₦airaland Forum

yeap!

no bump!

I dont need to disgrace you,you did that to urself otherwise any constructive discussions will be welcomed,no bad feelings bro

sorri bros, u can only disgrace kenya not me

Religion, the Cabinet and a Political Economy of the ‘North’

by

Sanusi L. Sanusi



Newspaper reports these days are full of stories about the unease of the ‘North’ occasioned by General Obasanjo’s recent appointments and nominations. These are seen to be, at least numerically speaking, in favour of Christians. The names of the ‘prominent northern politicians’ who expressed their displeasure are usually not given, at their instance. This, of course, is understandable since they stand to gain most from the pre-emptive hysteria, which is the object of these stories, and their chances are hardly likely to brighten if their identities were known. It is however presumed, from the nature of the complaints, that the aggrieved party is the ‘ Muslim-north’, that gargantuan monolith which is also sometimes referred to by that dubious and questionable referent of a non-existent composite ethnic-group, the ‘Hausa-Fulani’.

About one decade ago, the ‘north’ was also uneasy about Ibrahim Babangida’s cabinet reshuffle, which swept out the so-called ‘Langtang Mafia’. Then, the aggrieved party was the ‘Christian north’, that unwieldy amalgamation of tiny ethnic groups with historical grievances against the dominant and hegemonic Caliphate. In the parlance of northern politics, the ‘Christian north’ is synonymous with the ‘middle belt’. A Muslim from Ilorin is not a ‘middle-belter’ but a ‘Hausa-Fulani’. A Hausa Christian from Kaduna or Zaria is a ‘middle–belter’. The ‘middle-belt’ is therefore a stormy territory of religious tension, the arena in which two religions face down each other, instigated by ‘ religious leaders’ who are always willing to play the ‘religion’ card to achieve selfish goals. When the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) northern branch arranged its demonstrations in Kaduna, Yola, Bauchi and Jos to protest Babangida’s alleged attempts at ‘Islamizing’ the Federal cabinet, it ran into a quagmire of internal squabbles, with the Christian Birom of Jos and the Christian Tiv of Benue unable to support the protests since their sons had been major beneficiaries of the changes.

It is important to open our discourse with this trip through history for two reasons. First, it is to be noted that this obsession with the professed faith of public officers is a peculiarly northern phenomenon. In other parts of the country, such as Yorubaland, differences between individuals revolve around more fundamental issues, such as ideology and programmes. It is easy for northerners, Muslims and Christians, to dismiss this as evidence of the chronic tribalism of the Yoruba, who place a higher premium on ethnic identity than religious affiliation. This may well be true, although I find it simplistic. Whatever the case, it does not negate the fact that the religious tolerance shown by the Yoruba has created an environment of peaceful coexistence, and that the Yoruba are able to maintain a unified front on national issues such as June 12 and a ‘south-west’ presidency. The north, on the other hand, remains fractionalised and weakened with its citizens living in constant mistrust and fear of one another. While other parts of the country make progress in education and the development of human capital the northerner remains pitifully backward and a veritable parasite. I will return to this point.

The second reason for our trip is to establish that this intolerant and sectarian attitude cuts across the northern religious divide. It would be a travesty of truth to infer, from current developments, that this ‘unease’ is a specifically ‘Islamic’ or ‘ Muslim’ phenomenon, or to attribute it to some imaginary ‘Islamic fundamentalists’ or ‘fanatics’. To do so would be to lose sight of the real nature of the northern political economy, which is that there are, in reality, two norths: The north of the poor, oppressed, illiterate and deprived masses (Christian and Muslim) and the north of the so-called religious and political leaders, members of the establishment who grow fat on the state machinery, and who are willing to play the ‘religion’ card at any point, willing to create mistrust and hatred, willing to unleash sections of the ‘poor north’ against each other, to shed blood, to burn places of worship, in the name of Allah and to the glory of the Lord Jesus. This reality has been craftily replaced with an illusory duality, one of a Muslim north Vs. Christian North, or Hausa-Fulani Vs. minorities. Again I will return to this point.

