News From Nigeria
BY AUSTIN ORETTE
I don’t enjoy replying to these incendiary and caustic postings of Biafrans. For us to move forward, someone has to do it. All the blame for Biafra must go to those who started Biafra and are still in denial to this day and blames everyone who has any observation to the contrary.
Today, we are witnessing another bellicose nation deny its responsibility in drawing destruction unto itself. Israel started a war and it is blaming Iran for its destruction. This is the corollary of the Biafra separatist. They declared a war on Nigeria and since they lost, they blame everyone but themselves. The generation that declared Biafra is dying away. Soon most of those who were the actors in Biafra will be gone. Instead of the bitterness ebbing away, a thick wall of hatred is being erected because that generation that fought, are handing over embellished stories and lies to their children who are not interested in reexamining their positions and reappraising their stagnant thinking about the war and the issues that led to the war. We are familiar with the fact that truth is the first casualty of war. The Nigerian civil war is not an exception in this regard. For some reasons, the proponents of Biafra will want us to believe that they have the monopoly of the truth. This gentleman saying Gowon lied should revisit Biafra without his acidic temperament. His remarks against Gowon should not go unchallenged. His remarks are wrong, self-serving and crude and devoid of historical accuracy.
Nigeria did not declare war on Biafra. It was Biafra that declared war on Nigeria. Gowon was a very reluctant warrior. He didn’t want brothers to spill brothers’ blood. He tried everything including granting a lot of concessions to Ojukwu in order to avoid the war. He was a man of peace. The proponents of Biafra always hang on to Aburi as if there was nothing happening in Nigeria before Aburi. It is very disturbing to see people so clear eyed about Aburi but they are amnestic about what led to Aburi. If the Igbos had declared Biafra and stayed in their enclave, the story of Nigeria would have been different. After they declared Biafra, they invaded the Midwest Region and deposed Gov David Ejoor and appointed a Biafran as the governor. The people of the Midwest region saw hell and mayhem during the three months that the Biafrans occupied the Midwest Region. They conscripted people into the Biafran Army, raided Banks and killed those who refused to join Biafra. It was on their way to Ore that they were pushed back by federal troops that were hurriedly assembled. The three months of the occupation of the Midwest region by the Biafrans was hell on earth for the citizens of the Midwest region who were under the Biafran military occupation.
Since the Proponents of Biafra always take Aburi as the beginning and end of everything, I will try to examine this Aburi for all to see. The Biafrans to this day have never accepted that they were the aggressors. They have handed erroneous history to their children. This is the deliberate ploy to hide their gross negligence. They have used their propaganda machine to populate the whole s system with lies and innuendos. In a twist unknown to them, these lies have become a prison to their uninformed generations. This is the reason why the generation that was not alive during that war always speaks with anger and crudity. Nnamdi Kanu actually used Aburi to justify his aggression towards the Nigerian state. It is time we point them to the accurate history and pull away the blanket of lies that have given them comfort in their infamy. When a sitting senator can mount a podium and malign an elder statesman, like Gowon, then nothing is sacrosanct. It is time Nigerians tell the Biafrans that their whole existence is a big lie generated by those who led them into the wrong alley. The sooner they jettison these lies and form a common course with other Nigerians, the better it will be for them. Their perpetual cry for Biafra is fraudulent and based on lies. They should be made to understand that they brought Nigeria to this nadir.
In this discourse, we may be forced to delve into their uncivilized behavior that made them to cripple the Nigerian state through murder and mayhem. The Igbo man in Nigeria is not a victim. He is a perpetrator. They owe Nigeria apology for the disruption they caused the Nigerian state.
Aburi was a place for cessation of hostilities. No one sent Gowon to Aburi to rewrite the Nigerian constitution that was overthrown by the Igbo officers. For the Igbos to always try to convince everyone that Aburi was the beginning and the end of their bellicosity is a big lie. They have told this lie over and over that they are beginning to see it as the truth and they have wrapped this lie with all kinds of mythology. Why Aburi? This place was chosen because Ojukwu said he was not safe in any place in Nigeria. Fair enough. If Ojukwu had insisted on return to the status quo ante, maybe things would’ve been different. If you look at the body language of Ojukwu and Gowon during those meetings, you can see that Gowon was very pliant. He was ready to do anything to avoid that war. It was Ojukwu who came with cautery of lawyers and made impossible demands. The Igbos forgot that we had a constitution that guaranteed regional autonomy that was abrogated by Aguyi Ironsi who also abolished the regions and introduced the unitary system that started Nigeria on this perilous path. I am always amazed when the South-East people refuse to acknowledge the role they played in ushering Nigeria to our present hell. Ojukwu studied history at Oxford. He must have known what befall a people who lose wars. Instead of negotiating for ceasefire in Aburi, he came with a team of lawyers to rewrite a constitution of Nigeria in another land. We had a constitution which was overthrown in a coup by Igbo officers. Why is it difficult for the Igbos to understand that Ojukwu had no means to enforce any agreement? This is the core issues that the Biafrans have refused to understand to this day. I have always said these actors were very young. It is not out of place to ascribe some of their actions to youthful exuberance. The more I read about Aburi, the more I find out that Ojukwu was more interested in headlines and his Oxford credentials which were impressive and were highly blown in foreign newspapers. The foreigners were not going to fight his war. What Ojukwu and his lawyers demanded at Aburi were not anything within the power of Gowon. All the things Ojukwu asked for can only be addressed in a parliament of the Nigerian people. There was no parliament. Those who were in the know when Gowon returned made it clear to Gowon that what he negotiated with Ojukwu were not within his powers. Any attempt to make the Igbos to understand that what Ojukwu got from Aburi is not tenable and will not be accepted by the rest of Nigeria fell on deaf ears. Since then they developed the Mantra, “On Aburi We stand “. I will repeat, no one sent two soldiers to another country to rewrite the Nigerian constitution. Nigerians refused to succumb to this blackmail by the Igbos.
