By Pastor Jonah Isa
In 1804, Shehu Othman Danfodio led itinerant
Fulani from the Futa Jallon Heights in present day Gambia and Senegal to settle
in present day Northern Nigeria. Danfodio led a revolt against the existing
Habe dynasties and supplanted them with Fulani emirs. The Hausa were forcibly
Islamized. The Fulani Jihad, and Islam made inroads into other areas not
inhabited by the Fulani or Hausa but were successfully resisted in much of
today's Middle Belt.
It was British Colonial Rule that brought
non-Hausa/Fulani peoples who were never conquered by the latter under the rule
of the emirates. Called Indirect Rule, it suited British colonial design to
bring the different ethnic nationalities under the rather developed emirate
system for the purposes of maintaining law and order, recruiting for forced
labour and exacting taxes to run the colony with.
After power was transferred to nationals and Sir
Ahmadu Bello, the late sardauna of Sokoto, became Premier of the Northern
Region, non-Muslim communities were denied potable water, roads, post offices,
schools, hospitals and access to civil service absorption. Under the
premiership of the late Sir Ahmadu Bello, forcible conversions were effected.
From 1961, till he died in 1966, Sir Ahmadu Bello went on
annual Islamisation drives all over the Northern Region. Traditional rulership
of communities became a preserve of only Muslims. The resistance against Muslim
traditional rulers led to the Tiv Riots 1960-64, and restiveness in old Gongola
(today's Adamawa and Taraba states), Southern Kaduna (Kafanchan), Tafawa Balewa
(Bauchi State) and Plateau State.
Promotion in the civil service depended on if a candidate
had converted to Islam. The late Sardauna promised to 'dip the Koran into the
sea' meaning he will spread Islam from the far North across the country to the
Atlantic Ocean before he was done.
This agenda of 'dipping the Koran to the sea'has
continued unabated till date by consistent terror attacks and killings in the
middle belt followed by mass movement of new communities of Hausa Fulani into
the middle belt all the way down to the south states near the Atlantic Ocean.
In 1960, the late Sir Ahmadu Bello said 'The new nation
called Nigeria should be an estate of our great-grandfather, Uthman Dan Fodio.
We must ruthlessly prevent a change of power. We use the minorities of the
North as willing tools and the South as a conquered territory and never allow
them to rule over us, and never allow them to have control over their future.'
(Parrot Newspaper, 12th Oct. 1960; republished on November 13, 2002, by the
Tribune Newspaper, Ibadan.);
The Conference of Northern Chiefs, in response to a
letter from the UK-based West African Students' Union (WASU) to the Northern
emirs asking them to support the constitutional evolution of Nigeria into an
independent nation, had declared '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.' (Obafemi Awolowo, Path to Nigerian Freedom,
London: Faber and Faber, 1947, p.51.);
During military rule in the 1970s Christian
missionary schools were forcibly taken over by government, and in many
instances their names changed to Islamic ones;
As late as 1997 under General Sani Abacha's rule, all
Police Commissioners in Nigeria were Muslims;
In 1990, all members of the Armed Forces Ruling Council
(AFRC) were Muslims except General Ike Nwachukwu, an Igbo, whose mother was a
Fulani Muslim;
During military rule, General Ibrahim Babangida
surreptitiously registered Nigeria as a member state of the Organisation of
Islamic Conference (OIC) without tabling the issue before the AFRC. The then
second in command, Rear Admiral Ebitu Ukiwe told the world that he heard about
Nigeria's membership of OIC like everybody else in the media. He was promptly
removed and retired from the Navy;
Babangida hosted the first Islam in Africa conference in
Abuja and donated Federal Government funds to its operations, including its vision
of transforming Nigeria to an Islamic state and enthroning the Sultan of Sokoto
as its 'supreme ruler'. (The communiqué released after the conference is
herewith attachedas appendix 1);
Under the presidency of General Olusegun Obasanjo, 1999-2007, the Sharia code
of Islamic law was re-introduced in the North in an expanded format. Islamic
Police (Hisbah) was introduced and Christian girls were abducted, forcibly
converted and married off to Muslims in Bauchi, Kaduna, Niger and Zamfara
states. The Sharia Commissions of the states merely write parents informing them that their daughters had converted and
had been given outin marriage;
In a show of utter contempt, indigenous Hausa and Fulani Christians in Kaduna
State are given 'certificates of non- indigeneship', meaning that they would
not have access to rights and privileges accruable to indigenes of the state;
Islamisation is carried out not only by Muslim rulers. Unsuspecting southern rulers
are unwittingly used to drive some aspects of the Islamisation agenda:
Under President Goodluck Jonathan, erstwhile
Central Bank Governor Sanusi Lamido Sanusi introduced Islamic Banking;
President Jonathan has set up Almajiri schools for the
exclusive benefit of Muslims in spite of robust protest by the Christian
community, whose schools were taken over;
In many Northern states like Kano, Sokoto, Zamfara,
Katsina, Bauchi, Borno, Yobe and Gombe state governments refuse to give
building permits for the erection of churches. As a matter of fact, a
disclaimer contained in building permits in Kano State specifies that the
building permit is not to be used to erect bars, brothels and churches thereby
classifying churches among undesirable establishments like bars and brothels; In
places where churches have been destroyed in the past three decades state
governments in several states in the North refuse the owners permit to rebuild.
