Introduction
A lot has been happening in the most populous Black Country, Nigeria and the West African sub-region, even though the Covid-19 pandemic across the world seeks to hide it. A conflict started over three hundred and twenty years ago, and has continued, with occasional interregnum. During that era, the Ottoman Empire held sway large chunk of territories in three continents. A group of the nomadic Fulani tribe, originally found in today’s Guinea set out from Futa Jallon, and tried to emulate the Turks. Whether they succeeded or not is very glaring for all to see today. However, on which side you may argue for, the Fulani achieved certain aspects of their goal, but failed in others. And the group was led by an 18th century Islamic and political scholar named Usman Dan Fodio. As a matter of fact, this edition’s main story takes a historical look on the rise of the Fulani and their emasculation of tribes, particularly Hausa and to a great extent Yoruba, pact with the British colonial authorities, and relationship with their arch enemy, Igbos, who are the only obstacle standing against fulfilling that 18th century master plan, of reaching and dwelling on the shores of the southeast end of the Atlantic Ocean.
Background
Usman Dan Fodio’s life spanned from 1754 – 1817. He kick-started the Fulani hegemony, which has rendered Nigeria hopeless today. Usman was born in the Habe Hausa state of Gobir now Sokoto, in today’s north western Nigeria. His father, Muhammad Fodiye, was a Muslim scholar from the Toronkawa clan, which had emigrated from Futa-Toro in Senegal, about the 15th century. According to Thomas Hodgkin, a biographer of Usman Dan Fodio,
“About 1774–75 Usman began his active life as a teacher, and for the next 12 years he combined study with peripatetic teaching and preaching in Kebbi and Gobir, followed by a further five years in Zamfara.”
But before the Fulani takeover, the Hausa kingdoms and culture thrived at Daura and other major ones including Kano, Gobir, Katsina, Zaria, Biram and Rano. Historically, they are called the Hausa Bokwoi States. They were usually linked together, with Daura at the centre, but squabbles and political power saw them loose up and became vulnerable to the Fulani onslaught and eventual Islamic takeover of faith and culture.
Although the conquest of the Hausa nearly obliterated its old culture, Historians did a lot to recreate pre-Islamic Hausa land under what is known as the Kano and Zaria chronicles. It gave accounts on how the Fulani trickled into Hausa land in batches. One thing the Fulani has tried to reserve for its people is the bragging right that they spread Islam in the region. But, that is far from the truth as Islam had reached Hausa land earlier. Islam was being practised in Kanem Bornu , before Usman Dan Fodio’s forbears came in. A close study of the tactics of their leader, Shehu Usman Dan Fodio shows they have changed a little. Of the Toronkawa group, which was one of the clans that found its way into today’s northern Nigeria, Usman craftily built followership among the peasants especially, Hausas who had suffered serious hardships from their own Habe rulers, whose dynasties held sway in their life of opulence and corruption.
In 1801, King of Gobir Yunfa, who was taught by Dan Fodio, replaced his father Nafata. Feeling more threatened, Yunfa exiled him from Gobir to the village of Degel. In 1803, a conflict broke out when Yunfa attacked and captured followers of a group associated with Dan Fodio. These prisoners were marched through Degel, causing disharmony among Dan Fodio’s supporters, and they attacked the army and freed the prisoners. King Yunfa gave Dan Fodio the option of exile before destroying Degel, which led to the hijra of Usman Dan Fodio’s community to Gudu.
Fall of Habe Hausa Kings
As a matter of fact, Dan Fodio’s supporters throughout the state went with him, and on February 21, 1804, Yunfa declared war on Dan Fodio, threatening punishment to anyone who joined him.
Consequently, Usman Dan Fodio was declared Commander of the faithful, and many denounced their allegiance to Gobir. This was the signal of a major battle looming against the Habe rulers, which the Hausa Kings were called at the time.
