MP, the great Welsh
politician, lawyer and author and the leader of Plaid Cymru, the Welsh
nationalist party, for no less than 36 years before he passed on in 2005, made
the following historic and profound observation many years ago.
*President Buhari and Gov El-Rufai of Kaduna |
He said, “‘Britishness’ is a political synonym
for ‘Englishness’ which extends the English culture over the Scots, the Welsh
and the Irish”.
As a student of English and
European history and one that was not only trained and educated by the British
from the age of 7 but that is also highly conversant with their system and
their ways, I can confirm that Evans is absolutely right. His words are
relevant to our situation in Nigeria as well and, in many
ways, has some application here.
I say this because what the
English managed to do to the Scottish, the Irish and the Welsh, in the name and
under the cover of establishing ‘Great Britain’, over a period of 500 years is
what the Fulani is trying to do to the rest of us here in a much shorter space
of time and in a more brazen, crude and aggressive manner.
To echo Evans’ words and
place them in the Nigerian context, it is in the same way that “Nigerianess” is a political synonym for
“Fulaniness” which seeks to extend
the Fulani culture, and I daresay Islamic religious faith, over the
Hausa, Igbo, the Yoruba, the Ijaw, the Tiv, the Berom and everyone else. They
have succeeded in doing that to the Hausa and this is a tragedy of monumental
proportions.
A once proud people who had
their own empire, their own culture and their own ways were conquered, reduced
to nothing and compelled to accept Fulani traditional and political leadership
and rulership by the force of arms and this remains the case till today.
Consequently Kano , a thriving,
bubbling and wealthy commercial Hausa city which once served as the capital of
the ancient Habe Empire that had flourished for hundreds of years before the
Fulani got there was compelled to bend its knee to a Fulani Emir. Very few
Hausa people even know their own noble history and they have become so bound
up, intrinsically linked and obsessed with the Fulani version and narrative of
historical events that one can say that they have been utterly and completely
Fulanised and have come to see themselves as, at best, second class citizens
and, at worst, slaves to the Fulani.
I repeat, this is tragic.
And the rest of us must
resist this course and not allow ourselves to be Fulanised. We must remember
who and what we are; we must never forget where we are coming from; we must
promote our respective cultures; we must defend our faith; we must rever and
honor our traditions and we must keep our respective identities.
We must also remember the
words of Chief Obafemi Awolowo, the erstwhile leader of the Yoruba, when he
wrote the following in his celebrated book titled Paths To Nigerian Freedom
in 1947. He wrote, “Nigeria is
not a nation but a mere geographical expression” and he went on to say that
“there is as much difference between a Fulani man and an Igbo as there is
between a Turk and a German”.
Can anyone dispute the
veracity of these assertions? Are they not as true and as relevant today as
they were in 1947 when Awolowo wrote them? The attempt by the Fulani to rob us
of our identities and conquer us by guile and assimilation in the name of
one Nigeria shall
fail. They shall not succeed in doing it by double-speak, deceit and subtefuge
and they shall not achieve it by the force of arms.
If Nigeria is to continue
to exist and if some insist on her remaining as one nation then let her be
restructured on regional lines so that every single one of her numerous ethnic
nationalities and regions can preserve their identities, their religious faith
and their culture and can develop at their own pace. Failing that the only
answer is for us to set into motion a peaceful dissolution of the union and
enter into a non-acrimonious and mutually beneficial divorce.
That is the answer to our
problem and not just for us to replace Buhari in 2019 with someone that is
better. The truth is whether we have a good President or a disaster like Buhari
the nationality question still has to be answered and the fundamental issues of
the nature of our union or indeed whether we wish to continue to remain as one
nation or not has to be addressed. Gone are the days when others will sit in a
room somewhere and make those decisions for us. We have come of age and we
deserve to make our own choices.
Let me share a little bit
more with you about the perfidy of our former colonial masters when it comes
to Nigeria .
Their atrocities are obvious and too numerous to list here but permit me to
share the less obvious and something that many may not know. If you really want
to know the truth about why Nigeria remained one nation,
who was behind it and what the reasons were for their decision please read the
following.
I have done my research and
I can confirm that everything that the writer has written is factual and
historically accurate. He wrote as follows: “If you thought oil was discovered
in Nigeria in
1959, you could pass your high school economics with that information. It was
actually discovered 50 years earlier. Did you know that oil from the territory
was sold for almost 50 years before the approach of Independence in
1960 forced the disclosure of Oloibiri by Britain ?
Even at that the quantities
were concealed from the newly-Independent Nigerian Governments until the
counter coup of July, 1966, when the north packed their baggage to head back
north in the famous ARABA putsch. The
then British High Commissioner to Nigeria, of course on the promptings and
direction of his home government, zoomed in upon Gowon halfway, and prevailed
on him to reverse the decision of moving the north out of Nigeria, at a time
Gowon already hoisted the Arewa Flag in a temporary Capital, Ilorin.
