News From Nigeria
UNEASY NEIGHBOURS AND THE BIAFRA DIALOGUES BY DR AUSTIN ORETTE
Lately, there have been eruption of kings and kingdoms of the Igbo people all over Nigeria and other parts of the world. If these occurrences were not being normalized, they will be easy to ignore.
Some months ago, I wrote that the two tribes militating against Nigeria progress are the Fulani and the Igbo. From the surface, they look different but their core ideology is the same.
I wrote a five part essay on how the Fulani people achieved their dominance of Nigeria. They used Religion. They are colonizers and they only want to be Nigerians if they are in charge.
The Igbo people only want to be in Nigeria if they are in charge. The South-East people want to achieve the same thing by using commerce and psychological warfare. Where the Fulani people are quiet, the Igbo people are haughty. You can hear their steps many miles away. The Fulani people are austere while the Igbo people are opposite. They tell you they are the best and without them Nigeria cannot move on. They will engage in de-marketing campaigns to prove their point.
Nnamdi Kanu started by declaring Nigeria a zoo. His acolytes took his campaign against Nigeria to a higher level where they will make fictitious gory films about Nigeria. They pumped negative news about Nigeria into the blogosphere. Most of the negative stories against Nigeria overseas are a well oil propaganda machine by the Biafrans. Nigeria is bad because the Igbo people are not in charge. While the Fulani will plot a comeback, the Igbo would settle for blackmail that they are being marginalized. They will not make any effort to collaborate with others to contest for power. They think power will be surrendered to them by blackmail and harassment of their irregular forces under the control of Nnamdi Kanu.
The recent proliferation of kingship in Igbo land, Nigerian and overseas is part of this agenda. They will cry victim and the world will come to their support. This behavior has confirmed the fact that the Igbo people have no respect for the rights of their hosts.
From Dallas to Lagos and China to Pakistan, they want to set up a kingdom and undermine their host. If this were not a threat to innocent Nigerians, it would not be a thing. This behavior has made many folks to distant themselves from Nigerians as they cannot tell who is who. These kingdoms have been associated with a high level of predation. This elephant in the room is too big to ignore. All politics, they say ends at the water’s edge. This means that whatever division we have at home should stay at home as we cross the seas as Nigerians to foreign lands. In this way, we subsume our local identity for the national identity. Igbo people have refused to do since the end of the civil war. Igbo nationalism became the norm after the civil war. Nigerians have been reluctant to push back because we don’t want anything to remind us of the bitter past. This lack of push back is a mistake that has led the proponents of Biafra to preach the rightness of their cause. Any attempt to tell the real history of the conflict is met with revisionist history where every Nigerian becomes a villain and cannot muster any argument to challenge the aggressiveness and unwarranted provocation of the Igbo. They have managed to spread lies and innuendo to obfuscate the reasons for our present discontent. The generation of Igbo people who were alive during Biafra handed lies to their children who now look at Nigeria with anger and bitterness. Their most popular lie is that all Igbo people were stripped of their wealth, genocide was committed against them and they were given twenty pounds at the end of the civil war. With that twenty pounds in their pocket, they used the Igbo ingenuity to create massive wealth in a Nigeria that hates and discriminates against them.
This HORATIO Algiers story is something only children will believe. This is the story the Igbo people believe. Since these children grew up, there was no counter narrative of the Nigerian civil war. Nigerian children consumed this history and they also became uninformed and they have been unwittingly made villains in this macabre dance. This is the history that made people like Nnamdi Kanu. This revisionist history is what they use as propaganda against the Nigerian state. This is the source of their righteous indignation against the Nigerian state. They started preaching Biafra with the authority of ignorance. Due to this ignorance, a lot of Nigerians did not know how to react to these new proponents of Biafra who have gradually adopted psychological warfare tactics. Any attempt to correct any lies by these groups is labeled Igbophobia. In order not to be cast with this label, a lot of opinion leaders ceded the discussion to this uninformed Nnamdi generation of Igbo people who started running wild in Igbo land. By the time the authorities knew what was happening, Nnamdi Kanu had a full-fledged army and a Biafran passport for his followers. He started declaring holidays and punishing anyone in Igbo land who opened their shops or violated their criminal directives.
This was the failure of the government of Nigeria to secure the peace at the end of the Nigerian civil war. If the leaders of the Biafran rebellion had been punished, a matter of reason will not be toyed with by anyone who knew of the damage that war did to Nigeria.
Nnamdi Kanu was placed under house arrest but he escaped back to London where he resumed his position as the Commander in Chief of the Biafran Army. He gave orders and they were carried out in Igboland. His activities became far reaching that those elected to govern became his subordinates in Igbo land. This is why you don’t see any prominent Igbo person who can vociferously challenge Nnamdi Kanu’s rebellion. The naive and uninformed Igbo people have made him their messiah and they have been donating generously to set up this Biafran state.
He was arrested for the second time in Kenya and brought to Nigeria for trial. Unfortunately for our nation, we don’t know how to compartmentalize crimes. The trial of Nnamdi Kanu should have been a criminal trial that should not take so much time or attention of Mr. President.
This is Nigeria where a criminal was made a martyr due to unnecessary political intervention. Instead of being tried and sentenced, we now cede decisions to the political arena. This is wrong. An unrepentant criminal will repeat his crime. His deputy was arrested and convicted in Finland within six months. The Finish people care about justice, they did not care about being labeled Igbophobia. Justice was dispensed. From the court proceedings, the criminality involved in these Biafran activities could not be denied. Sam Ekpa was convicted.
Where are the Igbo people who are opposed to this criminality? Why are they so quiet? They cannot talk because Nnamdi Kanu controls the foot soldiers that dispense justice without mercy in Igboland. Nnamdi is the product of Nigerians lackadaisical attitudes towards nationhood. This is what happens when a Nation refuses to punish those who try to dismember it. Surreptitiously groups like that of Nnamdi Kanu have been undermining Nigeria. They have used psychological tactics of labeling any opposition as Igbophobia. Well-meaning Nigerians have succumbed to this emotional blackmail. This has led to the paralysis of analysis of the struggles of the average Igboman in Igboland. The insecurity that the Biafrans created is what has led to the emptying of Igboland as people are fleeing from the South-East geo-political zone due to insecurity.
