PBAT/Shettima leadership is 3 years old. Apart from the Muslim-Muslim ticket which I still hold as insensitive and arrogant in every sense of those words, I honestly will not blame them for our current insecurity — that lies squarely on the shoulders of Northern Elite.
We often shy away from these discussions for fear we would be cancelled, loss friends and favour, or worst still being label a sellout or even kafir as has been done in the past. But for me, I am the type that will beg you for food today and still tell you my truth at the time you are handing the envelop. You have two choices at that point: Deny me it or accept my sincere submission and still give me. I hold no grudges ever.
Majority of Northern elite are very dishonest with our people, especially when it will mean they no longer get a seat at the table. For them, access to power and sending their children to elite schools trumps everything. Unfortunately, they shape perception of the North by outsiders and control how the masses in the North see outsiders, all in one breadth. They share this super power with South East and SS leaders. The only region that has evolved beyond that control is the South west. But this post is focused on the north.
Recently I listened to an audio of @bulamabukarti where he talked about Peter Obi’s tenure and actions against Hausa traders. What caught my attention is when he said “Peter Obi is the only governor that has shown open hatred against Muslims and Hausas since return to democracy.” That was so dishonest.
He is a media person and I can’t argue with him on things he may be privy to that an ordinary person will not see, but the problem here is that between 1999 and 2013 that he referenced, I cannot remember the North losing up to 30 people in the South East until IPOB took hold, but the few I can remember between that same period under review, and outside the three region in the North, is the South west!
1999 the North lost over 50 people in one day in Lagos. In the year 2000 under Lam Adesina the North lost over a hundred in saki and there was mass exodus of northerners from the south west back to the North. In 2002 in Lagos again, this time it was so bloody that our current president, then governor was accused of hate towards the north. In fairness to him, he made very assertive efforts to quell the issue, engaged Hausa leaders in Lagos and also reached out to many Northern governors to help prevent retaliation. Northerners had to leave Lagos in droves. These are verifiable facts that people like Bulama and a host of compromised Northerners do not talk about.
In contrast, having suffered the most losses in the north due to the Sharia crisis in the early 2000s, there was no such threats to Northerners in the south east, at least not the same Anambra state that is often being referenced in that period. I may be wrong?
But this is not even the problem, because in that period under review Nigeria was still healing and the south west had “good” reason to let OPC take their pound of flesh. The only shame was the Northern NADECO proponents who couldn’t talk despite playing the same role with their South west counterpart in bringing us the current democracy. Like the current crop of politicians, they wanted to remain at the table, silence was so golden.
One man in particular took charge in the Lam Adesina’s Oyo crisis. It was in that moment that everyone in the North started calling for him to enter active politics, even though in 1998 after a Arewa elders summit in Sir Kashim House Kawo he had promised not to enter active politics having served Nigeria in two capacities: A HoS and PTF Chairman under ABACHA. His name is General Muhammadu Buhari, and that was when he was first called an Islamist by majorly South west tabloids.
We often shy away from these discussions for fear we would be cancelled, loss friends and favour, or worst still being label a sellout or even kafir as has been done in the past. But for me, I am the type that will beg you for food today and still tell you my truth at the time you are handing the envelop. You have two choices at that point: Deny me it or accept my sincere submission and still give me. I hold no grudges ever.
Majority of Northern elite are very dishonest with our people, especially when it will mean they no longer get a seat at the table. For them, access to power and sending their children to elite schools trumps everything. Unfortunately, they shape perception of the North by outsiders and control how the masses in the North see outsiders, all in one breadth. They share this super power with South East and SS leaders. The only region that has evolved beyond that control is the South west. But this post is focused on the north.
Recently I listened to an audio of @bulamabukarti where he talked about Peter Obi’s tenure and actions against Hausa traders. What caught my attention is when he said “Peter Obi is the only governor that has shown open hatred against Muslims and Hausas since return to democracy.” That was so dishonest.
