Recent events in the polity throw up several factors for a better understanding of the building blocks upon which equity, which is the very foundation of justice through the application of the rule of law, must be anchored. The nature and direction of these events, some of which I shall mention in this discourse, point to the wisdom of our intellectual forebears whose scholastic erudition in the affairs of human socialization informed their adoption of what has become the legal doctrine of ‘falsus uno, falsus omnibus’ (False in one thing, false in everything).
The legal doctrine of ‘falsus uno, falsus omnibus’ peruses the very foundation of social conducts by man and checks the conceited deceit of social outlaws (both individual and corporate entities), dubious systems and processes, whose stock in trade is to put wools over the eyes of people as they thwart the natural and social order of things in order to attain their selfish goals and inordinate ambitions.
Recent events in the Nigerian polity has re-informed my understanding that equity and its applicatory arm of justice via the medium of the rule of law can never be attained on a foundation which derives existence from falsehood.
The failed promises and grand deception of ‘CHANGE 2015’ have eventually brought about evolution of political consciousness of Nigerians in a very short period of six years. This is one and the only good thing that has come out of ‘CHANGE 2015’. Ordinarily, it could take decades (this process took more than a century to happen in America after July 4th, 1776) for some countries to attain the present level which Nigeria has attained in the realization of injustice meted on them by the ruling elites. Some other countries attain such levels of political maturity, social evolution and conscious awareness of their environments through the tortuous and long paths of mutiny and war.
For Nigerian, it has been a combination of coup d’ etats, a civil war, patience couched in uneasy calm within the polity spread over decades since the first military coup of 1966, to attain her socio-political puberty. The discordant tones from across Nigerian indigenous ethnic nationalities have given a tacit understanding of the inevitable crumbling of the common faith invested on the Nigerian authority, an authority which derived origin on a foundation laid on the proverbial sandy soil.
Of note and also of great importance to the demands for self rule by the diverse ethnic rationalities in Nigeria was the congregation of eminent Nigerians who assembled to raise a common vote of no- confidence on the Federal Republic of Nigeria as a subsisting legal entity. These eminent Nigerians include a former Chief of staff in a military government, Commodore Ebitu Ukiwe (retd); former Governor of Plateau state, Jonah Jang; second Republic Senator, Professor Banji Akintoye; the immediate past President of Ohaneze Ndigbo, Chief Nnia Nwodo; former Vice Chairman of Arik Air, Senator Anietie Okon; Commodore Idongesit Nkanga (retd) of PANDEF; the leader of the Middle Belt Forum, Dr Bitrus Pogu; former Minister of the Federal Republic, Professor Yusuf Turaki, and important Nigerian personalities of no mean repute numbering 121.
These eminent Nigerians gathered to pass a vote of no-confidence on the 1999 constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, saying that the constitution which was put together by a military dictator headed by a northern Nigerian and dominated by northern Nigerians, was heavily skewed in favour of northern Nigeria and against southern Nigeria. These eminent group of Nigerians petitioned the United Nations Security Council, African Union, European Union, United Sates of America and the British government on the need for Nigerians to urgently convoke a Sovereign National Conference to discuss the constitutionality of the 1999 constitution of Nigeria and the 1914 amalgamation of the southern and northern protectorates of Niger area to save Nigeria and Nigerians from oppression, stagnation and squalor. The eminent Nigerians spoke under the aegis of the Nigerian Indigenous Nationalities Alliance for Self Determination.
In an interview granted by Mr Harold Smith, a one-time young labour officer in pre-independent Nigeria (Mr Smith was accompanied by his wife Mrs. Carol Smith during the interview) to FATHERLAND TELEVISION, Nigerians were made to know that Lord Fredrick Lugard, inspired by a secret British policy of neo-colonialism through an apron-string subjugated the south in favour of the north, and deliberately handed over the reins of power in Nigeria to the Fulani in the north after Nigeria’s independence in spite of the fact that the north never sought for self-rule.
Talking about the flawed 1999 constitution of Nigeria, the then serving information minister when that constitution was drafted came out to tell Nigerians that the ministry which he oversaw which was supposed to deliver that constitution to Nigerians was not privy to that document. He said that the document which was deliberately hidden from his ministry obviously to avert any ill-feelings from Nigerians was signed into law and released by the government without his knowledge and the knowledge of his ministry.
