Fulanis, Yorubas, Islam and Political Power in Nigeria

Re: The Role of "Resource Control" and Restructuring in the Political Economy of Nigeria By Ibrahim Ado-Kurawa

By

Femi Awoniyi

Speyer, Germany



Anytime the racist-supremacist Fulani Oligarchy is jittery we must be prepared for trouble. The last time they inflicted a civil war on Nigeria, unleashing a season of violence, on a scale never seen before in our history, on our land. Fulanis spare no weapons in battle and hence it is not surprising that they are making appeal to Islam in their desperate efforts to weaken Yoruba nationalism.



The article, "The Role of "Resource Control" and Restructuring in the Political Economy of Nigeria", whose content bears very little semblance to its title makes amusing, albeit a difficult reading. My advice to Ado-Kurawa, obviously an over-excited young advocate for the Fulani supremacy, is to desist from the unscholarly habit of abusing facts, because it amounts to crime against public opinion.



It is always difficult to inhabit the same plane of logic with a Fulani hence you can hardly argue with him. On the one hand Ado-Kurawa disparages ethnic politics and on the other, he repeatedly mentions what the "North" must do to keep together! He would attack Afenifere and Ohaneze and describe the South-South or Niger Delta nationalism as misled, but he would swear that Northern unity is unbreakable!



Ado-Kurawa wrote: "The Southwest with its concealed but deeply rooted internal division can never be a viable entity outside Nigeria. Without Nigeria the oppressed Muslim majority will struggle to assert its rights of self-identity now swept under the carpet because any agitator will be a ready prey of Afenifere blackmail."



How can a sane person claim that Muslims are oppressed in Yorubaland? And I would not be drawn into a debate over the relative strength of Muslim and Christian populations in Yorubaland.



Until now Yorubas have been the main scapegoat of Fulani frustration with his inability to control power like he used to do. Since Obasanjo became president, irrespective of the issue at stake, Fulani commentators don’t miss an opportunity to take a swipe at Yorubas. Be it on "Education in the North", NNPC exploration policy, whatever, Yorubas must be depicted as the enemy. Wada Nas, the Joseph Goebbel of the Fulani establishment, even went over the tops to describe Yorubas as a "Godless people" last year in an article published on gamji.com. This writer was forced to send a protest writing to the publisher of the website.



Of recent, it seems Fulani politicians, intellectuals (if you can call them that) and journalists seem to have suddenly discovered a new weapon in their perpetual battle against peace, stability and social progress in Nigeria; Islam in Yorubaland.



While they are still going around the Christian North pleading that "Northerners" must unite and keep the dubious heritage of the fascist-sectionalist Ahmadu Bello alive, they are, at the same time, coming to Yorubaland to appeal to Muslims there to remain united against Christians in Nigeria.

That is classic Fulani politics of divide and rule!



Yet, in times of violent crisis in the Fulani-ruled North, to ensure that no Yoruba there is spared, Muslims among them are systematically degraded by Fulani imams and journalists into "unbelievers" to make them legitimate target of "sacred terror".



During the anti-American Kano riots, last November, a Yoruba Muslim butcher, Alhaji Kamorudeen Olawore from Offa, Kwara State, was literally cut down in cold blood by his Fulani and Hausa colleagues with whom he said daily prayers and with whom he worshipped in the same Mosque while Alfa Ali Dawodu, a Quranic teacher from Epe, Lagos State, was killed by his neighbours.

So much for Muslim solidarity.



In earlier articles, Ado-Kurawa did not discriminate in his negative reference to Yorubas. For example, in "im Light in the Dark Tunnel: The Northern Gas Pipeline Project", he blamed Yoruba technocrats in the country’s petroleum industry for advising against further prospecting for hydrocarbon deposits in the North. Yet among the most prominent technocrats are Muslims such as Dr Ahmed Onabule, key expert on refining, Dr Lekan Oyekan (junior brother of Alhaja Latifa Okunnu), former director of petroleum inspectorate in the Ministry of Petroleum Resources, and Dr Dare Bademosi, popularly called Nigeria’s gas Tsar.