The more people flee, the more they aggregate in some locales. It is okay to settle in new places. That is the story of man. What I find disturbing about these new Igbo settlers is their propensity to set up the Igbo kingdom anywhere they go. We have never seen this kind of Igbo nationalism at this level. What is happening in Igboland? There was no monarchy or central governing system in Igbo history. Why the rush to become kings in other peoples land? Why do Igbo people think it is okay for them to set up their kingdom in another man’s kingdom? An action like this is considered an act of war in some climes. To be a king, you have to conquer the territory. Two kings cannot rule one domain? These actions have not been challenged in Nigeria and a lot of Igbo people think they can take this behavior overseas. It is obvious they were not prepared for the fireworks that come with such proclamation. This confirms that the Igbo people had no monarchy in their history? If they did, they would understand that there is a lot of bloodletting on the way to royalty.
In the past, I said Igbo complained most about tribalism. My observation is that Igbo are the most tribalistic people in Nigeria. It is this tribal propensity that makes them want to set up a tribal hegemony anywhere they find themselves.
Why is it necessary to tell an Isoko man that his ancestors are Igbo when all the historical facts are contrary? Why is it necessary to tell an Ikwere man that he is denying his Igbo ancestry? It is rude for an Igboman to tell an Isoko or Itsekiri that their lineage is from Igboland. This is a direct assault on the history of these people. The claims by Igbo are becoming so absurd that they stress credulity.
Recently an Igbo man on YouTube said they were in Ile Ife before the Yoruba people arrived. How can you expect Yoruba people to take you seriously with these kinds of outlandish proclamations? So many unsubstantiated and outlandish remarks have been made by Igbo scholars that we don’t know what to believe anymore. The Igbo people claim they are the lost tribe of Israel. There is no DNA evidence in this regard. The farthest East their DNA went is the Bantu tribes of the Congo. The people in the Horn of Africa have direct lineage to Palestine. They don’t use that as a bragging right.
From the above, I am beginning to see that the Igbo people are still in the tribal stage of development where tribal identity is paramount for survival. Most of the other tribes in Nigeria came from empires and have shed the tribal cocoon that is necessary to form a nation. So it is easier for them to adapt to their new realities.
The Igbo people are still at a stage where they are trying to form a nation from their disparate tribes. This process was interrupted by the colonialists. It is possible the Benin Empire could have conquered and annexed Igbo land if the British did not invade the empire. Forming a country is a union of Nations. The Benin Empire, the Oyo Empire and the Kanem Bornu Empire, Mali Empire and others were the nations within the Nigerian space. The Igbo people were just a group of disparate tribes that have not become a nation at the arrival of the colonialists. The present struggles are the attempts by people to hold on to an identity in a changing world. This is the atavism we see today. If the Igbo people succeed in having their Biafra, they will still negotiate these intricacies in order to form a united Biafra. These painful negotiations require patience and diplomacy. These are the kind of experiences they need instead of using bellicosity as a tool of diplomacy.
DR AUSTIN ORETTE WRITES FROM HOUSTON, TEXAS
Religion in Nigeria will always be a cog in the wheel of progress because this is the Trojan horse the colonizers left behind. It is the only thing that leads to arrested development of any intelligent discussion of finding solutions to what is holding Nigeria back.
At the time the British left, they were very happy that the religion they brought had displaced our traditional methods of worship. Besides, the African religion is not inducing passion for hatred and killing of each other as their religions needed constant sacrifice of the unbelievers. They trained the African how to kill and die for their gods and forget self-inquiry and self-improvement.
In Nigeria, they made it potent for these religions to constantly be at war with each other and forget they are the victims of a master puppeteer. The African especially the Nigerian has lost his mind in the macabre of this zealotry. He is always in a perpetual state of hallucinations, religious ecstasy and zealotry. The White man’s god became African with all its hateful passions and pride.
Since we hate ourselves, we kill the self we see in each other. It is not necessary for the white man to kill us. We can do that better than him. Now and then, we call them for supervision. This reassures them of the superiority of their god. Their religion always reminds us that we are birds of different plumage. We have to deny our brothers, friends and family in order to devote our time to their god who has blessed them with technology. It must be true that their god gave them the gadget directly. We also have to build big houses for their gods because he does not like huts.. We sleep there every day but don’t see god. They tell us to just continue to pray and have faith. We don’t have to work or think. Nothing is needed but faith.
If you are a Muslim, you have to kill your neighbor if you see him tear a page from the Holy Book. Islam is peace you know! The only requirement is prayer. Five times a day or make it continuous for effect. The decibel of the loudspeakers has to be increased to drive out the demons. Those who cannot make it through the noise be damned or join in this state of lost civility. The brainwashing has started. These religions made the African supplicant and will always see the white god as their savior.
We have white Jesus and we have off white Mohammad. An African can never have any angel that looks like him and he has to always turn the other cheek. Mission accomplished. Africans cannot look for solutions from within. If a problem is too difficult to solve, all he has to do is to go to Mecca or Rome. He has to talk to the white god personally because the white god has all the answers. If he cannot see the white god, the white man will do as his deputy. This is the beginning of white worship which is the most common idolatry in Africa. The ways and whys of the conqueror become supreme; He cannot pray in Africa because his prayers will be thwarted by the many demons that abound in Africa. The land of Africa is not holy enough for the white god. This took away the agency and self-confidence of the African. Nothing in his vicinity reminds him of his divinity. Gradually, his self-confidence erodes and he sees himself as having everything in common with his colonial oppressors. Any attempt to loosen these chains of oppression is vehemently opposed by the guard of his oppressor. These guards are the various pastors and imams who play the role of interpreting the white man’s god to him. Any dream of the sheep leaving the plantation and finding the meaning of his existence, the chains is tightened and he continues with his anesthetic prayers that confuse and consume him. He can’t leave if he is a Muslim because he will be killed in the North of Nigeria. If he is in the South, he is ashamed to enforce compliance. From the cradle to the grave, the African lives with the fog of knowingness that gnaws at him. He lacks the courage to break free from the shackles of these foreign religions and he gradually evolves a duality in his existence. In most cases, he will seek the help of his ancestors to intercede by stealth. So it can be said that the African maintains a duality that is necessary to survive his environment. This duality results in double loyalty; one to the oppressors and one of his traditional roots which he has been forced to vilify. On Sundays or Fridays, he goes to the church or mosque. On the days that he can have his privacy, he goes to the Babalawo for his incantation. This double loyalty places him in an uncomfortable position where his loyalty to his imported religion becomes the same as loyalty to his colonial oppressor.
