[dropcap]F[/dropcap]or your own sake and for the sake of your family and nation please take what you are about to read very seriously and please endeavour to read it to the end.
Take it or leave it, this is my final warning and admonition to the good people of my beloved country Nigeria. After this I shall watch how things unfold and maintain a studied silence.
In the Book of isaiah 54:15 the Holy Bible says “surely they shall gather but it shall not be of me: whomsover gathers against thee shall be scattered for thy sake”.
To add to that in the second Book of Timothy 1:7 it says “God has not given us a spirit of fear but of power, love and sound mind”.
It follows that we the Nigerian people must not live in fear or believe that all hope is lost despite the raging storm that we are passing through and in spite of what the highly esteemed Professor Wole Soyinka has rightly described as “a horrendous descent into the abyss”.
Yet despite our strength and confidence in the redemptive and redeeming power and salvation of the Most High God, the Lord of Hosts and the Ancient of Days we must consider our plight and challenges as a nation, share some bitter home truths, understand exactly what is unfolding before our very eyes and what is going on in our country today and forge a consensus about what to do about it. That is the purpose and intent of this contribution.
Permit me to begin with a very disturbing event that I read about on my dear friend Shola Salako’s Facebook wall yesterday. The author narrated how a large group of Fulani men viciously maimed and slaughtered the Yoruba in Lagos a few days ago. The full text of her account (unedited) is as follows:
“Something really crazy, very scary happened last night and I am seriously troubled because it’s very worrisome.
Ikota villa estate is at Ikota, Lekki, by Mega Chicken eaterie and right by the side of the estate’s gate is this open space where a legion of “Abokis” (meaning Fulanis) sit to sell all sorts including fruits.
Last week, taking my friend’s kids to mega chicken, I told bros that, there was an eerie feeling almost scary about the abokis there and the sheer number of them.
They are very arrogant and utterly stubborn coupled with this attitude that do not befit anyone of such low cadre.
I am not looking down on them but the arrogance they display do not befit their personalities.
This evening, as I was buying apples, I parked by the corner and called this aboki to get me some apples and coconut.
There was an argument right in front of me between this Yoruba man and another Aboki, I don’t know what it was about but luckily I did not have to come down from the car if not; I would have been caught right in the middle.
The Yoruba guy slapped the aboki and from nowhere some Yoruba men came from the opposite direction where they have a carwash.
My goodness, within a twinkle of an eye, the road was full to the brim with abokis with machetes and all sorts of weapons of mass destruction.
The gate to Ikota villa was suddenly shut, I had to reverse like a maniac back to mega chicken,
I even knocked some man down.
The chaos was so much that the traffic gridlock was beyond words, what saved me was my estate’s sticker, as the gatemen just allowed me with others to go through ikota villa.
The abokis beat these Yoruba guys to stupor and stabbed some people.
They overpowered them in no time.
The guy who slapped the aboki was covered in blood, if he survives that battering then he must have nine lives.
I’ve never seen such brutality in raw form in my life.
My brother-in-law, just came back not too long ago, narrating the story and he confirmed two people died. Hmmm!
You can be in denial as much as you want, you can support them all you care, but when it comes to supremacy, the Abokis believe they are superior to everyone else.
There is fire on the mountain and it’s trickling down, believe it or not it would consume you. I am deeply worried”.
This is such an alarming story. Sadly this sort of thing happens all too often in many towns and communities all over our country. Nobody is safe from these people and their sheer barbarity and disregard for human life.
It was my brother Bashorun Akin Osuntokun that first drew my attention to the grave dangers that are posed by these inexplicably large and ominous gatherings and strange groupings of well-armed and menacing Fulani men in the towns and communities of the south west a number of years ago. It is a testimony to Osuntokun’s foresight that his worse fears are unfolding before our very eyes.
I do not blame Salako for being deeply worried. She, and the rest of Nigeria, has EVERY reason to be.
