I don hear but tell him to leave the yorubas alone too.

They are leeches jare well not all Northerners but their leaders are

@deepzone

you wanted two names right? ok, Alhaji Aliko Dangote, the only nigerian on forbes magazine, an industrialist, internationally recognized business mogul with interests in international businesses and owner of $3 billion conglomerate (dangote group)
Prof. ibrahim gambari, international diplomat, well recognized, was sent to Myanmar by UN secretary general, ban ki-moon to negotiate with their military junta which came to a successful conclusion. a statesman, very intellectual!!!
The fact that yorubas work menial jobs in the north is true and theres no way you can say they dont, theres no way you can say all yorubas are educated, with obasanjo being the most educated abi?? you know it is true, poverty is far reaching and nigerians of all tribes live in abject poverty, even yorubas so quit thinking that you are special people!! yorubas do menial jobs like pumping air into your tires by the side of the road all over the north and im pretty sure thats a menial job that doesnt earn a whole lot of income,

Who told you that maryam babangida is igbo?? do you know her? he maiden name was maria king, the king family are from niger state, she is only half bendel from her mothers side which is how shes related to sunny okwogwu. and el-amin is just one school!!there are many others!!! theres abti american university which was built by former vice president atiku abubakar and is the best university in nigeria, it is in yola, adamawa state. by conventional ranking, Abti american university is the best tertiary institution in nigeria, built by a northerner and located in the north.

How can obasanjo "expunge" northerners from government, its not like he's completely crazy!!! The north politically controls that country!! and after we develop the alternative energy of processed sugar cane conversion, then you can really go to hell with your oil. like i said, this is something that is already being done, the ground works are in the process of materializing, so keep talking!!!its not hydrogen fuel!! its CH3-CH2-OH which is straight alcohol base processed from sugar cane, we have abundant sugar cane in the north, Brazil has already done this, their oil importation has droped significantly, so i dont know what you'e saying!!!! you should learn to be more respectful!!!

gadogado:

@deepzone

you wanted two names right? ok, Alhaji Aliko Dangote, the only nigerian on forbes magazine, an industrialist, internationally recognized business mogul with interests in international businesses and owner of $3 billion conglomerate (dangote group)


Prof. ibrahim gambari, international diplomat, well recognized, was sent to Myanmar by UN secretary general, ban ki-moon to negotiate with their military junta which came to a successful conclusion. a statesman, very intellectual!!!

Ibrahim Agboola Gambari is a yoruba man

@Arnold1, so what? he can be yoruba but he's a northerner, that name "gambari" is hausa, look for the translation ot it, it is a word in hausa language!!! He is a northerner just like saraki who happens to be chairman of the northern union not afenifere or ohanieze but "northern union", or is it that you think that the north is comprised of only hausa and fulani people, if you think that then its unfortunate!!!!the north is comprised of many, many tribes and ethnic groups including yoruba, theres hausa/fulani, kanuri, nupe, jukun, gwari, babur and atleast a hundered others, it doesnt mean that if you're not hausa/fulani then you're a sub northerner!!!! for your information, there are yoruba northerners!!!the north is a geo political region that is made up of many many different tribes, its just that the hausa/fulani have the greatest population and thereby the most dominant group in the region!!! gambari is a northerner, atiku abubakar is not hausa/fulani, his real tribe is 'ganye' IBB is not hausa/fulani, he's gwari so is abdulsalami abubakar, abacha is not hausa/fulani, he is kanuri (cant you see his tribal marks), yar'adua and shagari are hausa/fulani. So dont be narrow. the north is a geo political zone made up of many tribes and religions, former information minister jerry gana is a christian from niger state. But all northerners have a cultural affinity that is distinct from igbos or yourubas.
have a good day.