That issues have come to this state is partly attributable to a patent lack of political education. Due to illiteracy of the masses and their manipulation by the dominant hegemony, the northern people are yet to comprehend the nature of the state, which is, as aptly described by Gramsci, ‘ the entire complex of practical and theoretical activities with which the ruling class not only justifies and maintains its dominance but manages to win the active consent of those over whom it rules.’ Through a dialectical interaction between structure and superstructure, between the objective and the subjective, a form of consciousness is diffused through the mediation of agents of ideological control to the extent that it has become part of the ‘common-sense’ of the northern masses. By manipulating the intoxicating agency of religion, the dominant classes have been able to create a contingent, socially constructed form of correspondence between essentially contradictory economic and political regions of the northern social formation. Consequently, the poor peasant farmer in Zaria, condemned to life-long penury by the circumstances of his birth, the inadequacy of his education and the deprived state of his general existence, feels a stronger bond with and affinity for his rich, capitalist emir than his fellow farmer in Wusasa. Similarly, the poor Christian peasant in Zangon-Kataf is willing to kill, maim and destroy his poor Muslim neighbour on the orders of a retired general who was, and remains, part and parcel of the oppressive establishment.

This anti–reductionist emphasis on the specificity of the ‘popular-Islamic’ or ‘popular- Christian’ in contradistinction to class demands and struggle, has enabled the dominant northern classes, Muslim and Christian, to appropriate under their respective wings the so-called ‘Hausa-Fulani’ and ‘middle-belters’, as instruments in what, ultimately, is competition and struggle among various class-fractions of the bourgeoisie with the state as the principal arena. Viewed in this light, the northerner is in a pitiful state, crying for a saviour he does not know. Only education of the northerner, and upliftment of his consciousness, will provide him with the requisite power of introspection through which the nonsensicality of his common sense can become apparent. Only then will it occur to him that although Babangida, Abacha and Abubakar were Muslims, and although Useni, Shagaya, Mark, Bamaiyi and Dogonyaro were Christians, the rising social pofiles and increased personal opulence of these members of the establishment was accompanied by the continued impoverishment, ill-health, and deprivation of the Muslim and Christian masses. Only then will he wonder where his emir obtains his fancy limousines and well-fed horses, where his church gets its millions, where his pastor finds his wealth when the school to which his child goes is empty and teachers are not paid, when there are no drugs in the government hospitals, when he can not afford one square meal a day. Only then would it dawn on him that the issue is not one of Islam Vs. Christianity, but of competing vested political interests in which he has no stake. He can never be a minister even if there were one hundred ministers from his faith. Nor would his son be one. He fights and is willing to die in the name of Islam or Christianity, only to facilitate access of some lurking and predatory kleptomaniac to the Federal treasury, whose license to this access is his capacity for the manipulation of religious symbols and effective use of slogans and other tools of opportunistic propaganda.

Let me emphasise, as a pre-emptive stroke aimed at avoiding misconception, misconstruction or misrepresentation that my objection to the anti-reductionist and opportunistic ideology of sectarianism does not translate into an attack on religion, per se . It also does not posit the intellectually insupportable postulate that all religions are the same and that we could somehow wish away the fundamental differences in doctrine and character between Islam and Christianity. I do not claim that the distinction between Muslims and Christians can disappear, nor do I even consider it a feasible or necessary objective. Being neither an agnostic secularist nor materialist atheist I do not propose that an ‘iron curtain’ can or should be placed between religion and state. Indeed such issues like the Shari’ah should remain the subject of continuous dialogue until the limits of the State are clearly defined and citizens are not compelled by a constitution drafted by politicians to subject themselves to laws which run counter to their religious injunctions and thus negate the principles of religious freedom. This, I believe as a Muslim. I also believe that in all future discussions and constitutional provisions for a restructured Federation, religious pluralism and its cultural and legal implications can not be indefinitely ignored.

However, the religions of Islam and Christianity, as I understand them, show a remarkable confluence in the political realm enjoining adherents to strive for honesty, justice, and compassion for the poor, which together make for a good government. In consequence, a government run by a good Muslim or a good Christian and a cabinet made up of good Muslims and Christians should impact favourably on the material and temporal existence of all citizens and should therefore command universal support. The correspondence between the ‘masses’ and the ‘establishment’ under such a dispensation is established on foundations of a commonality of interest and exists not because, but in spite of secondary contradictions in the realm of faith and doctrine.

