Veteran journalist,
columnist and administrator, Chief Adetola Adeniyi
says that restructuring
Nigeria is inevitable as it must be achieved
either intellectually or
by the use of force.
Chief Adeniyi said in
this interview with Business Hallmark’s Teslim
Shitta-Bey and Obinna
Ezugwu how the Fulani have over the years used
the military and
trickery to bring Nigeria to where it is today, while
also criticising former
president Olusegun Obasanjo who he said is the
most anti south leader
Nigeria has ever produced.
Excerpts:
Nigeria is at a critical
point in its existence. The call for
restructuring as a way
out is growing. What are your thoughts?
My thoughts remain the
same. I recall that in 1983, I called a press
conference in Ibadan,
the theme of which was the national question. I
said that unless the
Nigerian national question was addressed, the
(Shehu) Shagari
government should not go ahead to conduct the election
for second term. And
that if it did, the government would not last for
three months. I noted
that the country was sitting on a keg of gun
powder, and the
political structure was skewed in favour of the North
as it was then because
there is no more North now.
I was arrested and
detained, and of course they went ahead to have the
election. But the
government collapsed in three months by December 31.
For many years, even
when I was regional editor of the Daily Times, I
have always felt that
(Lord) Lugard was a devil; that bastard born in
India had mischievous
agenda for India, Nigeria and Sudan, those three
countries where he
featured as a soldier, as a mercenary, an
administrator and as a
trader. It was the Royal Niger Company that
really brought him to
Nigeria. The British actually didn’t want any of
their colonies to be
independent or to ever be able to govern
themselves.
What they wanted to do,
which France did to a large extent, was to
make their colonies
caricatures of Britain or France, so you will
neither be African nor
English. With that devilish plan, Lugard and
most Britons of his era
believed that pink pigmentation of the skin
was superior to dark
pigmentation. That was why they gave government
in the Sudan to the Arab
North and suppressed the South of Sudan which
forced them into war for
several years. In India, they encouraged the
caste system for a long
time and preferred the lighter skinned
Pakistanis and
Bangladesh to the darker skinned middle and Southern
Indians.
In applying the same
thing here, they found out that the Fulani, who
at that time, had not
really intermarried as they have done now, so
you had about half a
million of them who were “fair” skinned. And they
also found the
Southerners to be more progressive, more aggressive and
better exposed than the
then colony of the Fulani. Before then, even
before Lugard was born,
the Fulani led by Uthman Danfodio…one of the
lies sold to most of us
in Nigeria was that Uthman Danfodio came from
Fouta Djallon, hat is
not true. He was born in Sokoto and buried in
Sokoto, I visited his
grave. What I’m saying is that the so called
North had been conquered
when the Fulani killed the king of the Hausas
and took over.
But they are so clever
politically; they didn’t take away the language
of the Hausa because it
would be difficult for them as a minority to
impose their Language on
the larger community, so they allowed the
Hausa to retain their
language while they also retained their fulfude.
So Lugard allowed them
to continue, he used what is now called
indirect rule. But for
the North at that time to survive
economically, it needed
the South which was already exporting timber,
coal, cocoa and so many
other things, and had an existing port; the
South was very wealthy,
and given that kind of background, they wanted
to make sure, especially
when they established the West African
Constabulary – the
Frontier force – they ensured that the bulk of the
recruits were from the
North because he also foresaw as Ahmadu Bello
later did, the dictum of
Chairman Mao that power flows from the barrel
of the gun.
They recognised at that
point in time that they must get soldiers from
the North, equip them
such that if they failed politically, they will
use their military wing
to impose whatever they wanted on the rest of
the country. Lugard
violated the natural boundaries of North and
South, the River Niger
was there; the River Benue was there, so the
boundary ought to have
stopped before Niger and Benue which was what
it was before the
amalgamation. But by amalgamation and the
unfortunate incident of
Afonja betraying the Alaafin during the Awole
reign, Alimi betrayed
Afonja and had conquered Ilorin. In fact, they
wanted to push the
boundary to Oshogbo, but for the Ijesha army that
drove them back. At the
time they were driven back in 1888 or
thereabout, the British
were already in Nigeria; Lugard was already
here. So they prevented
the South, the Yoruba from pushing the Fulani
further back.
