By Col. Gora Albehu Dauda Rtd
31 July 2025.
If ever there was a hypocritical country and people in all of history, without even if a scintilla of doubt, that fists the contraption called Nigeria perfectly for many a reason. By way of a background, I am endigine of the Middle Belt of the contraption called Nigeria and from the Atyap people of Zangon Kataf LGA in Kaduna State. I am griefed by the quantum of falsehood fed me and many other people over the years about this contraption, by so doing our ability to think deeply well beyond the facade of those who lorded it over us was truncated. All this is because of 2 very selfish and or dubious concerns.
The first is that as ethnic Nigerians we were all duped into accepting contrived falsehood as History. For example, I, and many in my generation were thought amongst many other falsehoods that the proven master terrorist and genicidal Fulani settler going by the name of Usman Dan Fodio championed a religious war to spread Islam to Nigeria when as a matter of fact, he was converted to Islam upon his arrival in what was later to become Nigeria many yeats later. The abdolute lies that were convenient to him.was recorded as History which the British collaborators also swallowed line hook and sinker as worthy of being thought in schools. The attrocities which amounted to genocide committed during the dubious Jihad were conveniently left out. The second is that the British colonizing regime for their merchantilist interest were not interested in interrogating the past as to establishing the truth of that which had been recorded as History.
With this background, the British colonizing regime forged a working relationship with the Fulani who had established the Emirate system of government wbich was to serve their interest conveniently. With that arrangement, the Fulani were handed a strategic advantage over the other ethnic nationalities in Nigeria. Any discerning observer will reslise that the Hausa who constitute the largest tribe not only in the Northern Region but in the territory of Nigeria were effectively forced under a Fulani carpet. The colonizing regime at all times sought to give their Fulani friends undue advantage. They made sure that the ethnic nationalities in all of the area they carved out and called Northern Region could only find political and economic expression through the very tiny Fulani ruling elite. For 220 years since the dubious Jihad, the Fulani setlers have continued to lord it over all the other ethnic nationality especially in the North of the country.
Subsequently, Indirect rule as the name suggests clearly handed over the fate of all of the ethnic nationalists over to the Fulani ruling class this time around internal colonialism took hold in the Northern Region of that time. The British could only be accessed at the whims and caprises of the Fulani. Policies of governmemt therefore largely benefited only the Fulani. You can almost conclude that but for the efforts of Christian Missionaries, virtually all of the Northern ethnic nationalities would have gone without Western education. Though many sons and daughters of the ethnic nationalities swept under the fuedal Fulani carpet obtained Western education thanks to the untiring efforts of the Missionaries, yet only a few found some accomodation within the structures of the Indirect rule system. So much was the descrimination that only Fulani or Muslim interest matteted. Is it any wonder then that the North trailed the East and Western Region in western values?
Consistently over the period, the Fulani elites have recklessly harvested the votes of millions of the oppressed Hausa to position themselves politically with the Hausa benefiting next to nothing not to talk of the many other ethnic nationalities in the North. It has been very easy for the Fulani to manipulate the system to their advantage by deploying religion. Ethnicity may have played a role but not a formidable one as religion. Like Marx so succinctly captured it in his famous declaration of religion being the opium of the masses, to that extent have the Fulani political elite manipulated the Hausa muslim votes to their political advantage. Had the Fulani carried the Hausa population along or had they shared the spoils of office to reach the Haisa population, the current Hausa political rennaisance perhaps would have been delayed further. The advocacy of Hajiya Khaltum Allimbe Jitami of Jaruma Hausa TV 24 has succeeded in raising the political consiousness on the many largely uninformed Hausa and the other ethnic nationalities as to their places usurped by the Fulani.
History has warehoused the attrocities of the Fulani in Nigeria since 1804 and the time has now come to call s spade, a spade between the settlers and the rest of the ethnic nationalities in Nigeria. The Muhammadu Buhari era did open the eyes of many Nigerians to the evil content of that regime. I have in many an essay brought to the fore the fact that Buhari was the product of a Fulani cartel that was focused on actualizing the age long desire of Usman Dan Fodio to turn the whole of Nigerian territory into a Fulani homeland. To attempt actualizing that madness, when he had no strength after months in foreign medical facilities one of his first Bills was the Grazing Reserves and Ruga in all of the States of this country. Prior, Fulani interest had ensured that virtually all of the positions of State governors, Ministers, NASS members went to only Fulani candidates. Happily, that strategy failed to yield the required result. All that the Hausa population needs to do to break the jinx is for them to put up Hausa candidates for all the poitical positions contestable. This will put to the taste the hitherto assumed Fulani popularity.
Clearly, the Fulani have costituted themselves into a menace by still believing the absolute nonsense that their forebear Usman Dan Fodio bequeathed the terrotory of Nigeria to them as war booty. The current resort to terrorism/Banditry much as the dubious Jihad will similarly fail. The Fulani have stained themselves with the innocent blood of too many Nigerians. The governments of Nigeria not limited to the Muhammadu Buhari regime have all proven to be impotent to the level of making the Fulani feel they are at liberty to do just anything. There have been countless incidents of mass murders in Benue, the Plateau Southern Kaduna, Xamfara, Katsina and elsewhere without the appropriate Military response. The Fulani armed gangs as well as their finaceirs and sympathizers embedded in government as well as those from outside will in due time be paid in kind.
Bona fide Nigeriams have suffered untold humiliation at the instance of the Fulani settlers. For the Fulani herdsmen who derive pleasure in driving cattle to eat up and or destroy farmlands and crops to their amusement whilst they make videos which they post on social media is most humiliating. Where the farm owners have dared to challenge such madness, they were confronted with the firepower of the ubiquotus AK 47s. Many of such largely peasant farmers have ended up losing their lives or with serious injuries. What society anywhere on the planet will continue to be subjected to such humiliating experiences whithout preparing to confront the perpetrators? Matters have come to a head as the people cannot bear it any longer
Moving forward, the ethnic nationalities of this country must design a strategy that will free and recover this country from tha stranglehold of the Fulani settlers. There is no need waiting for this to be achieved through an armed struggle since it can be achieved at a much cheaper cost poitically. The Fulani can no longer pretend not to know that the party is over for many of tiem politically. The Fulani arrogance and impunity has to be halted. Territorial expansionism via the mechansm of violence is abhorent in the 21 Century, so cleatly the very idea by the Fulani of acquiring land through coercive means ought not be toloreted. The Nigerian State must therefore have to wake up from the slumber of indfference to actively protecting and securing the population since that is her primary responsibility. To God Be The Glory.