A highlight of the battle that finally nailed the Hausa, saw the Fulani fiery preacher take the Habe rulers Kingdoms one by one, with efforts from indigenous peasants, who were against their rulers. Having been preaching about purified Islam, which stood against corruption and terrible policies of the Habe rulers, the peasants did not know that they were aiding and abettin a new Lord, who will enslave them and their upcoming generations. In 1805, the jihadists captured the Hausa kingdom of Kebbi. By 1807, they had taken over kingdoms of Katsina, Daura, and Kano. Finally, in 1808, Usman and his jihadists took Gobir, killing Yunfa in the battle. With the fall of Gobir, Usman Dan Fodio and his jihadists continued fighting against a number of Hausa kingdoms, and the rise of the Sokoto caliphate began, culminating on the 1846 toppling of the Sayfawa dynasty. As the shape of his Sokoto caliphate became clear, Usman Dan Fodio appointed Muhammed Bello, his son as protege, to keep expanding while he served as a religious leader from the seat of power until 1815. As the new fortified caliphate expanded, Hausa became the foot soldiers for the Fulani, who used deceptive tactics and indoctrination of Islamic extremism to change their psyche.
Beheading of Sultan Attahiru by British in 1903
Before Lord Lugard amalgamated the southern and northern protectorate into what we have today, the British had defeated the Fulani and devised a working relationship with leaders of the caliphate on indirect rule. The British colonialists used every tactics to silence the Fulani before entering into a gentleman’s agreement with them to become their special eye in their new territorial possession called Nigeria.
According to Boyd Alexander’s account of the battle and British pursuit of Sultan Attahiru, who resisted through mobilisation of the Hausa peasantry for a holy war, the Fulani was finally defeated on 27 July, 1903 when the Caliph was killed in Burmi by troops led by Captain D W Sword. Writing an opinion article titled – Death of a Sultan – for the British Guardian newspaper, which was published on the 3 November, 2006, after the fatal crash that killed Sultan Muhammadu Maccido, Richard Gott went memory lane on the British Empire’s final onslaught against the Sokoto caliphate resistance. The piece started by laying bare the usual British mien. Gott wrote, “The crocodile tears shed in the British press over the death of the Sultan of Sokoto have glossed over the fact that the British killed his predecessor barely a century ago.”
Excelling in their usual divide and rule tactics coupled with carrot and stick, agents of the British brought in their West African forces which they armed with maxim guns. From 1900, British newly formed WAFF began mopping up northern Nigeria, and removing disloyal emirs
In January 1903, a column of 700 African soldiers from the West African Frontier Force, led by 24 British officers, marched from Zaria to Kano. In Kano, they enthroned a new emir, Aliyu after dethroning his brother also called Aliyu, who travelled to consult with Sultan Attahiru in Sokoto. The British later captured emir Aliyu and exiled him to Lokoja, where he died in 1926. Already, the Sultan had declared war on the British, refusing to accept them. In his earlier message to Lugard, he said,
“I do not consent that any one from you should ever dwell with us. I will never agree with you. I will have nothing ever to do with you. Between us and you there are no dealings, except as between Moslems and Unbelievers – War, as God Almighty has enjoined on us. There is no power or strength save in God on high.”
Desiring to take full control, the British went after a fugitive Sultan Attahiru, who mobilised his Hausa peasants and Fulani ruling class to wage a jihad. Earlier in March, in Sokoto, Lord Lugard organised a ceremony and installed a successor to Sultan Attahiru. Like he did in Kano, Lugard chose the Sultan’s brother, who is also named Attahiru.
According to Captain Crozier, the fugitive Sultan Attahiru rallied Hausa Muslim faithful with the green flag of Islam, which was the ancient banner of Usman Dan Fodio. Still writing in his diary of the final battle, Crozier noted, “over a thousand Fulani were killed by Maxim gun fire in and around a mosque from which there was little or no escape, photographs of decapitated ringleaders being taken for distribution round the country – so as to convince the diehards of the futility of fighting.”
On the final day of Sultan Attahiru, Boyd Alexander wrote
“The fighting continued with stubborn opposition till sunset with casualties numbering over 80.
The town was eventually stormed, and the fanatical inhabitants dispersed, after suffering heavy losses. Most of the disaffected chiefs who had joined him were also killed, including the Magaji of Keffi. In Burmi, Sultan Attahiru and round his body were piled the corpses of 90 of his Hausa followers and slaves. With that death, Lugard entered into an entente with his new crowned Sultan Attahiru, who was prepared to do the British bidding.
