FULANI HAVE BEEN OVER-PAMPERED & ASCRIBED HUMONGOUS MYTHICAL POWERS IN NIGERIA - Dele Momodu
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FULANI HAVE BEEN OVER-PAMPERED & ASCRIBED HUMONGOUS MYTHICAL POWERS IN NIGERIA – Dele Momodu
Dele Momodu is a self-styled detribalized Nigerian who has been quite visible in the country’s mass media in the past few decades. Having been raised in a Muslim/Christian and multiethnic household, the writer had firsthand experience regarding some of the contentious matters that he writes about. Based on all he knows thus far, he has come to the conclusion that the problem with today’s Unitary Nigeria has a lot to do with the spurious agenda of the minority Fulani ethnic nationality. His dispassionate characterization of the archetypal Fulani is factual because he produced verifiable data to bolster his assertions. He offers heartfelt advice to the Fulani to change their mindset soon enough to avert an inevitable backlash from the country’s mainstream population who have foolishly “over-pampered … and ascribed humongous mythical powers” to the Fulani, to their own detriment.
But is anyone really interested in Momodu’s unsolicited counsel? Asking the Fulani to change their ways is akin to persuading an aging right-handed individual to become a leftie overnight. As the writer aptly noted, the Fulani had gotten to their position of privilege in Nigeria because of their scheming, brutal, unforgiving and domineering ways since their semi-nomadic ancestors migrated into the country’s geopolitical space about two centuries ago. The recent upsurge in banditry and ethnic cleansing among the indigenous inhabitants of the Middle Belt and South seems to have convinced the writer that the Fulani’s understanding of Nigeria is cast in stone and thus can only be changed by a major societal upheaval or civil war. It is unfortunate, though, that both President Buhari and his fellow irredentist Fulani driving today’s Unitary Nigeria to the gate of hell are completely oblivious to the concerns of lily-livered compatriots like Dele Momodu.
This article was first published one year ago and thus must have come to the attention of the Fulani irredentists who mind the affairs of the Buhari administration by now. The Fulani Nationality Movement (FUNAM) had, in a 2018 world press release, invited all ethnic Fulani located in West and Central Africa to converge in Nigeria with arms to join in a jihad to reclaim the territory that Allah had given to their ancestors. The Buhari administration had issued executive orders to facilitate this clarion call by opening the country’s borders for extended periods. The bandits now terrorizing the Northwest and Northcentral geopolitical zones comprise mostly ethnic Fulani who had trooped into Nigeria in response to the FUNAM call for jihad. The disillusioned Fulani “migrants” have since resorted to self-help by plundering everything they can lay their hands on.
The Fulani-dominated Buhari administration seems to be more interested in grabbing as much public largesse for the ethnic Fulani, both in Nigeria and elsewhere. The extension of a rail link to the Republic of Niger and siting a multibillion-dollar refinery in the same country are cases in point. Dele Momodu is quite correct in his observations regarding the imminent danger that awaits the Fulani in the post-Buhari era. But advising the Fulani to change their ways is the wrong approach. The writer’s effort should instead be focused on the mobilization of the indigenous stakeholders of the Middle Belt and South (a la NINAS) to prepare for the immediate actualization of a future that shall not feature the Fulani as is the case today.
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Okenwa (Ezeudemba)
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