Our dear nation has gone through very many difficult times. We’ve survived bloody coups, several rounds of ethno-religious violence; we’ve emerged even from a long and bloody Civil War” – Vice President Yemi Osinbajo.
The warring Fulani and Igbo political rivals already know this. What Nigerians therefore want the acting President to tell the fortune-seeking Igbo political elite and their power-seeking Fulani rivals is that their unhealthy rivalry has held our nation down for far too long. Ironically while the duo pretended to be enemies, they have according to Brigadier General Alabi Isama, jointly ruled our country for the greater part of our independence. Tragically, our nation has known no peace since 1962, when they unpatriotically undermined our constitution in order rule the nation according to their blurred vision of society.
If we needed any reason to prove that the rivals are behind current tension in the nation, the well-crafted Monday letter to Osinbajo, and the measured response from Ohaneze settled that. The Arewa youth in the said letter had said the north cannot “afford to continue giving the keys to (their) cities to a people whose utterances, plans and arrangements are clearly geared towards war and anarchy”, as “Kanu and IPOB who preach hatred and war virtually every day, have not been cautioned by any Igbo leader”. We didn’t need to assume this was the case of the hand of Esau and the hand of Jacob as Fulani elders did not waste time before endorsing the statement.
The Igbo political elite in its own response say – “That some individuals are pushing for self-determination in the South-east does not mean that the Igbo want to secede. The real situation is a protest against marginalization.” Since the Ibo political elite were not only influential during the administration of Jonathan who has confessed he was ‘caged all through his presidency’, one cannot divorce the madness and campaign of hate in the last two years from those who recently lost influence.
After undermining our constitution, the two rivals first confronted themselves over the disputed 1963 census result. Outwitted by their rivals through the judiciary, the Igbo political elite understood that if democracy is game of numbers, the census returns figures for the north had foreclosed the possibility of an Igbo leader emerging through a constitutional means. Afterwards, what followed on the pages of newspapers was a campaign of hate with the Igbo dismissing the Fulani as ‘the kola-nut eating ignoramuses’ with the Fulani responding in kind about ‘half naked non-believers of the eastern forest’. This was the atmosphere under which the 1964 election was held. Again in the constitutional crisis thrown up by the disputed election result, the Fulani outfoxed their Igbo rivals.
The first recorded Igbo victory against their Fulani political rivals followed the January 1966 Igbo led military coup which decimated the political and military leadership of the north. The victory however was short-lived as the Fulani came back with a vengeance in July 1966, mindlessly killing every Igbo military officer in sight. The civil war that followed (1967-70) ended in favour of Fulani political elite.
By 1979, the Igbo political elite, often driven by quest for material resources and access to power have forgotten the scar of war as they became the ‘beautiful bride’ to Fulani-dominated NPN, an offspring of NPC of the first republic. Even rebel leader Odumegwu Ojukwu who escaped to Ivory Coast as Obasanjo closed on his last hold of Biafra, returned home to embrace the Fulani-controlled NPN. The romance between the two rivals again fell apart over sharing of offices and resources shortly before the 1983 election.
In 1999, Obasanjo, the Fulani candidate was roundly rejected by his Yoruba people. Igbo political elite filled the gap. They featured prominently in his administration. They also exploited the clueless President Azikiwe Jonathan to the maximum building millennium cities and mansions in Abuja without remembering their south eastern states. Jonathan loss of power to a Fulani man has rekindled the old rivalry. They agonised not only because they are out of power but also because they lost the position of spare tyre they had always held to their Yoruba political enemy for the first time in our nation’s history.
But who are the Fulani and the Igbo of Nigeria? The former were fortune seekers who came from Futa Jallon about 1804. Under the guise of purifying the Islamic faith that had existed for over 400 years, they overran the Hausa state. But to underscore it was all about quest for power and quest for fortune, of the 12 leaders appointed by Othman Dan Fodio, all but one were of Fulani tribe .
But the Fulani are astute politicians and empire builders. They adopted Hausa as the lingua franca while keeping their Fulfulde language, spoken only by the Fulani as language of power. Key influential members of the conquered territories are integrated through marriage, business and politics. Ahmadu Bello who was satisfied as the power behind the throne appointed Balewa, a non-Fulani minority who in his autobiography, had referred to his grandmother who had wished all Fulani sent away from their land or be killed, Prime Minister of Nigeria. The Fulani master stroke was deployed in July 1966, when the aggrieved mainstream Fulani military officers settled for Gowon, a Christian from Plateau state as Head of state.
From the fortunes secured from the conquered territories, the Fulani overlords gave fish to the subjects rather than teach them how to fish. They eat food together from the same bowl while sitting on the bare floor with their subjects. And because they have been programmed not to see the difference between the masters and the serfs, they are easy to mobilise to support and sustain the system that weighed heavily against them whether during elections, census exercises or even social upheavals.
They became easy tools in the hands of their Fulani leaders which led to the killing of over 40 southerners. The northern mobs did not need more than the body language of their leaders in July 1966 before embarking to on mindless killings of those Igbo they believed openly celebrated the killing of their benefactors.
The Igbo political elite on the other hand lack the political wizardry and the diplomatic astuteness of their Fulani rival. For instance, despite claiming to have investment of about N43trillion in the north, they have for two years engaged on campaign of hate against the same north. They are not at peace with their neighbours including Rivers where the issue of Igbo abandoned properties had lingered on for about 50 years despite the fact that Ikwere Igbos produced the last three governors of the state. They are similarly not at peace with the Yoruba where they have always found acceptance.
What they however also share in common with their political rival is the exploitation of their often vulnerable Igbo urban immigrants who need protection in a strangers land for political ends. For instance when Akinsanya, an Ijebu man and Zik’s candidate lost to Ernest Ikoli an Ijaw man and Awo’s candidate during Nigerian Youth Movement election, Awo was tarred with the brush of tribalism and the Igbo believed their leader.
Although NCNC was a predominantly Yoruba, but the moment Zik lost a chance to represent Lagos to Dr. Olorunnimbe, another stalwart of NCNC, Yoruba became traitors to the Igbo cause. Zik as premier of East did not enjoy the support of mainstream Igbo who regarded him as Onitsha Igbo; but when the Yoruba in 1952 insisted they preferred Yoruba as premier of the West to an Igbo man, Igbo political elite claimed Yoruba started tribal politics in Nigeria.
What unites the Fulani and their Igbo rivals who have over the years put the interest of their members above that of Nigeria is more than what divide them. Except the predatory political rivals who regard every part of Nigeria as “a no man’s land’, informed Nigerians know the cheapest way to tackle the menace of Fulani herdsmen terrorism, kidnapping and distribution of dangerous drugs is through state, local and community policing.