There were other negotiations. There was Arusha and there was Kampala. Biafra had no legitimacy and wherewithal to enforce their one-sided accord. The rest is history. In the overall scheme of things, Aburi is a non-issue. Did Ojukwu have any negotiations with Adaka Boro who declared Niger Delta Republic? Boro was captured and sentenced to death. Why was this so? It was so because Ojukwu and Ironsi had the power to nullify Boro’s Niger Delta Republic, and they did. If you juxtapose this, we can say Gowon had the power to nullify Biafra and he did. The myopia of the Biafrans is a deliberate affliction. Let us move forward.
DR AUSTIN A. ORETTE IS A FAMIL MEDICINE DOCTOR IN HOUSTON, TEXAS. HE RECEIVED HIS MEDICAL DEGREE FROM UNIVERSITY OF NIGERIA
Empirical observations have led me to the notion that, in any society, the proponents of separatism are those who are least developed in consciousness.
When the American South decided to secede, they were more backward and still relied on slavery for their economic progress. They believed in subterfuge to exist.
When a child is born, he clings to his mother. As the child grows, he recognizes his relatives, his village, his clan and his tribe. More growth prepares him to interact with other people who are different from him.
The ability to negotiate these intricacies is what we call development. Some groups want to negotiate these interactions with subterfuge, domination and oppression. It takes love and imagination to navigate the intricacies of these interactions to avoid creating animosities.
In our present world, the Europeans used violence and oppression to do these interactions. These led to slavery, racism, apartheid and colonization that we are still dealing with today.
It is a sign of immaturity when people cannot get along with others for mutual coexistence. The white people invented racism for this because they lack the ability and maturity to get along with other people.
Apartheid, colonialism and other attendant evils are the results of the immaturity of the white race which they consider as progress and development. But this is a form of immaturity, because it shows the inability to evolve and interact. In Africa we call it tribalism.
Racism and tribalism are nothing but the inability to grow. When people lack the ability to interact with others, they engage in ethnic reductism. This immaturity is what is considered as progress. In actuality; this represents the child who is afraid to go beyond the city limit. It is a mark of inferiority if you have the need to regale others with your superiority.
We need to grow beyond the confines of our tribe. The earth is our garden. True bravery is when we develop the ability to go beyond our tribes to engage other children of God in planting love in this great garden. Love breeds this courage. The lack of love leads to recessions into a familiar abode where our tribe becomes supreme. We become selfish. This lack deprives us, of the courage to interact. We become arrested in a primitive state where it becomes difficult to move beyond the walls of the cave. This puts us in a state of psychological retardation. When perchance, we venture out, we are timid and crude and look at every difference as threatening. We raise our guards to police the fear within. We then succumb to the primitive notion that only dwellers in our cave are worthy of consideration. We become loud and vexatious as we try to prove that all the wisdom of God are bestowed on our tribe. We make it difficult for others to live peaceably with us as we tell them we are the chosen ones who are divinely ordained.
The truth is that we are still that child that refuses to grow up and want to solve every problem with tantrum and subterfuge.
When others push back against our itinerant actions, we stamp them with epithets. We tell the world they are jealous. The truth is that this belligerent child is afraid of its underdevelopment and cannot see beyond his village. He will use any opportunity he gets to hurt others by fortifying himself with members of his clan who are ensconced in primitive materialism, that we have made the definition of our existence. . This is the origin of all our ills.
Racism, tribalism and separatism are considered as progress and civilization, by the practitioners. This is the great illusion of our time. Most apostles of separatism lack the ability to form the common bond that is necessary for progress. They lack love which is the glue that is necessary for any relationship to yield progress. In every situation, they will present mediocrity as progress. When they fail, they use their brute ideology to rewrite history and create a tyranny within. The tribalist or racist has the ethos of a cave dweller. His vision cannot extrapolate beyond the walls of the cave. He finds his security only amongst members of his cave (tribe). Recession to the cave becomes his idea of progress. He may occupy a high station, but he still has the aroma of the cave dweller.
Dr Austin Orette writes from Houston Texas
“For everything under the sun, there is time. There is time for peace and there is the time for war’’. They will always lie to you. The Fulani Muslim will raise his right hand and put his left hand on the Quran, look you in eye and lie to you. He is practicing Takiya which is allowed by their religion. The art of lying to further the cause of Islam. You will never be at peace with Islamic fundamentalists. It is always a lie. “
Africans have a better understanding of religion. There is nowhere in traditional African history you will find Africans going to prove that their god is superior by killing other Africans. Africans fought wars of conquest for material things and territories. Fighting for Heaven was not part of their geography. That was for angels. They did not fight wars of religious imposition. They have a clear understanding that God is big enough for everyone.
The African traditional worshippers believe that no house built by man can accommodate the majesty and fullness of God. They did not indulge in the grandiosity of calling any place they constructed, the house Of God.