The British eventually
ended up giving them such a large expanse of
land, and false
population figures; the political arrangement was so
designed that whether it
was parliamentary or presidential system, the
so called North must
have majority in government. Then they went ahead
in 1952 to give them
terrible false figures in census to ensure also
that if they base
everything on population, they will say the so
called North had more
population. They also went ahead to falsify
figures about even
religion, giving the impression that the North was
Muslim, that it had
larger Muslim population, but it’s not true. I was
a commissioner in
National Population Commission in 1988 to 89, and I
know that apart from
Bida and Kano, there is hardly any town in the
whole of the so called
North that can boast of large population.
So, they had the
military, they had false population figures, they had
false landmass;
everything was tailor-made to ensure that the so
called North will
continue to rule Nigeria.
Therefore, they didn’t
allow either Zik or Awolowo to rule, and
unfortunately, Zik was
more pliable – he was a great man, but he was
not a deep thinker. So
you had only Awolowo standing against all the
devilish designs of the
British. But some people may ask why we
tolerated this for over
100 years. It wasn’t for lack of effort,
people tried, but as Zik
said to all of us, you don’t argue with a man
carrying the gun. It has
been very difficult to free ourselves through
civil means, and this
had prompted the riots in Benue, it prompted
Adaka Boro and all the
militants that have tried at one time or the
other. And (Emeka)
Ojukwu tried, he really tried with his secessionist
bid to free the Igbo and
the rest of the country from this very
manipulative and very
power hungry Fulani.
Remember that earlier on
I said my own word is not restructuring, you
can only restructure a
structure, but to me there was never a
structure. There was no
structure, you had over 250 nationalities and
somebody just yoked them
together, they didn’t create any structure..
So, what we should be
doing is actually to go back to pre 1914.
Leaders of this place
called Nigeria, must come together and discuss
the terms of coming
together as a country. That hasn’t been done. We
Nigerian people… if
there is anybody that can be so called because
there are no Nigerian
people. We the people living in this expanse of
land were not involved
in what they did with the expanse of land.
There is no structure
given to that land, it is a landmass with
several nationalities,
what we should do is to go to pre 1914 as
Solomon Asemota, one of
the greatest thinkers on these issues said.
But if that cannot be
done, we can at least go back to 1952/54, that
is, going back to the
regions using language, culture and all that to
negotiate how to live
together. Also, to ensure that the landmass
itself has to be
redefined in a way that natural boundaries are agreed
upon. You cannot be
taking about Western region, and leave the Jembe
and so on in Kogi or you
have emirs in Yoruba land or emirs in Zango
Kataf or in Kafanchan,
which are Christian lands.
If there is a correct
census in this country, I can say that Western
Nigeria has more Muslims
than any other part of this country. You have
had Islam here in Lagos
since the 11th Century, and in other places
like Iwo, Oyo, Ijebu and
so on. That’s why they called it ‘Esimali’
because it came from
Mali. We had Muslims before Uthman Danfodio was
born, but they (Fulani)
have done so much that not only have they
conquered the most
vociferous and most enlightened part of Nigeria
politically and
militarily, they have also enslaved us religiously by
calling somebody head of
supreme council of Islamic affairs. What is
supreme council of
Islamic affairs? Somebody that had never been voted
for! He has only been a
Sultan, then using a puppet like late Dr
Lateef Adegbite, and now
using another puppet called Ishaq Akintola
who is now the secretary
of the so called Islamic affairs; there is
nothing like Islamic
affairs.
