Good Morning Good people of Nigeria. God Bless Nigeria. Heres continuation of yesterdays post: RELIGION AND THE HISTORICAL BACKGROUND TO FAULTY NATIONALISM As I attempt to get into some very important historical facts, I would like to plead with this audience and the general public to please follow me with an open mind and to also understand that I don’t bring out these facts with an intent to hurt or to malign anybody or group but just to present the facts as they are and to try to find an honest way forward for our great nation. On the eve of British colonial encounter with the present peoples of Nigeria, two events, both religiously inclined, which were to later become the pivotal basis of national conflict were taking place in swift succession; one coming through the Sahara Desert and the other coming through the Atlantic Ocean. Both events were to later clash at a spot which seems to be the equidistance between what are today defined as Northern and Southern Nigeria. This very spot becomes what we define today as the Middle Belt and goes on to explain why the Middle Belt must always remain a hot-spot of political and cultural reassertion in today’s Nigeria. What then were these two events? Within the very vicinity of the headquarters of Sokoto Caliphate, the people of the great fishing city of Argungu, living less than one hundred kilometers away, had severally confirmed their independence through successive defeat of the armies of the Sokoto Caliphate. This same situation applies to the people of what is today called the Zuru Emirate of Kebbi State made up of Dakarkari and other allied non-Hausa-Fulani ethnic groups. This explains why the Zuru Emirate which lies within the core-Caliphate zone remains predominantly Christian in religion today. In the North-west the Fulani Empire of Usman Dan Fodio now code-named the Sokoto Caliphate, an Islamic-based local imperialism which transplanted the indigenous Hausa kingdoms, was fighting for its survival. The re-invigorated Oyo army led by the great city of Ibadan had marched against the invading Fulani forces and handed them a crushing defeat thereby putting the idea of a Fulani Empire extending beyond the Yoruba city of Ilorin on the stable of illusion. But it must be noted here that Ilorin was never conquered by the Fulani forces as it is widely assumed today. Rather it was criminally handed over to them on a platter of gold through the combined intrigues of Aare Afonja and his Fulani collaborators. In the North-east, the Fulani jihadists had been outclassed on the battle-field by the great Kenembu warrior Muhammed ibn el-Kanemi and put a stop to Muhammed Bello’s ambition of extending the Sokoto Caliphate to the North-east. Muhammed el-kanemi was himself shortly after booted out of power by the rampaging forces of the Sudanese-born Al-Mahdi. In the present geographical zone of Middle Belt, it was a case of raiding and counter-raiding between the Fulani jihadists and the indigenous peoples of the zone. This again explains why it was easy for the Christian missionaries to penetrate into these areas and consequently planted Christianity among these people. On the whole, much of what is today defined as the Middle Belt, running horizontally from the present southern part of Kebbi State, through the defunct Southern Zaria Province, Southern Bauchi and much of the present Gombe State, to the Bama- Chibok periphery of the present southern part of Borno State, and extending vertically to the present Plateau, Nasarawa, Kogi, Adamawa, Taraba and Benue States, including the Federal Capital Territory were never conquered by the Fulani jihadists and thus were never under the Sokoto Caliphate on the eve of British conquest of the North. This was the political situation when the forces of Lord Fredrick Lugard invaded the Sokoto Caliphate in 1903 and subsequently defeated its armies under Sultan Attahiru 1 who was later killed in July of the same year. Similarly at the same period, the combined forces of the British and French colonial adventurers succeeded in eclipsing the brief Mahdist reign in the North East. However, the subsequent decision of Lord Lugard to empower the defeated Caliphate beyond even the territorial gains of the Jihad, as well as reinstate the defeated Kanembu dynasty was later to become one of the fundamental banes of our polity today. Against the events taking place in the North, which revolved round the faltering fortunes of a local imperial machine, in the South, a much bigger event which would soon envelope the entire political landscape of what later became Nigeria was taking place. The massive industrialization of Europe, particularly Great Britain in the 18th Century had not only brought monumental economic prosperity but inadvertently rendered slavery and the associated Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade economically impotent and socially burdensome. The need to find alternative markets to the increased production associated with the industrial revolution equality added to a re-think about the status of Black Africa only in terms of the procurement of Slaves. It was indeed based on these fundamental economic and social considerations that the God Almighty opened the eyes of Europe after over four hundred years of inhuman exploitation of Black Africa to the evils of slavery and slave trade; hence the move as led by Great Britain to abolish the Trans-Atlantic slave trade. Thus after over four centuries of Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade, the Europeans came back to the coast of West Africa to outlaw the very brand that provided them with economic prosperity, introduced new brands of article for purchase and supplied further new brands for sell to Africans. Coming hand-in-hand with the moral questions of the Atlantic Slave Trade together with salivating economic adventure was the spiritual article defined by the Gospel of Our Lord Jesus Christ. Unlike the Islam of the Jihadists that confronted the Middle Belt which was associated with slavery and slave trade, the Christianity that came with Europe was the very weapon that tenuously worked against slavery and slave trade, including