Rise of Hausa irredentism, by Ochereome Nnanna

Northern Nigeria has been the nation’s Achilles Heel. Yes, they produce the bulk of the food consumed in Nigeria. That, in itself, is an anomaly which is tied to the South’s greater urban orientation and consequential retreat from farming. The nation largely depends on Northern Nigeria for much of farmed food. Beside this, however, the North has been the major burden troubling this nation. This is evident in factors such as multifaceted jihadist terrorism, mass school abductions, social inequity, millions of out-of-school children and abysmal human development index.

I did my Youth Service in the North and started my journalism career there. I bear witness that the North is blessed with rich human, natural and cultural resources that should have added to the glories of Nigeria if the system had permitted. The greatest factor militating against the actualisation of Northern Nigeria’s greatness (and by extension that of the nation at large) is the Sokoto Caliphate system. That is the main disease disturbing not just the North but Nigeria in general. When Fulani patriarch, Usman Dan Fodio, completed his jihad in the North West and parts of the North Central in 1804, he used Islam to blind and bamboozle the overwhelming Hausa majority and installed his Fulani ethnic group as their overlords.

Because the Hausa swallowed his religious packaging of Fulani hegemony hook, line and sinker, they willingly carried the Caliphate on their shoulders for over two centuries. While the Fulani seized the palaces, mosques and madrassahs, Islamic justice seats (the khadi system), political leadership and the commanding heights of the Northern economy, the Hausa were reduced to hewers of wood and drawers of water, literally. The typical Northern Muslim you see begging, hawking water, shining shoes, riding okada, working the farms, selling hot tea and suya, serving in the junior cadres of the armed forces and riding horses for Fulani emirs during prestigious durbars in the North, the millions of almajiri children and the destitute, are invariably either Hausa or Hausanised Muslims.

On the other hand, the Presidents, Governors, political leaders, judges, emirs, grand qadis, top generals, senior police/security officers, oil well owners, academic professors, top billionaires and occupants of powerful political and bureaucratic offices are either Fulani or those occupying those positions at their pleasure. The Sokoto Caliphate system is like a graven image with the Fulani as the head while the Hausa is the rest of the body slaving for the benefit of the head.

Two factors are threatening to unsettle the Sokoto Caliphate as we know it. The first is age of the internet and smart electronic devices. The manner in which the invention of the printing press by Johannes Gutenberg in 1436 demystified the Church and made the Bible available for all to read for themselves and form their personal beliefs as they deemed fit, the internet is doing the same for Islam and Muslims worldwide. Increasingly, people now know what is in the Muslim holy books, and the change this is imparting to the Muslim world is incredible. There is greater assertion of personal freedom by Muslims and ex-Muslims. The Fulani Sokoto Caliphate is also being similarly impacted.

The second factor is IPOB leader, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu (MNK’s) internet radio broadcasts between 2013 and 2022. When the All Progressives Congress (APC) took over power in 2015, its supporters viewed Kanu’s Biafra freedom messages as an affront. Indeed, Kanu’s messages and bid to defend Igboland from Fulani armed invaders led Northern (mainly Hausa) youths to issue Igbo residents in the North quit notice in June 2017. However, a particular MNK broadcast pointing out that not even one of the 19 Northern Governors is Hausa, and that Fulani are the sole occupants of the gubernatorial seats in all Hausa-majority states (Sokoto, Kebbi, Zamfara, Katsina, Kano, Kaduna, Jigawa, Gombe and Bauchi), has set many Hausa minds racing.

The Hausa are not just waking up from two centuries of slumber, they are gradually rising to their feet, ready to throw the Fulani burden off their shoulders. We now have a horde of Hausa social media influencers speaking boldly about the need for Hausas to vote only for their people. They are strongly debunking the fallacy of “Hausa-Fulani” identity, which the Fulani had used to ride Nigerians roughshod for over 66 years. Many of them are questioning the “Islamic unity” narrative that benefits only Fulani interests. Some are even advocating for a new “Hausa first” narrative, irrespective of religion which has been used against them.

Some of these activists are only responding to the new tune being belted out of the irredentist Fulani camp of late. The armed insurgents, bandits and killer herdsmen are all Fulani groups. The Hausas are mainly farmers and have been at the receiving end of Fulani attacks all over the North. The two sides are at daggers-drawn. Indeed, some Fulani leaders, intellectuals and ethnic agenda mouthpieces have of late abandoned the Hausa-Fulani pretension for pure Fulani focus. The Fulani agenda to bring their ethnic brethren from all parts of Africa to seize lands in Nigeria by armed force in order to increase their population is impacting directly on the Hausa, the original landowners in the far North.

We now see a situation where Hausa activists openly challenge the Sultan of Sokoto, Saad Abubakar, for abandoning his religious duty to advocate for all Muslims and choosing to speak up only when Fulani interests are affected. What I see happening between these two sides gladdens my heart. Not because I want to see them fight. No. Rather, I want the Hausa to assert their identity, take back their patrimony and liberate themselves from the worst form of forced ethnic marriage known to mankind. Hausa freedom will end the Sokoto Caliphate system. And Nigeria will be cured of its terminal disease.

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