The Sons of Futa Jalon, by Femi Fani-Kayode (Part 2)

Editor’s note: Femi Fani-Kayode continues with part two of his study on Fulani culture and their place in Nigerian history. On October 2nd 2014, Alhaji Aliyu Gwarzo, a prominent Fulani leader from Kano, said the following to Pointblanknews Magazine: “When I say that the presidency must come to the North next year, I am referring to the Hausa-Fulani core North and not any Northern Christian or Muslim minority tribe. 

“The Christians in the North, such as the Berom, the Tiv, the Kataf, the Jaba, the Zuru, the Sayyawa, the Bachama, the Jukun, the Idoma and all the others, are nothing and the Muslim minorities in the North, including the Kanuri, the Nupe, the Igbira, the Babur, the Shuwa Arabs, the Marghur and all the others, know that when we are talking about leadership in the North and in Nigeria, Allah has given it to us, the Hausa-Fulani. “They can grumble, moan and groan as much as they want, but each time they go into their bedrooms to meet their wives and each time they get on their prayer mats to begin their prayers, it is we the Fulani that they think of, that they fear, that they bow to and that they pray for. “Some of them are even ready to give us their wives and daughters for one night’s sport and pleasure. They owe us everything. This is because we gave them Islam through the great Jihad waged by our father the great Usuman Dan Fodio. “We also captured Ilorin, killed their local King and installed our Fulani Emir. We took that ancient town away from the barbarian Yoruba and their filthy pagan gods. We liberated all these places and all these people by imposing Islam on them by force. “It was either the Koran or the sword, and most of them chose the Koran. In return for the good works of our forefathers, Allah, through the British, gave us Nigeria to rule and to do with as we please. Since 1960, we have been doing that and we intend to continue. “No Goodluck or anyone else will stop us from taking back our power next year. We will kill, maim, destroy and turn this country into Africa’s biggest war zone and refugee camp if they try it. “Many say we are behind Boko Haram. My answer is, what do you expect? We do not have economic power or intellectual power. All we have is political power and they want to take even that from us. “We must fight and we will fight back in order to keep it. They have brought in the infidels from America and the pigs from Israel to help them but they will fail. The war has just begun, the Mujahedeen are more than ready, and by Allah we shall win. “If they don’t want an ISIS in Nigeria then they must give us back the presidency and our political power. Their soldiers are killing our warriors and our people every day but mark this: even if it takes one hundred years we will have our revenge. “Every Fulani man that they kill is a debt that will be repaid even if it takes 100 years. The Fulani have very long memories.” Men like Alhaji Aliyu Gwarzo have clearly become prisoners of their own vain fantasies and dark delusions. They represent the “chief whip” or “the heavy muscle” within the Fulani ruling class. They are direct, crude, threatening and vulgar, and they come across like boastful bullies and motor-park touts. Yet despite this they must be taken very seriously because they represent an increasingly powerful and strong-willed tendency within the circles of caliphate power and the Fulani ruling elite. A slightly more refined yet equally eloquent testimony of their battle-ready temperement and mindset was provided by none other than President Muhammadu Buhari himself in 2013 when he said that if what happened in 2011 during the presidential elections happens again in 2015 and he ends up losing to President Goodluck Jonathan, who happens to be a Southern Christian, “the dog and the baboon will both be soaked in blood”. His words are few yet his point was well understood. Finally, let us consider the contribution of the respected elder statesman, Alhaji Lawal Kaita, to the discourse when he said, before the presidential election in 2011, that power “must return to the North, otherwise we [meaning Northerners] would make the country ungovernable”. Jonathan went ahead to win the election and Lawal Kaita and Co. went ahead to honor their word: from 2011 till 2015, make the country ungovernable they certainly did. These are shocking and deeply troubling contributions from these Fulani leaders and the import of their insidious threats are self-evident. They need no further analysis or explanation here. In the light of all this one thing remains clear: it is time for us to do whatever it is that we must do to save our country and if those that believe that they own it refuse to be reasonable and fair to the rest