Mr Gwnfor Evans MP, the great Welsh politician, lawyer and author and the leader of Plaid Cymru, the Welsh nationalist party, for no less than 36 years before he passed on in 2005, made the following historic and profound observation many years ago. He said, “‘Britishness’ is a political synonym for ‘Englishness’ which extends the English culture over the Scots, the Welsh and the Irish”.
As a student of English and European history and one that was not only trained and educated by the British from the age of 7 but that is also highly conversant with their system and their ways, I can confirm that Evans is absolutely right.
His words are relevant to our situation in Nigeria as well and, in many ways, has some application here.
I say this because what the English managed to do to the Scottish, the Irish and the Welsh, in the name and under the cover of establishing ‘Great Britain’, over a period of 500 years is what the Fulani is trying to do to the rest of us here in a much shorter space of time and in a more brazen, crude and aggressive manner.
To echo Evans’ words and place them in the Nigerian context, it is in the same way that “Nigerianess” is a political synonym for “Fulaniness” which seeks to extend the Fulani culture, and I daresay Islamic religious faith, over the Hausa, Igbo, the Yoruba, the Ijaw, the Tiv, the Berom and everyone else.
They have succeeded in doing that to the Hausa and this is a tragedy of monumental proprtions. A once proud people who had their own empire, their own culture and their own ways were conquered, reduced to nothing and compelled to accept Fulani traditional and political leadership and rulership by the force of arms and this remains the case till today.
Consequently Kano, a thriving, bubbling and wealthy commercial Hausa city which once served as the capital of the ancient Habe Empire that had flourished for hundreds of years before the Fulani got there was compelled to bend its knee to a Fulani Emir.
Very few Hausa people even know their own noble history and they have become so bound up, intrinsically linked and obsessed with the Fulani version and narrative of historical events that one can say that they have been utterly and completely Fulanised and have come to see themselves as, at best, second class citizens and, at worst, slaves to the Fulani. I repeat, this is tragic.
And the rest of us must resist this course and not allow ourselves to be Fulanised. We must remember who and what we are, we must never forget where we are coming from, we must promote our respective cultures, we must defend our faith, we must rever and honor our traditions and we must keep our respective identities.
We must also remember the words of Chief Obafemi Awolowo, the erstwhile Leader of the Yoruba, when he wrote the following in his celebrated book titled ‘Paths To Nigerian Freedom’ in 1947.
He wrote, “Nigeria is not a nation but a mere geographical expression” and he went on to say that “there is as much difference between a Fulani man and an Igbo as there is between a Turk and a German”.
Can anyone dispute the veracity of these assertions? Are they not as true and as relevant today as they were in 1947 when Awolowo wrote them?
The attempt by the Fulani to rob us of our identities and conquer us by guile and assimilation in the name of one Nigeria shall fail.
They shall not succeed in doing it by double-speak, deceit and subtefuge and they shall not achieve it by the force of arms.
If Nigeria is to continue to exist and if some insist on her remaining as one nation then let her be restructured on regional lines so that every single one of her numerous ethnic nationalities and regions can preserve their identities, their religious faith and their culture and can develop at their own pace.
Failing that the only answer is for us to set into motion a peaceful dissolution of the union and enter into a non-acrimonious and mutually beneficial divorce.
That is the answer to our problem and not just for us to replace Buhari in 2019 with someone that is better.
The truth is whether we have a good President or a disaster like Buhari the nationality question still has to be answered and the fundamental issues of the nature of our union or indeed whether we wish to continue to remain as one nation or not has to be addressed.
Gone are the days when others will sit in a room somewhere and make those decisions for us. We have come of age and we deserve to make our own choices.
Let me share a little bit more with you about the perfidy of our former colonial masters when it comes to Nigeria.
Their atrocities are obvious and too numerous to list here but permit me to share the less obvious and something that many may not know.
If you really want to know the truth about why Nigeria remained one nation, who was behind it and what the reasons were for their decision please read the following.
I have done my research and I can confirm that everything that the writer has written is factual and historically accurate.
He wrote as follows:
“If you thought oil was discovered in Nigeria in 1959, you could pass your high school economics with that information. It was actually discovered 50 years earlier.
Did you know that oil from the territory was sold for almost 50 years before the approach of Independence in 1960 forced the disclosure of Oloibiri by Britain?
Even at that the quantities were concealed from the newly-Independent Nigerian Governments until the counter coup of July, 1966, when the north packed their baggage to head back north in the famous ARABA putsch.
The then British High Commissioner to Nigeria, of course on the promptings and direction of his home government, zoomed in upon Gowon halfway, and prevailed on him to reverse the decision of moving the north out of Nigeria, at a time Gowon already hoisted the Arewa Flag in a temporary Capital, Ilorin.
In the hurry to announce this reversal, Gowon’s speech, which was originally designed to take out the north, was poorly edited, leaving a portion that should have been expunged and so distorting the concluding part from the body of the speech.