There is no doubt that no one would claim, with seriousness, that Abacha, Gwarzo, Sabo and El-Mustapha were good examples of the quintessential Muslim leader. The argument that the ‘Islamic’ or ‘Muslim’ interest is always best served by persons who claim to be Muslims without reference to character and integrity therefore has implications that may put to question the right of the holder of such views to claim adherence to the very faith he seeks to promote. The same goes for Christians. Their masses should therefore not be carried away and celebrate a cabinet strictly on the basis of the number of nominated Christians.

Classical Marxism holds the premise that ‘ the base determines the superstructure’. Subsequent developments, especially by neo-Marxists like Gramsci, Althuser, and Poulantzas have amended this to infer that ‘ the base determines what forms the superstructure can take’. This dimension to political thought is relevant to the understanding of our present predicament. The Nigerian constitution in as far as the cabinet is concerned, specifies ‘ Federal Character’ as representation from all states of the Federation. In terms of religion, one would expect it to be very difficult for a Muslim minister to emerge from the South-South or South- East. It is equally difficult for a Christian minister to emerge from the North-West or the North-East which represent the erstwhile Sokoto Caliphate and Borno empire. The balance is usually tilted from selection from the religiously pluralistic zones of South-West and North-Central. In theory, the president can, without violating the constitution select all ministers from these zones from one religion. It seems this is what practically happened in the present dispensation. The question is , in what way are Muslims or Christians helped by corrupt and incompetent officers selected on the basis of religious considerations? In what way would a cabinet composed of thirty Christian thieves be better for the Christian masses than one made up of thirty Muslim thieves?

As we examine Obasanjo’s ministerial list , therefore, let us scrutinize each of those names for correspondence between his/her world-view, character and capabilities and what is deeply required by our popular masses: peace , stability, economic empowerment, freedom and progress. Any one found wanting should by all means be rejected. Our recent history has shown that Islam is not necessarily better-served by Muslim Leaders, unless they are good Muslims. The arrests, detention and extra –judicial executions of Muslim Brothers by Abacha’s government are well-known to us. The humiliation of the Sultanate and the removal of the Sultan based on false charges are known to us. The arrest and death in detention of prominent sons of Islam like Shehu ‘ Yar Adua (President of Islam in Africa Organisation) and Moshood Abiola (Baba Adinni of Yorubaland) are known to us. All of these crimes, in addition to wanton stealing, breach of trust, abuse of office, nepotism and gross violation of human rights were perpetrated by a Muslim Head of State working with Muslim Officers in charge of his security apparatus. Should Muslims forget so soon, and have a nostalgia for that period of darkness and collective despair?

True, Obasanjo should have done a little better by showing some more sensitivity to the religious diversity of the middle-belt. Not doing this was bad politics. However, the net result is the eclipse of one section of the bourgeoisie by another. What the poor northerner (Muslim or Christian) wants is a programme, a policy that addresses his plight. He really could not care less who is implementing it. Indeed, Obasanjo may finally liberate the northern masses from the shackles of subservience. What is important is that those in government remember the trust reposed in them. They must remember that their constituency is Nigeria, not their religions. They must remember that, Christian or Muslim, they will be called to account by the God they profess to believe in.

Obasanjo’s prestidigitation may have shocked his northern political allies. The establishment may be uneasy, but the masses are not. Sadly, they can be taught unease, and used as destabilising agents by those who live off sectarian acrimony. The only protection against this is good government, and the sense that their conditions are improving. That, ultimately, is the final test.

As for politicians of the Muslim north, if they genuinely believed that with a Southern president, it would remain, for them, business-as-usual, then ( it must be admitted) they have long been given more credit for their intellect than they deserved. The decision to willingly cede the presidency to the south and promote the candidacy of Obasanjo came with certain obvious sacrifices. Politicians took the decision without consulting the ‘poor north’. They must not call upon the ‘poor north’ to fight their war for them. Wake up, elders! You have lost it.

The writer is a renowned commentator on national affairs

http://www.nigerdeltacongress.com/rarticles/religion1.htm

Nigeria

The Muslims and Christians of Jos
Dec 4th 2008 | JOS
From The Economist print edition

The government of Africa’s most populous country is slow to stem violence
See article

Readers' comments
Reader comments on this article are listed below. Review our comments policy.

