I have written this essay with every sense of caution and responsibility. I have been told that my pen is like a time-bomb so permit me to settle a couple of issues and set the record straight… I do not seek to insult anyone or any group of people or to seek the break-up of Nigeria through armed struggle with this write up or any other write-up. I deplore violence and I am a man of peace. I am an essayist, an intellectual and a historian and this two-part essay is simply my contribution to my understanding of our history, national discourse and our literary archives.
On October 2nd, 2014, Alhaji Aliyu Gwarzo, a prominent Fulani leader from Kano, said the following words to Pointblanknews magazine. He said, “when I say that the presidency must come to the North next year, I am referring to the Hausa-Fulani core North and not any Northern Christian or Muslim minority tribe.
The Christians in the North, such as the Berom, the Tiv, the Kataf, the Jaba, the Zuru, the Sayyawa, the Bachama, the Jukun, the Idoma and all the others are nothing and the muslim minorities in the North, including the Kanuri, the Nupe, the Igbira, the Babur, the Shuwa Arabs, the Marghur and all the others know that when we are talking about leadership in the North and in Nigeria, Allah has given it to us, the Hausa-Fulani.
They can grumble, moan and groan as much as they want but each time they go into their bedrooms to meet their wives and each time they get on their prayer mats to begin their prayers, it is we the Fulani that they think of, that they fear, that they bow to and that they pray for.
Some of them are even ready to give us their wives and daughters for one night’s sport and pleasure. They owe us everything. This is because we gave them Islam through the great Jihad waged by our father, the great Usuman Dan Fodio.
We also captured Ilorin, killed their local King and installed our Fulani Emir. We took that ancient town away from the barbarian Yoruba and their filthy pagan gods. We liberated all these places and all these people by imposing Islam on them by force.
It was either the Koran or the sword, and most of them chose the Koran. In return for the good works of our forefathers, Allah, through the British, gave us Nigeria to rule and to do with as we please. Since 1960 we have been doing that and we intend to continue.
No Goodluck or anyone else will stop us from taking back our power next year. We will kill, maim, destroy and turn this country into Africa’s biggest war zone and refugee camp if they try it.
Many say we are behind Boko Haram. My answer is what do you expect? We do not have economic power or intellectual power. All we have is political power and they want to take even that from us.
We must fight and we will fight back in order to keep it. They have brought in the infidels from America and the pigs from Israel to help them but they will fail. The war has just begun, the Mujahedeen are more than ready and by Allah we shall win.
If they don’t want an ISIS in Nigeria then they must give us back the presidency and our political power. Their soldiers are killing our warriors and our people every day but mark this: even if it takes one hundred years, we will have our revenge.
Every Fulani man that they kill is a debt that will be repaid, even if it takes 100 years. The Fulani have very long memories”.
The truth is that we are under occupation. If it is not the Fulani herdsmen that are tormenting us, then it is Boko Haram. If it is not Boko Haram, then it is our very own Armed Forces who are under orders from our oppressors.
Men like Alhaji Aliyu Gwarzo have clearly become prisoners of their own vain fantasies and dark delusions. They represent the “Chief Whip” or “the heavy muscle” within the Fulani ruling class. They are direct, crude, threatening and vulgar, and they come across like boastful bullies and motor-park touts. Yet despite this, they must be taken very seriously because they represent an increasingly powerful and strong-willed tendency within the circles of caliphate power and the Fulani ruling elite.
A slightly more refined yet equally eloquent testimony of their battle-ready temperement and mindset was provided by none other than President Muhammadu Buhari himself in 2013 when he said that if what happened in 2011 during the presidential elections happens again in 2015 and he ends up losing to President Goodluck Jonathan, who happens to be a southern christian, “the dog and the baboon will both be soaked in blood”. His words are few yet his point was well understood.
Finally, let us consider the contribution of the respected elder statesman, Alhaji Lawal Kaita, to the discourse when he said, before the presidential election in 2011, that “power must return to the North otherwise we (meaning northerners) would make the country ungovernable”. Jonathan went ahead to win the election and Lawal Kaita and co. went ahead to honour their word: from 2011 till 2015, making the country ungovernable they certainly did.
These are shocking and deeply troubling contributions from these Fulani leaders and the import of their insidious threats are self-evident. They need no further analysis or explanation here.
In the light of all this one thing remains clear: it is time for us to do whatever it is that we must do to save our country, and if those that believe that they own it refuse to be reasonable and fair to the rest of us, perhaps we should consider the possibility of redefining her.
We warned the Nigerian people but they would not listen. Sadly things are bound to get far worse before they get any better. The sons and daughters of Futa Jalon will not rest until they have completely conquered and subjugated the whole of our country.
The Fulani herdsmen are a standing army. They are protected by the state and there is nothing anyone can do about it. That is the new Nigeria for you.
The truth is that we are under occupation. If it is not the Fulani herdsmen that are tormenting us, then it is Boko Haram. If it is not Boko Haram, then it is our very own Armed Forces who are under orders from our oppressors.
Most Nigerians are in denial of what is going on and some are just too intimidated and cowardly to acknowledge the problem, let alone to speak out against or attempt to resist it.
Why Nigeria should be brought into the Iran/Saudi conflict in this way and turned into a potential theatre for a Middle Eastern proxy war is beyond the comprehension of most commentators, given the obvious dangers attached to it.
We are in a mess and our collective enemies and tormentors are evil and relentless.
When it comes to the field of foreign policy, our president has jettisoned our traditional policy of non-alignment when it comes to the politics of the Middle East.
He just came back from Qatar and Saudi Arabia where he declared his total and complete support for the Palestinians and literally turned his back on the State of Israel. This was a fatal mistake.
Hearing him say it broke my heart, just as it did the hearts of millions of other Nigerians who are friends of Israel and who are committed to her cause.
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