nigerian tribune 30-01-09

Many in the media have severally commented on the recent Jos mayhem, but in the spirit of political correctness virtually none has broached the touchy issue of real and perceived fears of Muslim/ Hausa domination by the Jos indigenes. Their grievances have been variously dismissed as irrational, unpatriotic, irredentist, unconstitutional, unnationalistic or retrogressive.

It's all well and good to pontificate about the constitutional rights of all Nigerians wherever they reside within the country, but many Middle Belters and Southerners can't help wondering why only Hausa should be insisting on such citizenship rights given that Muslim Hausa in their home states of the core north deny other Nigerians such rights (nay priviledge).

Consequently, most non-indigenes in the core north have more or less accepted their second class status and make no attempt to vie for any major political office like senator or local government chairman, but simply wish to be left alone to get on with their lives.

Even this very modest unambitious expectation of peaceful co-existence is often denied non-indigenes by Muslims in the core north who habitually organize massacres and bloodbaths of Aarna (non-Muslims), based on flimsy excuses such as a Christian preacher arriving in Kano, America's post 9/11 bombing of Afghanistan, etc. Consequently, many non-Muslims in the core north sleep with one eye open, lest they get caught up in the incessant religious violence.

Religious violence isn't the only ordeal of non-indigenes in the core north. They also contend with other unconstitutional practices such as discriminatory school fees and employment, discriminatory admissions into choice courses at tertiary educational institutions, severe restriction on non-Muslim places of worship and imposition of Sharia not only on non-Muslims but also on secular Muslims – willfuly and provocatively destroying non-Muslim alcoholic drink consignments.

It would thus appear that our Muslim compatriots up here in the core North only remember the constitution when it suits their narrow-minded sectional interests such as in Jos politics and Niger Delta oil. They brazenly flout the clear unambiguous secular provisions of the same constitution when they impose Sharia. Kano State government even maintains an illegal religious police (Hisbah), in direct contravention of our constitution that doesn't allow for state police.

Every once in a while, state broadcast and print media regale the public with reports on how many of us Maguzawa (Hausa traditionalists), have been lured or coerced into Islam, as the supposedly secular state governments in the core north have made it their business to systematically destroy our indigenous African culture. And we wonder why Black Africa remains developmentally stunted. It is this same Jihadist penchant for conquest and domination that has provoked the Jos backlash. Granted that institutionalized discrimination against non-indigenes is not peculiar to the north, but a national disgrace. However, it is only in the core north that non-indigenes are under the constant threat of religious violence, thereby intimidating and subjugating non-indigenes to second class citizens who are unable to assert their constitutional citizenship rights.

Muslim supremacists from the core north residing in Jos are therefore the least qualified to champion (or pretend to champion) non-indigene citizenship rights; which for them, is just a convenient ruse to camouflage their domineering Jihadist expansion. The ubiquitous Igbo who are present in every nook and cranny of this country, and are probably the most detribalized major ethnic group, would be more appropriate vanguards of constitutional citizenship rights.

With regards to the burning issue of supposedly rigged Jos North Chairmanship election; the mistake of the Jos indigenes was allowing the creation of Hausa majority local government in their ancestral homeland. In Kano metropolis, the predominantly non-indigene peopled contiguous areas of Sabon Gari, Nomans land, Brigade, Yakudima / Barracks, Bompai and Dakata are sufficient to constitute a local government. Instead they are divided and parceled to Hausa dominated areas just to ensure that non-indigenes never dominate any political space in Kano that would result in the abomination of an Aarne (non-Muslim), non-indigene local government chairman.
But then one supposes that Jos indigenes didn't have much of a say in the delineation of the local government area that was created by executive fiat of Muslim Hausa-Fulani oligarchy controlled military dictatorship. The same Abacha that decreed the tribally segregated, Jos North Hausa enclave into a local government didn't deem it fit to accord the same priviledge to non-indigenes in his home city of Kano.

Kano is particularly pertinent to the Jos discourse because many of the Jasawa (Jos Hausas) that are now insisting on full citizenship rights are actually relatively recent migrants from Kano — refugees of the First Republic NEPU/NPC clash. The Muslim-Hausa intelligentsia who should know better, have not helped matters. Instead of sanctimonious pseudo-nationalist indignation against "Christian terrorists" in Jos; and peddling spurious pseudo-historical revisionism that Jos was a no man's land prior to the arrival of Hausa settlers; they would do well to address the justified skepticism of other Nigerians with regards to their duplicitous double standards on citizenship rights and constitutionality.

Bamaguje lives in Daura, Katsina State.

Source: http://www.nigeriavillagesquare.com/articles/guest-articles/muslim-hausa-hegemony-and-the-jos-c.html

ikeyman00, please put a link (if available) next time. Thanks.

