The Sultan of Sokoto is the father of the
Fulani people, the foremost traditional
ruler in northern Nigeria and the
spiritual leader of all northern Muslims.


He is not just a traditional ruler but also
an all-powerful potentate, who
represents a strange and mystical
power and who heads an ancient and
dark empire.

Not only is he revered by his subjects
but he is also regarded and treated by
some as something akin to a deity and
by others as nothing less than the
reincarnation of Sheik Usman Dan
Fodio, the Sufi Muslim, who founded the
Caliphate empire by conquering and
utterly crushing the Hausa kingdoms in
a brutal and bloody jihad in northern
Nigeria in 1804.

Whichever way his subjects choose to
view him, whether as a deity or an all-
conquering and all powerful jihadi war-
lord, to the Muslims of the core North,
his word is law and absolutely
everything revolves around him.
He is the living symbol of Fulani power,
strength and glory and the physical
manifestation of the quest for Islamist
domination.


Yet despite these lofty heights and
undoubtedly rich and impressive
heritage, his people have slaughtered,
subjugated and terrorised more
Nigerians in the last 212 years since
Usman Dan Fodio’s 1804 Jihad than
ANY other ethnic group in our nation.


They have butchered more of their
fellow Nigerians in that space of time
than the white Boer settlers and
farmers of apartheid South Africa
butchered the black African population
in Southern Africa in 363 years of white
rule and domination since the time that
the Dutch coloniser and admnistrator,
Jan Van Riebeek, first put his foot on
the South African Cape in 1653.


No African ethnic group has killed as
many of their fellow Africans as the
Fulani of northern Nigeria. Not even the
Hutus of Rwanda, who did a whole lot of
killing in the genocide of the early
1990’s, could match them.


From the first Mahdi, Usman Dan Fodio,
to the second, Sir Ahmadu Bello, and to
the third, General Muhammadu Buhari,
the trail of blood, carnage, terror and
religious compulsion and the
inexplicable quest and insatiable desire
to dominate, conquer, subjugate and
control others trails them.


This is as unacceptable as it is
provocative. The truth is that there is no
place in any civilised society for any
form of compulsion or ethnic and
religious domination and bigotry.
I say this because I believe that the
mark of civilisation is the ability to
tolerate dissenting views and to
accomodate those that do not share
your faith or come from your tribe,
ethnic stock or nationality.

If you are incapable of being tolerant of
others simply because they are different
or they come from a different place and
if you cannot indulge in any form of
accomodation of those that do not
share your views, your faith or your
bloodlines then you are nothing more
than an uncivilised field hand and an
intellectual barbarian.

If you are capable of both tolerance and
accomodation of others, no matter how
stange or absurd their views, their faith
or their circumstances may be, then you
are the epitome of civilisation, decency,
good breeding and good old fashioned
class.


The morale of the tale is as follows: To
be tolerant and kind to ALL those that
see things differently from you, to stand
up against the intolerant and to resist
the ignorant, the bigoted, the racist, the
ethnic supremacist and the religious
extremist.


It is in an attempt to keep faith with this
sacred resolution and honor this
fundamental principle that I wish to bare
my mind and share my views about the
way forward for the Fulani Republic of
Nigeria in this contribution. Those views
are as follows.


I am a nationalist. I believe in the rise
and power of the nation state. I believe
in the sovereignty of the will of the
people. I believe in the right of
independence and self-determination for
all and sundry. This is especially so for
the numerous ethnic nationalities that
make up the space called Nigeria.
I believe in the right of the Igbo to have
Biafra and the right of the Yoruba to
have Oduduwa if that is their wish.

I believe that that right ought to be
extended to the Ijaws and indeed to
every other ethnic nationality in the
country if that is what they want.

I believe that to compel a man or a
people, by the force of arms and with
the raw power of the state, to stay in a
house or a space that they do not wish
to stay is evil.

Such a state of affairs and situation is
an eloquent testimony, graphic example
and accurate illustration of subjugation
and bondage.

It is a testimony of the most barbaric
form of wickedness and a total denial of
the most basic civil liberties,
fundamental human rights and
expression of free will of the victims.
I believe that there are many counties in
the belly of Nigeria but sadly they have
all been choked, suffocated, swallowed
up and killed at birth.

I believe that Chief Obafemi Awolowo
was right when he said that Nigeria was
“not a nation but a mere geographical
expression”.


I believe that Sir Ahmadu Bello was
right when he described the
amalglamation of the northern and
southern protectorates as a “great
mistake”.

I believe that he was also right when he
told the ever-accomodating and over-
compensating Owelle Nnamdi Azikiwe
that we needed to “understand our
differences” rather than to just “forget
them”.

Again I believe that Awolowo was right
when he said “there are no ‘Nigerians’
in the sense as there are English, Welsh
or French. The word ‘Nigerian’ is merely
a distinctive appellation to distinguish
those who live within the boundaries of
Nigeria and those who do not.”

