" O mankind! Lo! We have created you male and female, and have made you #‎nations‬ and #‎tribes‬ that ye may #‎know_one_another‬. Lo! the noblest of you, in the sight of Allah, is the best in conduct. Lo! Allah is Knower, Aware."

(Quran 49 verse 13)

One clear message in the above verse is that God almighty intentionally made human race unto Nations and He also broke the Nations into different tribes/ Ethnic groups. Also from the verse, we can also see clearly that He has given some distinguishing features to each tribes by which they can be identified as unique People in the appearance and morphology.

It is the above verse of the Quran that really answers my question on why it is so easy for an Ijaw man to identify an itsekri man even before the later utters a word! A yoruba man will identify an Hausa man and the Kanuri will identify Fulani as not being from his tribe. As a Medical student, while doing my dermatology posting, One of our consultant dermatologists who had his training in the US would tell us that many of his non-african colleagues in the US would always ask him How we africans don't have problems of identifying each other? "All africans are too identical to be differentiated, it is as if the same father and mother gave birth to all of them" they would argue.On his own part, He would reply them in return "The problem of identification should even be among you people, because the resemblance is far more on your side".

On my own part, It is the chinese and the Koreans that have always given me the puzzles over the years. I keep wondering how they truly identify each other because every one has tiny eyes, flat nose, short leg with relatively longer thighs that makes the buttocks quickly reach the ground as they try to sit down. When we would visit the beach here in lagos, i would have a difficult time trying to figure out any obvious difference in the appearance of the Chinese that came to the beach on weekends, yet my puzzle would remain unless i marked each with the outfit on his body.

On the contrary, a southerner in Nigeria can easily identify a Northerner and vice versa. Not only that, an experienced Yoruba man can as well identify further the sub-ethnic groups within the south west. i have always claimed and proven it to some friends, that i can Identify an Awori man and an Ijebu man many times even before they speak. i have this experience because i have lived very closely with the Awori and the Ijebu yoruba sub-ethnic groups.

Equally,while in the North as a student, some of my hausa classmates would tell me who was a fulani among them, not just that, while going outside the school, they would show you who is a fulani man even If they had never met him or heard him speak. i initially started to identify the obvious features of a fulani man. i realise He is typically slim, a bit taller, fair in complexion and a pointed nose. The confusion set in when i met some guys who claim to be Fulanis but completely lack any of these features. The funny part of it is that these "unfulani looking" chaps would again tell you who is Hausa, Kanuri ,Berom, Kaje etc. i later realised that the ability to identify each other depends on several years of living together with other tribes.

Our consultant dermatologists would tell us that the so-called white people know each other by tribes and that his American colleagues would tell from the mere look of a man and say if He is british, french, canadian, Alaskan, Irish, welsh etc. They would easily tell you where a man is likely to come from and the African chaps would be so surprised at how they do that so perfectly. He told us that He would let them realise that, in Africa, we don't only differentiate based on countries but also based on ethnic groups! To the white people, it would sound impossible because they hardly see any difference in our look just the way we don't see it in them especially the Japanesse, chinese, Koreans.

It is in that light that one can truly understand the dillemma of an average southerner when He confidently says the Boko Haram members are Hausa people. In the past, we have been told that the majority of the insurgents (almost 80%) are people recruited from Chad, Cameroon and Niger. The majority of the around 20% that are Nigerians are also kanuri. One insurgent that was captured months back even claimed to be a Yoruba man from Ogbomosho and another one that was part of the Bayero University Attack then was an Ibo man who had lived in Maiduguri for years.

You would always see our Hausa brothers telling you that these insurgents are not Hausas. To a southerner, who thinks anyone who speaks Hausa is an Hausa, He finds that difficult to believe. Hausa Language is spoken by various people in cameroon, Ghana, Niger and even chad, yet these people are not Nigerians or Northerners as many usually think and funny enough, the real maiduguri people know those that are foreigners and non-nigerians, no matter how perfect their Hausa may be. i have seen pictures of captured suicide bombers being displayed on a news papper website and all the northern people were happily saying "you can see now that He is not a Nigerian" "Only a blind person will not see He is from niger or chad". But funny enough, some of us from the south would not see the difference because we have not lived with them as to make out the difference just the way the white man says Africans are all alike.

I remember a time in the Past when i was coming to Lagos from Kaduna, i met a Yoruba man on board the Bus, who was a Vice Principal in Maiduguri for almost 10years and was coming down to Ilorin. He told me a lot about the truth of Boko haram and Borno state as their base. He said that whoever was behind Boko Haram must have been a master schemer to have selected maiduguri as the base of the organisation. He said borno state is a strategic place because there are hundreds of borders and illegal routes that enters Nigeria from there.

He went ahead to inform me that from the front of the school where was working, People board Buses and cars directly going to Central Africa Republic! That from many townships and villages, Cameroon, chad and Niger are at trekkable distances. Because of this, many foreigners have so mingled and dissolved into the indigenous Hausa, Kanuri and other tribes in such a way that only the indigenes can identify themselves. He told me how He also later began to identify foreigners after years of living there.