Sort: Newest first | Oldest first | Readers' most recommended

MUSTASH wrote:
December 16, 2008 0:38
A point of correction please. Nigeria's political parties are not divided along religious lines. Both parties (PDP and ANPP)you mentioned are headed by Christians and both have Muslims as presidential candidates. The candidates of the PDP fielded in the Jos North local Council elections were both Christians, while the ANPP fielded a Muslim and with a Christian running mate. Please note this in your future stories so you don't mislead a researcher.

Recommend (15)Report abuse
Namzeria wrote:
December 12, 2008 20:53
It is so sad that aritificial division such as North vs.South, Muslims vs. Christians is still being used in Nigeria. When will Africans understand that nobody was born Muslim or Christian, it is socially constructed. In the case of Africa, it is called " imported religions". It is high time that we understand the implications of social cohesion. Too much corruption in Nigeria, and that's too bad for Africa. Despie all its resources, Nigeria is still a poor country, why? Selfishness. STOP STOP, WAKE UP.

Recommend (11)Report abuse
Daniel Kutchin wrote:
December 10, 2008 0:55
"It's the economy, stupid".

When I saw the pictures in the news, I couldn't recognise the city and the State where I was born, barely 15 years of departing.

Sadly, Jos and Plateau State's better times exist in the past. Tin mining, the economic power which helped build the prosperous and peaceful multi-cultural community - before and after the Civil War 4 decades ago - doesn't exist anymore. Splitting the State from the then Northern Region, and then from Benue State and more recently from Nassarawa State, hasn't helped either. The result is, a highly indebted State and a nervous folk who are seeing their fortunes diminishing.

Stop the burning, stop the killings, !

, and concentrate on what will move you forward together instead. Nigerian Governments shouldn't drag their feet on modernising the citizenship law. It should now read, "if you were born there, or you live there, and you pay tax there, then you belong there".

Next, the Government should take the security of its citizens seriously. Years ago, when I counselled a Governor regarding this, he angrily responded, wondering if I knew how much it costs per day to send soldiers and extra police to the streets. My answer then and now is the same, running a peaceful state and ensuring that things remain that way, is the cheapest way of ruling.

Further, open up or encourage regional trade among the so-called middlebelt states. Use your existing well-connected road, rail and air links to your advantage. As well as your proximity to the federal capital, Abuja.

Develop tourism, or rather, proceed where you stopped.

Finally, focus your energies on a common big project, like the-much-talked-about-but-nothing-done Business District close to the Heipang Airpot, ala "Silicon Valley". Approach more wealthy states, like Delta State, or rally support from international investors.

Recommend (13)Report abuse
OKIRIKA GEORGE wrote:
December 9, 2008 18:44
The recent crisis in jos, Plateau state has completely cleared the doubts about Jos regaining its earlier lost tranquility, the fact that no lesson was learnt from the previous crisis is even more of a hurtful issue, as the town was reknowned for peace & tourism , and I say this literarilly!
It is however worthy to note that this crises, & other upheavals in our country, in the north & southern areas, is just a metaphor for what we have become!
May God bless & save Nigeria.