I say this because the brutality of the onslaught that she witnessed was harrowing and debilitating: it was second to none. All manner of weapons were used to butcher an unsuspecting and trusting host population who were utterly shocked and ill-prepared for what they were subjected to by their hitherto peaceful and pliant Fulani guests.
Sadly this is a common occurrence all over the country today. As a matter of fact it happened for the umpteenth time in Jos, Plateau State just yesterday and once again many innocent and defenceless Christians, non-Fulanis and members of the indigenous Berom tribe, including women and children, were maimed and massacred and their homes burnt.
These large groups of fearsome and well-armed Fulani men that gather quietly in various parts of our towns and cities are actually sleeping armies and terrorist cells.
When the signal is given over the airwaves Nigerians will be shocked by the speed with which they will act and swing into action and by the sophisticated weapons that they will suddenly spring out of nowhere.
The carnage that they will unleash on our civilian population will be far worse than the mass murder, ethnic cleansing and genocide that was perpetuated in Rwanda by the Hutus against the Tutsis or that was witnessed in the Nigerian civil war.
The only part of the country that is not prepared for them and ready for this fight is the South West. Others are ready and they are silently tooling up. Sadly we in the south west are still just talking. Worse of all is that we have no means of defending ourselves, no unity and no commonality of purpose. We are badly divided and we are not sensitive to the grave dangers that lie ahead.
The truth is that we must prepare ourselves now in order to be able to defend our people when the attacks come and the pogroms begin. We must be physically, spiritually, psychologically and emotionally ready for this fight otherwise we will all perish.
President Muhammadu Buhari and his Fulani Government are now disarming Nigerians and, by executive order, he has banned ALL licensed weapons. Why do you think he has done this? It is not rocket science to figure out what is really going on. Buhari’s intentions are as obvious as they are malevolent.
He also set up a Fulani radio station which they will use to activate their sleeper cells and sleeping army in the south west and indeed all over the country when they are ready to effect their final onslaught and implement their “final solution”.
Mrs. Abimbola Adelakun, a brilliant writer, wrote the following in her column in the Punch Newspaper on May 23rd.
“….You would have noticed that since the present administration started, almost all the vociferous voices that yelled against one thing or the other in the past administrations have virtually gone mute. Their silence is not a coincidence; these former social advocates have been browbeaten by the inveighing forces of Fulanisation/Islamisation that demand conformity from everyone to enable a perpetuation of its power.
This regulation of compliance takes several forms, but one of the most obvious is the cult of silence that pervades southwestern Nigeria despite the invasion of the region by herdsmen. There is a conspiratorial silence not to see or speak.
From state governors to even the so-called Yoruba leaders, people are more invested in playing the politics of I-remain-loyal rather than calling out Fulani herdsmen for the atrocities they are committing. These elders and leaders are maintaining a posture of self-censure and looking away from the unfolding anarchy because to speak up is to risk jeopardising certain privileges.
The connection between the evils done by Fulani herdsmen on the streets and the Fulanisation/Islamisation agenda can be seen if we understand how various spheres connect.
From the cowing of previously strident voices, to the bending of tenets of democracy to accommodate the abuses and excesses of the coterie invested power, to the cult of Buhari’s devotees who are all over the place barking at any dissenting voices, to the ways politicians from other regions of Nigeria have to contort themselves and prove they are non-threatening in order to assure the wielders of power that “we are together,” there is an ongoing pacification.
They are regulating ethics of behaviour, and the end goal is to make the social ecology more amenable for these power mongers to reign. Fulanisation/Islamisation demands that you identify with their religion and culture, pander to it, and also consciously carry out actions that help them institutionalise their power.
That is why it is not enough that southern politicians join the All Progressives Congress; they have to dress like the Fulani. It does not stop there. If Buhari heads to Saudi Arabia, they not only follow him there, they dress like Saudi Muslims.
Because the criticisms of Fulani herdsmen will touch their patron saint in Aso Rock (who has been their staunchest defender by the way), these people either avoid the subject or speak in cowardly tongues. Just look at the number of people who will rather criticise Obasanjo than speak up against the conditions of insecurity that we face.