I believe that Nigeria’s first Prime
Minister, Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa,
accurately reflected the mind of his
core northern people when he said, “the
Southern people who are swamping into
this region daily in such large numbers
are really intruders. We don’t want them
and they are not welcome here in the
North. Since 1914, the British
Government has been trying to make
Nigeria into one country but the people
are different in every way, including
religion, custom, language and
aspirations. We in the North take it that
Nigerian unity is only a British intention
for the country they created. IT IS NOT
FOR US.”

I believe that Lord Fredrrick Lugard, the
architect of the 1914 amalglamation,
was right when he said “the North and
the South are like oil and water. They
will never mix.”

Again I believe that Awolowo was right
when he said, “Nigeria is only a
geographical expression to which life
was given by the diabolical
amalgamation of 1914. That
amalgamation will EVER remain the
most painful injury a British government
inflicted on Southern Nigeria.”

I believe that the hero of Biafra, Colonel
Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu (the
one and only Eze Igbo Gburugburu), was
right when he said, “it is better we move
slightly apart and survive than move
together and perish in our collision.”

I believe that Sir Ahmadu Bello spoke
the minds of his northern people when
he said, “the new nation called Nigeria
should be an estate from our great
grandfather, Othman Dan Fodio. We
must ruthlessly prevent a change of
power. We must use the minorities in
the North as willing tools and the South
as conquered territories and never allow
them to have control of their future.”

I believe that General Yakubu Gowon
was right when he said, “suffice it to
say that putting all considerations to the
test, political, economic as well as
social, the basis of unity is not there.”

I believe that Dr. Nnamdi Benjamin
Azikiwe was right when he said, “if this
embryo republic of ours must
disintegrate, then in the name of God,
let the operation be a short and
painless one.”

Finally I believe that Colonel
Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu was
right when he said, “Nigeria is a stooge
of Europe. Her independence was and is
a lie. Nigeria committed many crimes
against her nationals, which, in the end,
made complete nonsense of her claim
to unity. Nigeria persecuted and
slaughtered her minorities; Nigerian
justice was a farce; her elections, her
census, her politics – her everything –
was corrupt. Qualification, merit and
experience were discounted in public
service. In one area of Nigeria, for
instance, they preferred to turn a nurse
who had worked for five years into a
doctor rather than employ a qualified
doctor from another part of Nigeria;
barely literate clerks were made
Permanent Secretaries; a university
Vice-Chancellor was sacked because he
belonged to the wrong tribe.”

These words are as truthful, accurate
and appropiate today as they were
when Ojukwu spoke them many years
ago.

If there is still anyone left that believes
that all is well in our forced union, I
urge them to consider the words of
Chief John Nwodo, who is a former
Minister of Information and the newly-
elected President-General of Ohanaeze,
the leading Igbo political and socio-
cultural group, which comprises of all
the elders and traditional rulers of Ndi
Igbo. He said: “Our young men and
women can no longer tolerate a second
class status in their own country. They
can no longer forgive the President for
arguing before he came into office that
Niger Delta militants were meekly
treated and tolerated by President
Yar’Adua while Boko Haram was harshly
treated by President Jonathan when his
law enforcement agents literally opened
fire and maimed and killed unarmed
MASSOB and IPOB members. They see
how returnee Boko Haram members are
absolved and rehabilitated while leaders
of MASSOB and IPOB are incarcerated
or mercilessly murdered. In their rage,
they are becoming uncontrollable, as
they pass a vote of no confidence on
us, their parents, describing us as
cowards and compromised.”

Could anyone have put it any better than
this? Has Nwodo not hit the nail on the
head? Has he not spoken the bitter
truth? Is this not an aberrant and
unacceptable state of affairs?
Has our so-called country not been
turned into the theatre of the absurd
where anything can happen in the last
two years? Did some of us not warn that
this would happen if a Fulani
supremacist and Muslim fundamentalist
with delusions of grandeur like Buhari
was elected President? Are the Nigerian
people not reaping what they sowed in
2015?

Have the southerners and Middle
Belters in Nigeria not all been turned
into slaves today? Have their leaders
and elders not all been turned into
quislings and cowards, who shiver under
their beds at night and who dare not
speak truth to power?

Christians are slaughtered, nobody talks.
Southern youths are butchered, nobody
talks. Shiite Muslims are massacred,
nobody talks. Christian refugees are
bombed at IDP camps, nobody cares.
Fulani militants murder hundreds in cold
blood on a weekly basis all over the
country and nobody is arrested or
apprehended.

Was this not Awolowo and Ojukwu’s
greatest fear? Are we not living that
nightmare today?

Whether they wish to admit it openly or
not, EVERY southerner and Middle
Belter in this country feels like a second
class citizen today.

(To be continued)