In Borno, Kaduna, Kano, Niger, Bauchi, Yobe, Sokoto, Katsina and Gombe states Christian
churches numbering over five thousand have been lost this way.
None of the owners were compensated; The Hausa/Fulani insist that they are
the largest ethnic group yet when former president, General Obasanjo wanted to
include ethnicity and religion as issues to be disaggregated in the Census
exercise of 2006, the Hausa/Fulani elite pressurized him to drop the idea
because doing so would expose the lie.
The Hausa International Media outfits e.g. BBC,
VOA, Germany etc. usually employ Moslem Hausa Fulani and they tend to propagate
the Islamic views of events in Nigeria in line with their religious perception
of not identifying with any government not ruled by a Moslem.
The Boko Haram insurgency is only the latest in the
history of Islamist insurgencies in the North and they have vowed to drive
away, if unable to kill all Christian and non-Moslems from northern Nigeria:
There was the Maitatsine Rebellion in Kano, in 1980, that
sought to bring to pass an Islamic fundamentalist order;
There was the Bulumkutu Rebellion in the North East that
sought to do the same thing in Maiduguri, Borno State; Jimeta, Yola; and
Bauchi, Bauchi State.;
There was the Kala Kato Rebellion in Bauchi State in the
1980s;
The eighties and nineties also witnessed riots
perpetrated by Muslims in Kano, Zaria, Kafanchan, Maiduguri and Bauchi;
Since the return to civilian democracy, Jos has witnessed
four major religious riots perpetrated by Muslims including the murder of more than
500 indigenes of Dogo Nahawa in the dead of the night in 2010. Boko Haram
claimed responsibility for that attack;
Each time something irks the Muslim world anywhere in the
world Nigerian Christians are made to pay for it. In 2003 a Danish newspaper published
a cartoon that Muslims felt painted Prophet Mohammed in a bad light. Nigerian
Christians were slaughtered in cold blood in Maiduguri, Kano and Bauchi and
their property looted and vandalized.
After US planes attacked Tripoli, Libya in the 1990′s Nigerian
Christians were attacked and killed in Northern Nigeria. After the bombing of
the Twin Towers in New York on September 11 2001 Muslims celebrated in Northern
Nigeria. After US forces started its war on Iraq Nigerian
Christians were attacked and killed.
After late President Umaru Musa Yar'adua fell ill in 2009, there were concerted
efforts by the northern political elite to prevent the then Vice President,
Goodluck Jonathan, from being elevated to the position of Acting President.
The then Vice President was made to take an undertaking
that he would not vie for election in 2011 before northern governors gave their
members in the National Assembly the green light to elevate Jonathan. Before he
was elevated to Acting President, Nigeria had no leader. As a matter of fact,
the 2010 Appropriation Act allegedly signed by Yar'adua in Saudi Arabia was
procured through forgery.
Yar'adua was not in a position to sign anything! Highly
visible northerners in the ruling PDP (including former Vice President Atiku Abubakar,
former NSA General Aliyu Gusau, former military President General Ibrahim
Babangida and former Kwara State Governor Bukola Saraki) banded together to
fight Jonathan under the 'consensus arrangement'.
One of those leaders, Aliyu Gusau, is today Minister of
Defence and this complicates the fight against Boko Haram because Gusau is a
dye-in-the-wool Islamist. (See also Reasons Why Nigeria May Not Last Beyond 2015 Here:)
The post 2011- election violence was orchestrated in
places where Goodluck Jonathan did not win the required 25% (Kano, Bauchi,
Maiduguri, Yobe). The spike in Boko Haram violence is a continuation of that
episode. Boko Haram has not hidden its ambition to drive away if unable to kill
all non-muslims from Northern Nigeria.