If you doubt that religion and ethnicity feature in the ways regional crimes are tackled in Nigeria, take a moment to compare the “crimes” of the pro-Biafran secessionists with the ones ravaging northern Nigeria.
The former was brutally assaulted and killed, while the treatment of the latter confirms that what you can get away with in Nigeria depends on where you were born. When they asked the President if his administration would change their approach to managing the magnified problem of insecurity, he had nothing in his head or heart to offer other than say he had observed that the Inspector-General of Police, Mohammed Adamu, was losing weight, and therefore must be working hard on that issue.
It was not a joke, and even if it were, who uses a severe situation that has taken many lives and destroyed livelihoods to play for laughs?…”
Mrs. Adelakun is right and her analysis is faultless.
We in the South West particularly would do well to stop the childish bickering, desist from the petty rivalries, sit up, smell the coffee and get real. Afenifere has done very well and continues to provide a modicum of hope for our people.
They are the conscience of the South West, the custodians of our principles and values, the proverbial shining light on a hill and they have provided a credible, courageous and constant rallying point, even in these challenging times, for every ‘omoluabi’ in Yorubaland.
Yet in my view to complement them, support their efforts and give them the teeth and bite that they still so badly need we must establish a new, more dynamic, more pragmatic, more aggressive and more militant force and group of leaders in the south west which is focused, primed and ready to do all it takes to defend our territory and interests and protect our people.
That is why the statement and intervention by the Yoruba Summit Group, which is a body that serves as an umbrella group for all Yoruba socio-cultural organisations, is welcome. In a press release issued by their spokesman, Mogaji Gboyega Adejumo, they said:
“Let the president know that the Yoruba do not want war, but we will definitely defend ourselves should these instances of unprovoked attacks by the Fulani continue.
The Fulani cannot subjugate the rest of the peoples of Nigeria, rather, the reverse will be the case to the detriment of the innocent Fulani!
That the Yoruba people collectively will hold on strongly and steadfastly to these resolves in as much as our collectively survival rests on us and on no one else; the leaders, elders and the generality of our people, for the common cause to confront all challenges of insecurity including genocide.
That those not in support of these resolves shall be considered traitors to the cause and will be treated as such.”
The Yoruba Summit Group have spoken the minds and voiced the thoughts of 50 million Yorubas spread all over the world. The handful of Yorubas that do not share their view will soon appreciate the folly and grave dangers of collaborating with the enemy and swimming against a rising, hostile and dangerous tide of anger, resentment and dissent from their own people.
The truth is that the time for talking is long over. More than ever before we need groups like the OPC, YOLICOM and others to rise up to the occasion and prepare for the worse. We in the South West must unite, sensitise our people and prepare for the savagery and barbarity that undoubtedly lies ahead! The lives of our women and our children and the future and survival of our race depends on it!
Yet the affliction with which we are faced affects and seeks to destroy every single ethnic nationality in our country and not just the Yoruba. To prove this point I am constrained to share a sizeable portion of the assertions and submissions of Mr. Charles Ogbue, who is undoubtedly the most profound, brilliant and courageous writer of his generation.
A few days ago in an essay titled, Islamisation and Fulanisation, Too Late To Cry, he wrote the following:
“The warning from people like former President Olusegun Obasanjo, former Chief of Army staff, retired General T.Y. Danjuma and a host of others about Buhari’s Islamisation and Fulanisation agenda is a little too late, I’m afraid.
Those warnings are as useless as a man warning his household about a supposed impending fire outbreak after the fire has already gutted their house.
Fact is, Buhari is currently not implementing any ethno-religious agenda. HE HAS SINCE FINISHED THE IMPLEMENTATION AND IS NOW CONSOLIDATING ON IT. And in fairness to him, he has never hidden the fact that he is an incurable ethno-religious hegemonist.
