I call on two articles that I chanced upon recently on social media to help us throw some light on the matter. The first, titled “Who are the real Northerners?”, written by Davidson Rotshak Lar (JP), ran thus:

“We have been inundated with the word North, Northern Elders, Arewa Consultative Forum, Northern Governors Forum etc.  But really we are asking: ‘Who are these Northerners?’ Let us borrow a bit from history. When Obasanjo as president gave the non-Fulani sensitive positions in his regime, the Sultan of Sokoto went with some Fulani irredentists like Ango Abdullahi to confront him and make allegations that the North was being marginalized. Baffled, Obasanjo asked them: ‘Are non-Fulani in the North not Northerners?’ The Sultan said: ‘Yes, they are not!’ Obasanjo nodded his head to learn what he probably had not known before!

“So we ask: ‘Who really are these Northerners?’ Cast your mind back to December 1979, to the very night of the primary elections of NPN. Clearly, Ambassador Maitama Sule, an erudite Hausa man, emerged as the NPN flag bearer.  Some islamic Fulani juggernauts led by Sultan Attahiru of the Sokoto caliphate said clearly that the choice of Maitama Sule was not acceptable to the North. A parallel meeting was held that night to substitute Maitama Sule with less-known and hardly-outspoken Shehu Shagari, a muslim Fulani, and the said North was, after that, pacified. So we ask: ‘Who really is a Northerner in Nigeria?’

“In 2015, the  North rallied and confronted President Goodluck Jonathan that power must shift to the North – to Muhammadu Buhari in particular, being a Fulani, in order to maintain a democracy that is supposed to be founded on justice and fairplay. After seven years of the (mis)rule by the same Buhari, the same North said that zoning the Presidency to the South was undemocratic! They condemned zoning entirely as being anti-democratic and some of them like Nasir el-Rufai told us that it is not about region but competence!

“In 1953 when Aminu Kano, a Hausa man, upstaged the mysticism of the North to found the Northern Elements Progressive Union (NEPU), Sir Ahmadu Bello, a Fulani who had founded the Northern Peoples Congress (NPC), condemned Aminu Kano, calling him an anti-North propagandist.  Until Bello died in 1966, both men were sworn enemies. So we ask: ‘Who really are these Northerners?’

“On October 12, 1960, just eleven days after independence, the National Parrot newspaper quoted Ahmadu Bello, who said:  ‘This new nation called Nigeria is the inheritance of the Fulani given to them  by their great-grand-father, Uthman dan Fodio. We shall use the Northern minorities as conquered people, and the South as willing tools until we dip the Koran into the Atlantic ocean’.

“We make bold to say that the North is Fulani and Fulani is the North! Recall that when one governor of Kaduna State, a Fulani (Mohammed Namadi Sambo), was selected for the post of Vice President (by Jonathan) and his deputy (Patrick Ibrahim Yakowa) was a Southern Kaduna Christian, it was tug of war for the Fulani to allow him (a non-Fulani) to govern the state. They could have had their way if not for the seeming immutability of the Constitution.

“Recall that in the same Kaduna State in 1979, Balarabe Musa, a staunch talakawa politician and an able follower of Aminu Kano, a Hausa muslim, was impeached on frivolous reasons to pave the way for another muslim, this time a Fulani (Abba Musa Rimi), to become the ‘authentic’ governor of the state. This was done to please the North.

“The vexatious cloud of contortion in the whole scenario is the cultural vulnerability of Northern minority politicians to be used willy-nilly to dash the hopes of their own people to please their feudal masters – the Fulani.

“The sobriquet of ‘One North, One Destiny, One People’ is a lie from the pit of hell! Is the North monolithic? ‘Arewa’ is Hausa, not Fulani, word for ‘North’.  Why? The Hausa are by far the most populous group in the entire North, but they are voiceless. The Fulani are very few but are in control politically and economically, even though they are not aboriginal Nigerians. So, a Hausa word must be used to galvanize support from the whole North so as to consolidate the Fulani hold on power. This is the racket of cultural nudity in Northern Nigeria from Uthman Dan Fodio’s time, which has served its purpose very well. And they would call all non-Muslims, including those from the North, pagans or kafiris!”

