Hausa

Ahmadu Shehu, PhD.

Once upon a time, the Fulani were the aristocrats of West Africa – the wealthiest, most intellectual hegemony in the West African sub-region. They were and still are the traditional rulers, Islamic scholars, leaders of the black civilisation, a melting point of the Arabian and Western cultures assimilated into the river of African traditions. These are the most physically appealing, Caucasian-like Africans; skinny, silky-haired, relatively light-skinned and tall. These were the kings of Africa, founders of the Sokoto, Futa Jalo and the Masina empires.

Back in history, the Fulani conquered kingdoms, took over cities and established polities across the region, for those were the days of war and conquests. But, they have also found cities that are capitals of states and nations, which have become business enclaves of all kinds, and for all Nigerians, nay Africans. From a barracks, they founded Sokoto; from a valley, they created Gombe, and from a hill, they established Yola. They went across mountains, and on the rocks, they found Jalingo. In the deserts, they founded many other cities, talk of Niamey, the capital of Niger, Maroua, Garoua, Ngaundere, etc., in the southern end of the Fombina empire. In these urban centres lie the fortress of fortunes for the Igbo, employment for the Yoruba and civilisation for the Hausa. From these cities comes the livelihood of all Africans, education for everyone and sustenance for all folks. The Fulani provided beef, the manure on which most of the Nigerian crop production relies. These are the employers of millions of people, teachers for many and mentors for others.

The triumvirates and their disciples, such as Nana Asma’u, bequeath West Africans the richest traditions of scholarship, the most valued native literature and a civilisation that has been resilient for centuries. This academic scholarship bequeaths northern Nigeria a space on the world map, drawing global scholarly attention, indigenous metalanguage, indelible history and a proud place in the comity of nations. At inception, the Fulani were the key and lock of the sub-Saharan economy, providing, subsidising, protecting and developing Nigeria with all that was needed. Like other ethnic groups, the Fulani gave their lives for Nigeria – Premier Ahmadu Bello, who inspired Prime Minister Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, Murtala Muhammed, the Yar’adu’as and Shehu Shagari, to mention a few of the Fulɓe folks who served this country with distinction.

They served as the first line of defence for cities, the defenders of our religions and traditions. Even today, they are the leaders of most local security outfits that lay their lives to protect Nigerians against Boko Haram, kidnappers, armed bobbers and other terrorists bred by the failed Nigerian justice system. They are found at most gates of the elites, protecting the lives and property of Nigerians from Sokoto to Port Harcourt and from Maiduguri to Lagos. They are trusted with arms and ammunition to defend their Christian Igbo, Hausa or Yoruba bosses and are brave enough to lay their lives for the unknown passersby. 

But where are these people today? How did they become the villains in the lands, cultures, civilisations, nations and economies they helped build and sustain? The answers to these questions lie in the historical injustice, failure of leadership and sustained discrimination and demonisation of the most essential, most conservative section of the Fulani population. The travail of the herding Fulani began right at the peak of the Fulani empires. First, the hegemony created centuries ago recognised this category of its population for being good at military matters. Then, subsequent traditional administrations continued on the same lane, deploying the same people for warfare and nothing more. The results? They continued in the traditional ways of life and became even more sophisticated at combat.

The colonial rulers neglected this population, focusing only on the taxes, which they significantly contribute more than anyone else. Instead of the native authorities to reinvest these taxes in the integration, education and socioeconomic emancipation of this population, they squandered the resources. So, for our grandparents and parents, and indeed our brothers and sisters still on the cattle routes, nothing has changed in their lives since the 1900s. For us, no change has happened!

Then came the natural discord between herders and farmers, regardless of ethnicities. Then population explosion; sixty million people became two hundred million in sixty years, cohabiting the same 923768 Km², sharing the same forests, water and other natural resources.

Again, climate change and environmental degradation took over most parts of the Sahel. Major grazing fields and waters, such as Lake Chad, have dried up, and herding folks have multiplied by dozens. Ethnoreligious crises have overtaken much of the Lake Chad region, pushing herding populations down south, searching for water and green pasture. Over there, farms have encroached all lands, including major highways, food insufficiency, joblessness, and economic degradation have forced families into the deeper forests in search of livelihood. Resource control sets in, and crises become inevitable.

Unfortunately, no one came to our rescue on time, as our sedentary brothers moved to modernity, leaving us at the mercy of the forests. Although we are one ethnic group, bound together by language and traditions, the socioeconomic and modern (dis)advantages have created a strong barrier; distinct kinship emerged, often leading to animosities and hostilities. They got the power, wealth, knowledge and resources. But, they have disassociated from us, laughed and called us Mbororo, “the unenlightened”, as stories of our perceived naiveté go viral in cities and communities.