But because of it, the
Sultan will dictate to South West when to fast
and when not to fast;
when to kill ram and all what not. And they
won’t allow Muslims from
the South to lead prayers in the North. They
made it such that the
Southern Muslims have submitted themselves to
the superiority of
Fulani Muslims. And they have accepted to be second
class even in their
religion. That’s why I’m also leading a forum to
free the Yoruba Muslims
and ask the Alaafin of Oyo or the Awujale of
Ijebu land to act as the
Supreme head of Muslims in the South West. So
that when the Sultan is
dictating to the Fulani people, the Awujale or
the Alaafin of Oyo will
dictate to us here. The Sultan should never be
arrogated as supreme
head of anybody outside his sphere of influence.
You have spoken
extensively about how the entire South has been
subjugated by the
Fulani, but why is it that the South cannot come
together to stop it?
There was a strong
alliance between Awolowo and Joseph Tarka, meaning
that it’s not just
between West and East, but also between West and
Middle Belt. And when
Awolowo was incarcerated in 1964, (Michael)
Opara came to the West
and they formed UPGA which was a marriage of
East and West. Again, at
a point, there was betrayal, or rather the
Fulani played a hand.
The Fulani like I said, are still the most
sophisticated
politicians in Nigeria, there is no doubt about that.
Because the only
industry they have is power, and they have always had
British and American
advisers, till tomorrow, and we didn’t have that.
Up till today, the South
does not believe they need the British or the
Americans to advise them
on politics. But the Fulani have always
submitted themselves to
British influence and directives.
It is not that they (the
South) didn’t try, but we have always had
fifth columnists among
the Yoruba and among the Igbo. Once they dangle
some political office in
their face, they fall for it. That has been
the bane, but we have
all passed that stage. Maybe some governors are
too chicken hearted to
talk, maybe some ministers cannot talk, but
they are only negligible
minority. We now have a hurricane in the
South, nobody who knows
history can stop it. I have argued in some of
my articles that it was
the military wing of the Fulani that brought
us into this mess. It
was them that followed the part and pattern
decided for them by the
British.
When (Alani) Akinrinade,
Black Scorpion (Benjamin Adekunle) and Alabi
Isiama, who were the war
heroes that I know, but for them and the
Christians in the
Military who were mostly Yoruba, there was no way
the so called federal
military could have defeated the Igbo. That is
now painful, when you
read Jimanze Ego-Alowes’ book, ‘How the Yoruba
won and lost the Biafra
War’. We fought; allowed ourselves to be used
by the Fulani to kill
the Igbo, but the first thing they did for us
was to create 12 states
and weaken the federating units. They gave the
Yoruba just one state,
and gave the so called North about six at that
time, and gave the East
three because they wanted the minorities
separate from the Igbo.
Thus, the Yoruba became the first casualty.
Then the worst came when
someone of very doubtful paternity called
Olusegun Obasanjo, who
for reasons best known to him has remained the
greatest anti south
southerner in this country. It wasn’t Murtala
Muhammed that took
Federal government out of Lagos, it was Obasanjo.
It was Obasanjo who
imposed presidential system on Nigerians, it was
him who took over all
the achievements of the South: the University of
Nigeria, Nsukka; the
Obafemi Awolowo University; the television
stations; Liberty
Stadium… it wasn’t Murtala Muhammed that
nationalised them, it
was this … Obasanjo..
He is a rootless man
that believes that he can only “satanically” hang
on to that mirage called
Nigeria since he cannot say he is Igbo, even
though we have question
marks about his connection with Obi Onyejekwe,
there is a question mark
about whether Ashabi his mother was from
Yoruba land or from
Nupe, there are question marks on whether the man
his mother married later
who was called Obasanjo and who according to
a television broadcast
in 2005 in Abeokuta was actually ‘Sango Sonjo’
but who changed his name
to Obasanjo when he became a Christian. So
you have all these
questions hanging around his name and around his
paternity.. He has done
the greatest harm to restructuring Nigeria; to
making Nigeria a truly
federal state than any other person in Nigerian
history.