Now, I, Bolanle Bolawole, dare to say that constructed, formulated, and aided by the British, the Fulani vice-like grip over Nigeria has viciously caused it more harm than good. I dare to say as well that it is this same “North” that is threatening Armageddon over President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s tax reform that is meant to foster equity, fairplay and prosperity across board through hard work and sincerity of purpose! It is this “North” that is accusing Tinubu of marginalising it, despite that its long years of rule over the country has done no one, including itself, any good, and despite an avalanche of sensitive positions ceded to both Northern minorities and the Fulani themselves by the Tinubu administration. It seemeth to me that the Fulani, who pride themselves as the “North”, want all the positions for themselves and themselves only. This is one of the foundational problems with Nigeria!

READ ALSO: Two dead after falling into diesel reservoir –LASEMA

Now to the second piece by Reno Omokri titled “The Historical Reasons Why I Strongly Support President Bola Tinubu”; it goes thus: “Nigeria, as it is presently constituted, is not what we agreed with the British. It was forced on us by a General named Johnson Aguiyi-Ironsi after a coup staged by mostly Igbo officers… For the first six years of our existence as an independent nation, Nigeria had regions with full powers of resource control and who were free to do pretty much as they pleased, except secede. For example, two of the three regions (the West and East) had diplomatic relations with Israel while the North rejected it.

More importantly, rather than waste time and energy trimming branches and papering over cracks caused by the country’s foundational problems, let us once and for all address its structural defects, get to the bottom of the pot and address the root causes of why the superstructure/edifice erected on a defective foundation/structure is not likely to endure. Everywhere you look – North, East and West – the signs are there that time to do the needful is running out!

“Economic competition spurred growth. At that time, the Southwest was so advanced that the Saudi royal family used to have their medicals at the University College Hospital, Ibadan. Western Nigeria had universal free basic education before many European countries and was the pacesetter for progressive policies in Nigeria. The immediate post-independence Nigeria was not a British construct. Our leaders sat down and agreed to form a loose union. We would have even gotten our independence before Ghana, but the North was not ready, and there were quarrels between Chief Obafemi Awolowo and Nnamdi Azikiwe.

“Chief Obafemi Awolowo mooted the idea of a secession clause in 1954 during the Lagos Constitutional Conference, but Nnamdi Azikiwe rejected it, galvanising a majority of the conference attendees to kill the idea. Chief Awolowo again wrote to the then Governor-General of Nigeria, who rejected the clause on the grounds that the majority, led by Azikiwe, did not support it. Because of Azikiwe, section 86 was inserted into our Constitution with the proviso that if any region should secede, it would be an act of treason. We eventually gained Independence on October 1, 1960.

“There was an initial nationwide celebration (of the coup of January 15, 1966) until the dust settled and the rest of the nation realised that the Igbo coup plotters did not kill their own Igbo leaders. And when an elected Northern Prime Minister, Sir Abubakar Tafawa-Balewa, was killed by Igbo soldiers to be replaced by an Igbo General, instead of the next ranking member of parliament from the ruling Northern Peoples Congress (which would have been Zanna Bukar Dipcharima), protests broke out. When the new ruler, Major-General Johnson Aguiyi-Ironsi, broadcast a message and assured the nation that the plotters would be tried, things calmed down. But Ironsi surrounded himself with only Igbo advisers, including Chief Francis Nwokedi, Dr. Pius Okigbo, and Colonel Patrick Anwunah. Calls for him to appoint at least one token non-Igbo were brushed aside.

“And then, rather unwisely, Ironsi promulgated Decree Number 34 on May 24, 1966, which effectively ended regionalism, took control of all resources, including oil, which had hitherto belonged to the regions, and domiciled them in his military government. Other members of the Supreme Military Council alleged that Ironsi did not consult them before promulgating the decree. It is not known if their allegation is true. However, Ironsi’s Attorney-General, Chief Gabriel Chike Michael Onyiuke, later said Ironsi did not need to consult them. If Ironsi had not sacked Taslim Olawale Elias as Attorney-General and replaced him with a fellow Igbo, Chike Onyiuke, he might have gotten a different counsel, but we will never know.