Ethnic fires still smoulder in Nigeria  

By Rob Walker
BBC World Service  


Aminu Mohamed, 14, is still suffering from nightmares, two months after a Christian mob burnt down his school in the central Nigerian city of Jos.



The clashes between Christian and Muslims cost hundreds of lives
“At night, I still feel they are coming back again, that someone will come and kill me and I don’t think there’ll be peace," he said.

The mob that arrived at Al-Bayan school at first threw stones into the compound, but then came the petrol bombs.

Shuaibu Abubakar, one of the teachers, told the youngest students to stay inside their dormitory.

“Before I realised it, the mob had opened the gates," he said.

"We were surrounded, they shot one of the students in his stomach and I saw someone trying to shoot me with an arrow."

 She told us to come out of the dormitory and we heard them saying they were going to cut us up

Aminu Mohamed
By now, the mosque and the school library were on fire.

However, the mob had not come to destroy the buildings, they had come for the children.

“There was a woman, one of our neighbours leading the mob," said Aminu.

"She told us to come out of the dormitory and we heard them saying they were going to cut us up,” he added.

When the children refused to come out, the woman threw burning rags into the building.

Aminu escaped through a window but his younger brother Omar,was cut down by the mob as he ran from the dormitory, and his body was set on fire.

He was one of six students killed in the attack.

Crossroads

Across the city, hundreds were reportedly killed within the space of 48 hours - Christians, as well as Muslims.

A similar round of sectarian violence back in 2001 cost up to 1,000 lives.
[img]http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/45424000/jpg/_45424650_jos_building226x170.jpg
Many buildings were burnt to the ground in the clashes
Jos is at a crossroads between the predominantly Muslim north of Nigeria and the mainly Christian south.

The latest violence followed a disputed local election in which a Christian candidate defeated a Muslim.

Most of the clashes have been between members of the Hausa-Fulani community – the biggest ethnic group in northern Nigeria - and local ethnic groups, that are mainly Christian.

However, many feel that the conflict is not about religion but about who should be seen as the rightful owners of the city.

Members of the Hausa-Fulani community say they are discriminated against because the government of Plateau State sees them as “settlers”.

“I’m left hanging just like a stateless citizen,” said lawyer Awal Abduallahi.

He feels that he was denied a job with the State Civil Service because he is not recognised as “indigenous” to Jos.

“I was born here, my father was born here and my grandfather was born here - I don’t know any other place than Jos."

Equal rights

Many local governments in Nigeria operate policies that give preferential rights to communities that are judged to be the original inhabitants of an area.  
They want us evicted, so that the Hausa person will dominate here

Nanreh Dauda

In Jos, there are three ethnic groups - all predominantly Christian - which are recognised as indigenous.

“Access to education and employment have come to depend on whether one is an indigene or a settler, and therefore people who are non-indigenes cannot have the same opportunities that indigenes have,” said Ogoh Alubo, professor of sociology at the University of Jos.

Tensions between indigenes and settlers occur across Nigeria and as the population has grown, competition between them for land, jobs and education has intensified.

However in Jos, the friction between settlers and indigenes coincides with religious and ethnic divisions.

Hausa-Fulani politicians say their community must now be given equal rights but some among the indigenous groups oppose that.  

Many feel that the conflict is not about religion but about who owns the city

“The major tribes would take all for themselves, to the exclusion of the minorities," said Davou Dung Nyam, a youth leader among the Berom ethnic group.

"Those from outside will take over land from those that are indigenous.”

The control of local authorities is seen as crucial to controlling which ethnic groups can be classified as indigenous - that is the why last November’s election in Jos was so hotly contested.

The problem is politicians on both sides are accused of stoking up tensions, to mobilise support and maximise their chances of getting elected.

Preventing future clashes

Two months on, tensions are still high and many of those chased from their homes do not feel safe to return.

“They want us evicted, so that the Hausa person will dominate here,” said Nanreh Dauda, a Christian whose house was first burnt in 2001, and then again in the latest riots.



As long as there is injustice in any sector of administration or government, you don’t expect peace



Ahmed Garba
Council of Ulama


She feels that Jos is now more segregated than ever.

“If you are Christian, you have to be where Christians are and if you’re a Muslim, you have to be where Muslims are, and that is not civilisation."

For now an uneasy peace prevails but there are very different views on how to prevent further violence.

Some leaders among the groups that see themselves as indigenous, say Hausa politicians should stop standing for election in Jos.

“They should stop laying claim to land that does not belong to them," said Dan Manjang, media adviser to the Plateau State governor.

Unless the Hausa community recognise there are no-go areas for them the violence will continue," he added.

The Hausa leaders say that the violence is unlikely to end unless, what they describe as discrimination against their community ends.