Recommend (13)Report abuse
Jakusko wrote:
December 7, 2008 0:05
Well frequent reference to the level of poverty in the North for all the riots, may have been informed yb ignorance and perhaps bias.All formal indices always showed that the Northern Muslim states are economically backward, likewise educationally.But the people of Northern Nigeria have an informal economy that cannot be covered by the statistics.Many still keep their money at home in traditional ways, and if savings in Banks are the means of determining economic progress, then Northern Nigeria will indeed remain backward.If we can compare the number of people who own the property they reside in in Enugu or Ibadan and Kano or Sokoto, its likely to find out that mass majority in Enugu or Ibadan live in rented abodes owned by landlords who are exactly the equivalent of the Northern elites.A Hausa civil servant culturally has to be of assistance to his immediate and extended family, but his Igbo or Yoruba equivalent knows nothing like that and will therefore always save more money in his bank account.
The issue of settler or indigene in Jos is not about economy or religion, but religion is the instrument being used to discriminate against Hausa Muslim settlers.Aborignes of Jos kill or discriminate against only on religious basis.The are so many Hausa Christians not of Jos origin, but they are considered as indigenes because their religious subscription.
Every time there was an insult on any symbol of Islam in Nigeria or abroad, the reaction in Nigeria always leads to bloodshed, because those who decide to make insulting Islamic symbol a hobby were doing it intentionally, fully aware of the consequences.No muslim in Nigeria ever dare blaspheme anything Christian, the dont care what the Bible says about anything or even what it is talking about.So they will definitely be enraged when the respect they give to christian symbols is paid back in the form of insult to Islamic symbols.
We should have asked who really started all this culture of killings for religious and hatred reasons in Nigeria.In 1966 some Igbo young military officers, after bouts of drinking alcohol staged a coup, that selected and eiliminated all the top muslim polticians and top military officers.The first Prime Minister, Tafawa Balewa was taken to a bush by Igbo coupists and asked, at gun point by tipsy Igbo officers, to take alcohol, and his refusal earned him the must bizare murder.Since then Nigeria has never been the same.That singular incident spurred the ethnic mistrust and religous bigotry we are seeing in the form of frequent violent clashes.
In the case of Plateau, the governor David Jonah Jang is only one of so many Northern christian minorities who when overwhelmed by self imposed inferiority complex they resort to hatred.This is a man who secretly made a state policy, not to sale any land any longer to Hausa-Muslims.This his own simplistic way of venting frustration over economic progress made Hausa-Muslim settlers in Jos city.It is only in the ill-fated local elections that, for the first time elections were held on a Thursday.The successful plan of Jang, the hero of Birom-Christian bigorty, was that he will rig the election which as usual will be won by a Hausa-Muslim, and Muslims may react a day after the election, which was Friday, a day of muslim worship.Of course muslims reacted like any other people will have done, Jangs fake armed police and military men unleashed the terror that lead to the death of over 500 people.Left to me i would have advised Hausa muslims to leave Jos forever.Then peace will reign,Birom, Langtang, Angas and the remaining tribes will share among themselves what comes from federal government every month.Because they are all christians, they will never fight and Jos or Plateau will indeed become the home of peace it claims to be.

Recommend (13)Report abuse
Chimaoge1 wrote:
December 6, 2008 21:15
Economist wrote:
"Local officials wield enormous power all over Nigeria, often determining who can get college graduation diplomas, business forms and, most contentiously, papers indicating who is an “indigenous citizen” in a particular area, "

--------------------------------------------------------------

As a Nigerian, I can say that the assertion above made by the Economist is patently false. Local officials do wield considerable power, but they do not have any power to determine who has college diplomas or university degrees. This is the job of universities, colleges or other academic institutions. Local officials also cannot decree who is indigenous to an area or who is not. It is far more complex than The Economist can ever care to investigate. Every part of Nigeria has an aboriginal ethnic nationality who had lived in that area for centuries before other ethnic groups migrated and settled there. In the case of Jos City, ethnic Biroms, Angas and other Plateau minorities are the aborigines and are mainly christians. The christian Igbos, the religiously diverse Yorubas and muslim Hausa-Fulani ethnic nationalities are known as "the settlers" since they or their ancestors migrated to the place. This is not in dispute. The issue is whether Nigerians living in areas outside their ethno-linguistic homeland have right to seek political power in their area of residence. The answer-of course- is "Yes" since Nigeria's constitution supports that. Unfortunately, Nigeria is still plagued by ethnic distrust and it will take years for Nigerians to transcend this retrogressive "indigenous people-settler" mentality to elect the right people to office. Like most riots in Nigeria, the Jos conflict is mainly ethnic even if has religious undertones. The ruling PDP is not a christian party at all, rather it is an amalgam of corrupt politicians of all ethnic and religious groups in Nigeria, united in their quest for power by electoral fraud. ANPP is similarly mixed, but its main power base is in the ethnic Hausa muslim-dominated Northwest Nigeria. The conflict in Jos revolves round the profile of local council candidates in the disputed elections rather than the political parties. The PDP candidate, Timothy Buba is ethnic Birom and a christian like most of his ethnic Brethen. The opposing candidate, Alhaji Baba is from the ethnic Hausa muslim immigrant community . Rumours of rigging, sent the Hausa muslims to the streets to protest. Hausa protests always degenerate into violence. In the far North where the Hausas are indigenous, thousands of ethnic Igbo christians have had their businesses destroyed and even hacked to death by Hausas protesting issues involving the Danish cartoons about prophet Mohammed, US invasion of Afghanistan, rumours about someone somewhere descrating the koran, etc. In the case of the North Central city of Jos, the Hausas launched an attack against their traditional enemies- the indigenous ethnic Biroms and Angas. But the Hausas did not stop there, they expanded the scope of their attacks to include southern bystanders (who like their Hausa attackers are of immigrant origin) because they share the Christian religion of ethnic Biroms. It is this "guilty by religious association" that has often given Hausas an excuse to massacre Southern Igbo Christians in the far North whenever "christians" thousands of miles away like US Army troops or Danish newspaper cartoonists do anything that is perceived as an insult against Islam. Despite Nigeria being ruled by Northerners for three decades, the Far North remains the poorest part of the country.Unlike the South and parts of the North Central region(a.k.a "Middle Belt", there is virtually no middle-class in the Far North. It is just the priviledged feudal emirs of the ancient Sokoto Caliphate,the Northern Army Generals and their progeny versus the ignorant illiterate common Hausa people who are usually used to carry out the riots on behalf of their feudal overlords. It is therefore no surprise that 70% of Nigeria's poverty, illiteracy and children suffering from polio are from that area. Until, the Northern political elite come round to closing the shameful 50-year education gap between the South and the Far North, there will be no end to this sort of violence.