Nothing can highlight this more than the death of Charlie Kirk in America. Before the bullet could land, Nigerians have already taken sides because of this loyalty to the oppressor. All they heard is that he was a Christian. They don’t have the presence of mind to know the definition of Christianity in the land of their oppressors. They make statements that are ignorant and out of context with the issues. They start speaking and arguing about issues they know nothing about with the authority and bravado of ignorance. All they hear is that a prominent American Christian was killed. That is all. They suddenly become Christian warriors trying to force the gate of heaven to be opened for this “lovely” Christian who was killed by the devil. They will even prepare a sermon to tell their congregation to live the righteous life of Charles Kirk who was killed by the devil.
Now we may ask: Who was Charlie Kirk? To answer this question, you have to know American culture and politics in real time. Nigerians without any iota of fact will pontificate about this man’s exemplary life. Due to the fact that he is white, they will go further and equate him to Jesus Christ. If you don’t believe this, just read comments coming from Nigerians on YouTube and other social media.
This lack of knowledge and loquaciousness is very embarrassing to those of us who live in this culture and follow the issues closely. These ignorant discussions can place us in danger as those who don’t know the difference assume every Nigerian has sympathy with the white oppressors of America who use Christianity for their hateful actions against black people in America.
A white Christian went into a black church. He was welcomed. After prayers, he brought his gun and killed everyone there. His Christian god told him to do so. When he was arrested, the police took him to MacDonald for lunch. They are Christian police. What did this “good “Christian police do when they arrested George Floyd? They strangled him in plain view of the public. Here in America, rational people don’t jump to conclusions or make saints out of sinners just because they say they are Christians.
The Kkk that terrorized and lynched black Americans after the civil war were Christians. The burning cross is their insignia. Right wing Christianity in America is a white supremacy organization. Here in America, people look at the issues with objective lenses. We even ask questions and go to the archive to examine the records. The Nigerian will not do this because he cannot see beyond his narrow lens of religion and confuses his version of Christianity with American right wing Christianity which is nothing but white Supremacy organization. Please stop. Your ignorance will get a lot of people killed in America.
In America, the pace of news is very rapid and a big story today is overshadowed by bigger stories tomorrow and what seems monumental today becomes a footnote tomorrow. Who was Charlie Kirk? He was thirty one year old and dropped out of college after the first semester. He is a Christian but he preached the gospel of the Pharisees. He engages in revisionist history and uses pseudo intellectualism to argue points that cannot be factually verified. His main hatred is against Black Americans and any other blacks who live in the US. His organization, Turning Point, USA was sponsored by racist American billionaires. He does not let facts get in his way when he is talking about black people. Time after time, he says black people are mentally inferior. He tells the World that black people are very violent, and they are 13 percent of the population and fifty percent in jail. This is clearly a lie. He was the one who started the rumor that white South Africans are being subjected to genocide. This is what led to the confrontation of Donald Trump and the South African president. Trump did not believe the South African president. He sent a plane to South Africa to carry the white people to America and granted all of them asylum. I just use these few points to introduce Charlie Kirk to the Nigerian audience who have been blinded by religion.
Charlie Kirk is your oppressor. He is not a follower of Jesus. He uses the name of Jesus the way the colonial master used the name of Jesus for slavery and colonialism. Charlie Kirk was the person encouraging counter protests when George Floyd was murdered in broad daylight by strangulation at the hands of the police. On January 6, 2017, he was the one who bused protesters to riot at the capitol. He is what is known as an agent provocateur. He is a right winger. He believes there should not be any amendments to the second amendment of the constitution which gives the American citizens the right to bear arms. He is opposed to any legislation that will interfere with the people’s right to bear arms. He says any death from gunshot in America should be considered collateral damage in the fight for freedom. Due to the bellicose stand of these right wingers like Charles Kirk, it is impossible to pass any sensible gun laws. These people believe very deeply that guns don’t kill people. People kill people. One can actually deduce from this summary that Charles Kirk died from his own hemlock. His hatred of black people is so visceral that at the time he was killed, he was talking about black violence in an auditorium in University in Salt Lake City, Utah. This cannot be rationalized. Utah is more than 98 % white. Why would a white man talk about the violent criminality of black people to an audience of mostly white people in Utah? The only reason is that he is on a crusade to unite white people against black people in America. He was telescoping racism to young white people who live in Utah to start hating black people they have not met. He was fomenting racial animosity. He frequently goes to Europe to give lectures and recruit white Europeans to his violent anti-black racism .This is the stuff the right wing of America feeds on.
In this journey of hatred, they identify themselves as Christians. They are Christians alright but they are not followers of Christ who taught love, tolerance and charity. He hates immigrants and wants borders closed. Recently, he said in a speech that America does not need more Indians. Are these the actions of a Christian? If he is Christian, then Donald Trump must be his pastor. They worship at the temple of bigotry. He is one of the architects of the policies that trample on the vulnerable in our society. I don’t wish for anyone dead but he is a victim of his own poison. In his own words, he can be considered collateral damage. If you ask me to shed a tear for him, then it is okay to cry for Osama bin Laden. We don’t worship the same God, so I cannot ask God to open the gates of Heaven for him even when a majority of those he hurt with his hatred have opened the gates of hell without any bumps and unambiguous road signs.
Charlie Kirk said it himself. Empathy is a bad thing. Mourning his death is against his personal wishes.
DR AUSTIN ORETTE WRITES FROM HOUSTON, TEXAS
We must teach our history. I cannot find any reason why Nigeria’s history is not being taught in Nigerian schools. This is a terrible mistake. What are we afraid of? Whose idea is it, that teaching Nigerian history will be unhealthy to our nation?
This must be one of the mediocre ideas of the mercenaries that imprisoned Nigeria for more than fifty years. Our history is who we are and why we are here and where we are going.
As a nation, we are not perfect. We have made mistakes and we have done some good things. Our history is the record of this journey as a nation. Our history should give us constant hindsight so that we don’t repeat mistakes. If we take the good and bad and give a proper account, it will be discovered we have made some great strides as a people.
We fought wars and we have managed to win the peace. Out of the cacophony of our existence, we have produced the Nigerian character. The Nigerian is the product from this blast furnace. It is this character that is under attack throughout the world. Nigeria does not have the monopoly of criminality. What the West is attacking is the virility of Nigeria. If we know this, it will give us the fortitude to persevere.