The concept of holy wars was brought to Africa by foreign people like the Fulani Jihadists. After experiencing aspects of religion in my childhood, I came to the firm belief that I don’t need to be introduced to any god filled with human passions of rage and revenge. God is love. That is enough for me. I don’t need to kill or hurt anyone to prove my loyalty to God. God is not in any book. God is not in any building. God is closer to us than our heart beat. The God essence is in every creature of God. We are compelled to give God’s love to all creatures of God. This is where I vehemently disagree with the Fulani and Wahhabi brand of Islam.
They consider their wrath to be the same as the wrath of God. They should direct that wrath towards solving the poverty, ignorance and disease they have created in the North. They should leave the South out of their map of conquest. If they love God as they claim, there is so much work for them to do , to repair all the damage they brought to the North of Nigeria. Eternity will not be enough for them to repair the damage they have done to the Hausa people of Nigeria. If they love God, they should concentrate on the rehabilitation of the Hausa men, women and children they have destroyed in the name of Islam.
The Fulani are the first to bring holy wars to Nigeria and they have never had a change of mind and strategy since then. These wars intensified when they started being used by invaders to push their tribal and religious domination. They have no love for anyone who is not a Muslim or Fulani. God is Love. This love can be found in all religions and the loneliest places. This love gave me security and the wings to fly. This is the love that made Mary Slessor to stop the killing of twins in the Niger Delta. I believe in this love and the sanctity of life for all people. This is my belief and because of this love, I will not impose this belief on the Fulani who think differently.
I consider it sacrilegious for them to force me to accept the doctrines that led to the wanton killing of Deborah Samson and others in the land of the Fulani.
If the Fulani are sincere, they should spend their energy to clean up the children of the North they have destroyed and turned to weapons of mass destruction for Nigeria. They should adopt the Almajiris and rehabilitate them instead of using them and Sharia as weapons of war.
These children are cast away as refuse and made to beg for their survival. They are married away when they could barely walk. The rate of child abuse and neglect in the North is mortifying. About 15 million children in the North of Nigeria are destitute and malnourished. They are moribund and homeless. If the sight of children did not draw on their hearts and make them to show love to children, then it means the religion they are willing to kill and die for has no empathy in their doctrines. What is a religion if it cannot hear the cries of suffering and dying children? Whatever they do or say is nothing but power grab.
They are deaf and dumb to the destitution and misery they created in Hausa land and they are bent on expanding this misery to the South. We have a duty to stop them. Islam in Nigeria is a political movement of the Fulani. It has nothing to do with those of us in the South. Their push to force Sharia into the South is nothing but an act of war. We can never reason with any people who consider us less human because we don’t subscribe to their religious beliefs.
In this wise, those in the Middle Belt and the South of Nigeria must be prepared to defend themselves from those who will not only kill us in the name of their God but also lie to us in the name of their god about their intent.
A military head of state told Obasanjo that he has not seen and not privy to the constitution when he was asked to produce it when Obasanjo was being propped to be president. This was a lie. He knew that Sharia was part of that constitution that was written without the consent of Nigerians. The General knew that if this was revealed before the election it will cause chaos. As soon as Obasanjo was sworn in, the constitution appeared. Did the constitution appear from heaven? Everything the former head of state did or said was deliberate. He followed the Fulani manuscript of TAKIYA. He was one of the architects of that fake document. After that election, that fraudulent constitution was revealed and the core north declared they are Sharia states, based on the sharia that was fraudulently embedded in  that fraudulent document. This is classic TAKIYA in Islamic practice where Muslims are obligated to lie to unbelievers to further the cause of Islam.
Recently, Northern Fulani Muslims have been going on television to say they don’t know what restructuring mean. This is another bold face lie. They know we were restructured in the First Republic and all we are saying is adopt the ways of the First Republic. They would rather confuse this with nebulous terms like “lack of good leadership “ because they want to continue with this odious system that enables their thievery and ability to import criminals and terrorists into Nigeria to cause unrest. are so duplicitous they think we don’t know Sharia is a form of restructuring. They want us to fund Sharia with our labour and wealth in our terrain. They are gamblers. They want to continue the centralization that gives all powers to the Fulani in all cadre of government so they can control the economy and wealth of Nigeria and use it to empower the caliphate. If they don’t achieve that, they will set up their parallel government of Sharia where a northern monarch is the Prime minister of all Nigeria Muslims  and every mosque their military command post.
They tell us Islam is superior to our culture. The Europeans who colonized us did not go this far in their grandiosity. We cannot be in the same country with those who will use lies as instruments of statecraft. The Caliphate has used fictitious population figures to advantage the caliphate. All over the world, the coast is more densely populated. This is true in the Republic of Benin and Cameroon but reversed in Nigeria.
The Fulani Islamic movement in Nigeria is about conquest. It has nothing to do about heaven. It is about the oil which Fulani believe is their gift from God as a Muslim nation like Saudi Arabia and the Gulf States. The Fulani has been at war with us, but we don’t know it.
All the negative indices in Nigeria are what obtains in a war-torn country. To say otherwise is hiding our head in the sand.
