WHO ARE NORTHERNERS?

We have been inundated with the appellations of the North, Northern Elders, Arewa, and such like. But in human rights activism, we now ask: Who are these Northerners?

Let us relapse a bit to History. When Obasanjo as President gave Non Fulanis sensitive posts in his regime, Sultan of Sokoto went with some Fulani irredentists like Ango Abdullahi , and confronted him, to allege that North was being marginalized. Baffled, Obasanjo querried them: Are Non Fulanis in the North,  not Northerners? The sultan said: NO, they are not.

Obasanjo nodded his head to learn what he probably hadn't known.

The Human Rights in Nigeria now ask: Who really are these Northerners? We have not finished excavation of historical precedences on this pyhrrc question. Cast Your mind back to  December 1979, the very night of primary party elections of NPN.

We clearly saw how Maitama Sule, the erudite Hausa man emerged as NPN flag bearer. Some islamic - Fulani juggernauts led by sultan Attahiru of Sokoto caliphate, said clearly that the Choice of Maitama Sule was not acceptable to the North. Parallel Meeting was held that night to substitute Maitama Sule with less facied and hardly outspoken Shehu Shagari, a muslim Fulani, and the said North was after all, pacified. Then , the civil society in Nigeria here again asks: Who really is a Northerner in Nigeria?

In 2015, the  North rallied round and confronted Jonathan that power must shift to the North, to Buhari in particular, being a Fulani, in order to maintain Democracy founded on Justice and fair play. After eight years of messed up rule by the same Buhari, the same North said that zoning of Presidency to the South is undemocratic, condemning zoning entirely as being anti democracy.

In 1953 when Aminu Kano, a typical Hausa man, upstaged the mysticism of the North to found Northern Elements Progressive Union -- NEPU, Ahmadu Bello. a Fulani, who had founded Northern Peoples Congress-- NPC, clearly condemned Aminu Kano, calling him an Anti North propagandist. Until Bello died in 1966, both were sworn enemies. The Human Rights in Nigeria then ask: Who really are these Northerners?

Maybe we exploit the indelibility of history to proffer solution.

On October 12 , 1960, just eleven days after independence,  on National Parrot Newspaper, Ahmadu Bello gave the beeline answer to the poking question. Bello said: "This new nation called Nigeria is the inheritance of the Fulanis given to them by their great grand father, Uthmandan Foddio. We shall use the Northern minorities as Conquered people, and the South as willing tools, until we dip quoran into the Atlantic."

The fact that you cannot re - write history, is a fact of life. Here in this similitude of a treatise, Ahmadu Bello, the islamic jihadist and Fulani maestro of the North, who prided himself as the great grand son of Uthmandan Foddio, defined in no unclear terms : who a Northerner really is. So, I am very sorry for unsettling your peace and peaceable mien to be  asking the convoluted, but clearly answered question.

We are not making a detour , neither is it a decoy to say that North is Fulani , and Fulani is the North.

Recall that when one Governor of Kaduna State , a Fulani, was selected for the post of Vice President,  whose Deputy was a  Southern Kaduna man, it was a tug of war for the Fulanis to allow for a Non Fulani to govern Kaduna State, and could have had their way if not the seeming immutability of the constitution.

Recall that in the same Kaduna State in 1979, alhaji Balarabe Musa, a staunch talakawa politician and able follower of Aminu Kano, a Hausa muslim, was impeached on frivolous reasons to paveway for another muslim, this time a Fulani , to be the authentic Governor of Kaduna State, as if Balarabe was not authentically elected. This was done to please the North.

The cirocumulus cloud of contortion in the whole scenario is the cultural vulnerability of the so called Northern minorities to be used willy-nilly , to dash the hope of their own people to challenging this evil scheme against them. The likes of the incumbent Governor of Plateau State , Boni  Haruna of Adamawa, can die for Muhammadu Buhari and Atiku Abubakar respectively, but they cut the tails of their fellow Northern tribesmen to please their witchhaunts as Fulanis.

Now let us place the  Biafran war on the  slaughter slab vis a viz the so called  Northern  minorities. It was these said Northern minorities that really fought the war for their overlords called Fulanis.

Yakubu Gowon, Martin Adamu, Theophilus Danjuma, Zamani Lekwot, David Mark, Joshua Dogonyaro,  and host of others, were used to prosecute the war. When they were done with Gowon , they removed him for their own in Murtala Ramat Mohammed. Then , that coup was then used as step up to Launch-pad ethnic cleansing of  Non Fulanis in the Nigerian military, which ideological obscenity has persisted till date in Nigerian military and paramilitary.

Yakubu Gowon was seen recently crying profusely for the decimation of his Plateau people by Fulani- Terrorists called bandits or Fulaniherdsmen or ansaru or bokoharam. Could this be Retributive Justice for allowing yourself to be   used to kill off more than 5 million Igbos in the Fulani- instigated war between 1967--1970 ?

That reminds me of the catword of the said North: One North, One Destiny.

Is the North monolithic? How porous is this dictum as catch phraise. Arewa is Hausa word for  North. Recall , it is not a Fulani word. Why ? Hausa is by far, the most populous in the entire North, but they are voiceless.

The Fulanis are very few , not more than 3 million, but they are in control, and they are not aboriginous Nigerians. So, a Hausa word must be used, not a Fulani word, to galvanize support for the whole North, to be panel- beat by the Fulanis in clear control. This is the racket of cultural nudity in Northern Nigeria from Uthmandan Foddio times, which has served its purpose very well.

Has Yakubu Gowon led the rest of the so called  Northern minorities to condemn ethnic cleansing of Igbos by Nigerians which he led , by the pat on the back by the Fulanis? What goes round , comes round. 

Today, Yakubu Gowon's own so called Northern minorities are being selectively decimated  by the self same people that organized them to kill off Igbos in the unfortunate Biafran war.

When distribution of patronages comes to play, Fulani hegemony is the North. But when sacrifice is needed, the entire North is monolithic.

Submitted by Hon. Comrade George Ezeoba Nwokedi, an Astute Human Rights Activist , the assistant Convener, Voice from the East---V-East.