“Know everything about your enemy and you will watch him dig his own grave. “
I have wanted to use this part to discuss how to fend off the Fulani menace, but I am going to digress to explore their methods and how a power far away from us handled the aggression of Islamic fundamentalist and ward off the menace of Islamic terrorists.
In 1801 when America was a young country, they faced the menace of Muslim pirates who terrorized their merchants at sea in the Atlantic Coast of North Africa. Their merchant vessels were captured at sea and the citizens kidnapped and sold into slavery in North Africa. At this time, America was a weak country and had lost the protection of the British navy that used to protect American sea merchants. Thomas Jefferson who was the minister to France at that time had a meeting with the Emir of Tripoli to resolve the issues. The Emir of Tripoli explained to Jefferson that they have the right and ownership of everything in the world and the Americans must continue to pay ransom to them to prevent their ships and merchants from piracy. Jefferson asked him the source of that law and power to violate the rights of peaceful people and merchants. The Emir of Tripoli told him that the law is in the Quran. Jefferson asked for a copy of the Quran and he was given a copy. That is how Thomas Jefferson came into the possession of the Quran that is at the library of congress today. At the end of the meeting Jefferson told his colleagues that America has no choice than to go to war because a people with such belief can never be convinced by reason. At that time America had no money and no navy. Jefferson did not want to burden the new presidency of John Adams with such distractions. He quietly Searched for good sailors and built a private force quietly.
As soon as he became the third president of the United States, he declared war on Tripoli and Algiers and Morocco. These are what is referred to as the Barbary Wars in American History. The Americans freed all European prisoners and forced these criminals to stop their criminal behavior in the Atlantic Ocean. They were forced to sign treaties of non-interference. The whole of Europe celebrated this victory that a tiny country has come to the rescue of civilization. The Pope wrote a eulogy on this odyssey saying God has chosen America as the savior of civilization.
This is the beginning of the mythology of America as God’s chosen country. The Barbary States were Algiers, Morocco, Libya and those other places in the North West Coast of Africa. This is the reason why America does not negotiate with terrorists till tomorrow. Negotiating with terrorists is considered an appeasement and suggests a moral equivalency. This is what people like Sheik Gumi are asking us to do. They consider their criminality justifiable and as such we should negotiate with these criminals. This is what this Fulani Muslim cleric has been telling the Nigerian government to do. This is a back way of pumping money into the war chest of the Fulani Caliphate. The military is no longer there to raid the treasury on their behalf.
The Fulani in Nigeria are not religious. They use Islam to propagate themselves and obtain money from rich oil gulf states and Saudi Arabia. They are gamblers and they are ready to wager everything on their gamble that they will overrun Nigeria. They have used the various military governments to push the envelope. The push for Sharia at this time should be seen as them watering the plants that were sowed by their military cousins.
The Sultan of Sokoto was just an adviser to Northern Muslims. The first Sultan was Muhammad Bello, the Son of Uthman Dan Fodio. His jurisdiction was to Muslims in Kano and Sokoto. That position has changed and morphed into Spiritual leader of all Muslims in Nigeria. There was no Nigeria then. There have been Muslims in Borno and the Oyo Empire before the arrival of Dan Fodio to Nigeria. This power grabbing is a classic Fulani move. During the First Republic, Ahmadu Bello was always going to Borno to preach Islam. The Shehu of Borno observed that he was radicalizing the Muslims there. He confronted Ahmadu Bello and told him to stop coming to Borno to preach, that the citizens of Borno knew what Islam was before Ahmadu Bello’s great grandfathers were born and there is nothing he can teach them about Islam. He did not go back there.
The new Sultan of Sokoto and a lot of the emirs are retired military generals and strategists. Their operating and information centers are the various mosques scattered all over Nigeria. Their cry for Sharia is always followed by building a mosque, another command post in a new locality. The mosque is a command post and supply center for the jihadist who moves around the country in stealth mode.
One of the mistakes those of us in the South make is that we think we can reason these people out of their absurd positions. Some of them want to build schools for Almajiri. That is an institution that is serving the purpose of the Fulani caliphate. They have no interest in educating the Hausa child. An educated Hausa child is a threat to them. They will pretend to agree with you. It is a lie. They have a concept of Takiya. They are socialized differently. They have been taught to dehumanize people who are not Muslims and killing non-Muslims is not a sin in their books.
The Fulani in Nigeria are the Trojan horse the British left behind. Nigeria is going nowhere until the problem of the Fulani is solved. Lord Lugard knew this and warned about this but some of our forebears did not understand. If they did they would have not waited for the North to get independence. This is a colossal mistake in retrospect. This problem cannot be solved until there is unity among those of us who don’t believe in anything and just want to be left alone to live our lives without any form of religious interference or coercion.