Our closest friends – the farmers – with whom we enjoyed cordial relationships due to mutual economic interests have become enemies of necessity. Just as our lives depend on our herds, their own lives depend on their farms. Call it the clash of economic interests! With this, crises set in; lives lost, and livestock diminished. The large, vast country becomes a small spot, as we were chased away wherever we went. Our cattle were rustled both by our own impoverished, unemployed youth and neighbours. For any slight provocation or disagreement, our means of livelihood – the livestock – are targeted and killed, often leading to reprisals.

But, this situation has been stage-managed until governments in some northwestern states began ceding ancestral grazing lands to farmers and urban development. When herds diminish, herders settle down to crop farming. Thousands of people came out of this economic depression but woke up to landlessness without notice. Add this to the historical aspects, social deprivation and economic dislocation, you find that criminality is the natural turn of events. As usual, the Nigerian governments are ad-hoc, simplistic, never interested in long-lasting solutions and even scared of reality. Instead of addressing these issues head-on, criminals were made political thugs, monies and weapons provided, all for political greed.  

The natural promise land for such a criminally profitable business is more membership, innovations, and recruitments. Similarly, the natural candidates are those with similar backgrounds, social and cultural affiliations and mental dispositions. In this way, the Fulani folks are made the majority in the ongoing banditry and kidnapping. Therefore, the old circle is repeated.

Evidently, the fire-power in the hands of these bandits is far beyond their reach. The economic strength, resources and sophistication are not the kinds obtained by mere herders in the bush. That says a lot about their masters in cities, higher places and strong networks from other ethnic and social backgrounds. So, like they were deployed as foot soldiers for warfare centuries ago, and then as a conduit for taxations and money-making in cooperate Nigeria, they are today deployed as the bush soldiers, arm-bearing, front-raw men in the terrible enterprise that is kidnapping and banditry in northern Nigeria.

Look at it this way. If the billions made in this wicked trade were to be traced, they indeed wouldn’t be found in a ruga or a Fulani settlement. They might, instead, be found in dollar, pounds and naira accounts held by the very ethnic groups that are so quick to demonise millions of the herders’ kinsmen.

When it is elections circle, politicians would turn to the criminals, deploy them and win elections, and promise afterwards, to end them. When the security agencies arrest them, their bosses and other beneficiaries pay huge monies to get them released, damning the justice system and the nation’s well-being. Therefore, the truth is that just like Boko Haram are not Kanuri, Maitatsine not Hausa, IPOB and drug pushers not Igbo, Yahoo-Yahoo not Yoruba, these criminals are NOT Fulani. They are Nigerians and must be treated as such. Because we, the Fulani herders, are not terrorists. We are victims of socioeconomic circumstances. 

Dr Ahmadu Shehu is a nomad cum herdsman, an Assistant Professor at the American University of Nigeria, Yola, and is passionate about the Nigerian project. You can reach him at ahmadsheehu@yahoo.com.

By Ishaq Habeeb 

The issue that allegedly triggered the recent violence in Jos was that a fortnight ago, men believed to be Fulani militia attacked the Irigwe community and killed 40 people, burnt down an unspecified number of houses and as is their style, vanished into thin air shortly after.

A fortnight later, the aggrieved Irigwe youth decided to block a road, stopped cars, cherry-picked Muslim passengers and slain them in cold blood in reprisal to the ‘Fulani attack’ on their community. 

Now one of the secondary dangers of this barbaric culture of reprisal that’s since become a norm, in Jos, southern Kaduna and other places, is that often, innocent Hausa Muslim travellers and remote village dwellers, where few Fulanis also reside (not the actual Fulani militia), end up as victims of such Fulani militia attacks on random villages at various times for whatever bad blood they must have against such places and also of the eventual reprisals by residents of the attacked communities.

The major reason for this silly idiosyncrasy isn’t far-fetched. For the ignorant, vicious, islamophobic residents of those villages, Fulanis and Hausa are mutually inclusive, since to them, the two appear culturally and religiously homogeneous. Hence, they must share the same agenda; the common denominator here is Islam. But, other than that, I don’t see how Hausa could strike any, as Fulani, physiologically and traditionally.

The shocker to this age-long madness of confusion has now added the Yoruba Muslims to the equation, seeing that as news has it, some of the slain motorists in the Irigwe community were Ondo Yoruba Muslims who were only in Jos for a quick visit.