of us, perhaps we should consider the possibility of redefining her. We warned the Nigerian people but they would not listen. Sadly things are bound to get far worse before they get any better. The sons and daughters of Futa Jalon will not rest until they have completely conquered and subjugated the whole of our country. The Fulani herdsmen are a standing army. They are protected by the state and there is nothing anyone can do about it. That is the new Nigeria for you. The truth is that we are under occupation. If it is not the Fulani herdsmen that are tormenting us, then it is Boko Haram. If it is not Boko Haram then it is our very own armed forces who are under orders from our oppressors. Most Nigerians are in denial about what is going on and some are just too intimidated and cowardly to acknowledge the problem let alone to speak out or to attempt to resist it. We are in a mess and our collective enemies and tormentors are evil and relentless. When it comes to the field of foreign policy, our president has jettisoned our traditional policy of non-alignment when it comes to the politics of the Middle East. He just came back from Qatar and Saudi Arabia where he declared his total and complete support for the Palestinians and literally turned his back on the State of Israel. This was a fatal mistake. Hearing him say it broke my heart just as it did the hearts of millions of other Nigerians who are friends of Israel and who are committed to her cause. In this respect, if only President Buhari understood the spiritual implications of what he has done perhaps he would have reconsidered his decision. Whatever the case, Israel is here to stay forever with Jerusalem as her eternal and undivided capital. Nothing can change that: not even a million Saudi Arabias and Qatars or all the kings and princes of the world. On March 5th in an interview which was aired on Al Jazeera television and which was conducted whilst he was in Qatar, President Buhari dropped another bombshell by saying that Nigeria would indeed join the Saudi Arabian-led coalition of 34 Muslim countries which is known as ISMAT. This represented a departure from his earlier position when he had categorically ruled this course of action out. Naturally, many Christians and Shia Muslims in our country were astonished by this u-turn given the fact that Nigeria is a multi-religious secular state with at least 50% of her population being Christian. They are also apprehensive because ISMAT is essentially a Sunni Muslim military alliance whose main purpose is to stand as a counter balance to the growing military power and influence of shia Muslim Iran. Why Nigeria should be brought into the Iran/Saudi conflict in this way and turned into a potential theater for a Middle Eastern proxy war is beyond the comprehension of most commentators given the obvious dangers attached to it. When Al Jazeera questioned him about the fact that this move has caused immense anxiety and apprehension to the Christian Association of Nigeria and to the massive Christian population in our country, President Buhari responded by asking why he should be concerned about the views of those “religious bigots” and that, instead of complaining, “the Christians should organise themselves and go and fight against terrorism and the militants in the South”. Such an insulting, abysmal and bellicose attitude and aggressive response confirms the fears of many that our government is not only interested in establishing an ethnic Fulani hegemony in our country but that they also wish to islamise our nation and put into effect the stated intention, dream and objective of the late Saurdana of Sokoto, Sir Ahmadu Bello, of “dipping the Koran in the Atlantic ocean”. They wish to continue the Saurdana’s avowed march and islamise and conquer Southern Nigeria much in the same way that his great grandfather, Usman Dan Fodio, had conquered and islamised the North two hundred and six years ago. Such a reckless and dangerous course of action will undoubtedly be resisted and consequently the truth is that we are really in trouble in this country. The Nigeria of today reminds me of Yugoslavia before its civil war and before it broke up into five separate countries. I see and smell blood in the land and we are living in very dangerous times. The Fulanis are like the Serbs of old in Yugoslavia: dominating, cunning and relentless. They have their own ethnic and religious militias and they are also fully in power. The only difference is that the Serbs were Christians whilst the Fulani are Muslims. They both used their religious faith to muster support and effect their purpose. One day though their yoke shall be broken and we shall be set free. Until then we must muster our strength and courage and stand firm