While we were somewhere around Kaduna state, we were stopped on the road by the immigration officers in the night. Then came a shocker of that journey! They would briskly flash their tourch lights to our faces and order some people to come down. They selected about 8 people from our 18 passenger bus and demanded for their I'd cards. i was wondering why only them and not others? Only 3 of us were Yoruba on board. To my surprise, the seleted 8 people turned out to be non-nigerians! They collected an average of 3-4 thousand from each before allowing them to join us. I turned to the maiduguri vice principal and asked How they knew those people were not Hausas or Nigerians? These are the people that have been speaking hausa perfectly on the journey, i asked If they were identified by another method because they did not even speak to them before ordering them out. He smiled and told me that He also used to see it as a magic until he had spent years in maiduguri and mastered the tricks. He told me their Hausa was perfect and fluent but i should take a look at the bridges of their noses that it has a characteristic depression and that their fingers are somewhat longer and skinny! i laughed my heart out. You know why? I could not even see any difference in what He said from his own nose and fingers and He is even a Yoruba man, not to even talk of the Hausa men. But He really knew what He was talking about because He told me that a woman sitting in the last row with an infant baby is equally a foreigner and that one of the detained guys is likely to be her husband. The immigration officers obviously left her because she was a nursing mum or knew her husband would pay for her. To my surprise, when those chaps returned one of them took the hand bag of the lady and took some money from it and went back to pay!

The Northerners keep saying Boko Haram is not their agenda and that their members are not truly Nigerians and yet many people don't believe. These are the people who have lived with these foreigners for years and identify them like the tips of their own fingers. I don't say there are no Hausa, Kanuri, Fulani among them, just the way we can never rule out the presence of Ibos, Yorubas or any other minority ethnic groups being among them.The truth remains that Boko Haram is never a Northerner's Agenda, Neither is it populated by the Hausas or any Nigerian tribe.

My parents are from a town in Oyo state called "Saki". It is a border town about 2hour drive from the state capital of Ibadan. After Saki, there is no another Nigerian town till one will enter Benin republic. The commercial activities of the Saki indegenes take them to "Parakou", "Togo" and all those neibhouring countries and not only that, a tribe called "Ajase" are indegenes of one of these francophone nations. Ajase people speak Yoruba as their indegenous language. Only a Yoruba man from Oyo state and probably some part of Osun state can tell these people's Yoruba is not that of Nigeria. Any non Yoruba man will never believe they are not Nigerian Yorubas and even some Yoruba people will be deceived into thinking that they are only speaking a different dialect but also from the south-west.

The Ajase people don't only speak Yoruba but also have the same tradition as yorubas, same culture, same way of dressing and similar cultural festivals! Infact Saki people use to listen to the Ajase news on Radio because they understand perfectly the news and Ajase person understand anything a Yoruba man speaks. Because of this inter-lingual and inter-cultural relationship, Ajase people freely enter Nigeria from Saki to do Business and some have lived there for too long to be considered foreigners again. However, the Saki people will easily identify these people no matter how long they have stayed in their midst. There are other countries where indegenes speak Yoruba like some minority part of Togo among others. It is also very common to see togolese in Saki coming to do menial jobs like farming and so on. Meanwhile, as one leaves Saki and heading to Ibadan, the state capital, there are Custom check points on the road where these non-nigerians are easily fished out by the custom officers. An Ibo man or an Hausa man who has always never seen any difference between these #‎Benenoiurs‬/ Togolese and the Yoruba people will always be surprised how they get fished out.

I have used my undertanding of the border setting of Saki and the multi-tribal and multinational composition with it's attendant identical dillemma to appreciate what maiduguri and borno state is passing through. If similar type of insugency should spring up in Saki city and it's neighbouring borders, All northerners and the easterners will surely keep calling the Yorubas Terrorists because only we would be able to know the true Identity of these foreigners that have lived among us and are looking perfectly like us.

The daily massacre of the northerners and the wanton destructions of their homes, farms and properties should have opened our eyes to the fact that no human being would want to make a nation ungovernable for another person and be wiping out his own people. What an insanity! How many of these trauma has the southern Nigeria truly felt from the boko haram insurgency? When People are killed and their properties destroyed and those that manage to survive among them are daily turned into refugees in their own country and yet those that are not being directly affected claim to be the victims, is that not insanity taking the fullest meaning?

Whoever is today destroying the north and killing and maiming the northerners will one day come over to the south after He is done with the north. The schemers of this blood-shed had firstly divided us to weaken what would have been our collective resistance. It is the turn of the North today, it will surely be ours tomorrow unless we see this as a war against us all.

~Nigeria Street Dawah

Boko haram cant survive in d south west guy

A great logic and nice write up.

Yet, I have some problems!

Why did Buhari ask Jonathan to host Boko Haram in Aso Rock?

When Jomathan declared State of Emergency, some Northern leaders said he has declared war against the North!

Even if the whole work force are all aliens, the ugly the truth is that some Northern leaders have found them so useful to a terrible course.

Recently, the so called Northern elders, said Jonathan , must produce the Chibok girls or forget 2015!

Do you blame me if I say they are Boko Haram?

The only question I have for the writer of this op-Ed is: Was Arewa Consultative Forum demanding Amnesty for foreigners that led to the Presidency constituting Amnesty Committee for Bokoharam to surrender their arms and end their campaign?