Is it the Gambari the Yoruba's dashed you? I said name 2 from each group and all you can come up is Gambari and Dangote that built half of his empire from national contracts. Remember that the likes of Okonjo Ngosi Iweala and Emeka Aynoku from South were not in that list and i guess they are on the same league with Gambari that is only a TECHNICAL northerner.

Get over it boy, you can develop atomic bomb for all I care but you surely have a long way to go. If there is anybody that can afford to do that, that person must come from the south. Name one internationally acclaimed scientist that is a northerner(Dont mention kwaraians).?

interesting but not impressive, let them develop their agric sector first before talking trash

@deepzone

Prof. ibrahim h. umar
Prof. umaru shehu
prof. aminu abdu zaria

even our current president, yar'adua is a graduate in analytical chemistry, seriously, the north is more than half of nigerias population meaning between 70-80 million people and you think there isint a single person in that 80 million people that is a qualified (internationally recognized) scientist, come on, lets not be ignorant, please try to open your mind,just because you dont know them doesnt mean they dont exist unless you're assuming that you know everything and everyone!!! ayou can read about all the above people, just google them or whatever, there are many many others, read about ibrahim h. umar!!!!!just read about him!!!!!!!!!!

@deepzone

If you want to talk about other seasoned diplomats on the int'l stage, we have ambassador yusuf maitama sule, ambassador shu'aib uthman yolah.
bankers, we have umaru mutallab who is that chairman of the board of directors for first bank nigeria limited, he oversaw the internationalization of the bank (the opening of branches in europe)
accomplished authors we have Dr. Ladi hamalai, read her excellet desertation on government business relations in Africa.
literary authors, we have abubakar gimba!!! just as the south has wole soyinka!!!!
engineers, we have kashim a. ali who is the president of nigerian society of engineers, eng. I.K Inuwa, engr. bunu sheriff musa and many many others.
medical doctrors, check out prof. umaru shehu!!!!!or ishaya audu.
so mr. deepzone, dont be too assumptive, i just put you to shame listing northerners who are specialized and top notch in all their respective fields.

Dangote did not make money from the govt. he made the bulk of his money not in "oil" but in flour and sugar business, he built a spaghetti factory, he is not in the contract business, he is an industrialist (meaning he builds factories that produce goods which he sells for profit) he then acquired a dying cement plant and rejuvinated it and now he has even bought more cement factories and he is the richest black person in the world, he is from your country so you should be proud of that!!!

Dangote did not make money from the govt. he made the bulk of his money not in "oil" but in flour and sugar business, he built a spaghetti factory, he is not in the contract business, he is an industrialist (meaning he builds factories that produce goods which he sells for profit) he then acquired a dying cement plant and rejuvinated it and now he has even bought more cement factories and he is the richest black person in the world, he is from your country so you should be proud of that!!!

Abeg make we hear word. Dangote this, Dangote that. How many northerners are following suit or is he just one man standing(apart from the members of the Northern armed forces looting council(NAFLC)). Can you list 5 other northern moguls that are enterpreneurs?

Chanchangi= bankrupt
Dantata=bankrupt
Bashir Tofa= Toilet tissue factory don close.
IBB= theif thief
TY Danjuma= Armed robber(you wonder why UTB and Dicon salt failed?)
Sani Abacha= High way robber
abdulsalaaami Abubkar= smooth operator and Africa's number one thief because he amassed his own under months, Abacha couldn't amass so much under such short notice

Umaru Dikko= Pioneer Nigerian thief

JT USeni= Gave all to ashawo

Marwa= Crippled lagos state's coffers and even stole money meant to educate our children(The spirit of Pa Awolowo will haunt him down)

You got more?
Tell me how many dirty billionaires in yorubaland that can match yours?

Again, I heard you calling me a dude, sorry, am a classy yoruba iyarinya. I'm sure you don't know what am talking about b'cos you are used to your women that smells like Romanian peasants. whether they use soap to bath, i dont know.