against violence, hate, religious intolerance, injustice, oppression, tyranny and evil. We must ensure that we do not resort to violence under any circumstances but at the same time we must be firm in our resolve that we shall never be turned into slaves in our own land. We must reach out to all those who share our vision and we must work together with all ethnic groups in this country who share our values and who seek unity and peace. As we contend with the enemy we must be courageous and firm in our resolve. We must shed all our fears and we must be ready to suffer persecution and to lose our lives or liberty if that is what is required to effect our purpose and to advance our cause. We must be prepared to pay any price in order to secure and protect our liberty and to ensure a greater and better future for our loved ones and our children. Finally as we confront our collective enemies we must do so with confidence and strength. We must invoke the words and memory of David, the greatest of all of the Kings of Israel, when he met Goliath in the field of battle. As the giant issued his famous challenge, boasted loudly and poured insults and scorn on the Jewish army and their God, young David looked him in the eye and defiantly asked “who is this uncircumcised Philistine that has chosen to defy the armies of the Living God?” He said, “Thy servant slew the lion and the bear. And so it shall be for this uncircumcised Philistine who has chosen to defy the army of the Living God”. He said, “You come against me with shield and spear but I come against you in the name of the Lord God of Hosts, the God of the Armies of Israel. Today He shall hand you over to me and I shall slay you and feed your flesh to the birds of the air”. And so it shall be for the Goliaths in our land. May the souls of all those that were cut short by the terrorists and ethnic supremacists from 1960 up until today, including all those innocent souls and little children that were murdered during our civil war, rest in peace. God bless Nigeria. Addendum: I have written this essay with every sense of caution and responsibility. I have been told that my pen is like a time-bomb so permit me to settle a couple of issues and set the record straight. I am not a racist, a tribalist or a religious bigot. I have nothing against Muslims and I have many Muslim friends and family members whom I have immense respect and affection for. I do not hate members of the Fulani tribe because one eighth of the blood that flows through my veins is Fulani. I do not seek to incite anyone to violence or to hatred against any ethnic group, against any individual, against any political party or against President Muhammadu Buhari or his government with this write-up. I do not seek to insult anyone or any group of people or to seek the break-up of Nigeria through armed struggle with this write up or any other write-up. I deplore violence and I am a man of peace. I am an essayist, an intellectual and a historian and this two-part essay is simply my contribution to my understanding of our history, national discourse and our literary archives. I believe that we live in a country that free speech is guaranteed by the constitution and this write-up is simply the expression of my opinion on a burning national issue that has become the subject of much public and private discussion in Nigeria. I have no apology to anyone for the contents of this essay though it is regrettable if anyone feels offended by it. My intention is not to offend but to state the facts and put the case. Finally the question is often asked “FFK, why do you write things like this?” The answer is simple and clear and it is as follows. I am a servant of truth and this is my calling. If I don’t write and expose these things who will speak out for the voiceless victims of these terrible atrocities and injustices and who will tell their story? Equally importantly who will challenge and expose the perpetrators? If I don’t do it who will speak truth to power? How will history, posterity and justice judge us and be served if we all keep quiet and act as if we do not recognize the fact that there is evil in the land? How can we claim to be righteous and good men and women when we close our eyes, bury the truth and pretend that we cannot see the evil? How can we sleep well at night and face our God in prayer when we know that our complicit and conspiratorial silence is borne out of nothing but cowardice and fear? That is why I write the sort of things that I have written in this essay and as long as injustice and evil reigns in the land I shall continue to do so. I look forward to rejoinders from those who do not share my views with as much joy as I look forward to reading essays from those who do. Thank you.