The only piece of information that will save Nigerians especially southerners and non-Fulani northerners now is HOW TO NEUTRALIZE THE ISLAMISATION AND FULANISATION OR AT LEAST SURVIVE THEM because they are here already.
When a President of a multi-ethnic, multi-religious and multi-cultural country like Nigeria is busy filling all his appointments with only people from his own region and religion, handing over the entire security agencies including the paramilitary to only people from his own region and religion, protecting Islamist terrorists from his own region and religion while sending python dance, armoured tanks and soldiers after unarmed peaceful agitators from other region and religion, DO YOU NEED SOMEONE TO TELL YOU THAT SUCH A PRESIDENT IS IMPLEMENTING AN ETHNO-RELIGIOUS AGENDA?? Especially when that President is one who has presided over the country in the past where he showed worst form of ethno-religious bigotry by throwing the Vice President of the govt he overthrew, late Dr Alex Ekwueme, an Igbo Christian into Kirikiri maximum security prison while leaving the main President Shehu Shagari, a Fulani Muslim like himself in a comfortable apartment in the name of house arrest?
I think the problem is, most of us imagine Islamic Jihad to be some group of badly dressed desert dwellers riding on horsebacks while chanting “convert to Islam or be killed” the same way we imagine islamisation to mean a situation where everyone will be forced to start praying towards Mecca.
The world has changed and so has everything along with it. No one needs to force you to start going to the Mosque before you realize you have been islamised.
If your Executive, your Legislature and your Judiciary are all headed by people from a particular region and religion, If your security agencies and indeed all institutions of state coercion are virtually in the hands of only people from a particular region and religion, if your own lawmakers and political leaders who are Christians and Southerners all have to bend the knee and dress like those other people as we saw with Femi Gbajabiamila and Ibe Kachikwu recently, before they can get position they are qualified for, if a governor in an exclusively Christian state like Enugu had to start his inauguration for a 2nd term with a Jummat service in a Mosque just because he needed to pander to some interest, if you that is reading this have had course to contemplate changing your name to sound like that of those other people because you know an Islamic or Fulani sounding name will get you a job in NNPC and CBN while a Christian/southern sounding name will disqualify you for that same job, if a club house in the capital city could be demolished for no just cause, if Muslim youths could attack a Catholic Church in Suleja, Niger state simply for worshipping on Friday with the police not prosecuting any of them, if a female pastor with Redeemed Christian Church, Eunice Elisha could be butchered right here in Abuja simply for preaching in a street housing a Mosque with the police releasing all the Muslim youths arrested without charge, if Fulani herdsmen could rape, maim and carry out ethnic cleansing with govt-sponsored impunity etc, IF ALL OR MOST OF THESE CONDITIONS APPLY, you are already islamized and Fulanised. If you don’t yet realise it, you soon will.”
As is always the case with him, once again Mr. Ogbue has done justice to his subject-matter. He has hit the nail on the head and we ignore his admonitions and words at our own peril. Frankly I could not have analysed the situation better myself.
Permit me to end this contribution with the incisive words of Mr. Bamidele Ademola-Olateju. A few days ago he wrote the following:
“Nigeria is a tragedy descending into a farce.The real motive for surrounding the South West is territorial expansionism and the need for a cultural overrun. Kidnapping for ransom is the prelude to these. With the deadly silence from those who unleashed Operation Crocodile Smile on IPOB but who have refused to even utter a word on Fulani terrorists, the nation is encouraging self-help, which is a vital ingredient in genocide”.
I concur. As they say, a word is enough for the wise.
Femi Fani-Kayode is a lawyer, a Nigerian politician, an evangelical christian, an essayist, a poet and he was the Special Assistant (Public Affairs) to President Olusegun Obasanjo from July 2003 until June 2006. He was the minister of culture and tourism of the Federal Republic of Nigeria from June 22nd to Nov 7th 2006 and as the minister of Aviation from Nov 7th 2006 to May 29th 2007. He runs a syndicated column on The Trent. He tweets from@realFFK.
The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author.