“That decree ignited the counter-coup of July 29, 1966, during which Ironsi was killed and was replaced with Lt. Colonel Yakubu Gowon… All Military Governors accepted Gowon except Ojukwu. Eventually, the then Ghanaian military leader, General Ankrah, invited Gowon and Ojukwu for a peace meeting in Aburi, Ghana between January 4 and 5, 1967. Agreements were reached, including that Gowon would broadcast first, AFTER CONSULTATIONS, followed by Ojukwu. However, upon return, Ojukwu made his broadcast first, which shocked other regions and jeopardised Gowon, who was almost removed by those who made him Head of State. Note that Gowon… at that time, was just a titular Head of State. Real power was domiciled with Colonel Murtala Muhammed until Murtala was militarily humiliated by the Biafrans at Abagana on March 31, 1968, after which Gowon relieved him of his command…

“If Ojukwu had been patient and had waited for Gowon to make his broadcast first, it is almost certain that there would not have been a civil war. The bulk of Northern soldiers, led by Murtala Muhammed, wanted outright division and if they could not get that, then, a return to status quo ante bellum. The fragile Gowon government had been working on Decree Number 8, which, when you look at that decree in hindsight, could have solved much of Nigeria’s current challenges. But after Ojukwu preempted Gowon by his March 1967 broadcast, the decree had to be reworked.

“In fact, if Ojukwu had proclaimed Biafra with only territories belonging to the Igbos, then, it might have still been possible to avoid war. But by seceding with the entire Eastern Region, including minorities like the Ijaw, Efik, Ibibio, Ikwere and others who were not consulted as equals before the May 30, 1967 declaration of the Republic of Biafra, Ojukwu knowingly or unknowingly made war inevitable…”

Now, I, Bolanle Bolawole, make bold to say that Zik who stood against the right of the regions to secede peacefully without war or violence; the young military officers who, while ending the First Republic, introduced tribalism into the polity; the first military Head of State who ended regionalism and imposed the military command structure on the country; and the overly ambitious Biafran leader, Ojukwu, who made a 30-month civil war (whose sores are yet to heal) inevitable – these men created the foundational problems the country has yet to find a way to exit. Ironically, their supporters and successors are not only adamantly unrepentant, not willing to look themselves in the mirror, but are also rancourous and the loudest at pointing accusing fingers at others!

Let the so-called North and the East mend their ways and give peace a chance! More importantly, rather than waste time and energy trimming branches and papering over cracks caused by the country’s foundational problems, let us once and for all address its structural defects, get to the bottom of the pot and address the root causes of why the superstructure/edifice erected on a defective foundation/structure is not likely to endure. Everywhere you look – North, East and West – the signs are there that time to do the needful is running out!

*Bolawole (turnpot@gmail.com 0807 552 5533), former Editor of PUNCH newspapers, Chairman of its Editorial Board and Deputy Editor-in-chief, was also the Managing Director/ Editor-in-chief of the Westerner newsmagazine. He writes the “ON THE LORD’S DAY” column in the Sunday Tribune and “TREASURES” column in the New Telegraph newspapers. He is also a public affairs analyst on radio and television.

The post The problems with Nigeria…, By Bolanle Bolawole appeared first on Frontpageng.

A new twist was introduced into the Ibadan explosion of 16 January, 2024 by the Yoruba Self-Determination Movement (YSDM) when it alleged that the explosion was not caused by any errant legal or illegal miner, be it Malian or Nigerian, but that it was a failed assassination attempt on the life of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. Led by Prof. Banji Akintoye, YSDM is a pro-Yoruba or Oodua Nation nationalist group.

In an open letter to Governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo State, YSDM commiserated with the governor and people of Oyo State over the gruesome incident but also commented on what many have described as Makinde’s hasty conclusion that mining explosives, stored in a private home in a thickly populated residential area, was the cause of the explosion that was directly responsible for the death of seven people, with close to a hundred others wounded, and causing extensive damage to properties worth billions of Naira.

The die is cast! Before the vultures begin to swirl, we must act fast!

