28022021

Raging Nigerian war: Fulani
against the rest
“ Sir, there are many
nationalities in d
cookedup country
calld Nigeria; non likes to
takeova d others land.
ONLY d Fulani want to
takeover other peoples
land. So where is
Fulaniland so that we too
can go and live there?
Thanx” - Regular SUNDAY
VANGUARD reader,
February 21, 2021
As someone who had lived
and worked in all the four
corners of Nigeria, as well
as places in between, I had
long been puzzled by one
astonishing fact which is
often ignored by everybody
when discussing our current
ethnic conflicts. I have
travelled all over the
country, visiting on the
average twenty eight states
a year during a ten-yearperiod.
Still, the same fact
keeps staring me in the
face. Yet for one personal
reason – to which I will get
shortly – my mind refused
to acknowledge this vital
but inconvenient truth.
And, the truth is there is no
place in the whole of
Nigeria one can call Fulani
land. None.
Go state by state, zone by
zone, and you will discover
specific parts of the
Nigerian territory which
are recognised as land
belonging to particular
ethnic groups – no matter
how small in size and
number. Before and while
working on my book
IBRAHIM
B
Email:biolasobowale@yahoo.com
Phone Number: 07081372829
Twitter:@DrDeleSobowale
Instagram:delesobowalefranklyspeaking
Website: www.delesobowale.com
BABANGINDA 1985-1992:
LETTING A THOUSAND
FLOWERS BLOOM, I had
taken a keen interest in
documenting ALL the
ethnic groups in this
country. It has taken me
over 30 years to gather the
list on page 373 of that
book. From A-Z, starting
with Abonema and ending
in Zuru, 85 ethnic groups
have so far been identified,
including the Adara people
of Kaduna State. Despite a
few trips to various areas of
the state, the Adara, whose
presence was revealed to
me recently by Obadaiah
Mailafia, escaped my
attention. I am sure there
are more to come –
otherwise we have been
deceiving ourselves about
the number of nationalities
we have in Nigeria.
About one thing however,
nobody can fool me. All the
other people known to me
have a definite
geographical location in
this country they and others
call their own. It is easy for
most Nigerians to identify
Yoruba, Ibo, Ijaw, Tiv,
Kanuri, Berom, Efik, Igala
and Ibibio etc lands –
among the large ethnic
groups. What most people,
however, cannot know is
how even some small
nationalities have very
strict historical
geographical territories
they call their own. Two
examples will help to
illustrate the point.
From Keffi to Toto in
The lack of an
ancestral territory
has forced the
Fulani to spread
all over the
country in search
of parcels of land
to grab
Nasarawa State, less than
60 kilometers apart, about
three or four ethnic groups
have occupied that territory
from time immemorial.
Indigenes of those places,
including those who have
never been there, still claim
the places as their own. Till
his death, our late Prince
Tony Momoh, as well as
others like him, claimed to
be from Afemnai – despite
the fact that he spent less
than one percent of his time
on earth in that place. He
never claimed Lagos where
he spent the vast majority
of his time in this side of the
grave. About 45 kilometers
separate Auchi, the
headquaters of Afemnai
people from Oke and
Sabon Gida Ora – where
some of the Ishan people
call home all their lives –
even if they don’t know
where they are.
Remarkably, nobody
disputes (or has disputed)
the ownership of these
places with their ancestral
owners. Most conflicts,
including violent ones,
occur at the boundary of
two groups. There is never
any disagreement between
Beroms and their ethnic
neighbours about the core
territory of each group. The
single national exception to
everything written above is
the Fulani. To be candid,
there is no Fulani land in
Nigeria. The lack of an
ancestral territory has
forced the Fulani to spread
all over the country in
search of parcels of land to
grab. It cannot be
otherwise. Usman Dan
Fodio, 1754-1817, started
it all. And briefly, here was
the history of how we
started on the long journey
which has brought us to the
brink of an all-out-war
today. Just remember what
a great historian said.
“History is, indeed, little
more than the register of
the crimes, follies and
misfortunes of mankind” -
Edward Gibbons, 1734-
1794, VANGUARD BOOK
OF QUOTATIONS, P 92.
Two among the crimes of
mankind got us on the way
to where we are. The British
came from the South
holding the Bible and guns
to conquer the nationalities
below the Niger and Benue
rivers. The Islamic
Jihadists came from the
Middle East with Quran
and also guns to subjugate
the inhabitants of the parts
of the North now called
Northern Nigeria.
Englishmen never laid
claim to any land in the
geographical space which
in 1914 became Nigeria.
They left in 1960. The
Islamic Jihadists, led by
Dan Fodio, stayed, and
after conquering the
largest Northern ethnic
group – the Hausa – forced
them to help capture and
subjugate several other
nationalities. The only
major exception were the
Kanuri of Borno State.