All the uncertainties in Nigeria are deliberate creation of the Fulani caliphate. Just like the creation of the Almajiris in the North. Gradually they are beginning the total Amajirification of Southern graduates. They have made them jobless and penurious. They are hungry and their clothing is becoming tattered. The females are selling themselves at any price to the members of the caliphate in Abuja. The caliphate has no interest to engage in solving the perennial problems of Nigeria. Their end point is the total subjugation of the non-Muslim populations of Nigeria and makes them second class citizens as obtained in most Muslim countries. Their plan is to weaken the enemy by destroying the institutions they believe in. They would create more problems to distract and confuse us. All money marked for development are stolen and directed to the Fulani treasury for their conquest and purchase of Southerners into their camp. They have opened all the borders in the North for the Fulani fighters to come in as they gradually intensify their position. Their loss of central power to accelerate this process has rendered them apoplectic. The mere adjustment of the tax bill to reflect productivity pushed them to accelerate Sharia in the Southwest. To them, this is war and the camp of the enemy must be divided. This is why they push for Sharia in the South west. Divide and conquer is their MO .This is why in the past fifty years, they used their government and military people to erode any semblance of a functioning state. They created the hardship in Nigeria. They want every Southerner to Japa so they can take over the land. Those left will be too weak to fight. We are in a war zone. We must draw a clear red line they should not cross.
Imposing Islam on us is a red line. The progress made in Nigeria was through their military surrogates who usurped power. This has emboldened them. They use the military to enrich their people, they used the military to push Nigeria into OIC. They used the military to smuggle Sharia into the constitution.
They are talking about war and secession. On question of secession they are bluffing. They are parasites who cannot live without their host. On war, we should take them serious and prepare for one. Our preparation should start by us in the South telling our children to refuse any posting by the NYSC to the North. There is no security for them and the NYSC is a source of cheap labor for indolent Northern states who consider education a haram and deliberately render their citizens illiterate and ignorant .They spend more on pilgrimages to Mecca than they spend on education. Using our children as cheap labor is a tax that is imposed on non-believers. The Fulani considers this normal based on the tenet of their religion. It is a form of Tax the unbelievers must pay in an Islamic society.
The NYSC should be converted to one year of full military training as it was initially conceived when the caliphate thwarted this plan because they want their Islamic army to have monopoly of weapons. All military commands in Nigeria must be decentralized. Police and other security institutions must be regionalized. We have to fight to preserve our way of life and reject any form of religious compulsion or imposition.
The next phase is to encourage the Hausa and other tribes that have been oppressed in the North to use their numerical advantage to deny the Fulani any political position in the North. I f you cannot elect an Hausa person, look for the nearest indigenous Yoruba, Igbo or Biron or Igala. The Fulani must not be allowed to hold power in Nigeria. They must be ostracized from our body politics until they prove their allegiance is to Nigeria. They are a cancer in our body politics. The Fulani Caliphate erroneously believes that a Christian is docile. This is going to be their undoing. Christians are not known for shedding innocent blood like that of Deborah Samson. Wanton killing is not part of Christian theology. Christians will always fight to defend themselves. In the eleventh century when the holy land Jerusalem was conquered by Islamic warriors who prevented Christian’s entry into the Holy land, Pope Urban 11, cried to Christendom, the Christians fought and took over the Holy land. These battles were called the crusades. Since then the holy land is open to anyone of any faith, including Muslims to visit. The Nigerian civil war was fought and won by southerners and the people from the middle belt. Most of the generals of Northern extraction were colossal failures as they confused the civil war with Islamic jihad. They have to be pulled from the war front due to their extreme cruelty that violated the laws of war. This is their weakness. The whole of North Africa was black. All the places in the Bible like Turkey were Christian enclaves. Today it is difficult to find a black man in Egypt and also difficult to find a church in Constantinople. This is what the Fulani are aiming for.
It is our responsibility to make them understand they are in the wrong century; we must make it our duty to wake them up from the toxic intoxication of their religion. We cannot do this by preachment alone as the toxic brew of their religion makes them to think they are fighting for Allah. They are fighting for domination. There is nothing more sinister than a person who kills in the name of God. Be prepared. We have a duty to defend ourselves.
Dr Austin Orette writes from Houston Texas
“If you cannot question or interrogate it, then it is a lie “Of all the religions in the World, Islam is the only one that you cannot interrogate. Those who do are violently killed by adherents of Islam, who proclaim they are fighting for Allah. My question to the preachers of Islam has always been: If Allah is great, all powerful and all merciful, why does he need weak humans to fight for him or defend him?
All over the world, Islam is fighting one war or the other in the name of Allah. The major reason is that they want to impose their teaching on people who just want to be left alone. They tell us Islam is a religion of peace. All we see around us is contrary to this claim. Any attempt to interrogate and question the teachings of Islam is met with fatuas and murderous rage and violence.
When Muhammad started as a preacher in Mecca, he didn’t have followers. He moved to Medina and started interacting with Christian and Jewish scholars who contributed to some of his knowledge. When he could not convince them of the veracity of his claim about his Allah, he left and went to raise an army to conquer them. This is why the beginning of the Quran is similar to the Torah and the Holy bible.
In his last 4 years in Medina, he had some vision that he was not sure if they came from God. Those visions were apocalyptic. The gentleness of the first part of the Quran was gone and has been transmogrified into a monstrous recreation of human existence. It was in these last four years he captured the Jews and Christians and forced them to his ways of teaching. Many were slaughtered. Those who did not convert were taxed and called Dhimis. The Dhimis are taxed but cannot testify in any disputes and Muslims are allowed to cheat them in any transaction. They are not protected unless they pay Jizia (An Islamic tax for unbelievers), which is another tax or protection. This system had to be repeated every time a new territory was captured and subjugated. The booty from the wars was given to his warriors and followers. This is how Islam was spread across the world with a Sword until the Islamic empire fell with the fall of the Ottoman Empire in 1924. A lot of people were set free.
