Northern Minorities And Their Tormentors

By Joseph Rotimi… Once again, Kaduna State is in a state of turmoil and the minorities are bearing the brunt of a genocidal conspiracy. Before now, when people think of the North, they imagine a monolithic political assemblage of Nigerians united in thought and aspirations. Though the skirmishes to liberate the so-called minorities from a dominant, hegemonistic northern oligarchy had been present for some time, it was during the Obasanjo regime that the fight appeared to have gained some urgency.

When northern irredentists or their lackeys lead government in states such as Kaduna, Adamawa, Taraba, Plateau and Bauchi which have substantial non-Hausa/Fulani indigenes, mindless and unexplained massacres usually follow. When you couple this with the functional apartheid of Sharia law in most northern states, you have a recipe for disaster.

Northern leaders, especially those that believe northern minorities are somewhat inferior, trivialise genocidal events with a dismissive, nonsensical, “it is being perpetrated by criminals”.   It appears as if when Fulani Herdsmen perpetrate genocides, there is a tendency to give false “official” versions of the event and hold on to it. The former Inspector General of police insisted that “criminals”, not Fulani Herdsmen, carried out the carnage in Benue State last year. To add insult to injury, the security forces alleged that the criminals were not from the country but crossed the border illegally to kill innocent Nigerians. The Sultan of Sokoto at various times has decried the tendency to blame Fulanis for the egregious attacks on settled communities in the country. He said those carrying out the attacks were “criminals” not Fulanis.  But if these abhorrent human beings were just “criminals” whose duty is it to apprehend them? The admission that criminals are able to come into the country and do as they please while the government gives excuses is one indication that Nigeria as a sovereign country is a mirage.

About a week ago the internal affairs minister, Mr Danbazzau chided northern Christian leaders for raising alarm over the recent and continuous killings in Southern Kaduna. The minister said the Christian leaders should not blame Muslims, as it was not a religious conflict. He further opined that the “criminals” (here we go again) kill anyone, and not just Christians. The minister, in a statement issued on his behalf was said to have advised northern Christian leaders, “… to refrain from giving the crisis between herdsmen and sedentary farmers in Southern Kaduna a religious connotation, rather, attention should be focused on the real enemies of our society, who illegally acquire weapons to terrorize Christian and Muslim communities alike”. This was in response to Christian leader’s insistence that the killers behind the conflict were Muslim fundamentalists disguised as Herdsmen.

Read also: Sultan Lied, Gender Equality Bill is not Anti-Islam

Generally, the northern minority and their subjugation by the Hausa/Fulani has been a recurrent theme for decades, usually with the connivance or nonchalance of security forces. The struggle is more intense when the leadership of Nigeria or the Northern state affected is a Hausa/Fulani apologist such as we now have in the person of PMB and governor El-Rufai in Kaduna state. A Hausa/Fulani man, on live TV, while giving an opinion about the indigene/settler question in Plateau state said inter alia, “…when a people of superior culture come to a place where the people are of inferior culture the former must dominate”. This was before the outbreak of violence in Plateau state nearly two decades ago. If those who should show some understanding of basic human interaction speak this way, it is better imagined how the uneducated think.

The struggle to live as human beings by minorities in the north is going to be a long one because those considered majority (Hausa/Fulani) know that real opposition to their atrocities is non-existent. No other group or tribe in the country are able to commit heinous crimes against Nigeria’s statehood and get away with it like the Hausa/Fulani. They are able to do this principally by projecting a unified front against other Nigerians and their dominance of the military. All attempts at curbing this inordinate power mongering has been thwarted in favour of feudal imposition and religious bigotry.

With the help of successive northern military leaders, a constitution that concentrated too much power in Federal hands has been at the center of Nigeria’s struggle for viability as a nation.  Ironically, it was for this same reason (unitary federation) that led to the assassination of the first Nigerian military Head of State and ultimately the civil war. This is the reason why the northern political establishment acts like fish out of water when they are out of power. They fear restructuring our polity or any form of autonomy for regions of the country with the jaded quote: “Nigeria’s unity is non-negotiable”. If our unity is non-negotiable, who, and how was the country’s “unity” negotiated in the first place?

A patriot must defend the country against the government. The problem we have is the lack of a critical mass of patriots. And many so-called patriots become turncoats once they get government positions or steady supply of wealth. Only the people can save themselves and Southern Kaduna is no exception. Freedom is never free; if you want it, you have to fight for it. Opposition to Hausa/Fulani domination by northern minorities from Benue, Bauchi, Kaduna, Plateau, Taraba, Borno and other states must be coordinated for success. Let’s see if they can rise to the occasion once and for all.

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