We cannot know who we are if our history is not made known to us. Knowing who we are will give us the ammunition to fight in a world that has become hostile to the Nigerian. We will be able to define ourselves instead of letting others define us. We must tell our story if not others will tell it and are unpalatable by using our least common denominator. We are Nigerians and we are not more corrupt than any other group of people.
The western press can make you hate your friends and make you love your enemies. At the end, it induces its audience into a state of celebrated ignorance. As Africa is waking up from its doldrums, the west is beginning to recalibrate their positions. They have chosen Nigeria as the bogeyman because the Nigerian represents everything they fear about the awake African.
For centuries, they used their instrument of coercion and education to tell the lion that it can only survive by stealing food from the hyena. A few Africans and the Nigerian never accepted this. The lion, within, was never slayed. It roamed without a purpose and it used its strength to attack its own kind and listen to the tails of the gazelle. It wandered in self-doubt. Every now and then, there is a glimpse of the glorious past which appeared as hallucinations. The dreams became more vivid and took on a reality of real life. He is the lion and must not wait for the meals provided by the hyena. He is the lion and must make his own kill and establish his pride. This is Nigeria from Slavery to Colonialism and Neo-colonialism. We lost our way. It is this awakening that the World is fighting. They have made the Nigerian a pariah because he wants to stand on his own two feet. The attack on the Nigerian is the attack on the manhood of Africa.
From wars, coups and disrespect, we have survived what the world has thrown at us. Out of this crucible, we have created a citizen who believes in himself and his people. This is what the world is attacking. Every one of these attacks tries to gain legitimacy by using our own against us. In South Africa, the black South Africans blamed the Nigerian for his problem. In West Africa, the Ghanaians blamed Nigeria for their problems. In America, the black America blamed Nigeria for their problems.
When Trump started his orgy of deportation, the black Americans were celebrating the deportation of Nigerians. When the world and our own are against us, we have to rely on each other and our history. Due to the lack of this history, we cannot tell the world what Nigeria has done for the freedom of all black people in the world. If we have history, we will tell the South African that we paid a heavy price to fight for their freedom. Western Companies like Shell, Barclays and others were nationalized due to their relationship with apartheid South Africa. Nigeria spearheaded and funded the anti-apartheid committee that negotiated the final phase of apartheid.
If we have history, we will tell the Ghanaian that the stability they enjoy in West Africa today was made possible by Nigeria. When Sierra Leone and Liberia caught fire, Nigeria became the fire fighters. America that created Liberia was nowhere to be found. People were dying in thousands and they were preaching human rights to those who were dying. Nigeria created the peace and did not ask for their land or their gold. Nigeria brought the soldiers who died in that war to be buried in Nigeria. We did not even ask for a place to bury our dead. We did not ask for their Diamond or their Gold. Nigeria did not impose any system of government on them. America or Britain will never give that kind of selfless service.
My country Nigeria did that. If we have that history, we will tell the black Americans that during the oil embargo of the 1970, a certain American president visited Nigeria to request for energy. The price of energy was prohibitive .Americans were losing their homes and could not afford to mitigate the brutal winters. Nigeria helped America by supplying them fuel at a very reasonable price, and also donated fuel to various foundations in America who were helping the poor to survive those brutal winters.
To top it all, Nigeria took an unprecedented step to assist Historical Black Colleges in America who were in danger of closing due to a serious financial crisis. Nigeria seized this opportunity. Nigeria awarded scholarships to many Nigerians to further their education at these Historical Black Colleges.
This is the beginning of Nigerians moving to the United States for education. The presence of Nigerians in those colleges brought a new lease of life to them. Today the Black American and the South African and the rest have joined the league of those who hate Nigeria with passion. Out of our difficulties, we have created a unique individual we call the Nigerian. He may be beaten but his head is unbowed. He is not bound by geography. His identity is justice, enterprise and fair play. We may tear at each other from North to South, East to West; let us never forget that the strength of our fabric will stand the test of time if we learn to understand that we are one people bound by a common identity that seeks justice and fair play in our common struggles. This struggles, created this individual we call the Nigerian.
When the World tugs at us, we remember that we are more than the sum of our differences. The Nigerian is not bound by geography or race. The Nigerian has a keen sense of justice. and knows that we are more than the sum total of our differences. He is indefatigable. The Nigerian is the hope of the African renaissance. The World is beginning to recognize this Nigerian and they all want to be members of this tribe. All that is needed to be members of this tribe is a keen sense of justice, agape love and fair play. Indeed, love of service and enterprise. Let us be this Nigerian. The world is waiting.
DR AUSTIN ORETTE WRITES FROM HOUSTON, TEXAS
The prize of democracy is eternal vigilance. It will be reckless and the failure of democratic norms to leave a bull in a China shop. America has seen this kind of presidency before. Andrew Jackson was known for being crude and lawless when he rose to the presidency through populist campaigns in 1824.
American presidents have always genuflected to the caprice of land-owning white men. The demand for land by this group led to the Indian Removal Act of 1830. This was when America was a frontier nation. All Indians living in the east of the Mississippi were forcibly removed. This led to the trail of tears.
His presidency was just as erratic as Donald Trump’s presidency. He was censured by the US congress for firing the treasury secretary and trying to turn the American treasury to a private depository. He had slaves but was not outwardly hostile to blacks. But his statements on black slaves were telling: They should remain slaves or sent abroad. When asked whether he owned slaves, he said he has not bought or sold more than one or two slaves and he believes he was more or less the slave in the relationship.
He suppressed any movement for abolition of slavery during his presidency. He was a southern plantation owner with a lot of slaves who testified to his cruelty. What he is known for is his erratic nature, cruelty towards non-white peoples and lawlessness like Donald Trump.
Thomas Jefferson was so alarmed that he wrote of Andrew Jackson “He is one of the most unfit men for the place, he has no respect for law, his passions are terrible, and he is dangerous “.
Some of his actions supporting nullification of federal laws increased tension between North and South that led to the American civil war. It appears Donald Trump is copying a lot from Andrew Jackson.
The pardon of the rioters of Jan 6 has left a sour taste in the mouth of most Americans including a lot of his supporters. At this moment, Republicans are in the majority, and they are too scared to say no. There is no one to bell the cat.
Some of his policies are beginning to be seen as cruel to those who have no voice. He started with undocumented persons, now he is moving to cut care for elderly and disabled. This is why the opposition is growing.