Mohammad himself said he cannot tell whether his later visions were from God. The attempt by Salmon Rushdie to question the satanic verses led to a Fatua on him and was almost killed in a gruesome attack by a fanatical Muslim. He lost an eye during that attack. He was a Muslim who grew up in a Muslim family.
As it stands today, anyone who questions the ways and whys of Islam is marked for death. Millions of Muslims who don’t want to be Muslims anymore cannot come out and say it. Their own family will execute them.
I grew up in a Christian household. My childhood was very idyllic. As a child going to church on Sundays was a treat because we also use the Sundays to visit relatives and eat some nice and tasty food. On my way to church on one Sunday day, I saw this group of women wearing white wrappers and dancing. The dance and music fascinated me and I forgot Church. At the end the dancing and incantations they served some nice meal. I enjoyed the meal and lost sense of time as I enjoyed the food. No church for me that Sunday. One of the best goat pepper soup I ever tasted. My childhood Friend who missed me at church saw me. He reported to my mother that I was eating unclean food because those people were pagans. I was chastised. After that incident, I devised a way to hide my visit to that idol worshipper’s shrine. Somehow, I got the timetable for the meals. It was a new world for me. I will stealthily go there and eat one of the best meals. I will go to Church and smuggle myself out without my friends noticing. Gradually they all joined me and our demand for the pepper soup could no longer be satisfied. Our parents found out and it was all over. No more goat pepper soup on Sundays. We had a stern warning that that food is forbidden food. I was confused. I asked if that was the same food eaten by Adam and Eve? There was no answer. I became very skeptical. How can the good people who were so kind to me be regarded as bad? No one attacked the traditional worshippers. As a child I was confused and very curious. I missed the pepper soup, but most of all I missed the love those people showed me at the shrine. I started hanging around if I could run errands for them. I could not eat their food anymore but I wanted to serve them in some capacity to show my gratitude for their love and care. I was precocious. Not once did they put pressure on me to adopt their religion. It was the Christians who were putting pressure on them to convert to Christianity. Coincidentally I started asking more questions about the Bible. Why would the Bible say this good people who gave me so much love will end in a lake of fire because they did not believe in Jesus? The cruelty and unfairness of such a scenario tormented me. My curiosity became feverish and exponential. I will ask the Sunday school teacher questions like: God created Adam and Eve. They had two children named Cain and Abel. Cain killed Abel. Who did Cain marry since Adam and Eve and Cain are the only ones alive? The answers given did not satisfy my curiosity.
Studying the bible in secondary school as I grew older created more questions. Throughout this period of inquiry, no Christian person in my surrounding gave me any reason to feel that my life was in danger. These inquiries led me to the conclusion that whoever God is, will reveal itself to me. I was told to believe but I wanted to know. In my heart I know a just and kind God would give me the answers I am seeking. I was searching for meaning when a verse in the Bible flashed through my mind. The verse says: Those who worship God must do so in truth and Spirit. I went back to the Bible and read Jesus’ Sermon on the mount, and I came to the absolute conclusion that all I need to be close to God is Love. All the religions talk are just rituals to mystify the masses. I came to the understanding that all we need to do in this world is love our neighbor and God is an essence that is in every one of us.
Dr Austin Orette writes from Houston Texas
The Fulani are the problem of Nigeria. They got to this preeminent position by subjugating the Hausa that they colonized. The Fulani are colonizers. They torture and subjugate the indigenous people and teach them to hate themselves and their neighbors. They dominate by killing the Hausa kings and forcing them to adopt the Fulani way of life which is Islam.
This is the violent process that is part of the colonizing culture. Violence is always needed for colonization. The British used this method efficiently in their colonies. The case of the Fulani in Nigeria is similar to apartheid South Africa because the White minority like the Fulani never left. Since everyone is black in Northern Nigeria, the apartheid there is invisible and additionally hidden by the cloak of religious gobbledygook.
As a stealth move, they did not impose their language on the indigenous population. Conflict avoided. They solidified the North with the Hausa language and their religion while stamping out the indigenous culture.
Violence is always the weapon of the colonizers, and they have no scruples when killing in the name of their God. None of the gains and dominance of the Fulani was achieved in a peaceful democratic manner.
Democracy is antithetical to a colonialist instinct. This is why the Fulani continue to use violence as a tool of politics in Nigeria. They are the colonialists, and they don’t see themselves having anything in common with the indigenous people of Nigeria. They use the indigenous population as canon folders. Until they are countered, they will always use violence as a means of statecraft.
They see themselves as the law and have the right to use violence, chaos and insecurity to their advantage. They always use proxies as the vanguard of their campaign.
When the First Republic was toppled, they regretted not doing it first. After that, no one will beat them to it. Since then, they have used the military to achieve their ends in Nigeria. They seized those moments of calamity and turned it back to their advantage.
They used Yakubu Gowon. After opposing the unitary system imposed by Aguyi Ironsi, they accepted it and perfected it to their advantage and created more confusion by creating more states and more centralization of power which they were in control of.
When Murtala Mohammed was eliminated, they settled for Olusegun Obasanjo. He has been a gift to the Fulani.
Under him, a Land Use decree which was a prelude to RUGA was passed. This decree made Fulani who are non-indigenous Nigerians to seize land from Hausa and other indigenous people of the North.
They did this through the suppression of the indigenous people with executive lawlessness and brigandage which is still going on in the North.