The inspiration for the current insurgency of Boko Haram
and the murderous activities of the Fulani Militia onrampage in the Middle Belt
is about the desperation of the Muslim North to have power at the center
returned to it, whether the Nigerian electorate say so or not.
In Gombe State where President Jonathan got over the 25% votes, post election
violence was unleashed against the southern Gombe Christians who gave President
Jonathan 70% of their votes compared to the few votes he got in Gombe North.
This violence led to the house of the State PDP Chairman being burnt and he was
never compensated until his untimely death.
Six northern governors namely: Alhaji Rabiu
Kwankwaso of Kano State; Alhaji Magatakarda Wamako of Sokoto State; Alhaji
Muazu Babangida Aliyu of Niger State; Alhaji Sule Lamido of Jigawa State;
Alhaji Murtala Nyako of Adamawa State and Alhaji Abdufattah Ahmed of Kwara
State banded together with Rivers State Rotimi Amaechi to demand that the
sitting President, Goodluck Jonathan, should undertake not to partake in the
forthcoming 2015 Presidential Election.
The refusal of the President to give such an undertaking
led to an orchestrated crisis in the PDP, and led to the willful abandonment of
the party by five of the aforementioned governors. Members of the National
Assembly, states houses of assembly and other party faithfuls in those states
also exited PDP. Such is the desperation with which northern muslims want power
at the center in Nigeria.
The military campaign against Boko Haram in the North
East has not been the spectacular success that would normally be expected of
the Nigerian Armed Forces because:
The Armed Forces and other security agencies are divided
along religious lines. There are instances where Muslim soldiers have fired
their rifles in the air rather than take aim because they do not want to harm
fellow Muslims;
Muslims in the rank and file of the Armed Forces and
other security agencies serve as active moles for Boko Haram in their different
organizations. Recently, soldiers of the division in Maiduguri mutinied against
their General Officer Commanding, a Muslim, because they perceived that he
ordered fallen colleagues into a Boko Haram ambush;
Corruption is a pernicious problem in Nigeria, and the Armed Forces and other
security agencies are not immune to it. There are allegations that funds meant
for purchase of hardware, operations and troop welfare are diverted to the
private coffers of the brass.
Conclusion:
There is an active agenda of Jihad and much of the rest of the country,
especially the South, are sleep-walking into what could be a fait accompli.
This agenda is being actively pursued with the imprimatur of the authorities in
several
states;
The Federal Government seems incapable of appreciating the true dimensions of
the problem and is often a facilitator of the Jihad agenda.
All Nigerians must be prepared to play by the rules. The
country is practicing democracy and in any democracy, power issues from the
ballot. The international community should not allow itself to be hoodwinked
into supporting the attempt by Islamists to conquer Nigeria, because that is
what Boko Haram and the Fulani Militia are attempting.
The West, including the United States of America, United Kingdom, France etc.
should be wary of information they get about Nigeria if they do not want to be
guilty of helping the Islamist agenda. The comments coming out of the West
alleging that President Jonathan's government was anti-North
reflects flawed intelligence about Nigeria and misinformation.
The Nigerian public must begin to ask questions
concerning how humongous amounts given to the Armed Forces and other security
agencies in the past three years were expended. The National Assembly of
Nigeria ought to be very interested in how funds it appropriated were spent.
The Nigerian public should go beyond the façade erected
by contemporary politicians to tease out what they are not saying publicly.
That is the way out of sleepwalking into the Islamist agenda that we are faced
with.