The sick irony in all of this is that some Fulani pastoralists are only Muslim by birth and name. That aside, the only real religion they have is ‘Fulani’ itself and the real god they really worship and can kill and die for, any day, anytime, anywhere and whoever, is their cow (“nagge“). Their cattle is what they live for and the primary essence of their existence; mess with that and win yourself a lifelong enemy.

Now one easy way to put my theory to the test is to wait until any Hausa community dares to kill or rustle Fulani cattle the way some members of those attacked communities do sometimes – whether as revenge for having their farmlands devoured by the herd or simply for evil intent as is mainly cited. Then, you would see how the Fulani militia will unleash their wrath on such Hausa community in like fashion; the Islam identity you think we share becomes immaterial.

Thank God the Hausa people are not as half as vengeful as the Fulani and those other tribes could be. Otherwise, considering the numerical strength of the Hausa people, then Nigeria as we know it would have long been history by now.

May Nigerians have a sense,
May the Nigerian government grow a conscience,
May peace take over Africa and the world.

Ishaq Habeeb can be contacted via simplyishaqhabeeb@gmail.com.

By Ahmadu Shehu, PhD.

There is this misleading argument that the government should not support cattle breeding and animal husbandry and that public funds cannot, and must not be invested in any way, to develop the livestock sector in Nigeria. The protagonists of this opinion argue that livestock production is a private business, and as such government should not invest “taxpayer money” to develop the sector. They hold that other citizens provide everything to run their businesses, often citing examples with shop owners, mechanics, transporters, etc. Therefore, in their minds, livestock producers – and millions of Nigerians engaged in the sector – should not receive any form of incentives from the government – financial or material – to enhance their businesses. Well, I know that for most dispassionate and well-meaning Nigerians, the faults in this line of argument are crystal clear. However, as illogical, naïve and vividly absurd as this argument sounds, there’re still Nigerians who believe in and are continuously promoting it, hence the focus of this article.

The whole argument advanced in this line of thought is often faulty, funny, and absurd. For instance, the people fighting against this would be found complaining severely of the government’s failure to provide enabling environments, such as electricity, convenient shelters, and other critical facilities necessary for their trades and businesses. But, the same people deliberately refuse to accept that it is equally the responsibility of the same government to provide enabling environment for all sectors of the economy – including livestock – to thrive. That is the extent to which the Nigerian public discourse is polarised.

Such people feign ignorance of the fact that government spends billions of naira to subsidise and support crop production, which is in the same category as animal husbandry. For decades, the federal government has been sinking billions in fertiliser and agrochemical subsidies and providing single digit loans to farmers and stakeholders in the crop production sector. It is common knowledge that these sub-sectors complement each other and that they are not mutually exclusive. The serial failures of successive governments’ agricultural policies may not be unconnected with the dislocations caused by this partial approach, as the livestock sub-sector heavily influences the Nigerian agricultural sector. Interestingly, however, the self-acclaimed defenders of the free market do not agitate against the government involvement in a “private business” of farming, as if all the farms in Nigeria belong to the government.

Moreover, our darling oil and gas industry is, unfortunately, one of the cruellest beneficiaries of government interventions and subsidies. For many decades, Nigeria has provided a conduit for oil marketers to make billions out of public funds in the name of oil subsidy, without recourse to the economic (dis)advantage it portends. Similarly, the industrial sector engulfs billions under the Bank of Industry and CBN interventions, where producers, factories and businessmen and women are supported to do business. Similarly, the aviation industry consumes billions from the government every year and uses airports and facilities provided 100% from the public purse. Moreover, all Nigerian ports and rails on which business people feed fat are provided and maintained by the taxpayer money. We can go on and on. 

I assume that people adamant on this argument are not actually against the government’s intervention in any economic sector. Their actual grievances are the particular target sector and the perceived beneficiaries of such investments in Nigeria. It is motivated by the social ills of hatred, provincialism, ethnic, religious and regional chauvinism that define the Nigerian social space and the highest form of ignorance. If the hatred is for the cattle, the livestock sector is not all about cattle. Similarly, if the envy and malice are towards the Fulani – the perceived cattle owners – the cows are actually not Fulani. This line of thought is also evidently illogical, uninformed and oblivious of what an economy is all about. That is because it fails to recognise that a sector of an economy cannot exclusively benefit only a section of the population. It may be true that cattle are the central concentration of the Nigerian livestock and that they are identified mainly with the Fulani, but the truth of the matter is that the Fulani are not the most significant economic beneficiary of cattle. They are, in fact, at the bottom of the list. I will explain.     