other forms of man inhumanity to fellow man, like human sacrifice, cannibalism and killing of twins. This same Christianity also came with a superior form of knowledge and wisdom defined in the art of reading and writing through formal western educational systems that subsequently became the tool of massive development in human and non-human resources. Our fathers were quick to grasp the potency of this religion of the Whiteman from the West in these aspects and quickly submitted themselves totally to its whims and caprices. Our fathers never accepted the notion that these monumental gains associated with European colonialism and Christianity are subjects of evil as some people are currently making us to believe. To me and many others, Christianity remains the best gift of European colonialism to Black Africa and will always remain so till eternity. It was therefore not to be doubted that when the stream of Christian evangelism swooped on to the estranged terrain of the Middle Belt, it was not long and difficult for the people of that area to have the taste of what we in the South today first tested. Christianity changed the Middle Belt as it did to the South, from the den of darkness to the citadel of light. That the Middle Belt was quick in embracing Christianity against the besieging forces of Islam was clearly the consequence of the need to seek alternative means of freedom against centuries of internal slavery and oppression by the Hausa-Fulani. As the International Crisis Group Report put it: British rule empowered the Hausa-Fulani community to subjugate the indigenes, and, by so doing, established the hegemony of the north over the country – which jihad could not achieve because Islamisation of the Middle Belt had failed. Marginalisation and oppression had driven these minorities to embrace Christianity as a tool of political emancipation. Middle Belt Muslims have also complained of treatment as second-class citizens by Hausa-Fulani Muslims.1 Thus nationalism in Nigeria today is built on the political foundation of two conflicting colonialisms – one internal represented by the Sokoto Caliphate of the Hausa-Fulani and coming with the religion of Islam with its primary allegiance to Islamic Middle East; the other being external represented by the British Empire which equally came with its enlivening religion – Christianity. The British understood the language of colonialism much as the Hausa-Fulani did. So it was not strange when both cooperated when the need arose, especially when it matters with the Middle Belt. It was not also surprising that the Hausa-Fulani never supported the idea of anti-British colonial struggles by the South, for that would have been the case of biting the very finger that fed them. In essence, before the Hausa-Fulani, there was nothing as nationalism in the manner of its interpretation in the South. The nationalism they understand and believe is the nationalism of jihad, no more no less. And let us face this fact. What is jihad if one may be tempted to ask? According to Global Jihad Network: Jihad is the obligation of each Muslim, within his abilities, to spread Islam in the world and it supposes to last up to the day that the last non-Muslim human being recognizes Islam as the true faith.2 The question here is, have the Muslims of this nation denied this onerous obligation of jihad? The answer is no and I stand here to be corrected. The true position is that right from the first contact with the British colonial agents through the entire colonial period to the present political dispensation the obligation of jihad has governed the fundamental political attitude of the Hausa-Fulani leadership. Instances to this effect abound. In 1902, shortly before his defeat by the British Colonial forces led by Lord Fredrick Lugard Sultan Atahiru had written to Lord Lugard, outlining the immutable relationship between his people and the British invaders and by extension all those that later came to accept the religion of the invaders. In his words: From us to you. 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 is no dealing except as between Musulmans and unbelievers. (‘Kafiri’) – War, as God Almighty has enjoined on us. There is no power or strength safe on high. This with salutations.3 Again, in 1942 that was during the period when the Second World War brought about increased nationalist activities and the subsequent campaign for the amendment of Nigerian constitution, the United Kingdom-based West African Students Union (WASU) had sought the support of the Northern Emirs. In their response, the Emirs did not mince words in what they felt was their eternal objective in the future Nigerian nation: Holding this country together is not possible except by means of the religion of the Prophet. If they want political unity, let them follow our religion.4 The jihadist posture was again re-stated by the the Sultan of Sokoto when he told the visiting WASU delegation that the only basis for unity in post-independence Nigeria was for every section of the present Nigeria to embrace Islam.5 Towing the same line of vision and believing that it is difficult for the Nigerian nation to experience peaceful coexistence, Sir Abubakar Tafawa Belewa in 1948 stated: Since 1914 the British Government has been trying to make Nigeria into one country but the Nigerian people themselves are historically different in their background, in their religious beliefs and customs, and do not show themselves any sign of willingness to unite…. Nigerian unity is only a British intension for the country.6 Again in the same year the same Tafawa Balawa went further to state during the Budget Session of the Legislative Council: Many Nigerians deceive themselves by thinking that Nigeria is one… Particularly some of the press people…. This is wrong. I am sorry to say that this presence of unity is artificial and it ends outside this chamber.7 Malam Ibraheem Sulaiman of the Centre for Islamic Legal Studies, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, writing in the London–based Islamic journal, Impact International defined the Muslim interpretation of the status of the Nigerian nation thus: There