How oppressed are Muslim Yorubas?



Frontline traditional rulers in Yorubaland who are Muslims include Alhaji Lamidi Adeyemi, the Alafin of Oyo, Alhaji Iyiola Oyewale Matanmi, the Ataoja of Oshogbo, Alhaji Sikiru Adetona, the Awujale of Ijebuland and Alhaji Mustapha Olanipekun, the Oloffa of Offa.



Mr Ado-Kurawa, please can you name a single Hausa Emir of a prominent town in Hausaland today?



Out of the 7 Yoruba-dominated states in Nigeria, four of them have Muslim governors; Senator Ahmed Tinubu, Lagos, Alhaji Lamidi Adesina, Oyo, Chief Abdulkarim Bisi Akande, Oshun, and Alhaji Mohammed Alabi Lawal of Kwara. The deputy governor of Ogun State, Alhaji Sefiu Gbenga Kaka, is also a Muslim. In fact, in Oyo and Oshun states the speakers are also Muslims; Alhaji Asimiyu Alarape and Alhaji Mojeed Alabi respectively. And in the past, we have had a situation where both the governor and his deputy have been Muslims like in Lagos. For example, during the second republic, Alhaji Lateef Jakande and Alhaji Rafiu Jafojo were the governor and deputy governor respectively of Lagos.



In Oyo and Oshun States, in which the late Chief Bola Ige, a Christian, was said to have single-handedly chosen the gubernatorial candidates of the Alliance for Democracy (AD) in 1999, two Muslims were put forward. In the nomination for Lagos, Funsho Williams, a Christian, a supposedly more popular candidate in the state’s AD, lost the party’s primaries because the Afenifere leadership, allegedly "dominated by Christians", preferred a Muslim, Ahmed Tinubu.



A bit further into history. During the political crisis, sponsored by the sectional Ahmadu Bello’s NPC, in the defunct Western Region, Chief Obafemi Awolowo and the "Christian-dominated Action Group" removed Chief Samuel Ladoke Akintola, a Christian, and replaced him with Alhaji Dauda Adegbenro, a Muslim.



Who betrayed Alhaji Moshood Abiola in Yorubaland? They were prominent Muslims like him; Alhaji Azeez Arisekola Alao, Dr Lateef Adegbite and Alhaji Lamidi Adedibu. While Yoruba Christians like Chief Alfred Rewane laid down their lives, and numerous others like Bishop Bolanle Gbonigi, Chiefs Abraham Adesanya, Ayo Adebanjo, Olanihun Ajayi and the late Chief Ige risked theirs for him. Of course I must not fail to mention gallant Muslims like Alhaja Suliat Adedeji who was killed for her support for Abiola, and Alhaji Adesina for his firm support for Abiola’s mandate even at a risk to his live.



Abiola is on record to have donated generously to support the construction of many churches in Yorubaland and beyond and Chief Bode Akindele, a Christian, has also helped build several mosques in Oyo State, to mention a few example. In fact in most Yoruba towns, Obas irrespective of their religious affiliation attend both Muslim and Christian celebrations.



Can you beat that when you talk of enlightened religious tolerance and high-culture civilisation?

Yoruba society makes a textbook example for the peaceful co-existence of adherents of Islam and Christianity in the whole world.



The lesson is that religious difference is not an issue among Yorubas.



However, the Fulani Oligarchy is fighting to introduce religious disharmony into Yorubaland. They sponsored the Pro-Osama bin Laden protest in Ibadan last November and seeing that the Yoruba political elite were too busy fighting among themselves to react, they upped the scale. The next protest they bankrolled two weeks later, in Oshogbo, was more violent; 15 church buildings were set ablaze and a Christian Yoruba was murdered. Of course, the whole Islamic establishment in Yorubaland rose to condemn the mindless act of violence but it does not seem to understand the motive behind it hence it is still to take the necessary measures to expose the agents of Sokoto Caliphate in organisations like the so-called National Council of Muslim Youth Organizations (NACOMYO) led by one Isiaka Sanni, who were behind the two incidents.