Under this decree they acquired lands that have precious metals in the North and started mining these metals privately. They used the monies gained here to start militias in the North of the country. It is these militias that later metamorphosed into various terrorist groups in the North and other parts of the Sahel.
The Fulani have a large war chest to prosecute low intensity insecurity when government policies are not in their favour. They also used money for the propagation of Islam in order to make their struggle international.
The Fulani are not really a religious people. They use religion for their political advancement. Through their Emirate System, their tentacles spread so far down South as Kwara State. There is no history of a non-Fulani who is an Emir. It is a closed system. To be an Emir, you have to be a Fulani and a Muslim and speak their language which is not Hausa. They are closely linked. They intermarry. They are one big family by blood. Throughout the reign of Buhari, Atiku never altered any word because he is family . People accuse Buhari of filling every position with Fulani. They are wrong. Buhari filled every government position with his family members.
They have the secrecy code of organized criminal syndicate. Their nomadic instincts make them to thrive advantageously in periods of national strife and chaos.
None of the advancement and wealth that they have accumulated was achieved in times of democratic harmony or peace. From the aforesaid, it can be assumed that it is not in their interest to foster peace and unity. They have come to understand that the rest of Nigeria especially the South have qualms about shedding innocent blood and they seize on this weakness to sow fear.
When we lament the death of Deborah Samson, they celebrate it because it is a warning that they could go further. They directly tell us that they will do anything to maintain their preeminent position in Nigeria. The various military coups and regimes in Nigeria were orchestrated by the Fulani and they benefited from them immensely. With avalanche of oil money, they can use to buy government officials who are non-Fulani and propagate their brand of Wahabi Islam. Under the military, they dragged Nigeria to be a member of OIC. Under the military, they added Sharia to the Constitution of a multiethnic and multi religious country.
Under the military, they produced a Constitution that has “No Go areas “called exclusive, legislative list. This list contains everything necessary for human development. Under General Obasanjo, they declared Sharia in their states because they know Obasanjo does not have the gumption to point out this unconstitutionality.
Now they are emboldened to push Sharia further south. Their impunity is overwhelming. They are taking small incremental steps in turning Nigeria from a secular state to an Islamic state without the consent of the citizens. This is why they have been sponsoring low intensity conflict within Nigeria.
The insecurity that abounds is nurtured by them so Nigerians can flee their homes, and their governments will reassign the land to them. The insecurity is also used to scare Southern youths and intellectuals to embark on the Japa train perpetually. This will weaken the South as those who will oppose them, will find it easier to Japa and cede the land to the Fulani.
Don’t be surprised if you hear that the Fulani are lobbying for easy visa protocols for educated Southerners especially the Biafrans who will gladly jettison the idea of Biafra land. They have the means, and they have the reach.
When you hear that an Emefiele stole billions, the question is how much was stolen by the Fulani accomplice? That is always a secret. They are very organized in their criminality and their stolen money flows through the chain of command. They are not loud like Southern money miss road people. They may not change their cars, and they may not change their abode. You won’t see them throw lavish parties. Fulani don’t see themselves as citizens. They see themselves as colonizers. This is the root of their pride and a weakness because when Nigerians realize that they are dealing with colonizers, they will go the way of colonizers. It will be worse because they have no superior technology to counter an avalanche of angry Nigerians. It is this day they fear most because they have been ruthless with their power and the anxiety in their ranks is feverish when they or their surrogates are not in power. How do you bell the cat?
The North is not a monolith as the Southerners have it in their imagination. The North is a Tower of Babel that was cobbled together by the Fulani jihadist. They used Islam to blind fold them. The instrumentality of coercion was so brutal and barbaric beyond the scope of the discussion here. We can still see some relics in their present-day agitation for Sharia by the Fulani. We in the South have agitated a lot but we don’t know who the foe is. We are haughty and prideful of our western education that we can sell our birthright cheaply. This is one of their greatest arsenals.
The Fulani have the money and the wherewithal to purchase the loudest Southerner of any tribe. We should subsume our arrogance and learn who the Fulani in Nigeria are. This is the key to render void any of their medieval advancement and primitive acquisitions.
 Dr Austin Orette writes from Houston Texas
To Thine Own Self Be True. This is not an endorsement of any leader in Nigeria. I was in Nigeria recently and observed that Nigerians have formed a subculture of always complaining as a means of coping with the realities. I now see these complaints as a quarrel amongst thieves. They robbed a bank and the smartest among them drove off with loot and left the rest stranded. They cannot call the police so they are left with the infighting which they consider as protest.
Every Nigerian wants good leadership but none wants to aspire to be good citizens. The negative ordeal I encountered while in Nigeria was never by any one in power. Nigerians are the gods in their little domain. In this domain, they are very dictatorial and callous and exercise power with vehemence in their various jurisdictions. From the trader who will sell you fake goods at exorbitant prices to the policemen at the checkpoint who mete out summary punishment, the rule is to dish out as much pain as possible. There is no sense of brotherhood. There is no sense of “we are in this together, let us help each other “.
Dishing out pain is the culture. You must pay before being served even when you have paid. This is the ugliness that hides before these excessive criticisms of leaders. Anytime a Nigerian comes in contact with a government agent, it is time to be punished. There is no agency in Nigeria where those employed there don’t make the abuse of the citizens the metric of their productivity. Trying to get a driver’s license, you must jump through hoops , trying to get a passport almost as bad as trying to obtain a visa to another country. In most cases, the visa ordeal is friendlier and there are no bribes involved. Try to clear goods from a Lagos port is like squeezing through the eye of the needle. There are no rules and regulations, just chaos and cruelty that numbs the mind.