He is a media person and I can’t argue with him on things he may be privy to that an ordinary person will not see, but the problem here is that between 1999 and 2013 that he referenced, I cannot remember the North losing up to 30 people in the South East until IPOB took hold, but the few I can remember between that same period under review, and outside the three region in the North, is the South west!
1999 the North lost over 50 people in one day in Lagos. In the year 2000 under Lam Adesina the North lost over a hundred in saki and there was mass exodus of northerners from the south west back to the North. In 2002 in Lagos again, this time it was so bloody that our current president, then governor was accused of hate towards the north. In fairness to him, he made very assertive efforts to quell the issue, engaged Hausa leaders in Lagos and also reached out to many Northern governors to help prevent retaliation. Northerners had to leave Lagos in droves. These are verifiable facts that people like Bulama and a host of compromised Northerners do not talk about.
In contrast, having suffered the most losses in the north due to the Sharia crisis in the early 2000s, there was no such threats to Northerners in the south east, at least not the same Anambra state that is often being referenced in that period. I may be wrong?
But this is not even the problem, because in that period under review Nigeria was still healing and the south west had “good” reason to let OPC take their pound of flesh. The only shame was the Northern NADECO proponents who couldn’t talk despite playing the same role with their South west counterpart in bringing us the current democracy. Like the current crop of politicians, they wanted to remain at the table, silence was so golden.
One man in particular took charge in the Lam Adesina’s Oyo crisis. It was in that moment that everyone in the North started calling for him to enter active politics, even though in 1998 after a Arewa elders summit in Sir Kashim House Kawo he had promised not to enter active politics having served Nigeria in two capacities: A HoS and PTF Chairman under ABACHA. His name is General Muhammadu Buhari, and that was when he was first called an Islamist by majorly South west tabloids.
This is not yet conclusive, because I have plenty issues to touch on with people like Bulama and our political Ulama, especially the Izala / Ahli Sunnah, but I have something even more pressing to tell our young Northerners.
JUSTIFIED BALANCE OF TERROR?
It’ll seem to the average young Northern Muslim that there is coordinated hate towards them because of their religion or tribe, but this is not true. If anything, they have been the most respected of the rest of the pack. There was a time everyone wanted to be associated to or with the North. Christians wanted Muslim names, Muslims from minority tribes wanted to be Hausa at all cost, and the North enjoyed unfettered access and respect from all, then Zangon Kataf happened. A preamble of a resistance that started in the military after the Gowon ouster and the follow up assassination of General Murtala.
At least from when I started personal history documentation in 1987 to the 2000s Sharia crisis, I can say for certain that Arewa Politicians have held Nigeria at the jugular while lying to its people that everyone else hates them. They fail to tell the people that everything is as a result of their own actions receiving push backs by the victims of political suppression.
When we cherry pick facts, we are not solving the problem, but instead creating new ones through twisted history. A typical example of this can be seen when you pick the average IPOB’s knowledge of the Nigerian civil war; the only history he has of that is the one told by Chinua Achebe. That is what is happening today amongst Arewa young people on social media.
I saw a video shared by @DanKatsina50 where a Kebbi traditional leaders was asking people to take to self help and it struck me! We are going back to the days when Yahaya Jingri took advantage of the then Zangon Kataf and Jos North crisis to popularise himself. He called for self help by the fulani people and built his followership on that. The average nomad saw him as the only voice at the time. It was that followership that got him bold enough to contest location of then JIBWIS headquarters being located in Kaduna. That too is another story.
Dear Arewa youth, the hate in Nigeria is mutual. The Christian or Southerner does not hate you in isolation. It is a mutually assured balance of terror caused majorly by political suppression.
To give you a small hint: Up until return to democracy, over 50 tribes in Sothern Kaduna were direct subject of the Zazzau emirate. In Kachia, Kasuwan magani, Zonkwa, Kubacha etc, a Dogari can be delegated by a Hausa Hakimi imposed on a people by the emir of Zazzau to go into a local market with whips to enforce tax collection! Many of you don’t know that people lived like that up until 1999? Well, ask your elders to tell you if it happened or not.