The answer to Trump is not escapism for black people. Black Americans are the conscience of America. Democracy in America today is the result of black struggles. In fighting for their freedom, they freed everyone to enjoy the promises of America. They are the only group who has consistently spoken the truth to Pharaoh. A lot of immigrants who don’t understand this history always think they are succeeding until they meet the impediments of irrational white people who want to claim back their lost glory and make America white again.
Trump is the result. During the elections, you can see this irrationality in immigrant voters, descendants of Palestinian and Mexican and probably Nigerians too. The Palestinians mocked Kamala as being in the pocket of Netanyahu. They called her genocide Kamala. They gave victory to Donald Trump in democratic strongholds of Michigan. White women have also started crying. I don’t care.
They proudly cast their vote for Trump without knowing some basic history of Netanyahu and American politics. American politics is always crazy. The constant is Israel. The Democrats tried to moderate the behavior of Israel, while the Republicans are in support of anything Israel wants. For a Palestinian to look to a Republican president for some relief against Israel is like looking for water in the Sahara.
Netanyahu is also a special case. In his first year in office, Clinton was fuming after he had a meeting with Netanyahu. He asked his staff who he thinks he is, talking to the President of the United States that way. His staff replied. That is Netanyahu, Sir, he thinks he is the President of the United States, and you are his chief of Staff. That was then.
Bibi Netanyahu is all American. He grew up and studied in the United States. He knows the ways of Washington more than Donald Trump and Donald has surrendered the driver seat to him. Now the Palestinians and Mexicans are calling on black America to help them fight back. Black Americans say: we are looking forward to going on vacation at the new holiday resort that Donald Trump is constructing in Palestine. We have fought so much, we deserve a break. See you guys in four years if you have not been deported for protesting Israel occupation and Trump’s New Jerusalem: A place where all the angels of the choir are well paid by ELON MUSK. The angels are all white not Jews.
God bless Donald Trump. He has concentrated his energies on immigrants and the police have forgotten about black people. That is freedom!
All these folks voted against their personal interests and are supposed that Donald Trump will do Donald Trump. Now that the chickens are coming home to roost, they are crying ignorance. This is a democracy. It is your responsibility to know.
DR AUSTIN ORETTE WRITES FROM HOUSTON, TEXAS
The person who cries loudest when a stone is thrown into the market is the one who has been hit. To him, everything is about tribal affiliation. For someone to grow, he or she must at some point learn whether his interaction is positive or negative with the people around him
A recalibration is not a weakness. I am an Isoko man from Delta state. This is what people like you will call a minority. Unlike you, I don’t wear my tribe on my forehead. I only use it as a reference point here .It does not connote power to me and it is not my whole identity.
When you use yours, it is everything to you because you have been raised to believe that without it, you have no power, and you have no identity.
When you are not invited to the high table, it means you are totally subjugated, and you feel your entire tribe is marginalized and your whole existence becomes meaningless.
It is a sad life when the definition of us becomes the group. This illusion obscures our humanity and our real identity as a person. This is the limitation that takes away the natural order of growth that increases our understanding of our environment and we are glued to the mirror and Narcissus becomes our best friend. Any counter view is considered an existential threat that must be eliminated with acidic fervor. Language becomes crude and vulgar and meaning is lost and progress stunted.
I don’t have those kinds of attachments and hang-ups because my existence is beyond anything that confines me. You have been raised to think otherwise. You are your tribe and your tribe is you. This ossification makes your cage very uncomfortable. No matter where you go, you can never belong.
I am a citizen of the world. I am home anywhere because I have never been raised to lord it over other people. I am not disappointed when I don’t meet your expectations which are clannish and subterranean. You take it as a personal affront when an independent observer talks about the need to rethink. From my vantage position, I can see how the interplay of Hausa, Igbo and Yoruba affects the other people that you and others hardly think about. From the way I mentioned the tribes, you can see that they are in alphabetical order because someone like you will complain that i did put Igbo last.
I have written more on the Hausa / Fulani relationship and its effect on Nigeria. No one from there has accused me of myopia or stupidity. I am an equal opportunity offender. Why would you want me to include the South-West in an essay about Igbo and Fulani? You can write about the marginalization of Igbos if that is what you are worried about. You can also write about the relationship of Igbo and Yoruba. That should keep you busy because you have so much grudge. It is time the South-East people learn to deal with issues dispassionately.
How can a member of the big tribe preach marginalization to those of us you call minority? Everything in our land is harvested, devastated and divided among Igbo, Hausa and the Yoruba in Nigeria. Do the people from the dominant groups actually spend any time talking about justice? Your attitude is poor because it is self-serving. People like you only talk about justice when your tribe’s man is affected.
The Igbo candidate lost in the last election. If he had won, he would make everyone around him Igbo. I see nothing wrong with that. My quarrel is that we are not restructured, and the federation is lopsided. If we are well structured and every region is in charge of their resources, I will not care if you become president and all your family members become your cabinet. This is because most of the decisions they will make will not affect me and at that time, there will be a workable system that will check that kind of abuse. It is normal for people in high places to appoint people they can trust and have the vision of the leader. Buhari put all his people there. It was terrible because most of them were incompetent. In a well-structured country, it will not be necessary to be a kinsman in order to be appointed. We just want those who could do the job. The system we have now is the winner takes all. When Goodluck Jonathan was president, the majority of the cabinet was Igbos. The West and the North complained and they wrestled power from him. It was due to the insularity of the Igbos that Jonathan lost.
You are wrong to complain that you are marginalized when you could not work hard to re-elect the person who gave most of his cabinet positions to the Igbos. Your marginalization is self-imposed.
Learn how to work with others and they will work with you. It is pathetic when people like you whine about marginalization, when in actuality, you lack the discipline, dedication and the humility needed to form workable alliances.
For your homework, go and study how Bola Tinubu gained power. He stooped to conquer. I don’t think stooping is in the lexicon of the Igbos. This is why power will always elude you. You think we should beg you to lead because you are very smart. You are going to wait a very long time if you don’t change your attitude
Remember I am an equal opportunity offender. I will revisit this subject.
DR AUSTIN ORETTE WRITES FROM HOUSTON, TEXAS
It takes time to form a country. It takes patience and dedication to change attitudes. When people from disparate places and cultures are brought together to form a Nation, it is never easy. In the long run, the tears and toil are worth it because the interactions lead to expansion of consciousness which drives human progress.
The journey of nationhood is not for timid souls. It was never easy for countries like India and China to rise. These countries have more divisions, ethnic, religious cleavages and groupings than we can ever imagine. The main thing that worked for them was that they never gave upstart military officers the chance to upend their civilian administration and throw their country into a fratricide war.