The Fulani might be the initial owners of the cattle (assuming they are not just employee-herders), but they are not the dealers at the cattle market. While they had spent years growing cattle, day-in-day-out, a dealer trades off the cattle and earns a decent living. Another dealer buys and transports it to other parts of the country, such as the southeast, and makes a profit upon selling it to local cattle dealers, who also earn their living by selling to consumers. The Fulani do not own the trucks that transport these cattle; neither are they the drivers, or other employees working in the transportation sector, all of whom are beneficiaries of the cattle value chain.

The Fulani are not the local butchers whose livelihood depends on the cattle produced by the Fulani that they love to hate. While cattle are the source of the multibillion-naira leather industry in Nigeria, a Fulani has no business being a tanner, skin dealer or exporter. The Fulani produce cattle, but they do not sell bones, blood and other minerals derived from cattle. They are not the owners of the local companies in Port Harcourt, Warri, Enugu or Lagos that use the beef, dungs, skin and other raw materials extracted from cattle. In the dairy sector, the Fulani may produce milk and even sell it out, but they are not the owners of the dairy companies littered all around this country.

Yes, the Fulani love the cow, but they do not own the businesses within the cattle economy. They are unaware and genuinely do not care who makes what out of the cattle they spend many years growing. But for bigotry and subjectivity, these facts are not difficult to grasp. The whole scenario should not be too difficult to understand. Still, let me borrow the language of the cynics to boldly say that given the raw material and mineral resources inherent in cattle, and the role of the Fulani in cattle production, several sectors of the Nigerian economy as well as the billionaires controlling those sectors depend on the Fulani to thrive.

Furthermore, the Fulani provide a whole chain of employment, from the herders to the traders, transporters, butchers, restaurants, and other giant industries. Yet, they are erroneously assumed to be the only beneficiary of this endless economic chain. I do not know a single ethnic group in Nigeria that could match this contribution, and at the same time, bear the brunt of negligence, alienation and even aversion from the society they serve and the economy they support.   

When people argue against investing taxpayers’ money into this sector, I wonder what tax they are precisely talking about. If this is a result of ignorance, let me highlight the tax chain obtained within the livestock value chain. Apart from the taxes paid during herding, cattle are taxed at all markets by the governments; the cattle transporters pay taxes; butchers, tanneries, factories, etc., that deal in the value chain pay heavy taxes to the governments. There are very few sub-sectors that generate this kind of taxation within the Nigerian economy. Therefore, to argue that the livestock sector cannot be funded by “taxpayers’” money is to betray logic.

The preceding discussion shows that even though the Fulani are in love with the ancient traditional human occupation of herding, they do not do so because they are the biggest economic beneficiary of the trade. If anything, the Fulani subsidise the beef and dairy markets, create and sustain millions of jobs, and maintain an extensive value chain, which is crucial to the Nigerian economy. Therefore, if you hate the Fulani, please know that the cow is not Fulani. 

Dr Ahmadu Shehu is a nomad cum herdsman and an Assistant Professor at the American University of Nigeria, Yola. He is passionate about the Nigerian project.     

By Ahmad Shehu, PhD.

In recent years, Nigeria, particularly the northern part of the country, has gone through a series of debilitating crises that have become existential threats to the region and the entire country and even the West African sub-region to some extent. The Boko Haram insurgency in the northeast, the herder/farmer crises in the north-central, the kidnapping and banditry in the northwest, the ethnic clashes in the middle-belt have all spilt over across other regions of the country, causing chaos, social instability and economic devastation.

Governments at all levels have tried hard to contain these menaces through conflicting policies, strategies and approaches. But, evidently, none of these has succeeded, yet, as these crises grow and engulf more Nigerian lives and properties daily. With the troubles raging, the regional economic and social fabrics go down the slope. Farmers have abandoned their farmlands; herders are on the run, business people are on a massive exodus to urban centres. Schools, hospitals, and other social services are no longer obtainable in many places across the region. These are serious but not insurmountable challenges.

Despite its effects on livelihoods, physical destruction can easily be reversed in a relatively short period. The political history around the world teaches us this basic fact, with Germany, Poland, Russia and even Rwanda as cases in point. Left in rumbles decades ago, these countries provide development models for the world to follow today.