That unexpunged portion is the celebrated Gowonian faux pas in which he in one breathe declared that “everything considered, the basis of Nigeria’s unity is no more”, yet going ahead in the next breathe to proclaim that “to keep Nigeria one is a task that must be done”.
It was in the heat of the ARABA (northern secession) move that the British whispered into the ears of the fledgeling Gowon government, the huge quantities of oil that eastern Nigeria would have, if the North left, and so would become the poor neighbour of the south and particularly the Eastern Region.
In a series of dubious underhanded exchanges that followed rapidly, the British practically took over the handling of the crises all the way to when it became war in July 1967, from the poor school certificate-holder soldier, Yakubu Gowon (Gowon went for tertiary education only after he was overthrown in 1975 by his July 1966 comrade-in-crime, Murtala Mohammed).
In that dark period Gowon signed off the entire oil/gas reserves of Eastern Nigeria to the British for 50 years, more or less, contracting the war to Britain.
The British which held those concessions via Shell, had to parcel out substantial blocs of their holdings to the other world powers and Permanent Members of the UN Security Council.
Thus the entry of Gulf Oil and Mobil (US) Elf (France), Agip (Italy). Soviet Union had oil at home and so didnt need oil blocs. What Russia (USSR) got was an open order to supply the hardware for the war, including MIG Jet Fighters, Ilushyn Battle Tanks, AK 47 Riffles, all at double of the prevailing market prices.
This oil blocs bribe was the basis of the cooperation of the then world powers with Britain and its stooge, northern Nigeria, to kill 3.5 million easterners in a simple self-determination dispute, which was substantially resolved in Aburi, January 1967″.
It is clear from the foregoing that it was not God that put Nigeria together but rather the greed and mercantile interests of the Western powers led by the British.
And as it was in 1966 so it was in 1914 when Lord Lugard recommended the amaglamation of the northern and southern protectorates and his soon-to-be wife, Flora Shaw, gave us the name of Nigeria.
Even then it was just about satisfying the mercantile and pecuniary lusts of the British, or should I say the English, Empire.
Permit me to conclude with a short word about Nigeria’s reigning Fulani Caliph and the one who regards himself as the rightful successor and reincarnation of Sheik Uthman Dan Fodio and Sir Ahmadu Bello all rolled into one.
His name is President Muhammadu Buhari and he regards himself as nothing less than the Muslim north’s and Caliphate’s third and final Mahdi, even though he has no blue blood.
The Bible says “the wicked walk on every side when the vilest men are exalted”. (Psalm 12:8).
To the wicked, who exalt the vile beast in the Villa, I have the following to say.
Buhari is a genocidal maniac who believes in conquest and oppression and who has turned a blind eye whilst his subjects are butchered in their thousands by Fulani terrorists. He has brought nothing but carnage, division, destruction, death, poverty and evil to our nation.
On several occassions he has directed his security agencies and Armed Forces to kill thousands of his own citizens, whether they be Igbo youths that are members of IPOB or Shiite Muslims, after which they are buried in mass graves.
Those that are not killed are thrown into prisons or horrific detention cells all over the country where they are tortured and left to rot without any form of due process and against court orders to release them.
Buhari is a plague, a curse and an affliction. Getting him out of power is not just a sacred duty but it is also a religious obligation and a righteous crusade.
If we want Nigeria to live, to remain united, to survive and to be restructured we must get him out. He is an ancient dinosaur with analogue ideas who offers nothing but outdated, archaic and provincial solutions to complex modern challenges.
He is out of touch with reality, he is out of his depth and he is encumbered by a hateful spirit and a vengeful and bitter disposition which is fuelled and driven by what can only be described as an obsession to strengthen and empower his Fulani kinsmen and members of his islamic faith above all others.
To him the Fulani Muslims are supreme beings that were divinely ordained and born to rule whilst everyone else, including Christians and non-Fulani Muslims, are nothing but serfs, plebians, useful idiots and handy slaves.
He says he wants to take us to the next level. I say we should nail him to the stake and bury his ambitions by voting him out in 2019.
Enough innocent blood has been shed. It is time for this cold, insensitive, unfeeling and cow-loving mad man to go!
The Bible says “for the oppression of the poor and the sighing of the needy, now will I arise. I will set him in safety from him that puffeth at him”. (Psalm 12:5).
The Lord of Hosts and the Ancient of Days shall not forsake us. He shall honor His word and deliver us from these vile and evil men who seek to shed our blood and destroy our nation.
In Part 2 of this contribution I will shed further light on the Fulanisation agenda in Nigeria, the purpose and mission of the Fulani terrorists and herdsmen, the real intention of those behind the idea of cattle ranches and finally I will expose certain aspects of the history of the Fulani that few Nigerians are aware of.
I will also explain why it is that I call a spade a spade and why I do not hold back anything or show any form of restraint when writing about them, their atrocities or their leaders.
*Femi Fani-Kayode, a well-known social critic, is a former Minister of Aviation.
The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author.