We shall not waste more time and space here to repeat the mischievous details of the flawed and skewed foundation of the amalgamated Nigeria because that issue has exhaustedly been discussed by me in many of my discourses both in the print and electronic media were I have had the opportunities to analyze and comment on events in Nigeria for the past 30years.
In another development, the same Professor Banji Akintoye, a man who is known to be an unrepentant progressive since the NADECO (National Democratic Coalition) days, who is also a popular Yoruba historian versed in Yoruba tradition and culture, playing concert with the latest entrant to the camp of progressivism and political/cultural activism, Mr. Sunday Adeyemo (Igboho) declared Yoruba sovereignty, saying that discussions on restructuring and resource control under the common canopy of the Federal Republic of Nigeria are belated, having been overtaken by recent events in the polity.
They promised that the Yoruba people will secede peacefully by using all internal legal means and international diplomacy to call for a Referendum for an Odua nation.
Apart from the long-dawn battle by a well respected and much-accepted young Igbo patriot, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, to secure the sovereign nation of Biafra for the Igbos, nothing new has been heard from the Igbos whose politicians are busy ploting and chasing the shadow of Nigerian presidency which will be due to switch batons in 2023.
Very recently too, precisely on 20th March, 2021, a group that calls itself FUNAM (Fulani Nationality Movement) who claimed responsibility for the botched assassination of the Benue State Governor, Samuel Ortom, was added to the long and expanding list of ethnic nationalities who allege marginalization in Nigeria. But FUNAM’s case is a special one for several reasons, which include:
- FUNAM is a trans-border organisation which act on behalf of people of Fulani ethnic nationality spread across 15 countries of the world including Nigeria, unlike other Nigerian ethnic freedom fighters who act only for their kits and kins in Nigeria. The implication of this is that many members of the group out of a total population of the Fulani ethnic nationality around the world ranging between 20-25 million people may not be Nigerians, but may, most probably be in Nigeria presently to pursue their global interest. The Fulani is divided into two major social classes. There are the Nomadic/Pastoral (Mbororo) Fulanis and the semi-Nomadic/settled or ‘Town Fulani. The later group is the politicians we know while the former group, highly mobile and moving freely around nations, constitute the latter’s foot soldiers. The bond between the two groups have never been in doubt as they always are mindful of their common ancestral origin.
- Secondly, the FUNAM said it acted to press case in favour of RUGA project across Nigeria against the wish of the indigenous people of Nigerian ethnic nationalities on whose lands the RUGA projects will be sited.
With all these clamors for ethnic self protection and quest for self-rule by the Nigerian ethnic nationalities who have just discovered that the honeymoon which started with the 1914 amalgamation of the north and south is over, one wonders why it is still difficult for the government of the day to restructure the country if it feels unsafe as an incumbent government to grant the clarion call for the convocation of a Sovereign National Conference. It is surprising that even the Fulani ethnic nationality which everybody thinks is highly privileged in the present system is complaining about marginalization in Nigeria, which by the way represents their understanding of the denial of other ethnic nationalities to grant them space for their RUGA projects. Is it not high time we restructured Nigeria?. The alternative to restructuring Nigeria is the present spate of secession bids which is gaining grounds across the country. Does a stitch in time not save nine?
What is the government still waiting for? All through human history, I have never seen, heard or read where the popular wish of a people was not realized. It is only a matter of time and people who oppose a peaceful change will find themselves swept away by the forces of a violent change. This is the way of history and Nigeria cannot be different.
Taking an excursion through the history lane, I found out that of all the ethnic nationalities in Nigeria, the Fulani has been the most favored and privilege. I do not believe that they have been marginalized in Nigeria. As a matter fact, I observed that out of the fifteen countries where the Fulani live, Nigerian Fulani are both the most read, richest and the most visible amongst their brothers. There is nothing wrong about these advantages because it is in line with the wealth of the country and Nigeria is understood to be a land of milk and honey by other African countries.
If I am still to go down the history lane a little further (which I must always do to put things in correct perspective with no deliberate offence or injustice to anybody) there was no poverty in Hausa land before the advent of the Fulani immigrants in Nigeria because the same history records that the wealthy Hausa men who were involved in commercial activities trading on cow horns, elephant tusks, hides and skin during the Trans Saharan trade travelled up to Fez in Morocco and Nouckchuort. Apart from commerce, education flourished, which by the way, gave birth to one of African’s Oldest Universities in Morocco.