@deepzone
at this point im convinced you are totally ignorant of the north, you are either very old or totally ignorant of the north or northern enterprenuers, wow, you dont know anything, why are you mentioning all these old people!! most of whom are ex military men or government officials, dont you know that hausa people are traders!!! wow, you didnt know this? i can list many many businessmen for you, im not talking about govt. officials who steal but businessmen as in traders with int'l dimensions who are northerners, people you dont know coz you're ignorant, you're hiding in a box somewhere and you cannot even see beyond it, with your pre-historic knowledge.

Northern businessmen
alhaji dahiru mangal
alhaji mohammed indimi
alhaji abdul samad isiyaka rabiu
alhaji isiyaka rabiu
alhaji isa funtua
alhaji zanna mai deribe
alhaji (late) waziri mohammed
alhaji mohammed knight
alhaji hassan adamu
alhaji aminu dantata (there are many different dantata's)
alhaji alimi abdulrazaq
alhaji sani bello
alhaji usman albishir
alhaji tijjani dagazau

look mr. deepzone, theres nothing deep about you, its just that you dont know anything, all the people above have noting less than a billion naira!!! and are businessmen, i would've listed much much more but i have to go and pray!!!educate yourself before talking, its so so so so obvious that you have very little exposure to the north so thats why i cant blame your ignorance!!!

@deepzone
are you now jealous of our girls? ummm it is common knowlegde that hausa/fulani girls are the prettiest in nigeria, look at maryam abacha and see true beauty, you're not serious, we have nice women and the whole country knows this!!! our women are the best looking in nigeria, fulani people are naturally gorgeous, all the fulani in west africa are like that and it is well known in other african countries, they're the prettiest everywhere!!!

@deepzone
are you now jealous of our girls?Huh ummm it is common knowlegde that hausa/fulani girls are the prettiest in nigeria, look at maryam abacha and see true beauty, you're not serious, we have nice women and the whole country knows this!!! our women are the best looking in nigeria, fulani people are naturally gorgeous, all the fulani in west africa are like that and it is well known in other african countries, they're the prettiest everywhere!!!

Yea right! with their zero hygeine. You need to buy them some soap and toothpaste.

gadogado:

@deepzone
at this point im convinced you are totally ignorant of the north, you are either very old or totally ignorant of the north or northern enterprenuers, wow, you don't know anything, why are you mentioning all these old people!! most of whom are ex military men or government officials, don't you know that hausa people are traders!!! wow, you didnt know this? i can list many many businessmen for you, im not talking about govt. officials who steal but businessmen as in traders with int'l dimensions who are northerners, people you don't know because you're ignorant, you're hiding in a box somewhere and you cannot even see beyond it, with your pre-historic knowledge.

Northern businessmen
alhaji dahiru mangal
alhaji mohammed indimi
alhaji abdul samad isiyaka rabiu
alhaji isiyaka rabiu
alhaji isa funtua
alhaji zanna mai deribe
alhaji (late) waziri mohammed
alhaji mohammed knight
alhaji hassan adamu
alhaji aminu dantata (there are many different dantata's)
alhaji alimi abdulrazaq
alhaji sani bello
alhaji usman albishir
alhaji tijjani dagazau

look mr. deepzone, theres nothing deep about you, its just that you don't know anything, all the people above have noting less than a billion naira!!! and are businessmen, i would've listed much much more but i have to go and pray!!!educate yourself before talking, its so so so so obvious that you have very little exposure to the north so thats why i can't blame your ignorance!!!

It would be more honest to label those men northern Federal government contractors.

SO the north is going to develop itself with money stolen from government right? am sure all the name mentioned above are corrupt, south is where it is,

It would be more honest to label those men northern Federal government contractors.

I'm sure Aminu Dantata is a top notch business man and his money has nothing to do with federal govt and their billion naira contracts.

Please don't confuse the NORTH with THIEVES from THE NORTH. These are two different set of people.