So when in 2000 the first talk about Shari’a came up, the Christian Northerners had to fight back because they had tasted leadership under our leaders and would die resisting a return, and rightly so!
Do not lie to them that they will not be affected by Shari’a, they had actually lived under a form of it and will never trust your words on that promise.
Worst still is the fact that their women were turned into objects to satisfy every erected penis and every child that came out of those relationships were denied and called unclean. Many are still alive today. They couldn’t answer their fathers’ names because their mothers were Christians and weren’t married to these men. They were denied inheritance.
The crimes were endless at that time to the extent in places like Ungwan Yelwa in Television Kaduna, Southern Kaduna boys started organising themselves to beat any Christian lady dating a Muslim.
When crisis ensued? Local Fulani in the bush bore the brunt! This lead me to my final point.
JUSTIFIED BALANCE OF TERROR?
It’ll seem to the average young Northern Muslim that there is coordinated hate towards them because of their religion or tribe, but this is not true. If anything, they have been the most respected of the rest of the pack. There was a time everyone wanted to be associated to or with the North. Christians wanted Muslim names, Muslims from minority tribes wanted to be Hausa at all cost, and the North enjoyed unfettered access and respect from all, then Zangon Kataf happened. A preamble of a resistance that started in the military after the Gowon ouster and the follow up assassination of General Murtala.
At least from when I started personal history documentation in 1987 to the 2000s Sharia crisis, I can say for certain that Arewa Politicians have held Nigeria at the jugular while lying to its people that everyone else hates them. They fail to tell the people that everything is as a result of their own actions receiving push backs by the victims of political suppression.
When we cherry pick facts, we are not solving the problem, but instead creating new ones through twisted history. A typical example of this can be seen when you pick the average IPOB’s knowledge of the Nigerian civil war; the only history he has of that is the one told by Chinua Achebe. That is what is happening today amongst Arewa young people on social media.
I saw a video shared by @DanKatsina50 where a Kebbi traditional leaders was asking people to take to self help and it struck me! We are going back to the days when Yahaya Jingri took advantage of the then Zangon Kataf and Jos North crisis to popularise himself. He called for self help by the fulani people and built his followership on that. The average nomad saw him as the only voice at the time. It was that followership that got him bold enough to contest location of then JIBWIS headquarters being located in Kaduna. That too is another story.
Dear Arewa youth, the hate in Nigeria is mutual. The Christian or Southerner does not hate you in isolation. It is a mutually assured balance of terror caused majorly by political suppression.
To give you a small hint: Up until return to democracy, over 50 tribes in Sothern Kaduna were direct subject of the Zazzau emirate. In Kachia, Kasuwan magani, Zonkwa, Kubacha etc, a Dogari can be delegated by a Hausa Hakimi imposed on a people by the emir of Zazzau to go into a local market with whips to enforce tax collection! Many of you don’t know that people lived like that up until 1999? Well, ask your elders to tell you if it happened or not.
So when in 2000 the first talk about Shari’a came up, the Christian Northerners had to fight back because they had tasted leadership under our leaders and would die resisting a return, and rightly so!
Do not lie to them that they will not be affected by Shari’a, they had actually lived under a form of it and will never trust your words on that promise.
Worst still is the fact that their women were turned into objects to satisfy every erected penis and every child that came out of those relationships were denied and called unclean. Many are still alive today. They couldn’t answer their fathers’ names because their mothers were Christians and weren’t married to these men. They were denied inheritance.
The crimes were endless at that time to the extent in places like Ungwan Yelwa in Television Kaduna, Southern Kaduna boys started organising themselves to beat any Christian lady dating a Muslim.
When crisis ensued? Local Fulani in the bush bore the brunt! This lead me to my final point.
SELF HELP? A recipe for disaster:
I know we are frustrated and want banditry to end yesterday! But how has self help helped in the past?
