Requiring a strong core northern support to actualise his twin plan of
northern dominance and indeed dominance by muslims in Nigeria’s political
space now and in the future, President Mohammadu Buhari made no
pretensions about his intentions when he assumed office in 2015.
As a man seething with anger over his several failed bid to clinch the
presidency and the role of systemic corruption on the part of the
political class for which his own stock, Fulanis, are the leading lights,
he had a clear focus of his agenda.
Presently, however, the northern political establishment, usually a cover
for the Fulani political bloc, is believed to be shopping for the
replacement of President Buhari in 2019, looking towards former Vice
President, Atiku Abubakar, Sokoto State Governor, Aminu Tambuwal and
former Kano State Governor, Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso.
While the politicians want a replacement for Buhari in 2019 in view of his
poor performance and health status, officers in a Hausa-Fulani dominated
military are also considering the coup option that would ensure that power
does not slip into the hands of the north-easterners.
Pointblanknews.com has reliably gathered that President Buhari, bearing in
mind the Boko Haram debacle on assumption of office and the legendary
stubbornness of the Kanuri tribe, who usually pride themselves in the
historical fact they were never conquered throughout the “1000 years of
the existence of the Karnem Bornu Empire before the advent of the Othman
Danfodio Jihad”, concluded that his agenda may not be realisable without
the support of the Kanuris.
Buhari’s own mother is of the Kanuri stock. He was once quoted as saying
that late military Head of State, Gen Sani Abacha, a Kanuri, with a
globally acclaimed reputation for looting the public treasury, was not
corrupt.
Even the late Premier of Northern region, Sir Ahmadu Bello, once warned
the British in his book, “My Life”, about the futility of using force
against the Kanuris at a time they wanted to carry out the execution of
some offenders and instead suggested appeasement and diplomatic approach
which the British took note of but proceeded with the executions.
Chairman of President Buhari’s Transition Committee and Retired Permanent
Secretary, Ahmed Joda, was part of the think-tank that fully developed
President Buhari’s plan, but also recommended a cautious and placatory
approach towards the Kanuri.
The argument in the public domain, however, is that with the Boko Haram
menace as a purely Kanuri problem geographically, Kanuris would be best
positioned to tackle it once and for all hence the appointment of Kanuris
in strategic defence positions.
Buhari’s appointments has been reflective of this background with the
appointment of the following Kanuris in his government: Lt. General Tukur
Yusuf Buratai, Chief of Army Staff, Major Gen. Babagana Monguno (rtd),
National Security Adviser, Abba Kyari, Chief of Staff to the President,
Ibrahim Magu, Chairman Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC),
Minister of State for Power, Works and Housing,
Hon. Mustapha Baba Shehuri among many other heads of ministries and
parastatals.
“Surrounding himself with Kanuris is a mark of absolute trust and
confidence while his approach to his kinsmen smacks of suspicion and
distrust”, a political analyst, who spoke anonymously, said.
Buhari’s Original Succession Plan Pointblanknews.com has learned that the
major plank of Buhari’s succession plan was not just to marginalise
Southern Nigeria but to have a northerner of the Kanuri extraction succeed
him at the end of his tenure using Islam as a cover.
With this political alliance, the longer term dominance of the
Hausa-Fulani stock would be guaranteed. Such alliance would leave the
Christian minority populations in the core north and middle belt at the
mercy of these combined forces of Sunni muslims while majority populations
of the South would be constantly subjected to harassment, intimidation and
killings using the security forces as is already being
witnessed in killings of Pro-Biafran protesters, farmers in Agatu, Benue
State, Southern Kaduna, Shiite muslims, crackdown on judges mainly from
the South, who are considered stumbling blocks to Buhari’s bigoted power
master plan and recently the bias in the arrests by the police in Ile-Ife.
This informed the appointment of muslims to head major strategic, security
positions in order to enforce this agenda. Secret memos were passed down
to permanent secretaries/directors (muslims) occupying strategic or
“juicy” ministries and parastatals to ensure strict compliance with the
marginalisation agenda which has played out in the total exclusion of the
South-east geo-political zone and the
treatment meted out to the National Leader of the ruling All Progressives
Congress (APC) and South-west states, who made Buhari’s election
possible, in terms of federal appointments made so far.
Muslims are in charge of the following ministries and security positions
to enforce the Islamic plank of the Buhari agenda: Justice, Defence,
Internal Affairs- the ministries that control the armed forces.
The chief of army staff, chief of air staff, inspector-general of police,
comptroller-general of customs, commandant of the of the Nigerian Security
and Civil Defence Corps, Nigerian Immigration Service and Nigerian Prisons
Service are all muslims. They are from Borno, Bauchi, Niger, Nassarawa,
Zamfara, Kano, Yobe and Sokoto States.