There are many sincere and industrious Nigerians born and bred in the North who are genuinely going about their legitimate businesses without benefiting from the looting of the few greedy men who has held Nigeria to ransom.

It will be injustice to label the innocent ones with the insatiable thieves. That will only show us as being insincere in our judgment.


By the way, has anyone bothered to ask, how the south-south oil sector were developed. Don't be surprised that the Northerners contributed their groundnut earnings to develop some of the refineries in the south. Let's deal with facts and figures, not sentiment.

lets be realistic, the North would not need the south if they use the resources they have but in all reality they haven't. There is a reason for the Biafra war. 90% of Naijas wealth is from oil which is from the south/Niger Delta. this money is spread on all 36 states. when the world stops depending on Oil, Nigeria must go on. We should unite and make proper use of whut we have.
Aren't the richest Nigerians Hausa, they basically used to control the government.

I just couldnt help joining this unproductive argument just to clarify some issues.
@ Mr gado gado, the middle belt may be North geographically ,but culturally,economically and religious wise and we are different from the Hausa /fulani,just as N/delta claim they are different from the Biafrans.I say this as someone from Middle Belt Belt. The Hausa' and ibo's are in both respects behaving alike by claiming to represent every one.
Gado gado if you want to be objective a lot of practices that go on in the North today are nothng short of archaic, and is is caknown fact that intellectuals in the North know this but the are afraid of coming out to challenge the status quo for the fear of being labeled enemies of Islam.there are many islamic countries in Asia that have modified the older practices and ideology of Islam to fit today's modern world.Poverty is in the North today because people have used Religion as an excuse for all sorts retrogressive attitudes.Everybody is waiting for God or for easy money.
As someone from the Middle-belt, its not only the North that is asleep, the Middle belt is also asleep,so is most parts of the country, but it seems although it seemsas though it is only in the core north that people are most content with the status quo .
Until Intelectual people in the North stop stereotyping ourselves just to identify with our retrogressive thinking and traditions like mr gadogado is doing we will continue chase shadows.With all due respect Mr Gado gado you may think you are doing your ethinic group a favour by defending the status quo in the North but pls the North and Middle -Belt needs a wake up call,and if this insult from Alhaji Asari Dokubo's serves that purpose , then let it be.
For my southern brothers like deepzone,Chime,ibichime and david dylan in the states, i expected more productive and cogent contributions rather than resorting to vitriolic tribalistc remarks against each other ,you should be pursuing the same course for correction the of the flawed modus vivendi that Nigeria is but it seems like it the same blame trading btw Niger-Delta,Ibo's and Yoruba's that has not brought the desired outcome that wil satisfy everyone. In that regards you all sound like all your leaders before trading blames at every other tribe for thier woes with no productive outcome.
We need to do two things if Nigeria is to practically move forward, 1- to rearrange the structure of this country so that we can have agreed basis for mutual co-existence and secondly there must be a total paradigm shift in our thinking and Mentality as regards to corruption and leadership because at the end of the day, almost all tribes in Nigeria behave the same way ,like the Typical Africans.And the truth is that our current African Traditions does not support development.all those calling for a split should think twice and remember George Orwell's 'Animal Farm'.It is very easy to direct blame on others when things are difficult
That being said, The North and Middle Belt really needs to wake up educationally and economically, the South needs to sop throwing unnecessary blames because it is not only the North that has grown lazy.

kev-d:

I just couldnt help joining this unproductive argument just to clarify some issues.

@ Mr gado gado, the middle belt may be North geographically ,but culturally,economically and religious wise and we are different from the Hausa /fulani,just as N/delta claim they are different from the Biafrans.I say this as someone from Middle Belt Belt.

I am glad a middle belt man has finally stated they are distinct from the North.

God Bless you my brother

It is the middle belt that is the food basket of Nigeria, not the North.