The conquest of the indigenous Hausa lands by the Fulani did not go without a price to the indigenes. It is on historical record that the sprawling empires of Bornu, Gobir, Kano, etc lost their glories with the tough grip of the Fulani way down from 1804 after the successful expedition of Sheik Utman Dan Fodio in Nigeria. These ancient kingdoms in the Trans Saharan trade were proud of many rich traders whose resources were targeted by the Fulani immigrants .
This is true history which must live after us even if we fall dead by the activities of self-styled freedom fighters; and nobody can wish history away or put a clamp on its dissemination because future generation Nigerians would learn lessons and act to avenge our death if it so happens, most probably in more grievous ways, by the influence of the injustice which they may have observed from the lessons thy learnt from history. This will be postponing the evil day for whosoever that believes he can get everything in Nigeria by force or arm-twisting
The same history records that the indigenous Hausa kingdoms waged bloody wars which depleted the population of their people, to repel the conquerors to no avail because the superior firepower of the war-like nomads which was periodically re-enforced from Western Sudan (in a manner that they may have planned for Nigeria, as suggested by the FUNAMs release) were sustained against those kingdoms over a long period of time till they collapsed.
Some scholars believe that the rich resources of the merchants in those ancient Hausa kingdoms was actually the major reason for their conquests. This opinion was substantiated by the punitive and huge taxation that followed those conquests and eventually crippled the people like the diminished and evaporating wealth of Nigeria under the prolonged rule of the Fulani, the wealth and natural resources of the ancient kingdoms of the indigenous Hausa lands diminished and eventually evaporated and those kingdoms were replaced by emirates.
I am not making up these stories. It is true history which anybody can go to the libraries, pick up books and read. Unfortunately for some children who are presently in secondary schools across Nigeria, they may be missing out on the real reasons for the underdevelopment of the country because the source of my knowledge which is the subject called History in the national secondary education curriculum has been expunged from the curriculum by those who will not want Nigerians to dig into their glorious past. But I am sure that somebody, someday will somehow do something about this.
My opinion about the statement of Mr. Shehu of FUNAM is that he wants the status quo which Nigerians across all the other ethic nationalities numbering more than one hundred have objected to, be perpetuated. Secondly, it surprises me that he alleges marginalization of an ethnic nationality in Nigeria that is the most privileged amongst the rest in a country where they have called the shots, appropriating the leadership and the resources of the country to themselves for over a long period of time .
Thirdly, I observed that Mr. Shehu’s statements tallies, in part with some statements credited to Sheik Gumi. For the reason, I suspect that Sheik Gumi was a forerunner to what has just emerged to be the true and new face of a joint Fulani campaign. This opinion was also expressed in the official position and follow-up activities of the Miyetti Allah, the herdsmen, the bandits, and who knows, maybe, including the Boko Haram and the ISWAP.
It was reported in the mass media that the President has ordered the Inspector General of Police to identify the people who tried to assassinate Governor Ortom of Benue State. I do not think that the Nigeria Police Force should bother itself much about identifying the people involved in that assassination plots. I have a clue, like many Nigerians have on that attempt. That clue was given by the group which owned up to that plot, FUNAM in that statement issued by them. That statement which went viral was dated 20th March, 2021, and by all intents and purposes show, through his calculated and matured approach to the issues he raised, that he has the capacity for excellent use of English Language.
By the quality of the text of the statement which he signed, Mr. Shehu must be a very intelligent, well learned and well groomed man not less of aristocratic up-bringing. His terse statement shows that apart from being a person of few words with gale and exuding pride, the man has a remarkable sense of group discipline, direction and leadership.
These qualities which I have observed are not mean qualities, and it goes to show that his group has aristocratic links or at worse, aristocratic sympathizers to the course he pursues. For the this reason , it will be to the peril of Nigerian authorities to neglect this man, and not engage him to find out more from him and possibly convince him with a superior argument as to why he should consider other options than assassination, which he promised will be the weapon to pursue his dream and address his grievances.
Since it has become the unwritten law of the present government to extend the olive branch to people of different character shades including those with dubious plans for the interest of peace achieved through the unique Nigerian way of complacency and complicity, the government should quickly seek Mr. Shehu, not for punishment but for him to explain why his group did what they owned up to. The reason I say this is that we need shed no further human blood to get Nigeria working as a country. Enough human blood has already been shed during the tenor of this government between 2015 and now.