Appendix 1
MIDDLE BELT TOTAL TRIBES
Adamawa59
Bauchi61
Benue10
Borno15
FCT4
Gombe6
Kaduna27
Kebbi7
Kogi4
Kwara4
Nassarawa8
Niger24
Plateau67
Taraba56
Yobe5
357
HAUSA/FULANI/KANURI/SHUWA
Borno3
Gombe2
Jigawa2
Kaduna2
Kano2
Katsina2
Sokoto2
15
SOUTH EAST
Abia1
Anambra1
Ebonyi1
Imo1
Enugu2
6
SOUTHWEST
Ekiti1
Lagos3
Ogun1
Ondo2
Osun1
Oyo1
9
SOUTHSOUTH
Akwa Ibom6
Bayelsa1
Cross Rivers29
Delta4
Edo8
Rivers8
56
Appendix 2
ISLAMIC CONFERENCE: COMMUNIQUE (JOINTLY ISSUED BY THE ISLAMIC COUNCIL, LONDON;
THE ORGANISATION OF ISLAMIC CONFERENCE, OIC; AND THE NEWLY FOUNDED ISLAM IN
AFRICA ORGANISATION, IAO)
FURTHER DETERMINED to evolve a permanent Islamic body
which has firm roots in and is securely anchored to the long-standing ideals,
and values of Islam, designed to articulate the hopes and aspirations of
Muslims in Africa and coordinate Islamic work variously undertaken by Muslim
communities and organizations and to initiate projects which would assist in
improving the lives
of Muslims on the continent and the Muslim world as a
whole; We, the delegates assembled here in ABUJA, this 1st day of Jumada al
Awwal, 1410 (28/11/89), DO HEREBY RESOLVE:
To call on Muslims throughout Africa to unite as an
important part of the Ummah which is blessed with the guidanceand mercy brought
by the messenger of Allah, Muhammad (PBUN);
To urge Muslims, who have been separated by imposed
barriers of artificial boundaries drawn up by imperialists to serve colonial
and anti-Islamic interests, to cooperate with their brethren throughout the
Muslim world with a view to reinstating a strong and united Ummah which is
determined to fulfill the commands of
Allah, the Almighty;
To call upon the Ulama to close ranks and thereby facilitate among the Ummah
and to urge them to unite and to strive to remove all barriers between them and
the general Muslim populace especially the youth;
To call on Muslims to review the syllabi in the various
educational institutions with a view to bringing them into conformity with
Islamic ideals, goals and principles and to serve the needs of their community;
To urge Muslims to pay special attention to the education
of women at all levels; To encourage the teaching of Arabic language which is
the language of the Quran as well as the lingua franca of the continent and to
strive for the restoration of the use of Arabic script in vernacular;
The conference salutes and highly commends the efforts
which the Muslim youth are making in the service of Islam and pledges its full
support for them in this worthwhile endeavour;
To urge Muslims to establish strong economic ties between African Islamic countries and other parts of the Muslim
world in order to facilitate mutual assistance and cooperation in commerce,
industry, and finance with a view to evolving a sound economic system based on
Islamic principles;
The Conference notes the yearnings of Muslims everywhere
on the continent who have been deprived of their rights to be governed by the
Shari'a and urges them to intensify efforts in the struggle to reinstate the
application of the Shari'a;
The Conference notes that modalities for the
establishment of the African Muslim Media Practitioners Association in Nigeria
has been set in motion. It appreciates this noble move and urges Muslims in the
media organizations to offer it all the support it needs to succeed;
To form a permanent body to be known as Islam in Africa
Organisation under the trusteeship of representatives to be selected from among
participating countries; to perform, among other functions, the stated
activities and seek to attain the goals and objectives as provided for in the
annexe to this communique;
The Conference unanimously expresses its
gratitude and appreciation to the government and people of Nigeria for the
interest shown in the Conference and in particular, extends its thanks to the
President, Commander-in- Chief of the Armed
Forces of Nigeria, General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida for
the stimulating inaugural address which he sent to the Conference and was
delivered by General Sani Abacha, the Chief of Army Staff of Nigeria;
To the Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs and the
Islamic Council, London and the Organisation of Islamic Conference, OIC for
supporting and organizing the Conference;
To the planning committee and other officers of the
Conference for all the efforts expended to ensure the success of the Conference;
To scholars and other distinguished personalities who
have presented papers and chaired sessions during the Conference and to all
those who have either erected stands at or otherwise helped in making the
exhibition a huge success;
INSPIRED by the Unity of Allah, the Creator and Lord of
the Universe; MOTIVATED by the Quranic declaration; `Verily, this year
(Islamic) Ummah is one.' and DETERMINED to comply with Allah's directive
contained in the Quranic ayah `And hold fast to the rope of Allah, and do not
break up into factions,' the PARTICIPANTS at the Islam in Africa Conference on
this First day of Jumada al Awwal, 1420 A.H., (28/11/89) RESOLVE to found the
Islam in Africa Organisation (IAO) with the following as its objectives, viz:
Undertake vigorous human resource development programmes;
To serve as a mouthpiece for the articulation of issues of common concern to
Muslims in Africa and the Muslim world generally;
Commission experts to write the history of Islam in
Africa and of Muslims and the institutions from authentic Islamic viewpoint and
to retrieve literary works and artifacts designed to train workers who will be