Said YSDM: “One group of our Yoruba patriots has suggested that the explosion was caused by a big military-grade bomb; that the bomb seems to have been brought to Ibadan for use to wipe out a large number of leading Yoruba citizens gathered at a large celebration in the International Hall, University of Ibadan, at which President Tinubu was scheduled to be present; and that when President Tinubu did not attend, the owners of the bomb took it back to an inappropriate storage in a living house in nearby Bodija Estate, where some sort of mishandling caused it to detonate…”

This allegation is weighty and could not have been lightly made by an organization of YSDM’s stature or pedigree, which is the foremost assemblage of Yoruba self-determination protagonists. Akintoye himself is a scholar of international repute and a leading figure in the Yoruba socio-cultural-cum political organization, AFENIFERE. It is instructive that neither Makinde nor the Federal Government has responded openly to YSDM’s allegation. The relevant agencies must still be investigating the matter. Could the allegation be true or is it a mere crying wolf?

Hopefully, when the investigation is done with, the authorities will let us know. For sure, this incident is not one that should be swept under the carpet, not in view of other circumstances surrounding it, apart from the alleged attempt on the president’s life. Remember, it was in this same city of Ibadan that the masterminds of the July 1966 counter-coup cornered and killed Nigeria’s first military Head of State, Gen. JTU Aguiyi-Ironsi, and his host, the Western Region governor, Col. Francis Adekunle Fajuyi. The events that followed led to a 30-month civil war. Can Nigeria afford another civil war?

Before arriving at its conclusion that the Ibadan explosion was an assassination attempt on Tinubu’s life, the YSDM laid the foundation as follows: “Those among us who are knowledgeable about explosives say that this explosion is not consistent with an explosion caused by a miner’s store of dynamites. They say that a miner’s dynamite can only be stored as packages in boxes and bags, and that a mishap with the contents of the storage can only set up a series of explosions lasting for some minutes, and cannot set up one mighty explosion that does all the terror and destruction (that took place at Ibadan)”.

Continuing, the YSDM told Makinde: “It does not sound plausible, Your Excellency, that any master miner would store a large quantity of dynamites of his profession in his home or bedroom. Furthermore, and very importantly, what do our Oyo State Government and people know about this miner who is said to be from Mali Republic, who does considerable mining on our land with a Federal Government licence, who pays business taxes to the Federal Government only, and who, according to some of our people who have had contacts with him before, desires no contact with the Oyo State Government or the local government of his place of residence?”

Not done yet, the YSDM argued: “And still further, Your Excellency, it is very well known that Dejo Oyelese Street, off Adeyi avenue, where the explosion happened, is one of the choicest parts of Bodija Estate, containing the homes of many prominent Yoruba persons – professors (retired and serving), highly-placed professionals, retired governors, retired senior civil servants, etc. – whose houses have now been destroyed. Does the importance of Dejo Oyelese Street have anything to do with this explosion? In other words, was the explosion meant to eliminate many important Yoruba citizens at one blast, with the purpose of seriously hurting the Yoruba nation? Is this (explosion) some sort of threat to us Yoruba people in Nigeria?”

Questions, questions, and questions but will the appropriate answers ever come other than those meant to sweep this matter under the carpets, like the others before it? The reason being that the authorities themselves are complicit in the criminal activities taking place all over the place. Where they are not criminally negligent, they are hands-in-gloves with the perpetrators of all sorts of criminal activities that hurt the people they are elected into office to serve and whose interests they swore on oath to protect and advance.

Can our political leaders and top traditional rulers claim ignorance of both legal and illegal mining activities taking place in their domain? Where they and/or their cronies are not directly involved in these activities that destroy our environment and benefit the people, the communities and the government itself nothing, are they not in cahoots with those that do? Why is it that our governments cannot take these licences and partner with professional miners openly and transparently to mine our God-endowed mineral resources to our benefit? Why are aliens the ones carting away our resources before our very eyes? They feign it but can any of our governors in all honesty claim not to be aware of the rip-off going on? Are our leaders not part of the racket?

In the final analysis, nothing is hidden. There are no selfish and/or corrupt activities that anyone engages in that is hidden. Afterall, they have accomplices-in-crime. They have foot soldiers running their dirty errands for them. I will give a few examples. Why are they not allowing DAWN – Development Agenda for Western Nigeria – to function properly? Why the lack of synergy among our leaders for the rapid development of the South-west? Why is everyone more concerned with the “development” of their individual pockets?  Why are we not properly funding Amotekun? With all the criminality being unleashed on Yoruba land today, why is securing the life and property of the people not a priority? Why do our leaders maintain criminal silence or speak tongue-in-cheek when they should have spoken out forcefully in defence of their people?