Nigerians should join me to pray as we reject further shedding of blood of Nigerians. I implore Mr. Shehu and his group to sheath their swords for the sake of God and humanity. As for the RUGA project issue which he raised, I think he will be happier if government deploys massive funding to erect state-of-the-art modern ranches across all the northern states. There is already a Dry Dock in Kaduna to handle the delivery of imported equipments which may be needed in such facilities. As we do this, Nigeria will be tottering along the path of uneasy calm while preventing the slip from the clip to the abyss till a permanent solution through a restructuring of the country is legally approached and undertaken by government.
While we approach the FUNAMs case through the path of peace, it is important to say, for the record that some Nigerians have been known to make public statements corresponding to the expectations of Mr. Shehu in his signed release.
The Police should also seek out such people for discussion because meeting them will prove useful and cut off the supply line of the foot soldiers in the struggle it has just initiated
The Nigerian authority must be careful with an organisation which has told you that it is trans-border. A special mix of initiatives must be devised to deal with the matter, because Nigeria is a special case with the indigenization of Fulani people in Nigeria. I know what I am talking about. For example, there are Fulani people in Ghana, yet, traditionally, Ghanaians who know that the Fulani people migrated to their shores several centuries ago, do not regard the Fulani people – who also concur to this traditional understanding – as Ghanaians.
For this reason, the Fulani people in Ghana have been known to trace their ancestral origin and retain their citizenship with their roots while they reside and do their legitimate businesses in Ghana without aspiring to high political offices. This comparison shows that Nigeria has been good to the Fulani people some of whom keep dual citizenship (Nigeria and Niger Republic) and even aspire and attain office of the President of Nigeria. This is another reason why Mr. Shehu and his group must sheath their swords and embrace the olive branch when the government flies. It is both unreasonable and unfair to a hospitable country and its people as Nigeria who have given the Fulani people a home for 217 years to be paid back with assassinations of its people which the group has promised to unleash on Nigerian. We must be able to tell ourselves the truth no matter how ugly it may sound in our ears, after all, we are all still brothers in one human family descended from God
Lest I forget, two parallel leads are already playing out and competing for attention in the effort to track down the people who made attempt to assassinate Governor Ortom. The competing leads, one of which is very likely to act as a decoy, a diversionary salvo to take away the attention of the Police from the actual direction of crime are:
1. The Gana (Terwase Akwaza) connection, and
2. The FUNAMs group that has already owned up to the attack.
We should remember that governor Ortom had once given the clue as to who is interested in taking his life. Governor Ortom’s allegation contradicts the recent report that the Police has arrested three Yukon natives. Who is afraid of the Jukuns?. The Police must be able to look through the murky waters of local politics going on in Benue State in order to sift the wheat from the chaff. I am saying that the Police must be careful not to explore the wrong lead which will eventually lead to nowhere, more so as a group has come out to own up to the attack. Let me quickly digress to add here that the Jukuns, a very proud and resilient tribe, has a legendary record of net treating foreign invaders who came to desecrate for their ancestral land with kids gloves. For this reason, the is no love-lust between them and the core expansionist north. For this reason two, they are not in the good books of many core northern politicians some of whom are in this present government. I am not saying more on this matter for now.
I will conclude this discussion by saying that with the boundaries and interpretative implications of the legal doctrine of ‘falsus uno, falsus omnibus’ extending to the unfortunate yet deliberate issue of non-representation of the Nigerian ethnic nationalities during the meetings preceding the amalgamation treaty, Nigeria as a country may be said to be a fluke, not having existed as a legal entity that derived popular approval and mandate from the people who are supposed to have ascribed to its existence.
If it forcibly ever existed, that suspicious existence expired and ended on December 31st, 2013, when the amalgamation treaty clocked its hundredeth year and determined as per the terms and conditions of the amalgamation treaty.
From this background, and on this basis, it becomes surprising that any sane person who understands the dynamics of human society and the needed influence of unencumbered socialization built on equity and fair play amongst the diverse groups who constitute the human society should object to, or work against the restructuring of Nigeria in 2021 – what I see as a political fix-it-all formula which will lay all the bickering across the ethnic nationalities of Nigeria to rest.
To say the least, those people who object to the long-overdue restructuring of Nigeria because they derived pecuniary influence and rob Nigerians of their common patrimony as a result of the flawed arrangement and skewed contraption called Nigeria are the worst enemies of the people. They are agents of retrogression. Additionally, they are harbingers of anarchy.
ABUCHI OBIORA
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