Of course, since they
knew who he was, even after (MKO) Abiola was
denied the presidency,
the Fulani, using some proxies… because among
those who brought
Obasanjo back to power, it was only Aliyu Mohammed
Gusau who is Fulani.
Babangida is not Fulani, he is Gwari; Danjuma is
Jukun, but the Fulani
used them to choose somebody they know will
always dance to their
tune to make him president, they have tested him
before. But before then,
the military government of Abacha, which was
itself a creation of the
Fulani had gone ahead to divide Nigeria into
36 states and created
774 local governments that had no rhythm nor
rhyme. I know a
particular place called Chalawa in a Local government
in Kano; there are not
up to twelve houses there. And the only house
there that is plastered,
not painted, is a 2-bedroom bungalow.
You call that a local
government headquarters, to compare with
Alimosho Local
Government, to compare with Ibadan, to compare with
Obafemi Owode. You have
local governments dotted all over the North
that cannot boast of ten
thousand or even five thousand people in
population. And yet the
sharing formula for Nigeria’s resources is
based largely on
landmass, which is false; on population, which is
false and on local
governments, all of which are fraudulent. So for
peace and stability to
return to this landmass, we have to go
confederate, anything
short of it is just window dressing; anything
short of that is still
going to collapse. Nigeria must be based on a
confederation.
Let us have six
republics: the Caliphate Republic; the Elkanemic
Republic, which is
Borno; the Igbo Republic; the Niger Delta Republic;
the Yoruba Republic and
the Middle Belt Republic. And those six
republics would then
come together and have the confederal republic of
Nigeria on agreed terms.
Every republic will have its own
constitution, police and
military but to be coordinated by the federal
military for national
defence against external enemy. Why should the
federal government have
the ministry of education, why should it have
ministry of agriculture
or ministry of lands and housing? Federal
government does not own
land, you cannot be doing agriculture when you
don’t have any land. The
land belongs to state and local governments.
So, once we have that,
let every region develop at its own pace.
There is no point in
talking about whether or the North wants that to
happen. We cannot be
talking about the North when there is no North.
You can’t be killing
people in Benue and say they are Northerners;
they are not. I spoke to
some professors in Niger State, they told me
that they are more
bitter about this so called Nigeria than we Yoruba
are; that they have been
the perpetual slaves of the Fulani that they
cannot even talk. They
slaughter Benue people almost on daily basis.
The Zango Kataf people
in Southern Kaduna are being killed on daily
basis, and you are
calling them Northerners? You only have the
caliphate that has
overrun the rest of the so called North, but they
never succeeded in
overrunning Kanuri, the Borno people.
But of course, for
selfish reasons, and for what their stomach will
eat, there are some
leaders of Borno, some leaders of Jukun, Benue,
like Paul Unongo,
Plateau who they decorate with an empty title of the
chairman of Northern
whatever. The person you can say is the leader of
Arewa is (Ibrahim)
Coomassie who is a Fulani from Katsina. They
deceived Sunday Awoniyi
and made him chairman. Chairman of who? They
deceived Unongo and say
he is the head of Arewa, how can Unongo be
chairman of Arewa when
they are killing his people every day? I’m
saying therefore, there
is no more North and the South must begin to
recognize that fact.
We have been so timid
because we have been brainwashed to believe that
there is a superior
force somewhere. No, we don’t have any Nigerian
army now, what we have
is a Fulani army that may still be exploiting
some people in the
military. The kind of military that went to
massacre the Igbo does
not exist anymore. I’m still asking whether
there are Igbo among the
people from 82 Division who went to harass
people in Abia. I doubt
if there were any Igbo or any Yoruba there.
They will selectively
call on their Fulani and some stupid Hausa who
have still not seen
themselves as slaves to join them.