@kev-d
@Arnold1

Who are the people of the middle belt closer to in terms of culture,economics,religion,history are they closer to the north or the south
note that in ilorin and lokoja, they have emirs not eze's or obas, what is an emir and the history behind it??
benue if im not mistaken have similar cultures to people in taraba,plateau. correct me if im wrong!!!


Nigeria 2 USA 1 (go naija, win the olympic soccer gold)

From 'Middle Belt is core North' to 'Middle belt is closer to North than South'. . . a perfect definition of Abracadabra. . .




Doesn't really matter who is triple belt and Quadruple belt, as long as Nigeria as a whole cuts this sickening dependence on oil, we'll be a lot happier for it .

It's not like I am gaining anything from the so-called oil, because the last time I checked, the men of my town taxed themselves heavily to bring electricity. . . carpenters, panel beater, 'vulcanizers' (fokunaiza ) doctors, teachers, business men, market women, money doublers, millionaires, paupers etc, all dipped their hands in their purses/wallets to ensure that we don't walk around with prehistoric palm oil lamp. . . unfortunately, they don't get any break from LEPRosy. . . I mean NEPA or is it PCP. . . whatever

From 'Middle Belt is core North' to 'Middle belt is closer to North than South'. . . a perfect definition of Abracadabra

Lol, you beat me to it. He tends to forget that some parts of middle belt are closer to the west while others like southern kogi and Benue states are closer to the east through Enugu and Ebonyi states,

We need to do two things if Nigeria is to practically move forward, 1- to rearrange the structure of this country so that we can have agreed basis for mutual co-existence and secondly there must be a total paradigm shift in our thinking and Mentality as regards to corruption and leadership because at the end of the day, almost all tribes in Nigeria behave the same way ,like the Typical Africans.And the truth is that our current African Traditions does not support development.all those calling for a split should think twice and remember George Orwell's 'Animal Farm'.It is very easy to direct blame on others when things are difficult
That being said, The North and Middle Belt really needs to wake up educationally and economically, the South needs to sop throwing unnecessary blames because it is not only the North that has grown lazy.

Ditto

The problem with the north is what they "napoleon complex". It is a complex that deals with inferiority complex which is said to affect some people who are physically short.
In the case of the north, they are not short but seem to lack in resources. Another problem is the issue of the press in nigeria. The press tell them, they are nothing and would not make it in life. That crap. When you encourage people, you will get the best out of them.

Mr, Gadogado, Benue's culture is closer to what is obtained in Plateau, Taraba,taraba but far different from what is obtained in say,Zamfara or Kano.Anyways im not here to start another unproductive geopolitical debate when the truth our differnces our obvious.
What i want sday is that some mentalities in North,Middle belt and Nigeria as a whole needs to change.
THE CORE NORTH NEEDS TO STOP USING RELIGION AS AN EXCUSE FOR RETROGRESSIVE AND INDIFFERNCE TO EDUCATION AND ECONOMIC EMPOWERMENT.THEY NEED START CHALLENGING THEMSELVES BY COMPETING MORE EDUCATIONALLY AND ECONOMICALLY RATHER THAT HIDING BEHIND RESOURCE ALLOCATION AND fEDERAL CIVIL SERVICE.
THE MIDDLEBELT NEED TO STOP THIER ATTITUDES OF DRINKING AND BEING CONTENT WITH LIFE AND BE MORE AMBITOUS.
MY BROTHERS IN THE SOUTH ARE TOO SMART AND TREACHEROUS FOR THIER OWN GOOD.

gadogado:

@kev-d
@Arnold1

Who are the people of the middle belt closer to in terms of culture,economics,religion,history are they closer to the north or the south
note that in ilorin and lokoja, they have emirs not eze's or obas, what is an emir and the history behind it??
benue if im not mistaken have similar cultures to people in taraba,plateau. correct me if im wrong!!!