In times of distress, there are people in Nigeria who still look to the military for solutions. This is shameful. The military caused our problems. How did we arrive at this place where a lot of Nigerians still think the military have solutions to our problem? Are these folks’ victims of Military Induced Mental Retardation (MIMR) (pronounced Mama)? These people still think this way despite the overwhelming evidence to the contrary. This is the reason why the various legislative bodies have not seen it fit to abrogate the decrees of the military that ruled Nigeria on behalf of a certain group of people. This mentality is dangerous to our body politics. This is why a lot of these politicians pay courtesy visits to these soldiers of fortune that turned Nigeria into the Pariah nation.
MIMR is the reason the Nigerian lawyers don’t know their role in a democratic society. MIMR is the reason why we don’t have legal reforms. In a constitution that guarantees freedom of movement, the Nigerian is harassed daily on the highways by state agents.
Are we at war? Why is our freedom restricted? No lawyer has taken the government to court for this constitutional violation. This is pathetic. We need serious legal reforms. The method of appointing judges is very antiquated. We need to know the character of those who will be judges. Knowledge of jurisprudence should not be the only criteria. During the military years, the Nigerian lawyer played the role of stenographer for military decrees, and the judges took their decisions from the soldiers. Now they are playing almost the same role as politicians who have no idea why they were elected. They have abandoned the practice of law to become jesters at the feet of reckless politicians and conveyors of injustice at our courts. Our courts harbor judges who suffocate justice under their robes and consider military decrees of bygone era as a guild post for our state of jurisprudence.
All over the country, you see governors and other politicians seizing and damaging people’s properties without just compensation and there is no lawyer in sight to argue on behalf of the afflicted. A Dangote truck will damage and incinerate people on the highways, and no case is brought on behalf of the victims. The Nigerian Armed Forces go into a village for security duties and destroy the village, no justice for the victims. The governor pays a courtesy visit to the commander in chief. No lawyer files a lawsuit on behalf of the victim. The officer who issued the command to murder sleeping villagers is left to repeat the same scenario in another jurisdiction. We will protest if this happens in Palestine. It is happening in the Democratic Republic of Nigeria where the rights of the citizens are undermined daily by those they elected. These politicians did not gain power by a coup. If you listen to them with your eyes closed, you will think they are military officers who have just gained power through a coup d’etat. They don’t seek consensus. They give directives. Some of them defy court rulings with fanfare. The military infantilized everyone in Nigeria, but they pushed the lawyer back into the womb. This is atrocious.
As a nation, we must consider the fifty-five years of military rule in Nigeria as the years of locust. The journey of great nations is always evolutionary. The military years were the years when hatred of each other became ossified and personalized as the military played us against each other to prolong their power. The revolution is always a lie.
In history, most periods of revolutionary zeal turn to mirage. We will have good leaders, and we will have bad leaders. Each period is an opportunity to learn what to do and what not to do. The rush to think that some army general will appear and use a magical wand to achieve all we wish for is infantile and dangerous. No soldier can develop any nation. Nigeria is a testament to that foolery. It is the willingness of the people to understand the necessity to build bridges and lasting institutions of harmony that moves a nation forward. The rule of law is the cornerstone in this exercise. If we have the rule of law, the Nigerian will feel protected in any place he calls home. Ethnic crisis and tensions will dampen because he knows no matter what happens, the law will protect him from ethnic or religious vigilantism that is the breeding ground for timid souls that are still married to the past.
These people must be made to see the supremacy of the law as the sign of our progress. The journey is arduous, and our dream should be about building frameworks that last beyond our existence, because the nation that we dream of should always be a continuous journey of those who believe in tomorrow and understand that the yearning and aspiration of our people shall never die. This is all we can ask for as we toil in our little corner, to build tomorrow for the next generation.
We must strive to make tomorrow a brighter proposition for those coming after us. It is when we arrive at that place, we can say our work is done. This singularity is love that binds us beyond ethnic and religious proclivities, which robs us of our basic humanity. We can start this journey today and also understand that others who share the same aspirations with us may start their journey tomorrow. The wisdom we seek should give us the patience to know the difference and endure the pain and loneliness of waiting for those who are not ready today but will join us tomorrow.
For those who seek truth, justice and fairness, tomorrow is a distant horizon we must gaze at with hope, endurance and fortitude. Tomorrow is not a destination; it is a state of our being. The futuristic tomorrow may never come but our state of will be fulfilled and rewarded as our collective struggles will build monuments that last beyond our time. That is the tomorrow we seek, a place where our dreams will never die.
DR AUSTIN ORETTE WRITES FROM HOUSTON TEXAS
The more things look different, the higher the chances of finding similarities if we look closely. Those at the opposite end of the spectrum are mirror images. If we move too quickly, we are subjected to the parallax effect where everything is moving except us. In this scenario, we are not the cause but the effect.
I have lived with Igbo and Fulani people. As a student of behavioral science, I don’t see any difference in these groups. They may hate and admire each other but they are having the mirror effect on each other.
The Fulani people are fatalistic while Igbo are nihilistic. A keen observer can predict these groups in any given situation. The level of narcissism between these groups is superlative. The Fulani trust no one outside their conclave.
In the last election, the South-East gave 99% of votes to Mr. Peter Obi. At what point does self-love become injurious to the group? This is the question we can answer if we are able to calibrate the interactions that might be injurious to people who are not members of the group.
Igbo and the Fulani may differ in temperament, but their world view is the same. Both groups want the same results, but their methods are different. The Fulani people use religious manipulation while the Igbo people use manipulated commerce. At the end of the day, the objective is the same. They want to be in charge. The Fulani will boast of their piety while the Igbo people will brag about their wealth. The Fulani man tells us he is closer to God so he should be the head while the Igbo people will tell us God has blessed them with so much wealth so he should be the leader.
It is the failure to understand this mirror effect that has made some promoters of Fulani and Igbo agenda to jump to conclusion with emotional fervor.
The Igbo and the Fulani people were in alliance in the First Republic. Due to the oversized egos of these ethnic groups, Nigeria suffered a mortal injury. They were in Alliance in the First Republic and that Republic fell apart because they could not control each other and they could not control their basic instincts.