What about the political
conferences like that of 2014. People have
suggested that we take
this document and implement what we can.
At that point in time,
it probably satisfied some concerns, but now we
have grown beyond that.
You cannot be talking about 2014 conference
that recommended that
you should create one more state in the South
East, and create more
local governments. We have gone beyond that,
state creation is not
the business of the federal government, local
government creation is
not the business of any federal government. Let
the republics create
them. If you want to create one million states in
Yoruba republic, it is
your business.
What is obvious from
your point is that we cannot move forward without
tinkering with the
structure of Nigeria, but still you have a
situation where the
Hausa/Fulani…?
There is no
Hausa/Fulani, you cannot be Ibibio/Efik, you cannot be
Annang/Ibibio, or
Ijebu/Egba. These are the things they use to confuse
us; the use of language
for political effect. You have only the
Fulani, about five
million of them.
You have this
arrangement where the Fulani who like you said are in
control of the military
still opposed to restructuring. How do we go
about getting the
country you want?
Yes, they control the
army, the intelligence service, the SSS,
immigration the police
and so on, but it is possible through two
approaches; only two.
First is brain, second is brawn.. The Fulani
brought us to where we
are today using brawn, and a bit of trickery
and deceit. But it was
largely through the military. The creation of
states, killing
Biafrans, killing Southerners in the North, local
government creation,
presidential system… all those were made possible
by the military. In
fact, like I said earlier, it was the military
even though they did
well in providing infrastructure that was used by
the Fulani to destroy
Nigeria politically.
And I have argued that
as unpalatable as it might sound, it is still
the military that can
take us out of this mess. It is either organised
military or armed
militia that will come from various parts of the
country, this status quo
cannot continue. The 36 states cannot pay
salaries, the federal
government cannot pay police salaries. They are
owing the military
pensioners three months salary areas. So, it’s
either we wait for the
oil to dry up or to be unprofitable, which will
happen in the next few
years, then everyone will go away. But what we
are saying is, please
come now, let us restructure Nigeria. The
caliphate has more to
benefit than any other part of this country.
Why do you say that?
They have a lot of
resources which laziness and over dependence on
people’s wealth which
they have been spoon feeding on has stopped them
from exploring. The
caliphate, the North East and Middle Belt are so
rich in agriculture that
if you have Middle Belt republic and
Caliphate republic, and
Elkanemi republic, they can be exporting
agricultural products:
cattle, beef, tomatoes and so on to the rest of
the world. They will
make more money from exporting agriculture
produce, but they
abandoned all that because they are stealing the
resources of the South.
Lagos alone contributes more than 67 percent
of VAT than the rest of
the country put together. They say they don’t
drink alcohol… which is
a lie, but if you don’t drink alcohol and we
consume it in the South,
why are you using our VAT money to develop
yourselves?
So, to answer your
question, we will get out of it using our brains
which is what we are
doing now, trying to persuade everybody. If that
fails, it would be
brawn. But either of the two must yield to us the
country we want. And it
is in the interest of everyone to allow brain
to decide for us. If
Nigeria breaks into militia as you have in
Somalia, it will not be
palatable for anybody. So, let us go the
Czech-Slovakia model.
Let’s decide to stay apart peacefully and come
together in a
confederation than to wait for militia to emerge from
every part of the
country.
The people in Southern
Kaduna will not wait indefinitely; people in
Benue will not wait
indefinitely. They have been able to conquer
Plateau, but some
elements of Plateau are going to wake up and say no,
you cannot put army of
occupation in our land. I told some people that
you can say whatever you
like about (Nnamdi) Kanu but I believe that
there is no Nigerian
today who commands the kind of followership he
commands, so such a
person cannot be dismissed. The forces they have
gathered, you can drive
them underground, but when they unleash terror
on this country it will
not be funny. The military may be the only
organised force, but
they don’t have monopoly of violence.
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