By Polycarp Onwubiko
A clear message from the hordes of hell who leave trail of blood, sorrow, rape , murder, kidnapping for ransom, spite and mindless destruction of farm crops and above all, sacking communities in Benue states with AK 47 Riffles, defying the supposed Nigeria Police in the country, is that of acting out a script written by the northern Moslems when Nigeria secured independence in 1960.The spiteful outburst of the former Governor of Kano state, Alhaji Rabiu Kwankwaso on the rightful stand of the Yoruba socio-cultural and political group, Afenifere to root out the brazenly lawless and unrepentantly murderous Fulani herdsmen from their land was not astonishing. It has to do with usual superiority complex of their naïve and crude mindset that Nigeria solely belongs to them to do whatever they like. Unfortunately, the rival ethnic groups today are no longer prepared to tolerate that outright rubbish anymore.
Globalization has assured all people of the world the inalienable right for self- determination if a country like Nigeria shall not be restructured to reinvent functional federalism to replace the unitary-federal contraption fabricated by the military with the covert backing of the Caliphate .
Yinka Odumakin, the national publicity secretary of Afenifere rightly described the irrational statement of Kwankwasoas “uncouth, rude and insensitive”. Going down memory lane, Kwankwaso’s spiteful and outrageous statement had the same tragic trajectory that they own Nigeria and will continue to lord it over every other ethnic groups without respect to the constitution. One would recall the massacre of Christians whowere also the first targets of BokoHaram, as no Northern Moslems would make reasonable comments even the most vocal political leaders like Alhaji Balarabe Musa to assuage the harrowing pains of Christians. It is sad that Kwankwaso rationalized the primitive and lawless gambits of the Fulani herdsmen to their inability to go to school. Whose faultwas it that subjected them to such a crippling disability? These are normal homo sapience God created equal with their fellow kith kin but the archaic social stratification of the caliphate chose to subject them to vassals, slaves and foot soldiers to actualize the devious agenda of subjugating the entire ethnic groups in Nigeria. They deliberately denied them the opportunity to realize their divine destiny by making them to go to school.
Again some naïve northern Moslems would cite the herdsmen right to freedom of movement in the constitution but without acknowledging the fact other people have freedom of life and the power to protect one’s means of livelihood from those who spitefully drive their cattle into their farms, kill, rape and kidnap. Can you see the crude mindset of people cohabiting with civilized segment of the society in the same country? The gruesome reality is that this gory state of affairs is not showing any signs of abating.
Femi Fani Kayode incorporated the stand of the south-easterners in his incisive response to Kwankwaso in The UNION, October, 28 2015 when he asseverated thus: “In any case, if the herdsmen are not properly educated and do not know how to behave in a lawful and civilized manner when they are in the territory of others whose fault is that? Is it not the fault ofAlhaji Rabiu Kwankwaso and the other Fulani leaders who have refused to enlighten and educate their people over the last 50 years? That is the bitter truth… You cannot stop those herdsmen that have chosen to be murderous, vagabonds and rapists by simply educating them because what they do is inherent in them. Those that have chosen the path of criminality and violence are suffering from a sociopathic and psychotic disposition. Simply put: they have an insatiable bloodlust and an irresistible desire to hurt others and to steal, maim, rape and kill…We do not want these herdsmen amongst us anymore because they are like a plague. All they do is to kill, steal and destroy.
They have done it throughout the middle belt for the past 50 years and they are doing it in the south…Do Kwankwaso and the other Fulani leaders expect us to keep quiet whilst their people are terrorizing, slaughtering and robbing ours? If so they are in for big shock. We will not keep quiet but we will also continue to insist that they must get out of our land. And if the government refuses to protect us, we shall take strong measures to protect and defend ourselves and our people. There is no crime in self-defense. The days of talking down to us with contempt and treating us like slaves are long over.
Kwankwaso and those he represents should not taste our will or underestimate our resolve. We want peace but it cannot be at the expense of our lives and the liberty and safety of our people.”