The Fulani have sown so much disunity in the South that you will think the Igbo and the Yoruba people are at war with each other. If you look carefully at those they used to sow this disunity, you will find out they are using the Yoruba Muslims.
Most of the incendiary remarks against Igbo in Lagos are made by the Muslims in the South West. Now they have amped up this group of Yoruba to turn on their fellow Yoruba people in the South West. This is the main reason they are pushing for Sharia in the West. It is not about religion, it is a war strategy to divide the enemy’s camp. They have kept a lot of money for this exercise. The Muslims in the west are getting very wealthy and flamboyant and arrogant.
Someone is paying serious money for the colorful feathers of these peacocks. Soon the West will know no peace and in the confusion more mosques and Islamic command centers will be built.
The Fulani are Nomads and they thrive in chaos and entropy. They are not interested in peace and unity because that doesn’t help their brand of Islam.
Let me end this digression with how the Fulani control their puppets. Abiola was their darling until he challenged Shagari. In their Bravado, they told Abiola that they made him and they will unmake him. The rest is history. Lot of Southerners mouthing platitudes today owe their position and allegiance to this theocratic minority. Check the bank account of Alhaji and you will understand why the Catholic Church could not match that offer.
To free ourselves from this quagmire we have to find a way to cure the Stockholm syndrome and cognitive dissonance of the Hausa people who have been the direct victims of the Fulani brutality and atrocities in the North. These people have been severely abused because they think they have a common identity with their oppressors.
The emancipation of the Hausa man is the key to our freedom in the South. These writings were inspired by the little action taken by President Bola Tinubu in this respect. He understands the demography and geopolitics of the North and is prepared to do something about the odious scenario we find ourselves in. We should not make another mistake by grabbing the tiger by the tail.
Part (5)
To Thine Own Self Be True. This is not an endorsement of any leader in Nigeria. I was in Nigeria recently and observed that Nigerians have formed a subculture of always complaining as a means of coping with the realities. I now see these complaints as a quarrel amongst thieves. They robbed a bank and the smartest among them drove off with loot and left the rest stranded. They cannot call the police, so they are left with the infighting which they consider as protest.
Every Nigerian wants good leadership, but none wants to aspire to be good citizens. The negative ordeal I encountered while in Nigeria was never by any one in power. Nigerians are the gods in their little domain. In this domain, they are very dictatorial and callous and exercise power with vehemence in their various jurisdictions. From the trader who will sell you fake goods at exorbitant prices to the policemen at the checkpoint who mete out summary punishment, the rule is to dish out as much pain as possible. There is no sense of brotherhood. There is no sense of “we are in this together, let us help each other “.
Dishing out pain is the culture. You must pay before being served even when you have paid. This is the ugliness that hides before these excessive criticisms of leaders. Anytime a Nigerian comes in contact with a government agent, it is time to be punished. There is no agency in Nigeria where those employed there don’t make the abuse of the citizens the metric of their productivity. Trying to get a driver’s license, you must jump through hoops. Trying to get a passport is almost as bad as trying to obtain a visa to another country. In most cases, the visa ordeal is friendlier and there are no bribes involved. Trying to clear goods from a Lagos port is like squeezing through the eye of the needle. There are no rules and regulations, just chaos and cruelty that numbs the mind.
A lot of people choose to walk away from the abuse of the government officials and agents, leaving their goods behind. Flying into Lagos airport is the worst ordeal. Every government agency is there including the touts from Ido Park. They are all trying to tell you they are there to hurt you. There is no cordial welcome for a returnee. There is nowhere in Nigeria the citizen does not try to erect his own obstacles. This is very sad.
Are we at war? Why so many checkpoints? Why is the Nigerian criminalized and humiliated daily by agencies that are supposed to serve them? The ordeal of being a citizen in Nigeria can drive one into a mental institution. Nigerians are resilient and quietly watch their country being turned into one huge mental asylum. The madness has become cultural. At the end of all these, the extortionists get together and blame the leaders who are the product of their thievery. This is the problem.
People who have no sense of good citizenship are crying daily for good leadership. Let’s learn to recognize that the microcosm must be organized to care for each other. Imagine that police don’t harass and shake down farmers bringing food to markets. This may lower the price of food and the decay of food due to loss of time at checkpoints will be avoided. Inflation reduced .Let us learn to care, maybe one day we can have someone who cares to assume leadership. Then we can be proud to say that is one of us.
The ratio of the naira to the dollar is not a measure of the Nigerian economy. It is a measure of the lack of productivity of the Nigerian. Blaming the leaders is a subterfuge that subtracts leadership from the people. Leadership is always a reflection of the consciousness of the people. Bad people can only get bad leaders while good people get good leaders. You cannot have one without the other.
Dr Austin Orette writes from Houston Texas