Most Police Commissioners, General Officers Commanding (GOCs), brigade
commanders of the Nigerian Army who are Hausa-Fulani/Kanuri are presently
deployed to the Middlebelt and southern states with a clear directive to
crush opposition, suppress resistance and further Islamisation agenda, the
reason why killer Fulani hersdmen responsible for the death of thousands
of unborn children, infants, youths, women
and men across Nigeria have neither been arrested nor charged to court.
And to add to that the Presidency is yet to make any concrete move to
contain the killings.
A British tabloid, The Spectator, recently published an account of how
Nigerian military helicopters were dropping arms and ammunitions for
Fulani herdsmen in Southern Kaduna and other parts of the Middlebelt in
the night.
Most heads of ministries and parastatals, directors of finance and
administration are mainly muslims. This strategy is to control recruitment
and flow of finance to benefit muslims.
“With the present structure in place, Buhari’s succession plan would
automatically elicit the support of all muslims from the north benefitting
from his government.
There is a pretence that southern muslims are being carried along but that
is far from the truth.
“Remember that President Buhari, on assumption of office, met with Saudi
authorities while visiting the Holy Kabba, the highest Islamic symbol in
Mecca, to pledge to receive the blessings and assurances of financial
support from the Saudi government on the actualisation of the agenda”
“The truth is that he does not even trust his own Fulani stock to help him
implement his agenda because he believes they are part of the corrupt
system he is trying to contain and is rankled by the inordinate ambition
of his brothers, who do not even understand when their own is at the helm
of affairs hence his decision to pitch tent with his maternal relations”,
an impeccable source, who was part of the committee
that drew up the initial plan but differed in some areas, told
Pointblanknews.com.
The Revolt of the Hausa-Fulani Political Class
The Hausa-Fulani political class interprets power shift to the North to
mean power in the hands of the Fulani political elite, who have now come
to terms with President Buhari’s succession plan.
There is also the feeling that Buhari is dissipating the bloc’s political
capital, raising the possibility of a future political backlash.
They are alarmed at his undue concentration of strategic appointments in
the North-east, his pursuit of the North East Development Commission
project and insistence that the headquarters of the commission should be
located in Maiduguri as against the position of others of the Fulani stock
that it should be located in Bauchi.
To buttress this point, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar recently
accused President Buhari of inability to lead while speaking on the
lopsided appointments of the Buhari administration and the need to
restructure the country.
“Again, here, we come back to the same economic challenges facing the
country, but,we also have a leadership that is not prepared to learn from
the past and, also, not prepared to lead,” he said.
“I have for a long time advocated for the restructuring of our democracy.
The current structure has been an impediment, and has not served the
country well. The call for restructuring is even more relevant today in a
period of varied agitation here and there, and other economic problems.
Restructuring Nigeria would solve these problems.
Without doubt, conflict is inevitable in every society, but the will to
change it lies in the structuring of the society. It wasn’t this bad for
Nigeria in the past, the center wasn’t as powerful as it is today.” Atiku
said.
Kaduna State Governor, Nasir el-Rufai, in his recent memo to President
Buhari raised concerns that with President Buhari’style of leadership,
northerners may loose out in the power struggle.
“It is also clear to many of us that have studied your political career,
that so long as you remain in the political landscape, no Northerner will
emerge successfully on the national scene,” el-Rufai wrote.
DSS/EFCC, Makarfi/Ali Moudu-Sheriff Clashes
The security report released by the Department of State Security against
the Acting Chairman of EFCC, Ibrahim Magu, is also a fall out of the
Fulani/Kanuri clashes.
Head of DSS, Mamman Daura, who represents the Hausa/Fulani interest, wants
to curtail the rising influence of Kanuris and the to stall the chances of
using the EFCC against their leading lights on the road to 2019 and
beyond.
But shockingly, President Buhari is set to resubmit Magu’s name a third
time after the Senate rejected his nomination twice.
The fight between the newly pronounced Chairman of the opposition People
Democratic Party (PDP) and former Governor of Borno State, Ali
Moudu-Sheriff, a Kanuri, and former Governor of Kaduna State, Ahmed
Makarfi, a Fulani takes the same pattern, the latter not wanting the
realisation of Buhari’s agenda.
The presidency has also been fingered to be behind Sheriff.
But President Buhari, in spite of his health challenges, is maintaining a
delicate balance between the two groups but his agenda, like most power
mongers, ignorant of the transient nature of power and the ever present
divine order of change, remain far fetched.