The current attempt to weaken Yoruba nationalism by seeking to create a distinct Muslim Yoruba political view-point must be situated within the role which Islam played in the ascendancy of Fulanis to political power in Nigeria.



Islam has been the justification for Fulani power in their empire in Northern Nigeria. The Sultan and Emirs are after all supposed to be the "Leaders of the Faithful"! Shehu Othman dan Fodio and the other Fulanis who overthrew the Hausa states in the 19th century did it with the help of Muslim Hausas who resented their rulers and believed in the just order which Fulani Muslims would impose after their victory.

(These wars, waged to bring Hausaland and other territories and the peoples inhabiting them under Fulani control, is still fraudulently referred to as "Jihad" in history books until today. But they were no Jihad, but treacherous wars fought over power and territory.)



Hence, it should not be surprising that Fulanis are going ‘back to the basics’, which is Islam, in their present battle to retain their privileged position in Nigeria.



The current attempt will fail, but Yoruba politicians must wake up to nip the Fulani-sponsored seed of discord in the bud. Israel has not been able to divide Palestinians along religious lines, hard as it has tried in the past 50 years. Therein lies the sure hope that the Fulani Oligarchy will fail in its devilish endeavour to divide a determined nation like the Yorubas’.



In conclusion:



For how long would the Fulani Oligarchy be able to deflect the massive resentment among Hausas over Fulani privilege in the direction of non-Muslims, Yorubas, Igbos, or what have you, away from its legitimate target?



For how long would Fulanis be able to uphold their privileges in Nigeria and hold down the Hausas and their other subordinate peoples in the North?



For how long must the rest of us suffer for the Fulani oppression of Hausa people?



For how long can Fulanis keep the yearnings of Hausas bottled-up ?



For how long would Fulanis be able deceive the whole world?





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Footnotes: On Lateef Adegbite and the OPC



Adegbite is the secretary-general of the so-called Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs, the instrument of the Sokoto Caliphate to manipulate Islam in Nigeria for the entrenchment of Fulani hegemony in our polity. The "Sultan of Sokoto" is the permanent chairman of the hypocritical body.



Adegbite, who is also the Baba Adinni of Egbaland, made a speech recently to Muslim youths in Oshogbo in which he warned OPC Oduduwa Republicans to desist from their activities because Yoruba Muslims would not abandon their brothers in faith in the North. He then appealed to the youths to "educate the generality of the Muslims on this preposterous Yoruba agenda." The Egba man was only being mischievous and the unfortunate statement could only be interpreted to mean a message to his masters in Sokoto, reassuring them of his loyalty.



Adegbite is known to be a nuisance hence he was largely ignored on the speech. Adegbite has no credibility in Abeokuta, his birthplace, talk less in Yorubaland. And he is not in a position to speak on behalf of Yoruba Muslims. Bola Ajibola, an Egba prince and Muslim leader, has done much more for Egba Muslims than Adegbite. And Ajibola is not a member of "Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs".



Adebgite is one of the greatest enemies of Islam in Yorubaland and his actions weaken the faith of Muslim believers in the region. For people like him, Islam is not a faith, but a means to acquire wealth by pandering to his Sokoto lords. He is in the league of people like the notorious Arisekola Alao, Lamidi Adedibu and Sanni who peddle their belief for money and juicy business and employment opportunities for themselves and their families.



When Abiola, a fellow Egba Muslim leader and the Baba Adinni of Yorubaland, who during his lifetime was vice president of "Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs", was incarcerated unjustly and was denied the mandate the Nigerian people gave him in 1993, what did Adegbite do? What the did "Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs" do? Nothing! "Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs" was even a conspiratorial party to the annulment of the June 12 election.



Adegbite kept the silence of a coward while Christian Yorubas put their lives on the line for Abiola. When Yoruba Muslims were murdered in the North in the last two years nothing was heard from him.



On Ilorin, Adegbite forgets that the advocates in Ilorin are also Muslims, chief among whom is Alhaji Olola Kasumu. He even forgets that Ganiyu Adams is also a Muslim. What qualifies him to speak for Yoruba Muslims but disqualifies Ganiyu Adams?



January 2002
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