By: Femi Fani-Kayode<\/p>\n
The Bible says “knowledge is power”. It also says “know the truth and it
\nwill set you free”.<\/p>\n
This is made all the more important given the fact that history is not
\ntaught in Nigerian schools.<\/p>\n
Let us join hands and walk down the beautiful path of knowledge, truth
\nand history together. Our focus and subject-matter for today is the
\nFulani tribe of northern Nigeria.<\/p>\n
The Fulani are only partially African and only partly negroid. They are
\nthe product of cross-breeding between the Taurags, Berbers and Arabs of
\nnorth Africa on the one hand and the local black African women of Futa
\nJalon, Guinea in west Africa, on the other.<\/p>\n
In those days Futa Jalon was a popular trade route between north and
\nwest Africa. After hundreds of years of cross-breeding the final product
\nof this union was the Fula race.<\/p>\n
If you doubt this assertion I challenge you to look at the texture of
\ntheir hair, their thin lips, their slim and pointed noses, their tall
\nand slight build and their, more often than not, light complextion and
\nyou will know that they are only partially African and only partly
\nnegroid.<\/p>\n
Like their Tutsi cousins (who also originally came from Futa Jalon but
\nwho migrated to central and east Africa over the centuries) they are
\nprimarily and in the main gypsy-like wanderers and nomads who are deeply
\ncourageous and notoriously ruthless and ferocious in battle yet who have
\na strange and inexplicable attachment to and affinity and affection for
\ntheir cattle and cows.<\/p>\n
They betray little emotion, even in the most difficult times and even
\nwhen going through immense and the most gruelling form of hardship and
\nthey are focused, mentally-strong, disciplined, patient, calculating,
\nproud, ruthless, wise and totally unforgiving.<\/p>\n
They have long memories: never forgetting a friend or a favour and never
\nforgiving an insult or a slight. Most important of all is the fact that
\nthey overwhelm and conquer very slowly and incrementally and they do so
\nprimarily by infiltration, assimilation and guile.<\/p>\n
It is only when they are fully entrenched and empowered and when they
\nhave totally won the confidence of their host community and infiltrated
\nthem that the sword is brought out and the most extreme forms of
\nbarbarity and violence are employed to achieve their objective.<\/p>\n
That is how they conquered the Habe Kingdom, subjugated the Hausa and
\nturned them into vassals and that is how they took Ilorin from the
\nYoruba Aare Ona Kakanfo, Afonja. In both cases they dethroned and
\nmurdered the sitting Kings that they had earlier befriended.<\/p>\n
Some historians have argued that they value the life of cows more than
\nthat of human-beings. This may be true of the uneducated herdsmen and
\npastoralists amongst them but I do not believe it is entirely true of
\ntheir traditional rulers and their educated and political elites.<\/p>\n
Some have also argued that their greatest desire is to establish a
\nhomeland for themselves by grabbing the land of others because there is
\nnowhere in Africa that they can call their own.<\/p>\n
Even in Guinea where they originally came from they constitute a tiny
\nminority of the population, they have never been trusted with political
\npower and they are viewed with the utmost suspicion.<\/p>\n
They arrived in the shores of what later became known as northern
\nNigeria in 1804 when they launched their first jihad, under the
\nleadership of Sheik Usman Dan Fodio, and conquered the Habe
\n(Hausa-speaking) Kingdom of Gobir.<\/p>\n
That is how they got a foothold in Nigeria and they have been here ever
\nsince, imposing their Emirs over the local indigenous populations all
\nover the north in the name of Islam and turning the children of the
\nconquered Hausa into almajiris.<\/p>\n
They constitute only 7% to 10% of the 200 million-strong Nigerian
\npopulation yet they wield and control more power and authority than any
\nother tribe or ethnic natioalnality in the country.<\/p>\n
This has been the case since Nigerian independence in 1960 by either
\nholding power directly or wielding it through a series of spineless,
\ncowardly, pliant, willing and loyal surrogates who do their bidding out
\nof ignorance, fear and a pitiful inferiority complex and who consider
\nthem to be the “master race” that were ordained by God to lead Nigeria
\nand that were “born to rule”.<\/p>\n
Through Islam they have conquered most of the core north because the
\nEmir is not just an ethnic overlord but he is also the leader of the
\nIslamic faithful in his domain.<\/p>\n
This is a powerful and dangerous mix of religion and ethnicity and it is
\none that the Fula’s have used very effectively in their quest to
\ndominate, conquer and subjugate the whole of Nigeria and impose their
\nwill on the local indigenous tribes and populations that have been there