Under their traditional
ruler, El-Kanemi,
Kanuriland remains “the
land of the unconquered”
till today. No El-Kanemi
will ever accept the Sultan
of Sokoto as his superior.
The Fulani, as Dan
Fodio’s descendants were
called, immediately
established an apartheid
social and political system
under which people of every
other ethnic group were
second class citizens;
Fulani were first class. The
amalgamation of North
SUNDAY VANGUARD, FEBRUARY 28, 2021,PAGE 11
and South in 1914 and the
British scheme to hand over
to the Fulani-led North was
the final step towards
covert legitimisation of
Nigerian apartheid; which
was only a little bit better
than the South African
version.
Under Ahmadu Bello and
Alhaji Shehu Shagari, the
Fulani superiority complex
was mooted. Power was
shared fairly evenly with
other ethnic groups. Other
Northern leaders – Gowon,
Mohammed, Babangida,
Abacha, Abubakar and
Yar’Adua – were
enlightened benevolent
dictators and they avoided
rubbing salt on injury with
even-handed distribution of
power during their regimes.
And, that explained why the
resentment of Fulani
domination of the North
had not led to open
confrontation until now.
Buhari’s election as
President changed
everything. With the first 40
to 60 appointments he
made, Buhari had
demonstrated that his own
was going to be a
government of the Fulani,
by the Fulani and mostly for
the Fulani. Without
realising it, his response to
the genocides in Enugu
State and Agatu in 2016
was a wake-up call to all
other Nigerians who had
ignored a growing
problem.
“Dan Fodio was a Fulani
descendant of a Torodbe
family that was wellestablished
in Hausaland”
-WIKIPEDIA
This brings us to the
question asked by our
reader above – “where is
Fulani land?” The obvious
and honest answer to that
question is this. “There is no
Fulani land in the whole of
Nigeria. After first of all
establishing the Caliphate
in Sokoto, and from there
capturing several
communities, they failed to
hold any particular
geographical area as their
new homeland. Instead,
they were contented to
appoint Emirs and Serikis
as rulers of the people and
they demanded and
received the right to graze
their cattle anywhere. Until
1967, there was very little
dispute about that. Even
places which were not
conquered by the Islamic
Jihadists allowed them free
grazing right down to the
water front in the South.
“Anyone who controls the
army controls the nation” -
Ahmadu Bello
(IBRAHIM
B
BABANGIDA 1985-1992:
LETTING A THOUSAND
FLOWERS FLOW, Pg 22)
Until 1966, the Fulani
had undisputed hold on
power. The first coup
changed that. The second
coup in 1967 which ended
with Gowon, an Ngas from
Lur, a small ethnic group
from Plateau State, who
was surrounded by officers
from other small tribes, was
the beginning of the end of
Fulani political power
hegemony. Ahmadu Bello,
a descendant of Dan Fodio,
had inadvertently shown
young men from other
nationalities how to reduce
Fulani political power. Get
armed. Alhaji Shehu
Shagari, another Fulani,
was tossed out by officers
from minority tribes. They
installed General Buhari, a
Fulani; and again removed
him 20 months after.
Yar’Adua, another Fulani,
was imposed by Obasanjo
– not his kinsmen. Finally,
Buhari would not have
defeated Jonathan even in
2015 if the progressives of
the South-West had not led
a coalition of political
adventurers to persuade
Buhari to run one more
time. For all concerned, the
decision to field Buhari was
a monumental blunder. It
has led us to where we are
now.
But, remember this.
Fulani now occupy every
“forest” they can find
because, unlike the rest of
us, they have no land
anywhere in Nigeria to call
their own.
To be continued…
Joyfulhomes
2015@gmail.com
God has not forgotten you
Glory be to God. We
started January, saw
the end of January and now
we are saying goodbye to
February 2021. It could only
be God that has kept us alive.
All Praises be to the Lord.
Brethren, the time of fasting
and praying, isn’t a time to be
downcast. It is not a time for
one’s spirit to be low. It is not
the time to begin to give room
to doubt.
When we say prayers, like “
Remember me O Lord”. Does
it mean God has forgotten us?
Usually, those types of prayer
points come up when we are
still expecting to “ see God in
action”.
Brethren, God is always
active. He never stops
attending to us. No wonder
the Psalmist said in Psalm 121
vs. 4 (KJV) “ Behold, he that
keepeth Israel shall neither
slumber nor sleep”.
Many of us spend more
time, asking “ God why me?”
instead of thanking the LORD
for those things he has been
doing that are not visible to
us
Ḟor instance a couple
looking forward to
conception is likely to sigh
and be unhappy when the
woman sees her period. They
have forgotten that there are
women whose periods aren’t
only irregular but had ceased
even when they are not close
to the age of menopause.