The reality is that Fulani herdsmen are the foot soldiers of the caliphate to actualize what their forebears naively nurtured in their infantile mind that Allah has given them Nigeria, even as the ethnic groups in the middle belt would be their willing tools while the entire south would be over-run. The caliphate believed in social stratification and had as a matter of policy denied the herdsmen and their families education so that they would continue to be using them as slaves and foot soldiers to intimidate and cow the rest of the ethnic groups in the apparently accursed country.It is shocking that in this 21st century, human beings are left to be wandering in the bush, conducting themselves like wild animals and trekking thousands of kilometers to make money for their masters! It is sadism and wickedness. These are people who would have been well educated and know the essence of obeying the laws of the land and sanctity of human life.
Social stratification led the caliphate to devote almost half of the state annual budgets to fund pilgrimages and primitive cultures and traditions while education which is the pillar of socio-economic growth and development is relegated to the background. The federal and state government should abolish pilgrim’s boards and make people to realize that religious such programme is strictly a private affair. It is deceptive for people to claim that they go to pilgrimage to pray for themselves and the country since God is Omnipotent, Omnipresent and Omniscience.Pilgrimage is simply a sight-seeing tour of those who have the where-withal to do so.The sorry scenario is what had earlier been referred to as religion being the opium of the people where they are denied quality education that will help reduce pervasive poverty and penury in the northern parts of the country.
The naïve and silly agenda of the caliphate to lord it over other ethnic groups in Nigeria has closed their eyes to the huge internally generated revenues in establishing ranches as observed in other countries. They subtly call for a national grazing land policy whereby grazing lands will be preserved and protected for Fulani in all the states. This is outright rubbish so that they would colonize everywhere preparatory to over-running the entire country. These are people whom cannot issue certificate of occupancy to the southerners and Christians to build churches. Who is fooling whom? They hope on the crude oil well to satiate their leadership cravings to dominate other ethnic groups in the patently accursed country.
Time has come for the southerners [and if the ethnic groups in the middle belt are tired of sheepishly following the northern Moslems and carrying their bags in the Arewa Consultative Forum, ACF and the grossly irrationally established” Northern States Governors Forum”, NSGF; instead of forming their own“Middle-Belt Governors Forum”], to stamp their feet down and steadfastly demand for the restructuring of the country to reinvent True Federalism along with state police, criminal justice system, state prisons and other centralized MDA’s to enable the northern Moslems to leave the naïve impression that they control everything .
It will be illusory to expect that President Muhammadu Buhari would be keen on calling the Fulani herdsmen to order because he has not shown any sign that he is not obsessed with their lawlessness. He merely requested the Inspector General of Police to see that Chief Olu Falae was not harmed and nothing more. Is it how he would create the impression that he is the father of all Nigerians? The sing song aboutfighting corruption could be mere diversion if the plan to restructure the country is not in his agenda. It is crystal clear that corruption is not the core problem of Nigeria; it is the fall-out of the fundamentally flawed structure fabricated by the caliphate -propelled military regimes. Corruption will be minimized when there is restructuring and return to True Federalism with the federating ethnic groups or integration of the current geo-political zones having their respective constitutions as obtained in countries that practice federal system of government un-tampered with by ethnic or religious bigots.
A new constitution has to be fashioned out from the recommendations of the 2014 National Conference which tilt to True Federalism to enable the ethnic groups to develop at their own pace and value system and not being dragged back by the ultra-conservative northern Moslems with their peculiar type of Moslem religious practice which constrained their people from civilized conduct and means of livelihood. Moslem religion in the northern parts of the country ought to be liberalized to make the society open to enable the people to be released from cage. Children of 2-3 years are clogged with cap as if it is a deity. It is nauseating to see the children in the President Jonathan’s Almajari School being clogged with caftan with cap. Why can’t the children be allowed to put on short, shirt, polo; while girls are liberated from wearing mask in the supposed ‘hijab?’ Civilized countries like France banned ‘hijab’ due insecurity and it never prevented the Moslems from worshipping. Female suicide bombers in the Boko Haram insurgency use hijab to conceal the Bombs; but a suggestion by liberalized minds to suspend hijab pending the routing of the terrorists raised hell with all sorts of queer logic; even when Chad whichis being attacked by Boko Haram banned hijab ostensibly to accord top priority to security. It is lamentable that sound rational cannot be allowed to prevail in this apparently accursed country since searing indications confirm what General Yakubu Gowon said that there was no basis for the unity of this country because our world-views are diametrically opposed to each other. Femi FaniKayode was down-right in his diatribe to Alhaji Rabiu Kwankwaso. Similar horrendous atrocities by the lawless Fulani herdsmen are regularly being perpetrated in the south-east like the recent murder of a farmer inAwka north local government area of Anambra state; and the gory incident at Ezeagu local government area Enugu state which compelled exasperated and fiery women to stage a demonstration to the Enugu state government house.Sadly, the state Governors like the police choose to become tongue-tied marionette s; pretending to be helpless.