\nfor thousands of years before they came.<\/p>\n
Other than Usman Dan Fodio, two other Fulani leaders stand out as the
\ncustodians and flagbearers of this messianic mission. The first of the
\ntwo is Sir Ahmadu Bello, the erstwhile Saurdana of Sokoto and tye
\nPremier of the old Northern Region and the second is General Muhammadu
\nBuhari, the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.<\/p>\n
It is for this reason that Usman Dan Fodio is often referred to as the
\nFirst Mahdi of the north whilst Ahmadu Bello and Muhammadu Buhari are
\nreferred to as the second and third Mahdi’s of the north respectively.<\/p>\n
You can say what you want about the Fulani but one thing you cannot take
\nfrom them is the fact that they fully understand and appreciate the
\nawesome power and beauty of ethnic and tribal unity in a wider
\nmulti-ethic, multi-religious and multi-cultural nation like Nigeria.<\/p>\n
Despite all pretentions to the contrary and rather like the English of
\nthe United Kingdom, the Fulani will always put the Fulani interest
\nbefore the Nigerian interest and this has served their tribal purpose
\nand vision very well.<\/p>\n
That is a lesson that other Nigerian tribes and ethnic nationalities
\nwould do well to learn.<\/p>\n
Mr. Obadiah Mailafia, who is a former Deputy Governor of Central Bank
\nand a former Presidential candidate from Southern Kaduna said the
\nfollowing on 25th August 2019,<\/p>\n
“Loyalty, honour respect, integrity are defining features of the Yoruba
\nleadership tradition.<\/p>\n
Fulani leadership traditions is rooted in feudalism, pretence, hiding
\nones thoughts and taqquiya.<\/p>\n
The game plan is to exploit to the fullest the political and financial
\ncapital of Tinubu. They will keep him onside until they’re able to
\ndestroy him.<\/p>\n
To turn Nigeria into a Fulani Caliphate they will happily sacrifice
\nsocial progress for ambition. They understand that hungry desperate
\npeople would be too broken to raise their heads.<\/p>\n
To assist they continue to allow murderous and terrorist hordes from
\nCentral and Western Africa to take over ancestral lands by force.<\/p>\n
They are ruthlessly imposing total control over culture, mass media,
\npublic administration and the economy.<\/p>\n
They govern by fear and are willing to plunge us into another civil
\nwar.”<\/p>\n
I concur.<\/p>\n
Obadiah is an old friend of mine. He studied at Oxford University and he
\nis one of the brightest stars and most formidable intellectuals in
\nNigeria today.<\/p>\n
Judging from his words he appears to know the Fulani very well indeed. I
\ndo too. How? Because even though I am a proud Yoruba man, my maternal
\ngreat grandmother was a full-blooded Fulani woman and consequently 1\/8
\nof the blood that runs through my veins is Fulani.<\/p>\n
I have never hidden this and I never will. As a matter of fact I wear it
\nas a badge of pride and honor because it proves that I cannot possibly
\nhate the Fulani because I cannot possibly hate myself.<\/p>\n
Criticism is different to hate. The former is healthy whilst the latter
\nis not. That is the point that many of my Fulani brothers and sisters
\nfail to appreciate and find it difficult to comprehend.<\/p>\n
In any case not all Fulanis are bad and not all non-Fulanis are good.
\nWhat I hate are not the Fulani people but the callous, barbarous and
\nunspeakable atrocities that the Fulani herdsmen and terrorists are
\nperpertrating in my country and the racist, hegemonist, ethnic and
\nreligious agenda that the Fulani leaders are seeking to impose.<\/p>\n
What is also clear to me is that the history, the disposition and the
\nignoble intentions of the Fulani ruling elite raises concern and has
\nserious implications for the peace, welfare and unity of Nigeria.<\/p>\n
If the Fulani do not retrace their steps, change their ways and moderate
\ntheir actions and if they do not reign in their vaulting ambition of
\nconquering the Nigerian space and becoming Nigeria’s “master race”, they
\ncan be rest assured of the fact that history, posterity and the Nigerian
\npeople will be very harsh on them.<\/p>\n
Worse still they may plunge our nation into a second savage, barbaric
\nand fratricidal civil war which would make the first one look like
\nchild’s play and which would shatter the very foundations of the West
\nAfrican sub-region and tear the African continent apart. Let us pray
\nthat it never comes to that.<\/p>\n
This is the end of todays history lesson. Thanks for finding the time to
\nread and learn.<\/p>\n
By: Femi Fani-Kayode The Bible says “knowledge is power”. It also says “know the truth and it will set you free”. This is made all the more important given the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":67353,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-68680","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles-opinions"],"yoast_head":"\n