Source: https://www.naij.com/757563-sons-of-futa-jalon-2. 

This article expresses the author’s opinion only. The views and opinions expressed here do not necessarily represent those of Naij.com or its editors.
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The Sons of Futa Jalon, by Femi Fani-Kayode part 1

Editor’s note:The former minister of aviation, Femi Fani-Kayode, speaks on the Fulanis, their history and pattern of migration within Nigeria. The former minister’s essay comes at a time when the Fulani herdsmen have taken laws into their hands, killing many land owners in areas where their animals graze. The latest violent episode was the Agatu massacre in Agatu, Benue state, on Thursday, March 3. 

 

“The new nation called Nigeria should be an estate of our great grandfather Uthman Dan Fodio. We must ruthlessly prevent a change of power. We use the minorities in the north as willing tools and the south as a conquered territory and never allow them to rule over us and never allow them to have control over their future.” — Sir Ahmadu Bello, the Saurdana of the Sokoto caliphate and premier of Northern Nigeria, Parrot Newspaper, October 12, 1960, recalled by Tribune, November 13, 2002. These are interesting words from the most reverred, prominent and powerful Fulani leader in the history of modern Nigeria. The Saurdana’s worldview, vision and intentions are well-encapsulated here and they are self-evident. They need no further explanation or analysis. To add to the Saurdana’s contribution and to butress his point, in August 2001, President Muhammadu Buhari, a proud and ascetic Fulani man whose mass appeal, popularity and following has reached cult-like proportions amongst the working class Fulani population in Nigeria, said the following: “God-willing, we will not stop the agitation for the total implementation of sharia throughout the federation”. Finally, to emphasise the point, on January 27, 2013, Mujahedeen Abubakar Shekau, the young and brash leader of the most dreaded, most powerful and most deadly Islamist terrorist organisation on the African continent called Boko Haram, said: “By Allah, we will not stop fighting until every Nigerian is living by Sharia law. If you don’t abide, we will kill you”. When one hears and reads some of these things one can only look up to heaven and say: “May the Lord deliver the people of Nigeria”. READ ALSO: Fani-Kayode on Ese Oruru, the Emir of Kano and those who choose to distort the narrative Here you have a classic case of anything and everything, including religion, being used to effect an ancient ethnic agenda of conquest and subjugation. It is not even subtle: it is brazen and real. Worse still, most Nigerians are fully aware of it but they find it difficult to voice it let alone resist it. Yet, despite our awe and trepidation, at least a few questions must be asked such as the following. Who exactly are the Fulani? Where did they come from? What is their story and what is their history? What is their purpose and what are their intentions for the rest of Nigeria? I shall attempt to answer some of these questions in this two-part essay. Futa Jalon is an area made up of beautiful plateaus and breathtaking mountains which is situated in modern-day Guinea. It is a confluence that is known as the “bitter waters” and it is the location of the vulture mountain where, up until today, thousands of vultures gather. It is also the source of no less than five major African rivers including our very own River Niger. The people that live in that area are known as the Fula Jalons, and it is from that ethnic stock that the Fulanis evolved. From there, they migrated to other parts of West Africa and settled down in what was originally known as Sakkwato but what is now referred to as Sokoto in northern Nigeria. The Fulanis were actually the product of a beautiful racial mix and generations of cross-breeding between the Arab-like and nomadic north African Berbers and Tauregs on the one hand and the local black indigenous Fula population of Futa Jalon on the other. That explains their unusually light complexion, their well-chiseled and refined visage, their height, their unusually slight frame, the soft texture of their hair and their essentially non-negroid features. Truth be told, generally speaking, they are a physically attractive people. In terms of temperament,, they are proud, patient, calculating, subtle, courageous and they have very long memories. They are capable of masking their thoughts and emotions very well but they will never forget a sleight. Most importantly, unlike most, they are capable of recognizing a common group cause and consequently they are in a better position to further the political and economic interests of their people more than any others. To a Fulani, interest of his people and their collective cause is more important than anything else. It is interesting to note that the Tutsis of central and East Africa come from the same racial root as them and they share similar physical features and characteristics. They are also both essentially nomadic in nature and traditionally, they both have an intense fascination and interest in cattle and cattle-rearing. As a matter of fact, the old-fashioned way of establishing a Fulani man’s wealth is to find out how many cows he owns. The more cows he owns, the richer he is considered to be. READ ALSO: The cancer of Islamist terror in our country and the words Of Ayo Fayose, by Femi Fani-Kayode It was after their mass migration to our shores and after they successfully infiltrated the Hausa kingdom of Gobir that Sheik Usman Dan Fodio, the father of the Fulani caliphate, unleashed his violent and very bloody jihad, established the various emirates and conquered much of what is now known as northern Nigeria in the name of his Islamic faith. That is the history. On Thursday, March 3, there was a violent clash between Yoruba and Hausa-Fulani youths in Orile, Lagos state. A number of people on both sides of the divide together with some of our security agents were killed. Homes, chattels, property and places of worship were burnt down as the fighting raged. This came just one day after a similar clash between the same two ethnic groups took place in Ikorodu, Lagos state which also resulted in the loss of life and destruction of property. Again on March 5, in Ogere on the Lagos-Ibadan expressway yet another clash took place between Yoruba and Hausa-Fulani youths which resulted in even more casualties and a terrible bloodbath. A number of days before then, over 300 Idomas were killed by well-armed Fulani herdsmen in Agatu, Benue state. At a so-called peace meeting, when asked why they did it, they told the inspector general of police that it was because some of their cows had been killed! After the meeting, instead of being arrested for genocide and ethnic cleansing there and then, they were allowed to go home quietly. Not even their AK 47s were confiscated. To make matters worse, it was later suggested that those that