Fulani seize Yoruba city
The decline of the great Oyo Empire offered the Fulani opportunity to nurse ambitions of expanding their caliphate southwards into Yorubaland. Although historians argue that Oyo Empire started to decline as early as 1754 when the prime minister, Gaha in his quest for absolute power, conspired with the Oyo Mesi (Kingmakers) and forcefully made four successive Alaafins (King of Oyo) to commit ritual suicide after they had been presented with the symbolic parrot’s eggs. In the tradition of old Oyo Empire, the Oyo Mesi were very powerful, and could dethrone any Alaafin, as tradition demands by presenting a calabash containing the parrot eggs.
However, the full incursion into Yoruba territory began in Ilorin. Ilorin is the capital of today’s Kwara State, and founded in the late 18th century. The Kingdom of Ilorin was a frontier that waged the advance of the Fulani jihadists. Oyo’s chief commander was stationed at Ilorin to create a buffer zone to the seat of power where the Alaafin lived. During that era, Aare Ona Kakanfo (Field Marshal) Afonja was in charge. In 1817, Kakanfo Afonja took advantage of the power tussle over the declining Oyo Empire to lead a rebellion against the Alaafin. The commander was helped by a Gwandu Fulani scholar named Mallam Alimi. The Gwandu adviser mobilised Fulani warriors and Hausa slaves in the rebellion against Oyo. After success in the secession, Fulani gradually took over, and finally assassinated Afonja to install Alimi’s son, Abdul Salami. Abdul Salami became emir of Ilorin in 1829 and pledged loyalty to the seat of the caliphate in Sokoto. Thus Ilorin, a Yoruba city, became an Islamic emirate, annexing many other towns, including the destruction of Katunga, the Oyo capital, Oyo Ile which is 40 miles off it from northwest, in 1837. A further jihadi campaign by Abdul Salam was stopped by the Ibadan victory over his cavalrymen at Oshogbo in 1840. So today, a large majority (about 75%) of the inhabitants of Kwara State, which Ilorin is its capital, are Yoruba, with significant Nupe, Bariba and Fulani minorities. Unfortunately, Yorubas have not regained control of Ilorin, where the Gambaris, who are descendants of Mallam Alimi still rule till this day. The current Chief of Staff in the Buhari presidency, Ibrahim Gambari is a member of the family and uncle to the current emir Sulu Gambari. They are Alimi’s descendants. With further British colonial and Fulani post-colonial policies in Nigeria, they have come to entrench their domination, and even spread Islamic influence across Yoruba land in today’s southwest of Nigeria.
British pact with Fulani
Frederick Lugard, who was appointed as High Commissioner of the Northern Nigeria Protectorate in 1900 and served until 1906 in his first term, was regarded by the British as their model colonial administrator, hence his redrafting to their new protectorate. He has been to few other places establishing British influence, even going into hot places where the empire fought off French interests, as the latter were their greatest rival in colonial interests. As an indirect rule administrative expert, Frederick Lugard’s objective was to conquer the entire region and to obtain recognition of the British protectorate by its indigenous rulers, especially the Fulani emirs of the Sokoto Caliphate, who had already conquered Habe Hausa land and the Sahel region through Islamic jihad.
As a British memoir read
“If the emirs accepted British authority, abandoned the slave trade, and cooperated with British officials in modernizing their administrations, the colonial power was willing to confirm them in office.” Thus the conquered emirs retained their caliphate titles but were submissive to British district officers, who had final authority. It was the administrative template Lugard had with subdued emirs in the north that got imposed on the rest of the territories that will be mopped up in the British cock-up called Nigeria. This action of government officials abolishing and dethroning traditional chiefs and institutions derived it’s convention from the British pre-colonial activities. As British High Commissioners could depose emirs and other officials if necessary in the north, they instilled fear into the nomadic Fulani who were not aborigines. Although, the new lords over the Habe Hausa ran a feudalistic system, the British left their privileges intact. Hence, Fulani becoming the British lackeys over the north and the more stubborn and republican deeper southern protectorate.