Nigeria 2 USA 1 (go naija, win the olympic soccer gold)

in terms of culture the benue people have a funny mix drawing from both south and north,
in terms of religion,the benue people are christian which means closer to south,
in terms of history,the benue people were also republican in nature like the easterners(note that things like traditional chiefs were created by the british)
there is no emir in benue both a tor-tiv and ochi'idoma
the benue and plateau man dont have similar cultures neither does the benue and taraba man,in any case the plateauman is also considered a middle belter so also is the southern taraba man

and for those saying gambari and saraki are yoruba yoruba because they have yoruba names should know that saraki is actually fulani,it is his grand mother that is yoruba from ogbomosho,gambari is also fulani,some of you should understand that because of the mix of culture in kwara you find fulanis bearing yoruba names and speaking the language fluently and vice versa

and for those saying gambari and saraki are yoruba yoruba because they have yoruba names should know that [size=14pt]saraki is actually fulani,it is his grand mother that is yoruba from ogbomosho,gambari is also fulani,[/size]some of you should understand that because of the mix of culture in kwara you find fulanis bearing yoruba names and speaking the language fluently and vice versa

Big lie. saraki and gambari are Yorubas but quasi yorubas like most Kwara people claim. Whether they like it or not, they are Yorubas.

@deepzone

and your basis for arguement is what? you dont know you dont know period

the gambari family are fulanis who have been ruling the emirate of ilorin since the fulani jihad and if i may add gambari is a fulani name not hausa,not arab and definitely not yoruba

as for saraki you may do well in reading the mans profile and family lineage instead of sitting there and assuming,i suppose you think the name saraki is also yoruba or arab abi?

@deepzone

and your basis for arguement is what? you don't know you don't know period

the gambari family are fulanis who have been ruling the emirate of ilorin since the fulani jihad and if i may add gambari is a fulani name not hausa,not arab and definitely not yoruba

as for saraki you may do well in reading the mans profile and family lineage instead of sitting there and assuming,i suppose you think the name saraki is also yoruba or arab abi?

If Saraki is Fulani, how come his children have Yoruba names? Did I also hear you say AGBOOLA gambari is Fulani?

@deepzone
just thought this might do you a bit good,pay attention to the highlighted parts






Ilorin and the crisis of Fulani identity

By

Femi Awoniyi

Speyer, Germany



In the Ilorin matter, a word is so sensitive that one side of the conflict avoids using it (See Daily Trust and Weekly Trust reports on gamji). It's a word that won't cross the lips of Emir Ibrahim Sulu-Gambari, Abubakar Olusola Saraki, Alfa Babatunde Belgore and other defenders of the status quo in the town.

The word is "Fulani". None of these men have ever come out to say: Yes, I am Fulani or that Ilorin belongs to the Fulanis. They only claim they are not Yoruba, and that the controversial town "belongs to the North".



This willful obscurantism or fuzziness of language is to mask the real issue involved, which is ethnicity in the politics of Fulani-traditionally ruled domains.



Fulanis often adopt identities (North, Muslim North, Hausa-Fulani) that they share with others and which don’t single them out in the Nigerian polity, and they employ these different identities in different contexts. The Fulani traditional rulership has constructed a social identity around Islam in such a way as to deny Hausas and other peoples in the Fulani-ruled communities an independent ethnic identity, and by so doing arrogate their political representation.



Fulani elite are no ‘mere’ actors in the Nigerian polity. They depart from the premise of a natural entitlement to power and position far greater than that of other Nigerians - and they have played a much more important role than their demographic strength would deem equitable in our politics. Fulanis have produced four rulers since independence (Ahmadu Bello (de facto), Murtala Mohammed, Muhammadu Buhari and Shehu Shagari) and have exercised considerable influence over all others, including the present one.



Is anybody aware that Tunde Idiagbon was a Fulani? Indeed, he was. Two Fulanis (head of state and his deputy) once ruled Nigeria!



Through this ingenious identity politics, Fulani leaders convey the impression that race and ethnicity don’t matter in their domains because their common religion is greater than any differences.