From this ancient grudge are the seeds of the new mutiny. The first person that told Nigerians that God bequeathed Nigeria to Igbo people for proper stewardship was Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe. Ahmadu Bello heard the speech and rephrased it and made it abundantly clear that Nigeria was the estate of his grandfather. The alliance between Igbo and Fulani was a marriage of convenience. Ahmadu Bello saw it as an opportunity to keep Igbo close so that he could put a check on their behavior. Nnamdi Azikiwe saw it as an opportunity to plant the Igbo people in every federal position to fulfill the manifest destiny of Igbo as ordained by God.
As soon as the alliance was formed, things fell apart and the nation was no longer at ease. The friction within this alliance was so bad that Ahmadu Bello had to remind Zik that it is the Prime Minister who is the Commander in Chief of the Army, and he was the only one who can give directive to the Army. When the name of Aguyi Ironsi was submitted to be the next Chief of Army staff, Ahmadu Bello vetoed it three times. Tafawa Balewa made a personal trip to Kaduna to accede on behalf of Ironsi. Ahmadu Bello reluctantly agreed and told Balewa that he is surrounded by Igbo, and he fears he will not be able to extricate himself from Lagos. He told him that the Igbo people in the cabinet are conducting themselves as if they were the senior partners in the alliance.
His worries came to pass, and the rest is history. Our democracy was derailed, and war ensued. When Ojukwu declared secession, he sent a message to David Ejoor who was the Governor of the MidWest Region that he was going to invade the Midwest region. David Ejoor pleaded with him that the Midwest region was neutral in the quarrel between Igbo and Fulani. Ojukwu ignored his plea and invaded the Midwest Region. Ejoor barely escaped with his life. Ojukwu appointed Colonel Okonkwo as Governor, and the Mid-west region became hell on earth. It was murder, rape and forcible conscription of the youth into the Biafran Army. Banks were looted and public institutions were vandalized. Nothing was sacrosanct.
Why kill us if you ask us to be in the same country of Biafra with you. What would we be if Biafra had prevailed? We could have been prisoners of war. If the Fulani people did this to us, the Igbo people will call it a Jihad. Nigeria has had an uneasy peace since the end of the war. There were some ill feelings between the Igbo and the Fulani, but it was not this palpable.
During the Presidency of Goodluck Jonathan, the Igbo people were a majority in his cabinet. The Fulani people were on edge. There was no Biafran agitation. Then Buhari came in and there was a sudden effervescence of bitterness and animosity. Why? The Igbo like the Fulani people have become uneasy because Buhari‘s compass only pointed North. His family was his cabinet. Suddenly, Nigeria became a zoo because the Igbo man was no longer in charge.
You can now see clearly the mirror effect. When the Fulani ran the North, all the important positions were occupied by the Fulani. When Igbo ran the East, all the important positions were occupied by the Igbo. The minority in the North suffered and the minority in the East suffered. It was the oppression by the Igbo that drove Southern Cameroon out of Nigeria. The minority in the East is uncomfortable with the Igbo and the minority in the North is uncomfortable with the Fulani. You can now see the similarities clearly.
The Fulani don’t see themselves as Nigerians because they colonized the North and no local force has been able to force them out. The administrative system of the whole North was put in place by the Fulani.
What is happening in the North is akin to apartheid. In their shrewdness, they tell the Hausa people that they are superior because they are Muslims. Igbo people regale others with their prowess as the richest people God created, and the minorities of the East are very lazy. This propensity to be crude and vulgar is no different from the Fulani who calls someone infidel and want the person to submit to his authority. The Fulani people have a sword, and the Igbo people have a machete.
Promoters of the Igbo agenda take affront to this comparison because in their world view, they placed themselves higher than the Fulani because of education. Education and civilization are not synonymous. Education makes you haughty. Civilization gives you the ability to adapt. They took offense because of this observation. Their offense is not about the observation. They take offense because one ascribes everything negative to the Fulani, and they see this observation as pejorative. That is on them for failing to see the kaleidoscopic mirage that have blinded them to see how they can forge a relationship that is not based on animus.
In our present Nigeria, we have to find a way to work together without distrust. The Fulani man sees himself as a colonial master. This leads to arrogance and aloofness that is offensive to others. On the other hand, the Igbo are the only tribe in Nigeria that never had any form of monarchy in their history. This led to a culture of individualism that could be injurious to group cohesion. This is why someone who calls himself an Igbo king does not understand the lack of etiquette in forming a kingdom under another kingdom. In the past, that is considered an act of war because you have to conquer the kingdom before you can set up your Royal lineage. This lack of awareness can only be celebrated by those who trivialize the culture of others. This is similar to the Sultan of Sokoto in telling Nigerians that Islam trumps our culture. The more things look different, the more they look the same. Be observant. The two regions that are very restive in Nigeria today are the North and the East. They are ready to destroy the edifice if their group is not in charge. You can you see the similarities now. The umbrage in the response by a promoter of the agenda of the two groups will be the same if a Fulani had replied. You feel you are superior, and the Fulani man feels the same. This egotistic behavior blinds them from seeing the ripples of their actions. This lack of self-reflection is the reason Nigeria is in a vicious cycle today. The Fulani people want Nigeria to be Arewa while the Igbo people want Biafra. This syndrome of atomization is the cumulative resultant forces unleashed by these ethnic groups.
We will never resolve this state of our entropy as long as these groups think the only way forward is to subjugate each other and the rest of us. The Igbo and the Fulani people are very much alike. Both have nomadic instincts. The Fulani people want a mosque in every corner. The South-East people want a shop in every corner. They don’t care about what the landlord wants. In the rare occasions when the landlord dares to suggest his existence, the Fulani will call you an infidel while the Igbos will call you Igbo-phobia. These groups have insularity built into their cultures with culpable deniability. It is more glaring with the Fulani people. This insularity is what makes assimilation with them almost impossible.
The Fulani people are trying their best to give the Igbos the Cameroon option while the South-East people are looking for a way to give the Fulani the minority option. Both groups are not in favour of structural reforms. The shared vision of both groups is to be allowed to roam in Nigeria without the encumbrance of local leaders. The Igbos will have Eze-Igbo in every village, and the Fulani man will roam his cattle everywhere and build his mosque in every village. This will make the needs of the locals subservient to their incursion because they will be protected by the federal might which they control.
