In his book titled “Concerning the Government of Our Country and Neighboring Countries in the Sudan”, Nigeria’s first Mahdi, Sheik Usman Dan Fodio, who is the father of the Fulani Caliphate and leader of the 1804 jihad that overwhelmed and conquered what is now known as northern Nigeria wrote:
“The government of a country is the government of its king without question. If the king is a Muslim, his land is Muslim; if he is an unbeliever, his land is a land of unbelievers. In these circumstances it is obligatory for anyone to leave it for another country”.
Could this strange and primitive rationale be the reason for the creeping attempt to wipe out Christianity, destroy the Church, slaughter Christians, Islamise the faithful and enslave the people of the south and Middle Belt in our country today?
Could this be the ethos and philosophical bedrock and foundation of the imperative of Islamic domination and Fulani rule? Have we finally discovered the intellectual Holy Grail of Fulani raison d’etra?
This brings me to a number of other questions which many harbour but few dare to ask.
The southern region of Nigeria has not had a Chief Justice of the Federation in 30 years and now that one has been nominated by the National Judicial Council our core northern President Muhammadu Buhari has simply refused to confirm him.
The question may be asked, what is the South’s portion in Nigeria?
Such is the suspicion, bedlam and utter turmoil in our nation today that some are of the view that the solution to the problems of Nigeria is not just restructuring but a total breakup of the country.
They believe that restructuring may be a good first step but the final destination has to be a total and complete break up and divorce.
They argue that this can be done peacefully and quietly or it will eventually be done violently and in a very messy way.
They say that the sooner we do it the easier it will be and that the longer we delay it the more messy it will be.
Whether one agrees or disagrees with them one thing is clear: we are sitting on a keg of gunpowder and we ALL know it.
It is just that we like to pretend. The bottom line is this: things cannot go on the way they are.
Some believe that we should let the four “liberal” zones (south-west, south-south, south- east and north-central) come together and form one nation and let the north-west and north- east zone either go and merge with Chad and Niger Republic or form their own country.
They argue that we should let the Christians, the Shiite Muslims and the core northern ethnic minority tribes that presently live in the north- east and north-west, if they wish, to relocate, move to the Middle Belt (north-central) and remain with us in Nigeria.
Interestingly this mass relocation and migration process was executed in India when she broke into two and Pakistan was formed just after she got her independence from the British.
Millions of Muslims who resided in India moved north to the other side of the country that was to be later called Pakistan whilst millions of Hindus who resided in the area that was to be later called Pakistan relocated from there and moved all the way south to the area that continued to be referred to as India.
Given the terrible carnage that took place between the Hindus and the Muslims in India before the break-up, the whole thing worked rather well and saved millions of lives.
This was the case even though there were three border wars between the two countries not too long after the division and tensions exist between them until today.
Yet had it not been for the break-up the number of casualties would have been far higher and the victims of the fratricidal butchery which took place would have been primarily the civilian population, including women and children, rather than just the soldiers.
Some believe that we in Nigeria must take a cue from the Indian, and later Sudanese, examples.
They believe that we must break Nigeria into two before we kill each other to the last man and woman.
They believe that it is either we negotiate this and let it be done in an equitable, reasonable, respectful and orderly manner or we will end up having a violent, brutal, bloody and long ethnic war in this country which will result in the final balkanisation and break up of Nigeria into no less than four or more pieces.
Whichever way we cannot be compelled to stay in a nation that is controlled by our collective oppressors and those that believe that killing others that do not share their faith or belong to their ethnic group or religious sect for much longer.
They have sucked the nation’s blood dry and killed the host body that they have fed fat on for the last 56 years.
They have killed the spirit of Nigeria and sacrificed her unity on the altar of greed, hate, religious intolerance, political domination and false notions of ethnic supremacy.
Their hegemony is an affront to the Living God and it stands against the natural order of things.
It is time for them to go or to be thrown out.
It is only after this happens that we can achieve our full potentials as a nation and that our people can be truly blessed.
Those that control the country and believe that they own it will NEVER allow restructuring because it defeats the object of their purpose.
Given that, it is very clear that we are heading for the rocks because the generation of southern and Middle Belt Nigerians that come after mine refuse to accept the notion that they are nothing but glorified slaves and second class citizens.
My generation and those that came before it were far more ready to compromise with the evil, accept that bogus notion and just continue to hope for the best.
The result is that we are still waiting and hoping whilst the grip of our internal colonial masters and their power is greater today than it has EVER been.
Meanwhile thousands of southerners, Shiite Muslims, Middle Belters and northern Christians have been slaughtered at the altar and are being butchered by the sponsored ethnic militias that are known as the Fulani herdsmen.
One must ask: how long are we going to continue watching this evil silently and just keep hoping for the best?
This sort of thing can only happen in Nigeria. If people had been subjected to such barbarity and wickedness in any other country in the world there would have been international outrage and violent reactions long ago.
Yet in Nigeria we respond to it with nothing but indifference and silence in the name of political correctness. It is truly pathetic.
The truth is that this “political correctness” will kill us if we don’t kill it first. We must be prepared to say the things that we say to one another behind closed doors publicly as well.
The country needs a dose of truth to heal its wounds and it also needs focused strong, honest and decisive leadership.
Those that believe that they were born to kill us at will and rule us in perpetuity must either accept that they are not our ethnic masters and stop all this barbarity or they must go.
The truth is that the whole country is ready to explode. We the older men are the ones that are just still talking. The younger ones stopped talking long ago and now they are preparing for war.
I have travelled to many parts of this country in the last few weeks and months and what I saw and heard scared me. And I don’t scare easily.
We must try to keep a lid on it and talk our way out of this mess before the bullets start flying and reason and rational thinking goes out of the window.
Those that believe that they own Nigeria are the greatest obstacle to national cohesion and no one else.
The rest of us can work out our differences, keep our four zones, devolve power from the centre and establish a 21st century secular modern nation-state where we are all equal, where the rule of law prevails and where Islamic fundamentalism and ethnic domination has no place.
We must also work out our differences in the south. It is the division amongst the southerners that feeds and fuels core northern hegemony.
We must all make concessions and set our differences aside and come together as one against our collective adversaries.
If we cannot do that and we allow historical differences and rivalries to abide and flourish then frankly we deserve to remain as the slaves that they have turned us into.
Let us hope that good reason prevails and that we make the right choices.
Let us hope that we are guided by God and His Holy Spirit in all our endeavours. Let us hope that we can muster the courage to say “no more” to ethnic and religious cleansing, mass murder, bondage, servitude and tyranny.
Credit: Femi Fani-Kayode