A declassified document has shown the signatories to the southern and northern amalgamation of 1914. The document showed the Fulani were three out of six Africans among the twenty-eight that put pen on paper. The rest were all British citizens. Lord Lugard as the first governor general led the Amalgamation (he was the one to propose it first) and the final signature was his. The six were;
1. HRH Maiturare Sarkin Mussulumi and Sultan of Sokoto
2. Usuman Dan Maje – later became Emir of Kano
3. Sir Kitoyi Ajasa – lawyer
4. HRH Oladugbolu Alaafin of Oyo
5. HRH R Henshaw (Obong of Calabar)
6. Abubakar Shehu of Borno
As the new Nigeria took off, the British tailored their new possession to suit their interests. From the arrival of Sir Hugh Clifford in 1919, and his introduction of election for the first time, the feudal north was left intact under the control of Fulani. In 1922, the Clifford’s constitution ushered in the first election, which was conducted into the legislative council with four slots – three (3) for Lagos while 1 for Calabar. However, the election was based on limited franchise which restricted the election to those that earned a minimum of 100 pounds annually, which was very expensive for most Nigerians. However, the north was ruled by proclamations. All the succeeding Governor-Generals and constitutions, starting from Sir Richards (1946), Macpherson (1950), Lyttleton (1954), Independence (1960), Republican (1963), Presidential (1979), Third Republic (1993) and Fourth Republic (1999), are one way or the other skewed to favour the Fulani oligarchy. Although the bias of the British at the onset with their Nigeria establishment was glaring, but through the instruments of brutal force, global conspiracy on colonialism and neo-colonialism, people were held together in a country. The situation in Nigeria where over three hundred ethnic groups were mopped up together is akin to bringing Germans, English, Polish and the Irish together. There can never be peace. Apart from the three big nations of Yoruba, Igbo and Hausa-Fulani, there are other peoples and culture whose ways of life are threatened by the dominant ones, hence causing instability and conflict.
January 15 Coup and July 22 Counter Coup
The civil war saw the Fulani oligarch set out an agenda to take over the land of the indigenous people of Nigeria especially after the counter coup of July 29, 1966, in retaliation of the first Nigerian coup led by young revolutionary Army Major Chukwuma Kaduna Nzeogwu, who grew up in northern Nigeria and spoke Hausa fluently, on January 15. Irrespective of the fact that there is a debate on the motives of Major Nzeogwu and his January 15 coup plotters, the fact is that participants were drawn from all sections of the country, and an Igbo officer, Lt. Col. Authur Chinyelu Unegbe was executed. Lt. Col. Unegbe, who was the Army Quartermaster-General, was killed in his home by Major Chris Anuforo.
In the group of January 15 Army majors were Emmanuel Ifeajuna, Timothy Onwuatuegwu, Chris Anuforo, Don Okafor, Humphrey Chukwuka, Adewale Ademoyega and Chukwuma Kaduna Nzeogwu. As trained nationalist soldiers, they felt terribly bad at the corruption growing on the corridors of authority. They became ideologically revolutionaries and began plotting a coup d’état against incumbent Prime Minister, Abubakar Balewa. Declassified materials have shown their action was very popular across the country, and they had planned to hand over to the imprisoned opposition leader, Chief Obafemi Awolowo. Events today vindicate those that argued on their real intentions for the country. However, their naiveté ruined the takeover plan. After the Fulani deceived the rest of northern officers to plot a counter coup of July 29, 1966, an orgy of violence started, with the killing of Head of State, Gen. Aguiyi Ironsi and hundreds of Igbo officers in Ibadan barracks. What many failed to take into cognizance was that Igbo officers like Lt. Col. Odumegwu Ojukwu and then GOC Army Ironsi cut short the dreams of the 15 January Revolutionaries, and arrested them. These events helped fan the flame of the civil war after Republic of Biafra was declared when it was obvious the Aburi Agreement was not going to be implemented.
British hatred of Igbos
After the counter coup, a non Fulani and Christian, Yakubu Gowon was appointed to present a united north as colonial masters, Britain ensured so it can win the propaganda battle against the easterners, especially the Igbos. Britain hated the Igbos for many reasons, amongst them being their refusal to accept colonialism, and discovering what has been foretold centuries ago. The Igbos thought the British Empire a bitter lesson during the pre-colonial conflict. The Igbos formed the most formidable opponent to the British Empire’s interest in Africa.