DR AUSTIN ORETTE WRITES FROM HOUSTON TEXAS
CHAOS IN GOVERNMENT AGENCIES, ABUSE OF CITIZENS AND PRODUCTIVITY BY DR AUSTIN ORETTE
This is not an endorsement of any leader in Nigeria. I have observed that Nigerians have formed a subculture of always complaining as a means of coping with the realities. My observation is that the blaming of leaders is a veritable past time in the country. I am beginning to see these complaints as a quarrel amongst accomplices. They robbed a bank, and the leader of the gang drove off with the loot in their getaway car and left them stranded. They cannot call the police, so they are left with the infighting which they consider as protest.
They start plotting who will hold the key in the next operation. The plot to be the driver in the next robbery is the cacophony we are witnessing daily. They put the blame on the leadership and exempt themselves from the rot within. In this confusion, they blame the wrong people for their woes.
Most of the people complaining don’t know the role of their governors, senators and local government chairmen. As soon as anything goes astray, they call Tinubu. This ignorance has allowed the governors and LGA chairman to operate under the radar.
What has Tinubu got to do with a house fire in Lagos or kaduna? The governors and the state assembly and local government chairmen are those responsible for policy implementation at the local level. This ignorance is costing the nation a lot.
Some of these critics don’t even know the kind of government we are running. They still think we are in the military regime. The president and the senate have not done anything to enlighten the people. Some of their actions like suspending governors and senators by fiat have given the impression that we are still in a military dictatorship.
Every Nigerian wants good leadership, but none wants to aspire to be good citizens. All the negative things perpetrated are done by regular people in Nigeria. These are the people who complain everyday about hardship in Nigeria. These people are those who show extreme wickedness when they are given a little opportunity to intercede in the affairs of their local communities.
Any encounter with these folks will lead you to the field of tears. They could be market women, police, Customs or regular soldiers; they become gods in their little domain. In this domain, they are very dictatorial, callous and imperious and exercise power with vehemence in their various jurisdictions. They make sure they inflict pain on you during any interaction.
From the trader selling fake goods at exorbitant prices to the policemen at the checkpoint, 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 behind 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 is almost as bad as trying to obtain a visa to another country. In most cases, the visa ordeal is friendlier and there are no inducements involved. Trying 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 Customs and other various governments and their agents leaving their goods behind. Flying into Lagos airport is the worst ordeal. Every government agency is there including the touts from Iddo Park. They are trying to tell you they are there to hurt you. There is no cordial welcome.
There is nowhere in Nigeria the citizen does not try to erect his own obstacles. A visit to any government office to collect a document to verify you are still alive will lead to your death. You must pay before you die. This is Nigeria; don’t ask for a death certificate if you cannot afford to die. This is very sad.
Do we need many checkpoints with menacing police touting Ak47s on our roads? Are we at war? Why so many checkpoints? What is the relationship between checkpoints and crimes? Why are Nigerians 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, 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. You cannot get one without the other because if they meet, they will not recognize each other. Let’s learn to recognize that the microcosm must be organized to care for each other in order to harmoniously evolve a macrocosm that is habitable.
Imagine that police don’t harass and shake down farmers bringing food to markets. Imagine that the employees at the poultry company don’t steal all the eggs and poison the chickens. This may lower the price of food and prevent the decay of food due to loss of time at checkpoints. This will lead to full employment and reduction of inflation. 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. Nigerians produce nothing and they expect everything.
Let us start by producing harmony. Blaming the leaders is a subterfuge that subtracts leadership from the people. How many unemployed people are willing to do an honest job, when given the opportunity? Do these people have the ethical compass that reflects honesty and dedication to their employer?
I am pushed to be equivocal here because of my observations. The employer may stumble into that employee who will steal all the eggs and poison the chickens and the business is bankrupt. There is no penalty for the offender and he moves to reenact the scenario in another organization. Should we blame Tinubu for this? An enterprise cannot grow in a sea of perfidy. Leadership is always a reflection of the consciousness of the people. Bad people can only produce bad leaders. Good people, good leaders. You cannot have one without the other.
Let us begin the process of removing the logs in our eyes. This is the only way we can have the vision to point to a better path for our country. This new road will lead us to love ourselves and our neighbors. Our self-hatred is what is manifesting as hatred and cruelty to others. We find it easy to destroy and humiliate and extort others because we are miserable due to lack of self-esteem and self-love. No legislation can make us love ourselves. We must learn how to fight these battles within. We must evolve a system to isolate those who violate community standards, ethics and morality.
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
A group of political leaders under the aegis of Edo State Political Leaders Forum (EDPLF) on Friday met in Auchi, Edo North Senatorial District, describing the All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship candidate, Monday Opebholo, as a man of integrity and principle.
“Many qualities separate Monday Opebholo from other candidates: vision, courage, character, loyalty and sincerity. He will chart the right course and provide a clear focus for where the people and the state want to be and how to get there” the leaders said.
At the meeting to perfect strategies towards ensuring the emergence of Opebholo as the next governor of Edo State, the leaders said Okpebholo remains the best for Edo State”
‘’We want a governor that can unite the people, provide security and good roads throughout the state. Okpebholo will not step on the toes of Edo people. He will fast track development in all the communities, embark on large housing development for low-income earners, create the enabling environment for investors within and outside to invest in Edo State in order to create more job opportunities for the people’’
In a statement issued by the group’s spokesman, Dr. Kenneth Agweh, the leaders urged Edo indigenes at home and abroad to think about the future of the state and reject the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) for contributing to the state’s adversity.
‘’We are building critical alliances with the various communities. We are dialoguing with major players in the country. We are talking with opinion leaders, influencers in Edo State and Edo indigenes abroad. We are in touch with traditional rulers, market women, youth leaders and professionals. Okpebholo will win the September governorship election’’
They described the APC candidate as a good leader, competent administrator and one of the most influential and uniting figures in Nigerian history.
“Monday Opebholo symbolizes the very best. He will boost the tourism sector, provide for the well-being of our people, deepen the mechanics of governance and service delivery in the state” the leaders said.
They praised the APC governorship candidate for his exceptional qualities, impeccable honesty, competence and humble lifestyle.
They also praised him for having the type of empathy and direction the state needs.
“Monday Opebholo is well known for his innovative ideas and clean image. He is down to earth, clear sighted about issues facing the state.”
The APC candidate, a cerebral, competent manager and good example of leadership in Africa, is expected to win the governorship election in September.
“We are sure of victory” the leaders said.
EDPLF is a political group striving for the enthronement of accountable and responsible government in Edo State.
Political leaders from Etsako West, East and Central, Owan East and West and Akoko-Edo were present at the meeting.