Buhari, Biafra, Oduduwa, And The Sahel: A Vast Humanitarian Need And Complex Consequences

It is good if Muslims from the hundreds of tribes of the Sahara and Sahel are saved from desertification and starvation by settling them amongst the Muslims of Northern Nigeria and West Africa.

It is an urgent and vast humanitarian issue being confused with RUGA, Cattle Colonies and the prioritisation of the Fulani and their cattle. There are sufficient vast lands to take them all if need be.

If these settlements do not happen, the tribes of the Sahel and Sahara will move down as permanent refugees or by force. The war-like Fulani nomads, with their centuries-old history of toppling and building empires, may be adopting 19th century ways of conquest and occupation. Being mostly illiterate, they may not quite understand that the world has moved on from the days of cavalries, conquests and empire.

The Fulani nomads of West Africa have not been settled like the Masai, the nomads of East Africa, whose cattle routes have been preserved at global levels and have attracted immense pride as the main tourist attractions of East Africa. These were set up by the British colonialists and preserved by the Governments of East Africa.

We, in West Africa have jointly made a mess of it. We have neglected the tourism potential and ruined the image of our own nomads, the Fulani, with their unique cattle grazing culture, their colourful lifestyle and legends of immense courage. Instead we have blocked their traditional cattle routes from the North to the South, and those East - West routes, from Guinea to Central African Republic, have been dried up by the Sahara and Sahel.

Farmers have claimed lands of traditional routes, ending up with petty squabbles of farmers' herders' clashes, and now outright attempts at land grabs by Fulani militia using maximum force. Nobody will settle for a life of droughts, death and hunger. It is either they are permanently resettled in areas with rain or there would be permanent refugees, or worse, war.

The issue of settlements, it must be stressed, is not the same as providing the Igbo or Yoruba with land for business. The tribes of Southern Nigeria are not facing death by drought and starvation. Somebody must provide these funds for the refugees to resettle or they will come here as beggars as do many of the fair, curly haired Berbers, who are Muslim and have migrated without passports. They are begging to survive. We see them everyday in our traffic, but we do not fear they are here for Jihad.

The refugees from the Sahara and Sahel must be provided funds to resettle and create a new life, just like the EU provided funds for refugees from the Syria War to resettle in Europe. The money can come from UN, AU, ECOWAS or Nigeria.

The process of resettlement should be handled by the UN, the AU and ECOWAS, and not by Buhari or the Federal Government, who are now so much under suspicion in Southern Nigeria that nothing they say or do will be accepted.

This whole drama is not just an issue of permanent drought. That is the major driver and it is economic. However, three sets of confusions are playing out here.

The first is the politics and history of the Fulani. They are probably the largest tribe of West Africa. The town Fulani have been destroying and building empires since the 11th century after being converted to Islam by the Arabs. They hold the Arab 'franchise' to spread Islam in West Africa. They have done it very successfully through Jihads and Empires. The nomadic Fulani have always been foot soldiers in this enterprise. Their highest achievement was the Sokoto Caliphate, the largest West African Empire and greatest promoter of Islam.

The Fulani are minorities in all West African countries and yet are in positions of power or outright leadership in most of these countries. This history creates a fierce sense of pride and superiority. Simply they believe they are political leaders and conquerors. Their methods have proved successful in the past so they apply it as necessary.

Right now the greatest urgency is to resettle the millions of Fulani stranded in the Sahel and Sahara. However, hundreds of other tribes are also in trouble and need to be rescued.

The focus on the Fulani, and their power, is confusing the real need to resettle hundreds of other stranded tribes.

Secondly, the collapse of ISIS in the middle east has led to ISIS adopting West Africa as it's next Jihad and Caliphate experiment. The drought and hunger means thousands are being recruited for Jihad. Many of these recruits are Fulani. Fused with their traditional sense of superiority and conquest, we have an explosive cocktail that are the militia and cells spreading through the Middle Belt and forests of Southern Nigeria.

The third confusion is Buhari. As a Fulani, he cannot stand by and watch millions of his people die. Anybody in his position will use the instruments of power to save his people. However, the way he has been going about it has sent shivers of fear in Southern Nigeria.

Most Southerners probably now believe that Buhari is leading a Jihad which is manifested in the killing militia in the forests of the South. Or at best, his presence encourages them. However, the harsh truth is whether Buhari is there or not, these militias would form and attack. So far as the tribes of the Sahara and Sahel are determined to move South for survival, these militias will grow, with their Jihadi cries in search of greener pastures.