Modern attire will enable the children to move freely and engage in games and sundry extra-curricular activities in the schools.The fact remains that the world is dynamic and those who lose out are the ultra-conservative societies like the northern Moslems which has been at the root of pervasive squalor and under-development in the north. Tailors and fashion designers will develop more creativity and earn substantial income as observed in southern part of the country. The ultra-conservative societal values predispose the people to pervasive poverty and primitive way of life.
The silly craze to show-case the supposed Nigeria’s ‘rich’ cultural attire in NTA was checked by this writer by the fiery petitions to President Goodluck Jonathan and former information minister who saw my good reasons and directed the management of NTA to liberalize the dressing code of the news casters to make look like civilized men and women. Consequently male news casters started appearing in modern designed suit with modern designed neck of long sleeve shirt; quiet unlike in the past when they put on all sorts of rubbish with nauseating-looking caps of few selected ethnic groups in ‘show-casing’ the supposed ‘rich’ Nigeria’s cultural attire. Realistically, unmarried Christian ladies now put on modern wears without head-gear in accordance with the practice in Christian ethnic groups where unmarried ladies do not put on wrapper and head-tie. They were previously compelled to put on wrapper and head-gear ostensibly to align with the Moslem women attire which has no demarcation between married and unmarried. Unarguably, suit is the best attire in the world and Nigerian delegates to the international conferences should be appearing in suit like other African delegates; and putting on wobbling and voluptuous attire in the naïve notion of “show-casing rich” Nigerian attire which no African countries have cared to copy. It turned out to be a deceit by General Muhammadu Buhari’s election campaign handlers who made him to adorn well-carved modern suit I the election posters to rebrand him; which endeared him to the civilized minded Nigerians in modern dress code. What do we see now? He appears odd in dress code at international conferences and for a; quiet unlike other African heads of state who appear in modern suit and look cute and admirable.
The only solution to the brazen and primitive gambits of Fulani herdsmen is for the entire southerners to close ranks and demand the implementation of the recommendations of all the political reform conferences from 2005 to the 2014 National Conference. Restructuring of the country will position it on the path of functional federalism and fast-tract socio-economic growth and sustainable development at the sub-national levels.Southerners must resist the recalcitrant of the caliphate who do not want to hear restructuring to perpetuate the crippling dysfunctional, quasi, pseudo federalism and Federal-Unitary contraption imposed by the military junta via the 1999 constitution which has been subjected to panel-beatingin the lopsided National Assembly; albeit in accordance with the scrip written by the caliphate. A truly federal cum republican constitution of 190 and 1963 will open up and liberalize the economy to competition by the federating polities like exploitation of the rich natural resources in almost all the states, power supply, railways, water transportation etc. All sectors of the Nigeria economy has almost collapsed due to over-centralization of MDAs ostensibly to enable the caliphate control everything. Nigeria Police would have ceased to operate due lack of funding but for the massive injection of states fund. Centralized security architecture is a monstrous aberration in a federal system of government. It stands to reason that the centralized police will not curb pervasive insecurity; no matter the dose of reforms and security summits by dazed political leaders. The so-called kitchen cabinet of President Buhari reflected the hidden agenda to firmly institutionalize the unitary-federal contraption to perpetuate the agenda of the caliphate.
Mr Onwubiko, an author and public affairs commentator, wrote via polymbiko@yahoo.com, Awka Anambra states
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