Once again talks of Fulanis invading Nigeria and taking over the country has surfaced barely one week after Ruga Settlements were suspended by the Presidency over fears that the scheme was designed to empower Fulanis across the country especially in the south and west.

A statement credited to the Fulani Nationality Movement, FUNAM from 2018 is the latest message making the rounds by those who are working relentlessly to ensure that Nigeria burns. Their goal is to pitch ethnic groups against themselves, and hopefully ignite a war.

Since they lost the 2019 elections, they have determined amongst themselves that Nigeria MUST be ungovernable. They have developed and laundered messages that have both religious and ethnic coloration and they will stop at nothing to make sure Nigeria burns.

Only yesterday, two siblings named Chinaza and Emeka, kidnapped their 88-year old father for ransom but it did not make the front pages because they are not Fulanis, in fact, northerners. That is not even the talking point; the crux of the matter is that we shouldn’t put up one ethnic group for the other.

Nigeria will not break in spite of misguided fabrications and propaganda by haters of this country. One thing that comes to mind when talk of ‘Fulanization’ is mentioned, is the fact that Nigeria is evenly represented in the National Assembly. Are we saying all our lawmakers are naïve of this plan?

Here are some things Nigerians must know because ignorance is no longer bliss.

1. For starters, not everyone from northern Nigeria is Fulani or Hausa, there are over 10 major tribes in the north of Nigeria including Kanuri, Bornu, Nok, etc to mention a few, so how do they go along with this laughable plan?

2. It’s ridiculous that in 2019, some Nigerians and indeed people across the world still believe that every northerner is a Muslim. This is completely gross and unacceptable. There are Christians and pagans in the north of Nigeria. States like Benue, Plateau are predominantly Christian states while Kaduna and other northern states boast of a healthy amount of Christians. Are this Christians in on this plan too?

3. The South East, South South and South West of Nigeria are predominantly Christians. How will they allow the Fulanis to take over their lands? Is the rejection of Ruga settlements not the clearest indication of their stance?

4. When Babatunde Fashola was governor of Lagos, didn’t he take action against non-Lagosians by sending them back to their states? What are the governors doing now? Do they have the political will to replicate this action?

5. Or is it because Muhammadu Buhari is President and because he is Fulani that these purveyors of bad news are feasting on this narrative? What exactly do our governors do with security votes? These are questions that must be asked.

There are heavily vested interests who are even more disgruntled than we can understand, ever since the Buhari administration decided to enforce the payments for renewal of oil block licences. These are men with means to assemble sizable armed groups to unleash mayhem under the cover tag of ‘Fulani herdsmen’. We need to ask the carriers of fake news how they identify the attackers whom they always label as Fulani, since they do not speak the language.

Only recently we have seen the Benue state governor Ortom, who had initially accused herdsmen and the Buhari administration of attacking his state to foment trouble before the presidential elections, later coming out after the elections to say it was his own deputy governor that engineered the unrest for political reasons.

Any mischief maker can come up with a WhatsApp broadcast message tilted towards the most unreasonable ethnic and religious sentiment one can imagine. This is where public awareness plays a major role. A stranger cannot know the people more than themselves. Nigerians need to learn how to sieve through messages and separate the real from fake news.