So, in a way Buhari is right with his settlement concept, but the RUGA idea is too Fulani oriented and defeats the urgent humanitarian need facing us, by turning an issue of basic humanity into fears of occupation and subjugation.

Settlement amongst Christians of the Middle belt and Southern Nigeria has, therefore, become impractical because of poor presentation. It is unnecessary because there are enough lands up North, amongst Muslims where they will certainly be safer.

It is explosive because there is now too much fear of Jihad. It can lead to considerable strife at the least or outright violence, and even war in the worst scenario.

It is urgent to get the UN, the AU and ECOWAS to intervene, so that we can all focus on the very real humanitarian issues; so that the people of the South can reach deep into their pockets to help, rather than digging trenches to fight a perceived invasion. It is probably one way, if not the only way, to turn the cries of Jihad into celebrations of life.

Rather than opt for a neutral actor in the UN, Buhari insists on being the Central Character in this whole drama. He does not seem to realise that his very involvement is what will ultimately defeat his dreams, as millions of Southerners prepare to repel the sahelian invasion of the South.

Nothing will drive the Biafra and Oduduwa dreams of a breakaway from Nigeria like Buhari's announcement in Egypt that he is throwing the borders open for all Africans. The attempt to veil the obvious objective with the inclusion of "all Africans" would be hilarious if it were not so serious.

He returned from Egypt, then summoned some Northern Governors, just as I expected, to fly to Niger, the home of the wandering Fulanis and Tuaregs caught in the Sahelian drought and the onslaught of the Sahara desert. His purpose may be sincere, to truly break good news to his cousins in despair that they can now come South to Nigeria, to the waters of its green fields, forests, rivers and ocean. It may even be a security summit to solve Boko Haram and armed bandits.

Whatever is the reason, innocent or twisted, most Southerners would only conclude one thing - that he is on a Jihad mission to invite Fulanis and other Muslims to Nigeria for Islamic domination and conquest. Perception can be as concrete as reality. If that is not true then he is tactless in not covering his tracks better to prevent such conclusions. If it is true, then he is being foolish in believing that he is in such control of the forces of coercion that the opinions and preferences of the Southerners no longer matter.

The conclusions of Southerners who are students of history will be buttressed by other actions of Buhari. Before Turkey commenced the Armenian genocide to forcefully convert Armenian Christians to Islam, they shut down the borders. They gave similar reasons like Buhari. To boost local productivity. But it proved to be a mask to line the borders with the army to prevent anybody escaping and alerting the world. Then they launched their Armenian pogroms.

Turkey also shut down the media before the Armenian genocide. In this day and age that includes Social Media, so the attack on Social Media, and the increasing rationalisation that it is a bad thing, can send shivers up Southern spines. It may be seen as a prelude to close down the media as Turkey did before the Armenian genocide. However, I hope and pray that nobody could be so crude in the 21st Century.

Whatever, Buhari seems too far gone. He has dropped all pretences to the extent that the previously petrified and compromised Lagos Press have finally found their nerves and turned against him. They opened up what seems an orchestrated barrage of verbal canons beginning with the salvo from Punch. It seems they held a secret meeting somewhere, or a puppeteer with balls gave them the courage, because the Presidency did not see that coming.

The Lagos Press and the Yorubas are the traditional home of social rebellion and resistance in Nigeria and they have brought down every dictator that got too pig headed, with their hydra-headed Media. Tinubu was one of the chief architects of NADECO that brought down Abacha and today he controls much of the Lagos Press. They knew what was happening all along but chose to serve their own interests till that got punctured. His disenchantment and the self-serving response of the Lagos Press for Yoruba interests, rather than human interests, means that the gloves are off, the lines drawn and the gauntlet thrown down in the sand...........

READ MORE: https://ikengachronicles.com/buhari-biafraoduduwa-and-the-sahel-a-vast-humanitarian-need-and-complex-consequences/

Instead of writing this long story , just tell us now that you want tinubu to metamorphosis into chief of the rebels against Buhari and become their spokesman. mankind must (resolve to) be peaceful and civilized my friend.

Wetin

How a man sees himself as a god that have the ability to do all things always amaze me? Does Buhari have such power to islamize Nigeria? Is the army made of only Muslims that he feels the army is his side and ready to obey his last order?
How a man in the last days of his life have such a hallucinating ambition always amaze me ? If he does not put down his throttle and act like mordern men then he should be ready for a religious war in Nigeria and let him not even think his own side will come out on top. We must respect our different religious views if Nigeria must last.