I started my journalism profession at the Ibadan-based Sketch newspapers, owned by the southwest states, in 1985 but where is Sketch today? Why did our governors of the time allow it to die? From what we heard, when those who wanted to buy and convert it into their personal property failed in their bid, they let the newspaper die! The Yoruba used to be the doyen of the media; no more! If you give ideas that can benefit the people to our leaders to execute, they always look for avenues to appropriate and corner it for themselves. Examples are legion.

READ ALSO: Between Obasanjo and Afe Babalola, By Bola Bolawole

Ask our young men and women churning out proposals after proposals, they have stories of woes to tell. I, too, suffered such in the past. Ask our professionals in the Diaspora bubbling with ideas and who, being patriotic enough, came home to sell their ideas to our leaders; they will regal you with stories of betrayal and selfishness. Ask our leaders what happened to Odua Net (O’Net). If you fling open the closets of our leaders, serving or retired, dead or alive, you will cry for Yoruba land. It is said that the enemy within throws the door open for the enemy without. I don’t know if I can make any exceptions, but if you can, please do!

It is time we began to hold the feet of our leaders to the fire. What are they doing with the humongous amount they collect monthly from Abuja? What are they doing with their security votes that secure nothing? Why are the Yoruba regressing on all the fronts where they used to occupy the commanding heights – the professions, education, industries, name it! We have seen Dangote refinery; we have seen the BUA and Dangote cement factories; we have seen Ibom Air, among many others; let our leaders tell us the industries they, too, have established.

Having said all of the above, it does not in any way exonerate Miyetti and kidnappers from censure for their renewed criminality. I said somewhere else that I have removed “Allah” from Miyetti’s name because there is nothing godly in them and their activities. Now, why is Miyetti demanding that no Fulani should be arrested over the Ibadan explosion? What does Miyetti know about the explosion? If there was no Fulani involvement, why threaten the government not to arrest any Fulani over it? And if involved, why should any criminal be shielded by anyone, except like-minded criminals?

Miyetti’s latest antics include the brazen setting up of an armed-to-the-teeth Fulani militia, whereas Amotekun and other para-military groups elsewhere were denied sophisticated arms. Not only that, they have begun hurling attacks at the Tinubu administration, threatening to make the country ungovernable for him and inhospitable for the generality of Nigerians. In a statement issued on January 24, 2024, Miyetti virtually declared war on the country; that is treason. Not only its leaders but also all its militia members must be brought to book.

It is time we began to hold the feet of our leaders to the fire. What are they doing with the humongous amount they collect monthly from Abuja?

Miyetti’s declaration of what it called “inevitable jihad” against Nigeria is a criminal act and the days of treating these criminals with kid gloves, which has emboldened them, must now come to an end. Fortunately, their grand patron is no longer in office. The new sheriff in town must act swiftly, firmly, and decisively if this country is to continue to hold together. Now, the danger in Miyetti’s declaration of war on all Nigerians who do not subscribe to their hideous ideology is that they gave only two options: Either we succumb and become slaves to Miyetti or we pick up the gauntlet and fight to defend ourselves, our territories, our liberties and freedom.

Unfortunately, I have not heard much condemnation of Miyetti from the North’s leaders and establishment. Does it mean that Miyetti has their back? Is Miyetti merely running errands? If the feudal North will not call its bad boys to order, then, bad boys from other parts of the land will rise and confront them. And their own leaders, too, will back them up. That appears to be the tone of a statement by the YSDM denouncing what it described as “the Fulani declared war on Yoruba Nation”. Reeling off case after case of embarrassing killing of traditional rulers and other citizens, and the kidnapping of school children in Yoruba land, the YSDM vowed that the Yoruba would defend themselves.

The die is cast! Before the vultures begin to swirl, we must act fast!

*Bolawole (turnpot@gmail.com / 0705 263 1058)

The post Miyetti’s threat: Time to act! appeared first on Frontpageng.