Recommend (24)Report abuse
Reigal wrote:
December 6, 2008 14:49
The saddest thing about all this is that Black Africans are probably the religiously most tolerant people in the world. It is not uncommon to see one household containing Christians, muslims, pagans and animists apparently with no friction whatsoever. Black african Msulims enjoy their millet beers and palm wines as much as their Christain neibghbours.

And it is only in Africa where you find a Christian President leading a Muslim country. The late Sedar Senghor and Nyrere were good examples of this.

The intolerant, often violent Asian and Western Gods imported to Africa along with slavery and TB simply failed to ignite the African man's tribal soul. Few things made me happier as Black African than watching the shock and horror of white Catholic Priests as they failed to convince the African priests whom they thought thoroughly domesticated and christianised indulge in distinctly uncatholic activities like polygamy, voodoo and other unspeakably African dark arts.

Nigeria has always been an exception to this general easygoing African attitudes to all things Gody. The reason is simple: Religion in Nigeria unfortunaletly dovetails with something that does excite the Black man: tribe. Hausas and Fulanis and half Yoruba are Muslim while Igbos, Ibibios, Biroms etc are Christians. The combination of God and tribe proved highly combustible. Even more disturbingly Nigerai has recently beein attracting particularly virulent strains of both Islamism and christianity.

The solution is to divide Nigeria. UK, USSR, USA have African blood on their hands by siding with Federal Nigeria against Biafra in 1960s. I see no other solution. The alternative is ethnic genocides that will make Rwanda look like a little local difficulty.

Recommend (15)Report abuse
bitter-truth wrote:
December 6, 2008 11:33
These problems many exist in Asia and Africa and they will continue to exist. It is not religions that are behind it. It is lack of just about everything in poor countries. There is so much shortage (of food, education) that most valuable thing becomes religion.

Recommend (18)Report abuse
john schwartz wrote:
December 5, 2008 14:48
That businessman mentioned at the end is a man after my own heart. He's right too - when people are armed they're more likely to respect one another, and less likely to be abused by their government. That would go a long way towards preventing these orgies of violence.

Recommend (13)Report abuse
Pork Chops wrote:
December 5, 2008 6:47
Aficionado: Sure, Muslims don't start ALL religious riots, it's just that there are so many things that seem to offend them , like cartoons and teddy bears, that they appear to be always rioting.Fortunately they have not been offended enough by the Mumbai terror attacks to riot though.