Through the Ekumeku movement, which originated in western Igboland, the British fought an unconventional war, something they are not used to. Squabbles over the throne between Kosoko and Dosunmu provided the opportunity for the annexation of Lagos in 1861. Weaker Yoruba kingdoms had little strength to contain what was coming from the British, after the collapse of the Oyo Empire. At the end of Oyo Empire, its power blocks in the Oyomesi like Laderin, based in Ilorin, and Yamba in the capital at Oyo-Ile battled for supremacy. The further loss to Islam through Mallam Shehu Alimi, and sponsored by the Aare Ona Kakanfo, Afonja, a descendant of Laderin, the founder of Ilorin, in 1817 made matters worse. Then the end of Ovonramwen powers in Benin in 1897 cleared the way as the British thought. But they were rattled by consistent and rebellious attitude of the republican and stateless Igboid nations scattered across the length and breadth of the east of the Niger and Atlantic delta.
The British found it difficult to handle the Igbos and their kith and kin, and this fact made them detest Igbos. In his letter to Walter H. Lang, in 1918, Lugard described the three major tribes in Nigeria, saying:
“After spending the best part of my life in Africa, my aim has been for the betterment of the people, for whom I have been ready to give my life for.
Hausa; He is a fatalist, spendthrift (spends money extravagantly) and a gambler. He is gravely immoral and is seriously diseased. He is a menace to any community he finds himself, he has no ambitions.
Igbo; They are fiercely rebellious with no regards for authority. They are very industrious and highly religious. They can be highly dangerous to be trusted with power.
Yoruba: I can freely say that the Westerns are the lowest, very seditious and very disloyal people. They are the most purely prompted by self-seeking money motives of any people I have met throughout my stay.
The British never trusted the indigenous people of Nigeria for economic purposes, hence their pact with the Fulani.
Gen TY Danjuma and the Middle Belt
As the tide has gradually changed since the end of the civil war, the rest of the aboriginal people of Nigeria now see clearly the intentions of the Fulani. Recently, retired General TY Danjuma took to public outcry.
In March 2018, retired Gen. TY Danjuma, who spent half of his life working for the advancement of the Fulani agenda gave out a rallying cry at the convocation of his ancestral Taraba State University in Jalingo. “The retired general excreted bees unto Nigeria’s political space. In an angry speech, he urged Nigerians to rise up and defend themselves from marauding herdsmen in some parts of Nigeria or risk perishing due to inaction”, Rudolph Okonkwo wrote in an article, describing the lamentation of the retired military officer. His statement in Taraba shocked all who know about Nigeria’s chequered political history, and the role he played.
“You must rise to protect yourselves from these people; if you depend on the armed forces to protect you, you will all die…,” Danjuma said. “This ethnic cleansing must stop in Taraba, and it must stop in Nigeria. These killers have been protected by the military; they cover them and you must be watchful to guide and protect yourselves because you have no other place to go.”
TY Danjuma, who has profited immensely from the British and Fulani push of Nigeria into the gutters, really shocked Nigeria political spines. Although many Nigerian political Historians know the role he played in the July 1966 counter coup, Rudolf Ogoo Okonkwo gives a brief account of who Captain TY Danjuma was on the night he handed his boss, the Head of State, whom he was assigned to protect, into the hands of northern soldiers:
“He led a group of soldiers to abduct the former head of state, Gen. Johnson Aguiyi-Ironsi and his host, the military governor of Western region, Lieutenant Colonel Adekunle Fajuyi, from government house Ibadan on the night of July 29, 1966.
Under Danjuma’s orders, Gen. Aguiyi-Ironsi was spat on, slapped, kicked and punched. With Ironsi’s hands tied behind his back with telephone cord, Danjuma’s soldiers crushed his testicles with their military boots. Ironsi was then dragged on the ground from a moving military Range Rover, skin torn by gravels on the road, blood oozed from his mouth, face swelled, bones cracked and body parts dismembered. And finally he was shot several times and his bullet-ridden, mangled body was dumped in a forest near Iwo road. And so saw his host, Fajuyi.”