are two civilizations competing for supremacy in Nigeria today: Islam and European civilization. The latter, reaping the fruits of its colonial enterprise, currently holds Nigeria in its sway-superimposing its will in such weighty matters as law, values, morality and world view. That is not all. Nigeria is no more and no less an extension of Western economic as well as ideological and cultural hegemony.8 Thus it was not out of place for K.W.J. Post to define the inert character of the defunct Northern People’s Congress (NPC), known among the Hausa-Fulani as Jamiyyar Mutanin Arewa in terms of its Islamic obligation of jihad. As he put it: The defence of the Islamic faith against the unbelievers has been one of the rallying calls of the Jani’iyyar Mutanin Arewa both as a cultural organization and as an embryo political party. In 1959 the NPC was still the ‘party of the faithful’, and still used this slogan with considerable effect in the Federal election.9 Similarly supporting the assertion of Post and quoting from the Daily Times news report of December 14, 1953, B.J. Dudley wrote: The Northern People’s Congress is not a political party as we know it in the South (i.e. Nigeria); it is merely a political expression for an existing system of administration dyed in religion and innate tradition. More specifically in the context of party leadership, Islam provided both the national and local leaders not only with a religious faith but also with a common cultural background in such matters as law and political theory10 The foregoing clearly underpins the reason why the political machinery of the Hausa-Fulani is bound to be oiled with the religion of Islam at all times. It further explains the inevitability of religious conflict within the contextual field of Nigerian politics today. To these people as Malam Sulaiman aptly put it: Islam is the only way of life the only civilization, with all capability to upset neo-colonialism and produce a greater and stronger nation from the wreckage left by the Europeans. True, Islam has received great blows from the West, and its institutions seriously subverted. But nevertheless, Islam now exhibits signs of steady recovery from its wounds and its appearance on the centre stage of the struggle for a better society and greater nation is but a matter of time.11 It is obvious as Sulaiman emphatically put toward above that the major objective of every true Muslim leader in Nigeria is to cast off the burden of Western civilization and deep-sit the deen of Islam. This is true when we see the gradual metamorphoses of the foregoing sayings and thoughts in practical actions. Under our very eyes we watched barking but not biting as General Ibrahim Babangida dragged our nation Nigeria into the exclusive Muslim club of nations called OIC. Even when our own brother, Commodore Ebitu Ukiwe who was his second-in-command voiced his reservation over the action and he was booted out of office ignominiously, we watched helplessly. Then came under General Sani Abacha and Nigerians again saw themselves being dragged into another exclusive Muslim club of nations called Development-Eight. We are witnesses to the ugly incidents that greeted the introduction of Sharia laws, the riots and the associated destruction of lives and property, and we are now witnessing the heinous acts of the Boko Haram insurgency. I am glad to state this among a people, the Igbo, who have more than any other group from Southern Nigeria, borne the brunt of this dastard obligation of jihad. Have we asked ourselves why the Igbo are so much hated by the Northern Muslims to the extent that whenever there was a conflict in the North on any subject matter that borders on political differences, even when it had nothing to do with the Igbo as a group, as in the cases of the numerous riots in the North and even in the matter of the conflict between Israel and Palestine in the Middle East, the riots that followed in the North are targeted against them? I give as instance in the colonial period. The brunt of the 1953 Kano riots which indeed had nothing to do with the Igbo was at the end born by them.12 I want to state that these actions were not so much about the strong enterprising spirit of the Igbo, but simply the consequence of their tenacious cling unto the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is a predicament which every Christian in this country faces today. It does no longer matter if such a Christian is Yoruba, Hausa-Fulani, Bachama, Tiv, Birom, kataf or Kaje among others. The mark of identity today is Christianity and not ethnicity and we must not relent in our divine commission to defend that identity by whatever rightful means possible as the Saints of old did. We have witnessed the situation where some prominent Hausa-Fulani leaders called for the total introduction of Sharia in the entire States of the Federation without recourse to the secularity of our nation. The question here is how do we define true Nigerian nationalism when one group sees his religion as the ultimate basis of identity for this nation? And how do we achieve national stability, peace and security in our nation if one group insists that others wear their religious garb as a prerequisite for lasting peace? This is impossible in the light of the ethno-historical and religious construct of present Nigeria. This is the crux of the matter in the on-going Boko Haram insurgency. While not opposed to the idea of a cease-fire agreement between the Boko Haram and the Federal Government, I still believe that we must go further to understand the nucleus of the reason for the emergence of the insurgency in the first place, which goes beyond the matter of socio-economic deprivation and secular political alienation. To me it is imperative that we look at the spiritual aspect of the factors that engendered the conflict first before addressing the secular, for the secular can never be sustained for too long without the oil of the spiritual. This is indeed the background of what I have so far presented in this section. ...... To be continued
Posted on: Thu, 22 Jan 2015 06:54:12 +0000
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