Such a woman fails to see
that the manifestation of her
monthly period is a sign that
her miracle is on the way.
Perhaps you are familiar
with the story of Noah and how
God kept him and his family
away from the flood.
Genesis 8 vs. 1: “ And God
remembered Noah, and every
living thing, and all the cattle
that was with him in the ark:
and God made a wind to pass
over the earth, and the waters
assuaged”.
Do you think that God
forgot Noah? I don’t think so.
Remember it was God that
told him to build the ark and
also gave directives as to who
and what should be in the ark.
Another Bible, Isaiah 49 vs.
14-16 states: “ But Zion said,
“ The LORD has forsaken me,
and my Lord hath forgotten
What you see in
the spiritual realm
is what you will
get in the physical
me.
Can a woman forget her
nursing child that she should
have no compassion on the
son of her womb? Yea, they
may forget, yet I will not forget
thee.
Behold, I have graven thee
upon the palms of my hands;
thy walls are continually
before me”.
Woman, God has not
forgotten you and will never
forget you. The walls of your
womb he sees continually
and he knows that your
children must occupy that
womb.
At times what we perceive
as a delay is not a delay. God
is actually working on the
spiritual that determines the
physical.
I’ll share with you the
unusual story of childbearing
delay in the life of a man. He
got married to his woman, but
they had no children so the
woman left him. It was also
the same situation with the
second woman he married.
She also left him after all
attempts to have children
failed.
Then he took a third wife
and she dragged him to a
particular church.
There they began to pray.
With intensive prayers, it was
revealed that his mother was
the reason he never had
children. Why? She feared
that once he began to raise
children, he would no longer
care for her.
God showed the couple
mercy and they were blessed
with a set of twins, a boy and a
girl. How would any one
know that the women didn’t
really have infertility issues
and that their inability to have
children was a spiritual
challenge imposed on the
man by his mother?
This was an unusual case but
many cases are like this.
Society focuses on the woman
but the challenge may
actually be a spiritual burden
on the man.
Brethren, stop thinking that
God has forgotten you.
I also know of the case of a
lady who had miscarriages
about 10 times. This is more
painful. She got pregnant,
carried the baby in her womb
but never carried any in her
arms. Her agony can only be
imagined.
When no one expected, God
in his mercy showed up for her
and blessed her with a baby
boy.
The solution to challenge
came through prayers not
science. Series of examples
abound.
There was also the case of a
couple born into Christian
homes but in their
desperation to have children,
went to an herbalist.
When the herbalist did all
he could and no child was
conceived and he became
sympathetic to them because
they had spent so much. He
said to them, “ Go and meet
Hallelujah people”.
In other words, they were
asked to go to a church of
God.
They did and today, after
over two decades of waiting
they are parents of children.
A couple that was called
barren asked the Lord to stop
giving them children. They
now have enough.
The stories I have shared
with you should lift up your
faith that there is no situation
that God cannot change.
Brethren, what is that
challenge that has denied you
a fulfilled life. Take it to God
in prayer. Even as we ask, we
must focus on the realization
of our request. As you pray,
begin to see yourself conceive,
deliver and carry your baby
or babies. Stop seeing yourself
as a barren woman.
What you see in the spiritual
realm is what you will get in
the physical.
Last week, there was a report
of a couple that God blessed
with a set of sextuplets, four
boys and two girls.
What was remarkable about
this couple was the fact that
they had waited for 21 years
before God gave them a set of
twins, a boy and a girl in 2015.
The couple, Doris and
Seiyefa Wilson was again
blessed with sextuplets after
six years. They probably
thought they were in another
phase of delay after they had
the twins.
The husband, Seiyefa spoke
of pressure from his relations
to marry another wife but he
resisted them.
He said on a particular day,
he saw a woman begging with
triplets, though he hadn’t
enough money on him, he
asked that money be
transferred to him and he gave
the woman 25,000.
According to him, the woman
was pleasantly surprised. She
prayed for him that God
would give him, double what
he gave her and behold, God
blessed him with a set of
sextuplets.
Brethren, we’ll take some
lessons from the story of the
Wilson couple.
First, is that God
empowered the husband to
resist pressure for relations. If
you are in a similar situation,
God will help you to resist
pressure from relations in
Jesus name.
Secondly, we learn that
delay is not denial. Third
lesson is that showing mercy
to others provokes God to
show us mercy.
Didn’t the scripture say in
Matthew 5 vs. 7 “ Blessed are
the merciful: for they shall
obtain mercy”.
Trust God brethren, he has
not forgotten you.
Your miracle is on the way
in Jesus name.