Even though TY Danjuma benefitted after becoming a Fulani lackey, the chicken has come home to roost. Today, the middle belt is emasculated politically. But Ojukwu saw what is happening today and warned, but he was branded a secessionist by the conspirators using the likes of BBC and those benefitting, or about to benefit from post war Nigeria.
We can imagine a less than 3 million Fulanis ruling Nigeria. However, credit must be given to the feudalistic system of the Fulani, because the British saw the worthiness of its adoption in their colonial policy. Truthfully, Fulani have been in charge since the end of the civil war, but they have been operating a master plan which is about to be completed in taking over the entire Nigeria territory as their ancestral land until the emergence of the Indigenous People Of Biafra (IPOB) led by Mazi Nnamdi Kanu. The Indigenous People Of Biafra has helped in the sensitization of Nigerians on the impending danger, even though the mainstream media hate to acknowledge it. The takeover has been gradual as it kick-started in 1804 with Mallam Usman Dan Fodio with the killing of Habe rulers and turning their hosts, Hausa to become vassals in their ancestral land. Immediately, they dropped their language and picked up Hausa as the lingua franca. They also merged their ethnic group with that of the host in a very clever manner, and became known as the Hausa-Fulani while the British helped sustain the political and socio-cultural fraud during colonial times. It is on record that before the British came, Mallam Usman Dan Fodio and his ilk sold slaves taken from their conquered caliphate. With Nigeria’s independence, the British colonial structure assisted the Fulani grip on the north in particular, and the country in general. Despite northern Nigeria being inhabited by more ethnic nations than the south, colonial Britain left the entire space under a single region. In the south, two regions were created, and commissions like the Willinks reared up to divide those they detest, the Igbo, because of mineral resources. However, no sooner than six years (13 February 1976) after the civil war, the middle belt showed their regret with the Buka Suka Dimka coup that killed Muritala Ramat Mohammed, and then the Gideon Orkar attempt on 22nd April, 1990, which rattled the Ibrahim Babangida military regime.
Will Buhari era end Nigeria?
Today hundreds die daily across the length and breadth of Nigeria as a full scale killing is carried out by Fulanis in view of their takeover plans. Today, different terrorist organisations butcher and kidnap. Chief among them are Herdsmen and Boko Haram. Most unfortunately, the audacity to implement this Fulani program rose with the assumption of retired General Muhammadu Buhari to power in 2015. President Buhari’s primary objective to use Nigerian Armed forces, Boko Haram and Herdsmen to fight jihad and massacre the indigenous people, and take over lands for Fulanis who still wander across West Africa, is meeting a brick wall.
According to a middle belt public commentator, “They have conquered Hausa, they lost who they are, now they are fighting and killing people across middle belt (Kogi, Taraba, Plateau, Kaduna, Nasarawa, Borno, Benue etc), sacking them from their communities and presidency protecting and arming the murderers. They have conquered South West by half through Tinubu dynasty. After Middle Belt, they planned to walk over South West to gather strength to fight the South South and South East. This will be the battle of Armageddon. It is a shame for indigenous Hausa, Igala, Tiv warriors, Idoma, Igbo, Yoruba, Calabar, Kalabari, Benin, Esan, Urhobos etc to name but a few, to seat and watch Buhari destroy and turn Nigeria to Fulani colony.”
The Buhari presidency is the icing on the cake for the ultimate Fulani planned conquest of Indigenous Nigerians. Arbitrary policies tailored at favouring nepotism. From assumption of office, the campaign started with ignoring the Nigeria federal character policy, which ensures giving a sense of belonging to all the federating units in Nigeria. All important security and economic positions were exclusively reserved for Fulani. Recent reports in the Nigeria mainstream media have exposed how a Fulani hijacked opposition All Progressive Congress (APC), intimidated former President Goodluck Jonathan, and imported their kith and kin from Niger, Chad, Cameroon, Mali, and Senegal to rig the 2015 elections. It will be recalled that at a point the former President Goodluck Jonathan accused some of his Fulani Ministers of being sympathemic to Boko Haram.
Ukachukwu Okorie is the editor-in-chief of The African International