On the contrary, a society whose social fabrics are destroyed is more difficult to rebuild, for a nation grows in and flourishes from the minds of its citizens – their beliefs, dispositions, attitudes, education, etc. Sadly, the proud, significant historical antecedents of northern Nigeria are maliciously challenged on all fronts, with destructive narratives, or what my friend Dr Samaila Yandaki calls “falsification of history” being pushed against the people, culture and sociopolitical freedom of the region. This, as far as statecraft is concerned, is more dangerous to the corporate existence of the area and indeed Nigeria in the long run than the physical challenges we are currently battling. Here is why.  

For many decades, northern Nigeria and its people have endured a consistent assault on their historiography, heritage and sociopolitical status. At the expense of sounding conspiratorial, I believe it is safe to state that the constant ethnic and regional profiling of the North and its people is a deliberate, well-planned assault aimed at breaking the very social fabric that held people together. The orchestrators fully understand the natural advantages and disadvantages of the region at equal proportions.

In today’s Nigeria, the North has been stereotyped in the most dangerous way. In the Nigerian sociopolitical scheme, northern leaders have been systematically stigmatised, with all the evils and ills of the country being falsely but persistently attributed to the failures of the North, even though history proves to the contrary. Some people propagate this antagonism without equal acknowledgement of the good tidings, sacrifices, patriotism and contributions of northern leaders and northerners in the Nigerian project. The bitter, unbiased truth is that the problems and prospects of the Nigerian state are Nigerian, with all regions, ethnicities and religious identities contribute their fair share in making or marring the country.

Similarly, the Nigerian media has worked hard to regionalise or ethnicise all kinds of human criminalities against the North. The media ascribe all sorts of criminal acts to northern folks or, precisely, Fulani, without recourse to the dangers these kinds of ethnic and regional profiling pose to the ordinary northerner. Conversely, criminal gangs, armed robbers in all southern states, notorious kidnappers, internet fraudsters and corrupt public officials would pass as mere criminals if, at all, they get reported. There won’t be a mention of the regional, ethnic or religious identities of those criminals. Unlike the former, we all share the criminal’s misdemeanour as humans and Nigerians. They are now “Nigerians”, not southerners, Igbo, Yoruba, Ijaw, etc. The hypocrisy is stinking.

Furthermore, today’s public discourse in, about and on Nigeria is a mere comparison between a supposedly ‘wealthy, educated’ south versus a supposedly ‘poor, illiterate’ north. This narrative gained traction by consistent and persistent reportage, which went unchallenged for too long. It is indeed true that all you need to validate a narrative is to keep saying it. While the ills caused by the utterly disgusting failure of the Nigerian leadership obtained in the North are reported or tagged as northern, the similar or worse scenarios obtained in the south will not belong to the southern region but the Nigerian federation. For the common audience, this kind of deliberate misrepresentation of information has caused deep-rooted mischief and hatred against northerners.

The dangers this stereotyping portend for the region’s future is, in the long run, worse than its current physical challenges. For one, the political leadership required to solve the physical problems will be entirely messed up in ways never seen before. Secondly, the communal consensus that gave the region the upper hand in the political scheme of the country will be dismantled, leading to distrust, disharmony and possible internal disintegration. Thirdly, young Nigerians constantly fed these venomous, hate-filled narratives are prepared to antagonise their northern counterparts, a situation that will affect their participation in the Nigerian project. The tail end of this debacle is not a story I would like to predict. We have seen examples in Nazi Germany and Rwanda.

The good news, however, is that the solutions to this seemingly intractable problem are not farfetched. It has been said that if you want to use a mirror, buy your own. People are made by their history; their minds are shaped by their stories; while their future is dependent on their world views, their dignity and respect depend on how others view them.

Indeed, the animosity and distrust between the major ethnic and religious groups in Nigeria are as old as the country itself. Among the major culprits in fanning the embers of this powerful but devilish attempt to demonise the North is the Nigerian media which has deliberately and consistently pushed stereotypical narratives against the region.

However, one of the reasons the campaign is succeeding is the total lack of counter-narratives that would eventually challenge the misinformation churned out by the Nigerian media against the region. If this is the case, then the only way out for the North is to speak out, provide content and information, counter-narratives and reliable, factual evidence that will eventually challenge the calculated attempts to demonise its history and hamper its progress. To do this, the region’s intelligentsia, political and economic leaders must be dedicated to and invest heavily in the media. It is only then that the North and its people will be fairly represented.

PS:

I celebrate the courage and dedication of the young men and women who started this medium, The Daily Reality. It is indeed one of the success stories of the North in 2021. Congratulations.

Ahmadu Shehu is an Assistant Professor at the American University of Nigeria, Yola. He writes from Yola, the capital of Adamawa State.