Recommend (22)Report abuse
EconomistAficionado wrote:
December 5, 2008 5:52
@Pork Chops,I'm a Nigerian Christian from the South and I know that these religious riots are not always started by Muslims. Christians have started them too. So it's unfair to paint Muslims as the sole perpetrators of such incidents. My fellow Christians are guilty as well. Both sides are at fault. I don't think guns is the solution to the crisis. Education and raising people's wealth are the keys. The rich and the educated stay away from fighting.

Recommend (25)Report abuse
Pork Chops wrote:
December 5, 2008 4:13
If only the Muslims had won the elections, then all this violence wouldn't have occurred, Remember, It's a religion of peace.

Recommend (21)Report abuse
indica wrote:
December 5, 2008 1:56
"Terz"Your analysis could apply to some parts of Asia where Islamists are very influential. They like to keep their followers uneducated and feeling that they are "besieged" by "enemies of Islam". Easy to understand the violence that follows.

Recommend (18)Report abuse
Jakusko wrote:
December 4, 2008 22:28
The recent senseless killings in Jos were a result of the heartless attempts by the incumbent governor, Jang to display his hatred for Hausa-Muslims.The muslims who are mostly Hausa's have alwasy been sen as strangers or settlers in Jos who must be driven away from the only place they call home.While the indigenes who are Christians wer busy driking themselves to ill-health and subsistance farming, the Hausa's were able to develop businesses.The indigenes were over time in the habit of selling their land to the Hausa-Muslims whenever they need money for finance their mindless drinking of alcohol.Now they seemed to be regetting and want to take back their land by planning and excuting such genecide.The council elections that lead to the crisis have been impossible for over ten years because, whenever its held, Jos North council chairmanship is won by Hausa-Muslims, and the indigenes who hold power will never let it be.But this time Jang, a Birom who is well known for his hatred of Islam decides to hold the elections and rig it for Jos North in favour of his fellow Birom man, who is not even the genuine candidate of his own party.The governor carefully planned the mass murder and that was why he went ahead to hold the elections despite security reports pointing out the likelyhood of eruption of violence.Northern christian minorities out of imperiority complex have always been nursing hatred against Hausa-Muslims.Apart from their notorious poverty and mindless consumption of alcohol, they have nothing to show.At every opportunity like in the Jos crisis, they kill muslims and burn mosques.If at all Hausa-Muslims will leave Jos for the indigenes, within a week they will starve, and kill one another in competition for the allocation that comes from the federal government.And who will buy the potatoes they grow, ?

Recommend (17)Report abuse
Terz wrote:
December 4, 2008 21:37
Its a show of shame for a nation who about a month ago went extremes celebrating Obama's victory in far away US to prove themselves incapable of managing what could pass for an ordinary local council elections. Truth is, the ruling class in the muslim north of Nigeria have denied their people access to western education for the sole purpose of perpetuating their hold on power. The pervasive illiteracy of the ordinary muslims in this part of the country has kept this people under their firm grip and enable them to manipulate them for their selfish political agenda. At each turn of any unfavourable election, they introduce religion into their failed political ambition and push the less advantaged into the frays of violence. It is the less privileged who get killed, their properties destroyed while the children of the ruling muslim class only get to know of the unfolding crisis from foreign media channels like CNN, BBC, etc. The unfortunate thing is that the underprivileged, deprived and uneducated muslims that end up being used as pawns in purely political battles of the ruling class in the name of religion do so without understanding the game plan.They wont build schools nor give scholarship for this would empower the underprivileged. They consider ruler-ship as their birthright, and have contributed little to the development of the Northern Nigeria. Their specialism is plundering of public treasury or running down any private enterprise they have be entrusted to manage.

yes interesting stuff

hmmm haha k-leg story

hmmm some head is gradually reachin kolo-mode

hahha ahahaaaa

oh god haha

hmm

ohhhh i see, now i know the reason u surface in this threaad hahha

kia naija poeple, una don disgrace me ooo


hmmm kenya looks like london abi

ikeyman jealous eyyyy well not after 3-0 hahhaa

aloy

Please label the pictures before posting. This thread should be immortal. Moderator, stick the thread.