But race and ethnicity matter between Hutus and Tutsis in Burundi and Rwanda (even though they are both adherents of Roman Catholicism), between Arabs and Berbers in Algeria and Morocco, and between light-skinned Arabs and their dark-skinned compatriots in all of Muslim Arabia. In fact, in the Arab world, while dark-skinned people are treated like a citizenry apart, those with "Negroid" facial features among them (and there are many of them) are the underprivileged of an already underclass.



Ilorin by focusing on ethnicity in a Fulani-ruled domain threatens to bare Fulanis as actors by themselves and for themselves for the first time in independent Nigeria. And Bida is a potential Ilorin as are Kano, Zaria, Katsina and many other towns in the North.



The desperate actions of Fulani leaders over Ilorin are a sign that they recognise the dramatic nature of the agitation of the Yorubas. The Fulani elite are aware that ethno-national consciousness is the only countervailing cultural force capable of weakening religion as a binding agent in their domains, leading inevitably to a sweeping change to the popular perception of its trado-religious institution of power.



The folks kinship between Fulanis and Hausas in Kano, Katsina and Zaria, for example, is not closer than that between Fulanis and Yorubas in Ilorin. The extent of social intercourse and cultural unity among Fulani and the two peoples is very similar: intermarriage, Islam, common language and local cultural mores etc.



The utterances of people like Saraki ("I am Abubakar Olusola Saraki, but that has not made me a Yoruba man. I speak Yoruba because it is my mother's tongue" make nonsense of an ‘Hausa-Fulani’ identity.



That a man can claim in public, with gusto, that the fact that his biological mother comes from an ethnic group does not make him a member of that same group reveals one thing: the paternalistic, condescending attitude of Fulani elite to other peoples in their domains, a sense of cultural superiority. It is similar to the caste system in India. A child from a high-caste father and lower-caste mother defines himself by dissociating himself from his mother’s group.


The desperate behaviour of Saraki (one day, he says Ilorin is 80 percent Yoruba and the next he swears that there are not more than 1,000 of them there) can be attributed to the awareness that a politicised Yoruba ethnic consciousness will destroy his political influence in Kwara.



What ethno-nationalism in Nigeria (of which the Ilorin agitation could be considered a part) does essentially is to highlight the assignment of cultural meanings to geographical space, and associations between social identity and territoriality. A development that is unfavourable to Fulanis because of their lack of territorial heritage. They cannot lay primary or native claim to any part of Nigeria. This lack of ethno-national options could be said to be responsible for the hostile attitude of Fulani scholars to the notions of "nations" and "race" in our political discourse and their attempt to disparage claims based on ethno-national interests.



Yoruba agitators in Ilorin face a formidable adversary in Fulani elite who will stop at nothing to preserve their privileges.



Sulu-Gambari has been preparing for the resurgent Yoruba struggle right from his inception of office, convinced of its inevitability. He has married the daughter of Shehu of Bornu, co-founded the Arewa Consultative Forum, co-sponsors the Arewa People’s Congress, thereby seeking sundry allies for the final showdown.



The Fulani traditional ruler has even provoked a Muslim-Christian crisis in the town to divide his supposed subjects. He openly called for the eviction of Christians from Muslim areas in Ilorin, in July 1999, thereby causing tension between the two religious groups. This action eventually led to the riots in Oja-Gboro, a suburb of the town, where 14 churches were set ablaze by rampaging Muslim youths in December of the same year.

And, nationally, we have seen the efforts made by the Fulani elite to recover grounds it perceived to have lost since President Olusegun Obasanjo came into power and his alleged attempts to isolate them. Chief among these is the introduction and promotion of the Sharia.