trained to acquire trades and skills which equip them to be self-employed and
productive;
To ensure the continuity of the noble work initiated at
this Conference;
To cooperate with other national or international Islamic
organizations for the attainment of its stated objectives;
To promote unity, spiritually and materially, among
Muslims all over the world, particularly in Africa;
To promote peace, harmony and general human development
and strive to remove all forms of discrimination;
To support, enhance and coordinate Da'wah work all over
Africa and propagate the knowledge of Islam throughout the continent;
To encourage research efforts on Islamic matters and
publicise the research findings;
To undertake and encourage the translation into various
African languages of Islamic works, their publication and distribution;
To support the establishment and application of the
Shari'a to all Muslims;
To encourage vigorous participation of Muslim youths in
all spheres of its activities and to ensure that women are accorded their due
rights and roles in society in accordance with the Shari'a;
To ensure the appointment of only Muslims into strategic
national and international posts of member nations;
To eradicate in all its forms and ramifications all
non-Muslim religions in member nations (such religions shall include
Christianity, Ahmadiyya and other tribal modes of worship unacceptable to
Muslims);
To ensure that only Muslims are elected to all political
posts of member countries;
To ensure the declaration of Nigeria (the 24th African
and World member of the OIC) a Federal Islamic Sullanalo at a convention on any
day from 28th March 1990, with the Sultan of Sokoto enthroned the Sultan and
Supreme Sovereign of Nigeria;
To ensure the ultimate replacement of all western forms
of legal and judicial systems with the Shari'a in all member nations before the
next Islam in Africa Conference;
To organize an Islam in Africa Conference regularly as
well seminars, symposia, conferences, workshops and colloquia;
Towards the attainment of these ends, therefore, a
Steering Committee, with membership drawn from the following countries as well
as the Islamic Council, London and the Organisation of Islamic Conference, OIC,
has been set up, viz:
1. Nigeria
2. Niger
3. The Gambia
4. Mauritania
5. Senegal
6. Libya
7. Tanzania
8. Sudan
9. Tunisia
The Permanent Headquarters of the Islam in Africa Organisation, IAO, shall be
in Abuja, Nigeria. The Steering Committee has been assigned the special task of
the details establishing the IAO in Nigeria, including structures and
constitution within six (6) months.
The Conference decided that the Steering Committee should
also work out detailed plans for transforming a national political party in
each member nation into a National Islamic Party, and that the National
Republican Convention, NRC, of
Nigeria should be made to serve this purpose in Nigeria
as the only recognized National Islamic Party of Nigeria.
These parties so approved shall be the only ones to
produce leading government(executive and legislative) functionaries. The NRC of
Nigeria and other parties shall have their names changed to reflect Islamic
nature of their purpose.
The Conference further agreed and decided that
the IAO should for the time being, operate from the facilities of the Islamic
Council, London, and not from that of the OIC (that has become too
controversial in Nigeria.)
Appendix 3
Translation of Shekau's Message
'My fellow Muslim brothers, we are the ones that wage war in the state called
plateau (jos). We are the ones that accomplished those things and if you dont
know us we are the jama'atu Ahalisunna Liddahati Waljihad popularly known as
Boko Haram.
The only simple reason we did what we did is because
Allah has told us to fight whosoever has refuse to embrace Islam our religion
after we have ask them to and also how they (Christians and government) have
been killing us with no reason at all in various states were our people leave
in Nigeria. What we have seen with our eyes is much more than what the media is
telling the world.
We have witnessed it in Lagos, Ibadan, Kaduna especially
Zangon Kataf, Bauchi and plateau state. Our women and children were taken from
us and we don't know there were about till date. There is a town called
Sabon Gari in Kano is also an eye witness and there are so many places that
such atrocities were committed that we don't even know about but is only Allah
that knows what happened.
It is because of all these that Allah has given us the
authority to wage war against the Christians and whoever stands against the
will of Allah. The killing of our people is a reason for us to fight but also
our freedom to worship and is only Allah that knows.
Finally this is the message; I want all Muslims in
Nigeria and the World at large to know that this is a religious war between
Muslims and Christians. Every Muslim should take not that this is not an ethnic
war, civil war or any kind of war but a religious one.
We have not started this war to finish in a week, month
or year. The end of this war will be either they kill us all or we emerge
victorious and for sure this war will not end because we are ready and Allah is
with us in this religious war and no government can stop us.
This stands as a warning any Muslim that helps any Christian in this war should
know that he is a dead person. Salamaleikum'.
(An excerpt of an article, originally titled, ‘The Chibok Girls’ By Pastor
Jonah Isa On Behalf Of The Middle Belt Dialogue, June 10th 2014).
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