In 2014 Alhaji Aliyu Gwarzo wrote a lot of derogoratory and insulting things about President Goodluck Jonathan, the Middle Belt and the South which caused a stir, shook the nation and went viral.
He is a northern irredentist and hegemonist and in my view he speaks the mind of many Fulanis. I responded to him in a series of essays in 2014 but amazingly everything he said would happen in 2015 actually happened. Jonathan was rigged out and since then a rabidly pro-north, pro-Muslim and pro-Fulani agenda has been unleashed on Nigeria by Buhari.
Most Southerners are still in denial but I am not. And neither am I fearful. I know what is going and I shall resist it with every fibre of my being.
Again, I had a second exchange with Aliyu Gwarzo in a WhatsApp forum to which we both belong. I have published the details and words of that exchange below with his permission and that of the forum administrators.
ALIYU GWARZO SAID:
“The problem with you Southerners is that you can never understand the north. We are a mystery to you and you cannot comprehend us despite all your boasting that you are better than us.
You claim to be educated but in fact you are uneducated and uncivilised. What do you know about education and what has it done for you?
Sir Ahmadu Bello
We Fulani toss a small bone to you from our table and you betray and fight each other like dogs for it. You crawl before us and beg us for crumbs.
That is your lot in life. You are nothing more than beggars. Cowardly and contended slaves!
Just like your fathers served us, so you shall serve us. Just as you serve us, so your children shall serve us. And just as your children shall serve us, so their children shall serve us.
We are born to rule. Leadership is our blood. No-one in this country can stop or change it. No-one can touch us. Allah has given us Nigeria. It is gift to our forefathers from him.
Our great grandfather Shaik Osman Dan Fodio and the Mujahadeen fought for it. Our grandfather the Saurdana, Sir Ahmadu Bello expanded our borders and frontiers.
Our father President Muhammadu Buhari has come to complete the job and he is doing very well.
President Muhammadu Buhari
You see the most effective chains are the invisible ones. We already have you in those chains but you just don’t know it. We took our power back in 2015. We will not release it to southerners or unbelievers again. Not in the next 100 years!
It is true that we came from Futa Toro and Futa Jalon many years ago and conquered the north. Now every inch of it belongs to us.
Every Fulani, whether from Mali, Senegal, Guinea, Niger, Chad, Cameroon or anywhere else is our brother and has a right to be here with us. We are Fulani before Nigerian and our allegiance is to our Fulani brothers all over West Africa more than you.
Now we will conquer south and we do it in the name of “one Nigeria”. In that “one Nigeria” we shall remain the masters and you shall remain the slaves!
None of you are going anywhere. Nigeria will never break. We will not allow it”- ALIYU GWARZO.
FEMI FANI-KAYODE RESPONDS:
“The problem with you is that you have allowed your delusions and lust for power and control to get the better of you. You and those you speak for are truly lost.
Chief Obafemi Awolowo
You threaten and boast as if you are God, forgetting that He alone has the final say. You are not the first Fulani to speak like this and you will not be the last. A man called Hassan Kontagora said similar things many years ago and where is he today? The south is still standing and despite all we are not yet conquered!
With apologies to William Shakespeare’s Macbeth, permit me to say this: yours is a sorry tale, told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing!
I read your words and I shook my head in utter disgust. Such insolence! Such arrogance! Such hate! If you are incapable of learning from history are you also incapable of learning from the ancient scriptures and the Holy Books?
Can satan defeat God? Can injustice prevail against justice? Does the suffering and captivity of the righteous last forever? Can the children of God be enslaved or subjugated in perpetuity?
Can our God ever abandon us and hand us over to you? Can darkness overcome light? Though we may weep through the night does our joy not come in the morning? Is our God not faithful and is the vision not for an appointed time? Your threats and boasts make me laugh.
Is this not the way King Sennacherub of Assyria boasted before King Hezekiah and the children of Israel at the gates of Jerusalem? Do you believe that our God, the God of Hezekiah, is dead?
Chief Nnamdi Azikiwe
Is this not the way that Goliath boasted before David in the field of battle? Do you think that our God, the God of David, is no longer alive?
Is this not the way that Pharaoh boasted before Moses in the halls of his palace? Do you believe that our God, the God of Moses, has gone to sleep?
Is this not the way that Jezebel boasted before Jehu from her balcony in Jezreel? Do you think that our God, the God of Jehu, no longer rules in the affairs of men?
Hear this and hear it well: as long as Jesus sits on the throne you will never conquer southern Nigeria! You can try but you will continue to fail.
And neither do you own the north. You only think you do and, as was the case with Icarus the Greek, your inordinate ambition, crass and inappropiate arrogance and hubristic pride will lead to your nemesis.
I make bold to say that hell will freeze over before we bend the knee and bow before you and before you have your way! Death would be preferrable to such an ignoble capitulation!
Chief EK Clark
You have the nerve to talk about education and civilisation yet the bitter truth is that you are an uneducated almajiri whose ancestors were still mounting and riding camels and donkeys whilst mine were at the best universities in the world.
My great grandfather was at Furrough Bay College in Sierra Leonne which, at that time, was part of Durham University. Where was yours?
My grandfather was at Selwyn College, Cambridge University. Where was yours?
My father was at Downing College, Cambridge University. Where was yours?
My brothers were at Downing College, Cambridge University and Georgetown University respectively. Where were yours?
I was at SOAS, London University and at Pembroke College, Cambridge University. Where were you?
Colonel Odimegwu Ojukwu
I really do not know what education or civilisation you are referring to because you have neither of the two.
You, your forefathers and your succesors are still living in the stone-age, riding camels, loving and worshipping cows, stealing other people’s land in the name of cattle-herding, butchering your fellow-human beings and slaughtering your compatriots.
I ask you this: who is more educated and civilised between me and you and between mine and yours? Do you even know the meaning of these words?
The truth is that we are not one and we can never be one. The difference betwen us is like the difference between night and day.
We love but you hate. We seek the light but you seek the darkness. We believe in life but you believe in death. We delight in peace but you delight in war.
We crave for progress, stability, security and prospetity but you lust for anarchy, chaos, bloodshed, destruction, terror, conquest, power and the perpetual domination and subjugation of others.
Mazi Nnamdi Kanu
I ask you again, who is more educated and more civilised between you and I and between your people and mine?
Can there be any fellowship between light and darkness? Can there be love between the sons of God and the sons of Belial?
Can there be peace between the serpent and the lion?
Can there be harmony between the captor and the captive?
Can there be understsnding between the oppressor and the oppressed?
Is it any wonder that millons say that our country must either restructure or break?
Iba Gani Adams
Is it not obvious that our claim of national unity is an illusion and that it is bogus and false.
Nigeria is not one, has never been one and will never be one unless and until we firstly learn and accept the basic and fundamental principle that all men, regardless of race, religion and circumstance of birth are equal before God and secondly that we must restructure and devolve power from the centre to the six regions and zones.
Failure to do this will eventually result in the implosion and violent break-up of the country sometime in the not-too-distant future.
Asari Dokubo
Why? Because no matter how hard you try oil and water do not mix, because slave-masters do not remain slave-masters forever and because slaves do not remain slaves in perpetuity.
It is true that the ancient boundaries cannot be broken but that does not mean that they cannot be altered and reset.”
– Chief Femi Fani Kayode