Sharia amounts to clearing the deck for an aggressive reassertion of Islam as the chief agent of cultural unity in the Fulani-ruled Muslim North, in particular, and the whole Muslim North, in general.

you might also need to read this



Gambari, Kolade And Okonjo-Iweala Are Birds Of The Same Feather In My Book

By

Dr. Wumi Akintide

wumione@aol.com





There is something common to these three distinguished Nigerians and public servants. They all serve in high visibility jobs in the Foreign Service of Nigeria. Agboola Gambari and Okonjo-Iweala as one time Foreign Affairs Ministers and Christopher Kolade, the former MD of Cadbury Nigeria PLC, as the Nigerian High Commissioner to the UK. I call them birds of the same feather because they have all raised higher the bar of public probity and accountability in Nigeria by exercising the courage and the judgment to say “No, thanks” to some gratuitous appointments they have been offered on a platter of gold by the Nigerian Head of State in what some have always seen as national assignments that cannot be turned down, even if they go against the individuals sense of honor and integrity. You have to wond er, as I do, why our leaders are ever so notorious for putting the cart before the horse in their decision-making process, more often than not.



I can tell you that President “Go Slow” like his dictatorial and self-centered predecessor, President Obasanjo did not, at all, do his home work or give some thoughts to what might be public reactions and resentment, especially in the Delta area, to his nomination of Ambassador Agboola Gambari as Chairman of the Delta Summit. I could care less about Yar Adua’s attempt at damage control by getting his naive Vice President to publicly admit that he got the President into the mess and quagmire by suggesting the name of Agboola Gambari to receiving the Presiden's approval to go ahead and have the foreign minister seek for the release of the Agboola Gambari from the UN without adequate consultation with his constituents in the Delta area.


If the President, the VP and the Foreign minister have exercised judgment they would have realized that some of the statements credited to Agboola Gambari on the late Saro Wiwa, was bound to come back to haunt the ambassador. I do not blame Agboola Gambari who already had more than enough on his plate, at the UN to covet the thankless job from our own neck of the woods in the Delta area of Nigeria. Gambari doing that could be likened to the proverbial hunter that arried an elephant on his head, but was still interested in digging a hole for a cricket with his feet because he was just too greedy. If you know Agboola Gambari as much as I know him, you will appreciate he is not that kind of person.



Was Agboola Gambari eminently qualified to do the job and do it well? You have got to give a resounding ‘yes” to that question if you know Agboola’s profiles and track record as much as I do. But is he the only Nigerian erudite or juggernautthat could be tapped for that job with the reality on the ground. The clear answer to that has to be a “no” all things considered. I don’t care about what critics may be saying today about Agboola Gambari. The truth is that he did not seek or canvass for the job but the Northern power brokers who canvassed and supported the appointment with their collaborators the VP and few of his cohorts from the Delta area, may have had their own agenda for going for Agboola Gambari. As far as I am concerned and based on what I know, Agboola Gambari was as much a victim and a pawn in their chess game because they thought they could use him again as agent provocateur to do their dirty work.



But in doing so the power brokers forgot that Agboola Gambari has got his own name and reputation to protect as a world- acclaimed diplomat. Born with the silver spoon in his mouth as a Fulani prince of the Ilorin Emirate which is ranked number 4 in order of importance in the Uthman Dan Fodio Caliphate, Agboola has a lot of clout, leverage and reservoir of goodwill not only in the North, but the whole of Nigeria. He was born to a Yoruba mother and a Fulani father who was the Emir of Ilorin. Agboola is married married to a Yoruba woman. He is therefore tempramentally acceptable to both the North and the South and he speaks fluent Yoruba and Hausa in addition to one or two foreign languages. Agboola Suleiman Gambari, as a Fulani by birth, has a lot going for him as a Nigerian. He is a hardworking, intelligent and educated northerner who is far more qualified and exeperienced and probably better connected and far more influential that President “Go Slow” himself, if the truth must be told. If Agboola lives long enough, he could one day aspire to the presidency without any question. He has had an amazing career and profiles which will be difficult to match or surpass by any of his fellow northerners.