A lot of people choose to walk away from the abuse of the government officials and agents, leaving their goods behind. Flying into Lagos airport is the worst ordeal. Every government agency is there including the touts from Ido Park. They are all trying to tell you they are there to hurt you. There is no cordial welcome for a returnee. There is nowhere in Nigeria the citizen does not try to erect his own obstacles. This is very sad.
Are we at war? Why so many checkpoints? Why is the Nigerian criminalized and humiliated daily by agencies that are supposed to serve them? The ordeal of being a citizen in Nigeria can drive one into a mental institution. Nigerians are resilient and quietly watch their country being turned into one huge mental asylum. The madness has become cultural. At the end of all these, the extortionists get together and blame the leaders who are the product of their thievery. This is the problem.
People who have no sense of good citizenship are crying daily for good leadership. Let’s learn to recognize that the microcosm must be organized to care for each other. Imagine that police don’t harass and shake down farmers bringing food to markets. This may lower the price of food and the decay of food due to loss of time at checkpoints will be avoided. Inflation reduced .Let us learn to care, maybe one day we can have someone who cares to assume leadership. Then we can be proud to say that is one of us.
The ratio of the naira to the dollar is not a measure of the Nigerian economy. It is a measure of the lack of productivity of the Nigerian. Blaming the leaders is a subterfuge that subtracts leadership from the people. Leadership is always a reflection of the consciousness of the people. Bad people can only get bad leaders while good people get good leaders. You cannot have one without the other.
Dr Austin Orette writes from Houston Texas
“Know everything about your enemy and you will watch him dig his own grave. “
I have wanted to use this part to discuss how to fend off the Fulani menace, but I am going to digress to explore their methods and how a power far away from us handled the aggression of Islamic fundamentalist and warded off the menace of Islamic terrorists.
In 1801 when America was a young country, they faced the menace of Muslim pirates who terrorized their merchants at sea in the Atlantic Coast of North Africa. Their merchant vessels were captured at sea and the citizens kidnapped and sold into slavery in North Africa. At this time, America was a weak country and has lost the protection of the British navy that used to protect American sea merchants. Thomas Jefferson who was the minister to France at that time had a meeting with the Emir of Tripoli to resolve the issues. The Emir of Tripoli explained to Jefferson that they have the right and ownership of everything in the world and the Americans must continue to pay ransom to them to prevent their Ship and merchants from piracy. Jefferson asked him the source of that law and power to violate the rights of peaceful people and merchants. The Emir of Tripoli told him that the law is in the Quran. Jefferson asked for a copy of the Quran and he was given a copy. That is how Thomas Jefferson came into the possession of the Quran that is at the library of congress today. At the end of the meeting Jefferson told his colleagues that America has no choice than to go to war because a people with such belief can never be convinced by reason. At that time America had no money and no navy. Jefferson did not want to burden the new presidency of John Adams with such distractions. He quietly  Searched for good sailors and built a private force quietly.
As soon as he became the third president of the United States, he declared war on Tripoli and Algiers and Morocco. These are what is referred to as the Barbary Wars in American History. The Americans freed all European prisoners and forced these criminals to stop their criminal behavior in the Atlantic Ocean. They were forced to sign treaties of non-interference. The whole of Europe celebrated this victory that a tiny country has come to the rescue of civilization. The Pope wrote a eulogy on this odyssey saying God has chosen America as the savior of civilization.
This is the beginning of the mythology of America as Gods chosen country. The Barbary States were Algiers, Morocco, Libya and those other places in the North West Coast of Africa. This is the reason why America does not negotiate with terrorist till tomorrow. Negotiating with terrorists is considered an appeasement and suggests a moral equivalency. This is what people like Sheik Gumi are asking us to do. They consider their criminality justifiable and as such we should negotiate with these criminals. This is what this Fulani Muslim cleric has been telling Nigerian government to do. This is a back way of pumping money into the war chest of the Fulani Caliphate. The military is no longer there to raid the treasury on their behalf.
The Fulani in Nigeria are not religious. They use Islam to propagate themselves and obtain money from rich oil gulf states and Saudi Arabia. They are gamblers and they are ready to wager everything on their gamble that they will overrun Nigeria. They have used the various military governments to push the envelope. The push for Sharia at this time should be seen as them watering the plants that were sowed by their military cousins.
The Sultan of Sokoto was just an adviser to Northern Muslims. The first Sultan was Muhammad Bello, the Son of Uthman Dan Fodio. His jurisdiction was to Muslims in Kano and Sokoto. That position has changed and morphed into Spiritual leader of all Muslims in Nigeria. There was no Nigeria then. There have been Muslims in Borno and the Oyo Empire before the arrival of Dan Fodio to Nigeria. This power grabbing is a classic Fulani move. During the First Republic, Ahmadu Bello was always going to Borno to preach Islam. The Shehu of Borno observed that he was radicalizing the Muslims there. He confronted Ahmadu Bello and told him to stop coming to Borno to preach, that the citizens of Borno knew what Islam was before Ahmadu Bello’s great grandfathers were born and there is nothing he can teach them about Islam. He did not go back there.
The new Sultan of Sokoto and a lot of the emirs are retired military generals and strategists. Their operating and information centers are the various mosques scattered all over Nigeria. Their cry for Sharia is always followed by building a mosque, another command post in a new locality. The mosque is a command post and supply center for the jihadist who they move around the country in stealth mode.