hope this is not to let u off the hook, post ur villa pic, even if u take am on okada, we all are nigerians abi haa

mwanamwiwa

to be honest hahhha, i expect some nasty pic, cause nigeria just like kenya isnt about those house, bridges u see in abuja, but not takin road side hawkers sitting and frying some plaintain, nawooo for some people

aloy,aloy aloy moderator doesnt live in naija, oya paste wey u dey on okada noooooooooooooooooooooooow!! haha

well jarus

this man is complete jack of all trade

he has worked for the elites companies all over canada, yet cannot aford mulitple vist to naija, wey he dey hide in canada

he lived in the north

he talk too much rubish just like the writer said some yoruba? do hahhahh

seriously i think his post is highly needed here cuz i wana measure his capacity of handling issues in this one

without that bloody benin-contnuo

ep

One thing is obvious. The days of northern domination is OVER. The fact that Yar'Adua is in power does not mean that the rest of the south is not fed up with the north. Let the north try to hold on to power after Yar'Adua's full tenure and see if this nation would not erupt in violence.
For the south-south that once looked upon the Igbos as rebels to openly call the north a parasite? That's a writing on the wall.

i think u are misassimilating the writers motives, this is not about the north dominace in power, however as aan igboman, he accuses the igbos of a lot of things which im not in the position to defend, but he also failed to know that abacha and ibb and co loots are all smiling in the foreign banks

well like they said to every story there is always two side

and as for one of the slave master that ruled nigeria to come out on BENtv in UK not long ago to talk on nigeria, am not sure on some? of the things he said about the igbos should hold!!

Nethertheless weather be it true or not, the average mallam cannot continue to be taking for a ride

the world is moving, and the world aint just about koran i must say

but niether way, like he said in his article, the present will be past, but some has the greater momentun in reminsce

so there u go, this is 2009

jarus

It was very obvious that SLS set out, in that article,  to defend Hausa/Fulani against the popular notion that they are the problem of Nigeria. . . as the starter of this topic is also saying.

The article was an attempt by SLS, being an educated Fulani man, to remind Southerners too, of their own excesses.


My personal view is that the whole country, and not a specific tribe, is responsible for the state of Nigeria today

yes u are right but then i got my few question for him

defending his side aint bad idea but then u should be able to adresss the presnt precipitation, antecedents

based on that, i got a big wahala with him


The so called northe that really respect the nigerians should be fronting people that practises what koran says

and them those so called election should be free and fair, i think

now becomerich over to u, he claimed to know so much on nigeria, and dnt bloody talk about benin cotonu, adress the writer

and for the igbos laughin at the mallams god in the market sq in kano in the 60s hmm ha

now in the 2000s how many times the moslem in UK,US, Malaysia,Saudis etc go on burning churches and killing poeple igbos

the north will be forced to wake the islamic ass at some point

for now the system hasnt turn against them, enjoy till it last

time is moving, and the world should be moving as well

well ok, he made his point, on the igbos, the yorubas and not much said on the holy fulani-hausa

but on all that so called election i believe ? which one of them can he said that was free, fair and safe??

if the north practises what the koran says, people like RIbadu should be fronting for them

why them the likes of ibb,abacha them ?

if that man really wana test the south, well igbos , let their be election between Ribadu and Obj, sure marjority igbos,yorubas? will vote for ribadu

so his insight on his nigeria history is qustionable!! period

and all those years they ve being in power, the north still sinks!! wonder why??

well it could said there are poeple that chose to live as the want!!

nobody is stupid anymore

if the north really respect the nigerians its high time the likes of ibb and co has to go

united hmmm not sure anymore, it looks like some people has been profitting from something, but thats entirely open to another debate

hmmm haha

kia what is goin on here oo hahhahha

abi na plantain i wan see, common pic una no fit take, abi na rocket science damnt it

take a pic of street with houses on the landscape, poeple walkin along

so far aloy,asha etc dey in the hiding

if na for criticize gov, they go be first

paste ur smelly village naw

jessssssssssssus

hmm

Nice pics, please keep them coming (ignore the obviously jealous idiots in here, better off just paying them no mind).

what a stupid idot

yes a closed mouth will never get fed

hey man i think u should go for a body massage

^^^^ abeg post ur village pic which kind lagos pic now

ohhh ahah una get plenty mud house that side

kia 91 mins

tunis 2 - 0

hmmm

1st half tun 1-0 mos

warerereeeeeeee!!