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26 July 2012 By Farouk Martins Aresa
faroukomartins@aim.com Hausa culture and religion is
second to none of their invaders but like all
Africans, they share tolerance for these same
"visitors". We know the history of Hausa States before
and after the invaders. It is a shame that this rich
culture and religion was suppressed just as those in
the South had been by the Muslim and Christian values
that created Jihad and Crusade mass killings. The
mother of all fetishes we all suffer from today. No country has survived,
progressed or excel by imitation without offering
unique and home grown qualities. Nigeria will not and
Africa will not. When you ridicule and void your
religions based on fetishes, the void will be filled
by religions of mass destructions. In Nigeria Fulani
or Jewish claims while loyalty is to Saudi Arabia or
Israel is treacherous. Ask blacks in those countries
you based your lofty pride on how they were/are
treated. For solution, it boils down to
serious planning to deter violence at its source. The
South must encourage specifically the Hausa to regain
their cultural self-determination instead of being
used as proxy for Fulani remnant warriors from the old
ages. Until Hausa stand up by educating youths of
their lost glory, and repel most of the violence used
to keep them down as inherited from foreign religious
wars, nobody will sleep in Nigeria. Most of the African religions
pride themselves on voluntary converts coming to
explore, absorb and convert on their own. African
Empires might have had economic-political wars to
unite their people for taxes and to raise formidable
armies but hardly converted others into their
religions by force or tulasi. People from far
and wide heard and were attracted by awe, miracles,
wisdom and yes gold, ivory and terracotta. We must give Lamido Sanusi,
Governor of the Central Bank some credit for claiming
Southerners think all Northerners are the same.
However, it is not that other Nigerians do not know
the difference between Northerners especially after
the inauguration of NYSC or before, they just don't
care. So the Yoruba made careless statement that –
Gambari pa Fulani ko lejo nu. Ignorance and
carelessness are close but not the same. This notion that Southerners are
ignorant of the differences between Northerners has
been exaggerated to a fault. Sanusi, in
self-aggrandizement said not all Northern leaders came
from a higher culture meaning Gowon, Babangida, Abacha
and Abubakar are not Fulani. It is a shame that this
African that looks at himself in a mirror saw a Fulani
like a study of black kids in the 60s that wished the
images of themselves as white features. Hausa are already at the mercy of
the Fulani; so Hausa that wants any relevance in the
scheme of power in the North had to relate to the
religious belief of the caliphate at the expense of
his own religion. They were subjugated to Fulani
complex. In the same way, military leaders started
seeking ways to belong as if under one spell or
religion. The Southern brothers and sisters
also have the same religious log in their eyes as some
claimed they are from Egypt and Israel. This foreign
influence while in moderation have been globally
tolerated, it has grown wild in African countries and
Nigeria in particular. Unless we retrace our steps,
individual sovereign power is at stake as
neocolonialism. Indifferent, most Southerners
ignore the killing of the Hausa in the North by a
group of so called Fulani in cooperation with other
Hausa. So each time Fulani go after Hausa villages, we
dismissed their conflicts. Before the southerners were
killed in the North, their close neighbors were killed
in the North-central by Fulani cow grazers. It is
coming home to roast and closer to southern heartland
from Kwara, Oyo, Ogun to Owerri. As far back as the days of Amino
Kano (our known Saint), Ahmadu Bello, Zik and Awo,
cooperation and alliance between parties cutting
across the Country were in order. Amino Kano, Tarka
and Alhaji Waziri (politics without bitterness) in
Borno area formed alliance with Zik and Awo. The idea
of one North or one South has always been a mirage
until the military came and Gowon announced himself as
Northerner for their solace. While these alliances have been
formed across North and South, it has never been
formed between the East and the West; except locally
on western soil. The closest was UPGA which
disintegrated as the East and the North went into
traditional alliance at the Federal. So the East has
been successful in the past as the beautiful bride
bringing the North into its bosom while the West
stayed as opposition and progressed on its own. If S. L Akintola is to be
vindicated, the West must also learn as the East has
always done, to find a way to accommodate the Hausa.
The political realities right now is that the East and
the West get along socially and economically but
political marriage at the Federal level always elude
them. Indeed, the South-south also had political
alliance with the North. This is why there is a change
of mind in the West that if there is something in
there for the East and South-south as Akintola had
opined; the West must also go for it. In spite of the competitive
scramble for political offices between East and West,
we may have to find a unity of mind in government
between all geopolitical areas of Nigeria so that no
area is shut out as in the past when the West was left
out cold at the Federal level. The East can also
claim they were left out cold after the war at the
Federal level. So far the characters in the
present political scene in the West trying to form
alliance with the North are of shady characters.
Bluntly put, if Buhari justifies his critics that he
is so desperate for power that he would ally with
Tinubu, a man known for his exploit and avarice in
Lagos State, he has himself to blame. Buhari has shown
weakness in the past for Fulani dynasties that
flagrantly defied his draconian order. Hausa dynasty
is next. Maitatsine or Boko Haram is the
product of these religious fanatics that have engulfed
Northern Nigeria and will continue to hunt us until we
rescue our Hausa brothers and sisters from their grip.
Abacha as Defense Minister under IBB crushed it and
even overthrew Dansuki as Sultan of Sokoto without
blinking. The closest to that was the retirement of
all the military politicians by Obasanjo. Most were so
call Fulani elite. Indoctrination starts from
childhood. Our children are packed in Koranic and
Biblical schools where they are indoctrinated to
pledge allegiance to foreign gods and values. There is
hardly an area in Nigeria where children are taught in
local languages. Parents take pride when their
children recant Latin and Koranic verses word for word
without any understanding except as translated by
elders versed in none African languages. Then we
wonder how we got here. They ate the hearts of our
children. As long as Hausa in Northern
Nigeria are suppressed by those that take pride in
calling themselves strangers (Alhaji) or Pilgrim at
home and abroad, the rest of Nigeria will continue to
suffer the consequences in terms of violence that are
imbedded in those religions and cultures. Religious
violence must stop and the subjugated Hausa must be
empowered for peace to prevail at their doorstep. |
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