One of the mistakes those of us in the South make is that we think we can reason these people out of their absurd positions. Some of them want to build schools for Almajiri. That is an institution that is serving the purpose of the Fulani caliphate. They have no interest in educating the Hausa child. An educated Hausa child is a threat to them. They will pretend to agree with you. It is a lie. They have a concept of Takiya. They are socialized differently. They have been taught to dehumanize people who are not Muslims and killing non-Muslims is not a sin in their books.
The Fulani in Nigeria are the Trojan horse the British left behind. Nigeria is going nowhere until the problem of the Fulani is solved. Lord Lugard knew this and warned about this but some of our forebears did not understand. If they did they would have not waited for the North to get independence. This is a colossal mistake in retrospect. This problem cannot be solved until there is unity among those of us who don’t believe in anything and just want to be left alone to live our lives without any form of religious interference or coercion.
The Fulani have sown so much disunity in the South that you will think the Igbo and the Yoruba people are at war with each other. If you look carefully at those they used to sow this disunity, you will find out they are using the Yoruba Muslims.
Most of the incendiary remarks against Igbo in Lagos are made by the Muslims in the South West. Now they have amped up this group of Yoruba to turn on their fellow Yoruba people in the South West. This is the main reason they are pushing for Sharia in the West. It is not about religion, it is a war strategy to divide the enemy’s camp. They have kept a lot of money for this exercise. The Muslims in the west are getting very wealthy and flamboyant and arrogant. Someone is paying serious money for the colorful feathers of these peacocks. Soon the West will know no peace and in the confusion more mosques and Islamic command centers will be built.
The Fulani are Nomads and they thrive in chaos and entropy. They are not interested in peace and unity because that doesn’t help their brand of Islam.
Let me end this digression with how the Fulani control their puppets. Abiola was their darling until he challenged Shagari. In their Bravado, they told Abiola that they made him and they will unmake him. The rest is history. Lot of Southerners mouthing platitudes today owe their position and allegiance to this theocratic minority. Check the bank account of that Alhaji and you will understand why the Catholic Church could not match that offer.
To free ourselves from this quagmire we have to find a way to cure the Stockholm syndrome and cognitive dissonance of the Hausa people who have been the direct victims of the Fulani brutality and atrocities in the North. These people have been severely abused that they think they have a common identity with their oppressors.
The emancipation of the Hausa man is the key to our freedom in the South. These writing were inspired by the little action taken by President Bola Tinubu in this respect. For the first time, I saw a Nigerian president who sees through the smoke screen of the Fulani. Someone who understands demography and geopolitics of the North and prepared to do something about the odious scenario we find ourselves. We should not make another mistake by grabbing the tiger by the tail.
 Dr Austin Orette writes from Houston Texas
The Managing Director of Abuja Centenary City, Dr. Odenigwe Ike Michaels Jr. last Friday disclosed why Nigeria’s foremost engineering construction company, Julius Berger Nigeria PLC was eminently qualified for the award of the contract to build the City’s road and related infrastructure saying that the company’s legendary quality work on several projects across the country, speak volumes about its abilities.
Speaking after the contract signing ceremony for Phase 1 of the project’s Primary Infrastructure Development in his office last Friday, Michaels challenged Julius Berger to better it’s past records in quality projects delivery.
Saying that the contract signing marks the official resumption of construction work in the City from an 11-year pause, he described the project as Abuja’s foremost urban renewal initiative designed to attract international investment and provide a multinational lifestyle hub with key components comprising five-star hotels, luxury residences, International Commerce Centre, the Centenary International Convention Centre, the Mall of Africa and a Championship Golf Course.
In his response at the signing ceremony, the Managing Director, Julius Berger Nigeria PLC, Engr. Dr. Peer Lubasch appreciated the opportunity given the company to deliver another quality job.
“Centenary City is more than an urban development. It is an investment in the future of Abuja and the Federal Capital Territory; a catalyst for jobs, business opportunities and international investment. It will showcase world class shipping malls, hotels, leisure spaces and recreation including a Championship golf course; all designed to reflect both modern excellence and Nigeria ‘s cultural heritage,” Lubasch said.
Going down memory lane, he further said, “Julius Berger’s relationship with Abuja Centenary City’s visionary project started in 2014 when the project was launched as a bold statement of Nigeria’s ambition for the century.”
He added that since then, Julius Berger has continued to share an unwavering belief in its promise.
“For over a decade, we have watched and supported it’s step-by-step transformation from a bold idea to reality,” Lubasch further said, adding that, “the contract we sign today, the 4.31 km international standard dual carriageway with various utilities and media. It is not just a road. It is the first major artery of this great City, opening access to the first development phase and laying the foundation for its growth.”
Stressing that Julius Berger has, for over six decades been trusted to deliver infrastructure that endure, Lubasch declared that Julius Berger will bring the same precision, quality and commitment to the Abuja Centenary City project to ensure it meets the world-class standards to which the Free Zone aspires.
On that note, the Managing Director said, “together, we will give future residents and businesses investors the confidence that their commitment here is built on a solid and lasting foundation, even as he promised, when you see this road completed, you will want to see many more kilometres of Julius Berger roads in this extraordinary city.
Julius Berger’s Regional Manager, Region Central and North, Oliver Berger alongside others accompanied the Managing Director to the landmark event.