When the crisis of Kaduna started in the 80s, where my own record starts from, like it is today, the leaders in Arewa never suffered any loss. Only traders and majorly Fulani in the bush bore the reactions. It continued like that until early 2000. In the past, due to military rule, everyone was locked in to follow orders.
Meanwhile, bandits had existed in the fringes of the Birnin Gwari forests as far back as the 80s. I know because when in 1991 NACA was moved fully to Kontagora, as Artillery personnel weren’t often sent to external peace keeping, the Tegina road was often manned by soldiers from that Cantonment. And Fulani traversing from other west African countries knew about their existence, and were often victims of these bandits.
But when the 2011 election crisis happened and they suffered more losses? They chose SELF HELP and decided to use balance of Terror. That was the birth of full fledged banditry. And this is why I fear that SELF HELP will not HELP Arewa, especially the North west. You gave them access for too long under religious and tribal affinity. They know you more than you know yourselves!
Dear @officialABAT , I am not your supporter, and this post, especially as it relates to Northern Christians and the past, is one reason why I stood against a Muslim/Muslim ticket, but that did not stop you from winning, and I am 💯 sure you are coming back in 2027. It is politics and I know no one in current Nigeria who plays it better than you. However, far from your belief that insecurity is a political tool against you, it is in fact a self inflicted pain that the North is incapable of solving by itself. My appeal is for you to play the politics that Obasanjo arrogantly refused to play when Yeriman Bakkura started the shari’a craze in 2000. You were a governor at the time and you played very smart to set Lagos as a liberal ground.
Do not listen to your advisers who will like to tell you someone is sponsoring it somewhere to undermine your government. This is not true. The insecurity is a self inflicted religious overreach by pretend politicians. If OBJ had prevailed upon then Northern governors, all of 2000s crisis would not have happened and Boko Haram would not have happened.
You are my President and the President of the largest black population. Bring your game on this one and you’d record history.
Thank you Mr President and on your mandate we shall stand. Don’t just let this crisis snowball beyond where it is today.
I know we are frustrated and want banditry to end yesterday! But how has self help helped in the past?
When the crisis of Kaduna started in the 80s, where my own record starts from, like it is today, the leaders in Arewa never suffered any loss. Only traders and majorly Fulani in the bush bore the reactions. It continued like that until early 2000. In the past, due to military rule, everyone was locked in to follow orders.
Meanwhile, bandits had existed in the fringes of the Birnin Gwari forests as far back as the 80s. I know because when in 1991 NACA was moved fully to Kontagora, as Artillery personnel weren’t often sent to external peace keeping, the Tegina road was often manned by soldiers from that Cantonment. And Fulani traversing from other west African countries knew about their existence, and were often victims of these bandits.
But when the 2011 election crisis happened and they suffered more losses? They chose SELF HELP and decided to use balance of Terror. That was the birth of full fledged banditry. And this is why I fear that SELF HELP will not HELP Arewa, especially the North west. You gave them access for too long under religious and tribal affinity. They know you more than you know yourselves!
Dear @officialABAT , I am not your supporter, and this post, especially as it relates to Northern Christians and the past, is one reason why I stood against a Muslim/Muslim ticket, but that did not stop you from winning, and I am 💯 sure you are coming back in 2027. It is politics and I know no one in current Nigeria who plays it better than you. However, far from your belief that insecurity is a political tool against you, it is in fact a self inflicted pain that the North is incapable of solving by itself. My appeal is for you to play the politics that Obasanjo arrogantly refused to play when Yeriman Bakkura started the shari’a craze in 2000. You were a governor at the time and you played very smart to set Lagos as a liberal ground.
Do not listen to your advisers who will like to tell you someone is sponsoring it somewhere to undermine your government. This is not true. The insecurity is a self inflicted religious overreach by pretend politicians. If OBJ had prevailed upon then Northern governors, all of 2000s crisis would not have happened and Boko Haram would not have happened.
You are my President and the President of the largest black population. Bring your game on this one and you’d record history.
Thank you Mr President and on your mandate we shall stand. Don’t just let this crisis snowball beyond where it is today.
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