In the hurry to announce
this reversal, Gowon’s speech, which was originally designed to take out the
north, was poorly edited, leaving a portion that should have been expunged and
so distorting the concluding part from the body of the speech.
That unexpunged portion is
the celebrated Gowonian faux pas in
which he in one breathe declared that “everything
considered, the basis of Nigeria ’s
unity is no more”, yet going ahead in the next breathe to proclaim that “to keep Nigeria one is a task that
must be done”. It was in the heat of the
ARABA (northern secession) move that the British whispered into the
ears of the fledgling Gowon government, the huge quantities of oil that
eastern Nigeria would have, if the North left, and so would become the poor
neighbour of the south and particularly the Eastern Region.
In a series of dubious
underhanded exchanges that followed rapidly, the British practically took over
the handling of the crises all the way to when it became war in July 1967, from
the poor school certificate-holder soldier, Yakubu Gowon (Gowon went for
tertiary education only after he was overthrown in 1975 by his July 1966
comrade-in-crime, Murtala Mohammed).
In that dark period Gowon
signed off the entire oil/gas reserves of Eastern Nigeria to the British for 50
years, more or less, contracting the war to Britain . The British which held
those concessions via Shell, had to parcel out substantial blocs of their holdings
to the other world powers and Permanent Members of the UN Security Council.
Thus the entry of Gulf Oil and Mobil (US) Elf (France ),
Agip (Italy ).
It is clear from the
foregoing that it was not God that put Nigeria together but rather
the greed and mercantile interests of the Western powers led by the British.
And as it was in 1966 so it was in 1914 when Lord Lugard recommended the amalgamation
of the northern and southern protectorates and his soon-to-be wife, Flora Shaw,
gave us the name of Nigeria .
Even then it was just about satisfying the mercantile and pecuniary lusts of
the British, or should I say the English, Empire.
Permit me to conclude with
a short word about Nigeria ’s
reigning Fulani Caliph and the one who regards himself as the rightful successor
and reincarnation of Sheik Uthman Dan Fodio and Sir Ahmadu Bello all rolled
into one. His name is President Muhammadu Buhari and he regards himself as
nothing less than the Muslim north’s and Caliphate’s third and final Mahdi,
even though he has no blue blood.
The Bible says “the wicked walk on every side when the
vilest men are exalted”. (Psalm 12:8). To the wicked, who exalt the vile
beast in the Villa, I have the following to say. Buhari believes in
conquest and oppression and who has turned a blind eye whilst his subjects are
butchered in their thousands by Fulani terrorists. He has brought nothing but
carnage, division, destruction, death, poverty and evil to our nation.
On several occasions he has
directed his security agencies and Armed Forces to kill thousands of his own
citizens, whether they be Igbo youths that are members of IPOB or Shiite
Muslims, after which they are buried in mass graves. Those that are not killed
are thrown into prisons or horrific detention cells all over the country where
they are tortured and left to rot without any form of due process and against
court orders to release them.
Getting Buhari out of power
is not just a sacred duty but it is also a religious obligation and a righteous
crusade. If we want Nigeria to
live, to remain united, to survive and to be restructured we must get him out.
He analogue ideas has nothing but outdated, archaic and provincial solutions to
complex modern challenges. He is out of touch with reality, has obsession to
strengthen and empower his Fulani kinsmen and members of his Islamic faith
above all others.
To him the Fulani Muslims
are supreme beings that were divinely ordained and born to rule whilst everyone
else, including Christians and non-Fulani Muslims, are nothing but serfs, plebeians,
useful idiots and handy slaves.
He says he wants to take us
to the next level. I bury his ambitions by voting him out in 2019. Enough
innocent blood has been shed. The Bible says “for the oppression of the poor and the sighing of the needy, now will I
arise. I will set him in safety from him that puffeth at him”. (Psalm
12:5).
The Lord of Hosts and the
Ancient of Days shall not forsake us. He shall honor His word and deliver us
from these vile and evil men who seek to shed our blood and destroy our nation.
In Part 2 of this contribution I will shed further light on the
Fulanisation agenda in Nigeria, the purpose and mission of the Fulani
terrorists and herdsmen, the real intention of those behind the idea of cattle
ranches and finally I will expose certain aspects of the history of the Fulani
that few Nigerians are aware of. I will also explain why it is that I call a
spade a spade and why I do not hold back anything or show any form of restraint
when writing about them, their atrocities or their leaders.
READ PART TWO HERE
READ PART TWO HERE
*Fani-Kayode is Nigeria ’s former Aviation Minister
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