“As long as there is injustice in any sector of administration or government, you don’t expect peace,” said Ahmed Garba of the Council of Ulama in Plateau State

@Ikeyman00,IDIOT,shawn tribalism & another thread lets see. How many Hausa/Fulani own a house in Aba,you talk of discrimination,tell me how many Hausa/Fulani are having political apointments in the East. Go to Kano,the Igbos have a councillor,in Kaduna they have an assistant to the Governor,in Bauchi &Sokoto they have aides to the Government,in Rivers State a Yoruba man is a Perm. Sec. Yet you talk of discrimination,because you are a MONKEY.

generalzango:

@Ikeyman00,IDIOT,shawn tribalism & another thread lets see. How many Hausa/Fulani own a house in Aba,you talk of discrimination,tell me how many Hausa/Fulani are having political apointments in the East. Go to Kano,the Igbos have a councillor,in Kaduna they have an assistant to the Governor,in Bauchi &Sokoto they have aides to the Government,in Rivers State a Yoruba man is a Perm. Sec. Yet you talk of discrimination,because you are a MONKEY.

All the hausa fulani in Igboland are either soldiers, police, custom, immigration, shoe polishers, gate men or cattle rearers (80% of them). Except they steal, loot or dupe, where the money to take build house for Aba (Igboland)?

@Ikeyman00,IDIOT,shawn tribalism & another thread lets see. How many Hausa/Fulani own a house in Aba,you talk of discrimination,tell me how many Hausa/Fulani are having political apointments in the East. Go to Kano,the Igbos have a councillor,in Kaduna they have an assistant to the Governor,in Bauchi &Sokoto they have  aides to the Government,in Rivers State a Yoruba man is a Perm. Sec.  Yet you talk of discrimination,because you are a MONKEY.

ahhahhaha general aboki

how it this tribalism, u see like every other nigerians know if this country is serious on movin forward, 1stly a lots have to be changed in the north, there is no need denyin it

take for eg in benue through my idoma friend i learnt the tiv there are the majority that shagg around like monkies, the idoma are the minority, and u can imagine what the outcome will be from the wickedness of the hausa,fulani and tiv, the same in jos and so on



the northern politicians realsie that this cannot carry on was gona change that but morons like u refuses

united indeed

u are retarded chimp

yaradua cannot be talkin about -+ 7 point agenda

when the looks on the ground need serious constitution amendment

some people think nigerian biggest wahala is power supply and generation na lie

na constution amendment

no amout of chewed gworo can change that

allah knows

go to enugu
emene and awka

the hausa-fulani got community there

u seen the Chinese leader has to leave G8 in italy due to unrest in his country back home

and thats how serious human being behave bro aboki

common we cannt carry on living like we are cuz we are movin backward for fu ck sake

Afaukwu:

All the hausa fulani in Igboland are either soldiers, police, custom, immigration, shoe polishers, gate men or cattle rearers (80% of them). Except they steal, loot or dupe, where the money to take build house for Aba (Igboland)?

They should first of all build houses in the north instead of huts before looking for where to build houses elsewhere. Can they afford a plot of land in the east?

Last time i checked, the Igbos who build in the north pay for the land on which they build their houses. If the shoe shiners and mai guards have enough money to purchase land and develop same in the east, they r highly welcome. Chikena

The last time I checked Rivers might not be an Igbo state but it sure is an Igbo majority state so wetin u dey talk about Yoruba If Igbos want to make Rivers unlivable for Yoruba ppl it wont take them more than a week to flush em out into da sea so get it right.

Igbos in the South should apply the same cruel tactics on Hausa ppl and stop whining about their condition up north. AN FOR AN EYE should be da game we play with em then they'll get it. Until then lets shut up sit don dey look dem slap us left to right side to side up and down.

oh what a country.

FBS:

oh what a country.

I just wonder and doubt seriously if this country can ever attain greatness given the love-hate relationship we have for ourselves.

How can the country become great with this level of greed and incompetence?
Read this

http://nigerialog.com/blog/?p=77

How can Nigeria move forward with this type of skewed incompetence?

Stupid nyamiris,why should they even in Aba,that dirty city. I don't even know why you slaves are still talking.

generalzango:

Stupid nyamiris,why should they even in Aba,that dirty city. I don't even know why you slaves are still talking.

Please, can someone tell me who the slave is?

Is it the owner of the house sleeping in the comfort of the AC in the pent house or the maiguard standing at the gate 24hrs a day whose skin has been toughened by mosquito bites, the guy who sits on the chair or the one who stoops to cut his nails?

Generalzango, u are a high functioning idiot for not beeing able to know your left from your right. Zombie!

MrCrackles:

In Nigeria, tribalism is the next big thing after corruption!

I see that too. Stupids Nigerians still can't get off such a frigging madness.

This ikeyman00 and tribalism?
NA REAL WAH!

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