perpetuated the atrocity were not even Fulanis at all but rather aliens from Chad and Niger Republic. The question must be asked: who is fooling who? Sadly, there are many other examples of mass murder, genocide, official impunity and similar atrocities. Over the years, the same thing has happened in Jos, southern Kaduna, Zaria, Zangon Kataf, Kano, Bauchi and many other places. Throughout the country, Fulani militias and herdsmen are wreaking havoc and are slaughtering their compatriots for one reason or the other. Worst of all is the fact that our Fulani-led federal government and Fulani-led armed forces are killing thousands of young Igbos in the east simply because of their support for Nnamdi Kanu and their call for the establishment of the independent sovereign state of Biafra. Again a few weeks ago, the same armed forces killed over 1000 Shia Muslims and shot and abducted their leader, Sheik El Zakzaky, who has not been seen in public since. As all this is going on our economy has ground to a halt, our people are suffering untold hardship and difficult times and the war against Boko Haram and Islamist terror is still raging. Today Nigeria has the dubious distinction of having within its borders the first and the fourth “most deadly terrorist organisations” in the world according to the Global Terror Index. According to the index, the first is Boko Haram and the fourth are the AK 47-wielding Fulani militias/herdsmen. People are being slaughtered, abducted, pillaged, kidnapped and raped all over the country on a daily basis by these heartless terrorists simply because they believe that one of their own is now in power and that they can get away with it. All this yet no-one appears to be prepared to do anything about it or to call a spade a spade. In the light of all these facts the question on everyone’s lips is, what is to be done? We all hope and pray for peace and unity in our country, but, judging by the way things are going, perhaps the first question that we have to address is whether we really have a country at all and, if we agree that we do, whether it will or can remain united and as one for much longer. If we ever needed the elders and great men of wisdom and knowledge like President Olusegun Obasanjo, General T.Y. Danjuma, General Yakubu Gowon, Alhaji Maitama Sule, Chief Emeka Anyaoku and Chief Alex Ekweume to pull us back from the brink and bring healing, peace and unity back to our land it is now. The rise of radical Islam and the use of terror to achieve the objectives of those who espouse and believe in it has changed the world forever. Our country cannot be exempted or left out of this. We have changed forever as well and things can never be the same in Nigeria again. Those that are in power in our country today appear to have a soft spot for the terrorists and for reasons best known to himself our president has simply refused to condemn the murderous activities of the Fulani herdsmen and militias. This is probably because he is, and has been for many years, the life patron of the Fulani Cattle Rearers Association, which is the umbrella organisation of the Fulani herdsmen and militias. To make matters worse, our president told the world, as recently as 2014, that an attack on Boko Haram is an attack on the North. One wonders what purpose that was designed to serve and why he had to say it. Then came the sad and pitiful case of Ese Oruru in which the Fulani Emir of Kano played an unspecified and unclear role in the abduction, forced islamisation, rape, torture and kidnapping of a 14-year-old southern Christian girl whilst our security agencies turned a blind eye to the whole thing and refused to rescue her for months. It has been alleged that the girl was kept against her will at the Emir’s palace and that one way or the other she was used as a sex slave and she came out pregnant. Despite all this, the police have refused to pick him up and compel him to answer the necessary questions that could have cleared the air. All this because “his” people are in power and they believe that thay can get away with anything and everything, including pedophilia, slavery and, in many cases, murder. Worse still, there are hundreds of other cases, five of which have been exposed by Miss Toyosie Ogunseye, the editor of Nigeria’s Sunday Punch Newspaper and her incredible team of investigative reporters and one by the famous high society blogger Miss Linda Ikeji on her blog in the last few days. These cases are all similar to Ese Oruru’s and they involve the abduction, Islamization, rape, sodomy and enslavement of young southern Christian girls (some as young as nine) who ended up in royal palaces and hareems all over the North. In each of these cases those that carried out the abductions have refused ro return the girls back to their families despite all pleas and efforts and the police have been unable to do anything about it. In one case in Bauchi in which the southern Christian girl was just 12 years old and in which she was abducted whilst on her way to church, her family was told that if they wanted her back they would have to “negotiate with the Sharia council”! In another case in Zamfara state, the family of a 14-year-old Christian girl who was abducted as far back as 2009 were told by her abductors that if they persisted in asking for the return of their daughter their entire family would be killed and their home would be burnt down. As a result of this threat the girl’s father and his entire family had to leave their home and flee from Zamfara for their lives. They were compelled to leave their young daughter behind in the clutches of her merciless abductors. READ ALSO: Femi Fani-Kayode on the fate of those who spilled blood in January 1966 coup Nothing reflects the degeneration to which our country and our values have been reduced to better than this. Permit me to end Part one of this contribution with the following words which I keep hearing in my spirit and which I believe shall prove to be prophetic. “O ye sons of Futa Jalon and ye daughters of the vulture mountain and bitter waters: your princes and kings shall be exposed and brought to heel, your yoke shall be broken and you shall pay a heavy price for your wickedness and many sorceries.” Many have been killed in the most hideous manner or falsely implicated and wrongly jailed in our country for sharing such knowledge and for exposing some of the things that I have chosen to expose in this write-up. Regardless of this I have no fear because I know that my Redeemer lives and I know that He shall stand with me till the end of time. As long as Jesus lives I know that He will never forsake me and that, until my work on earth is done, I cannot be cut short and neither can my enemies overwhelm or destroy me.

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This article expresses the author’s opinion only. The views and opinions expressed here do not necessarily represent those of Naij.com or its editors.

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