The
National Chairman of Fulbe (Fulani) Development Association of Nigeria
(FULDAN), Malam Ahmad Usman Bello, has declared the Fulani as too good to be
beaten by any other ethnic groups in the country.
In what appears to be an
assertion of the supremacy of the Fulani ethnic group over all others in the
country, he said his ethnic group remained unbeatable and any ethnic group that
fights it would be doing so at its own peril.
Bello made the remarks while
speaking with Saturday Tribune in Kano on Thursday evening against the
background of the national outcry against the murderous activities of Fulani
herdsmen in Benue, Plateau and Taraba states and many other parts of the
country.
“Take it or not, Fulanis have
remained unbeatable; no ethnic group can fight us face to face. Any ethnic
group that fights us will learn a bitter lesson,” the leader of the apex Fulani
association in the country said.
He,
however, said it was in the interest of the Fulani, which he described as “the
largest ethnic group in Nigeria and, indeed, West Africa,” for all Nigerians to
continue to live in peace and unity.
According to him, should a
civil war break out in the country, the Fulani would be the biggest losers
because they have more people than any other ethnic groups in the country.
“It is in our own interest that
the country lives in peace [and for the country] to be united. If anything
happens in Nigeria, we are the ones to lose because we have more people than
any other ethnic groups. When you have more people, if any war occurred,
certainly we Fulanis would have more dead people to record. And we are not
beggars as we are equally blessed with wealth,” Bello said.
In an apparent reference to the Benue State people, he stated that
if the Fulanis wanted to take other people’s land, they could have done so in
the past “when these people did not know how to wear clothes.”
Tracing the origin of the Tiv, Bello said the progenitor of Tivs
hailed from Katsina State and had married a Junkun woman who gave birth to
those who are today referred to as the Tiv people.
He declared the name of the father of the Fulani as Muhammad
Katsina-Alla who, he said, had come to the present-day Benue and married a
Junkun woman and fathered the Tiv.
“If one follows the history of all peoples in the world, they
migrated from somewhere. Take America for example, the Europeans migrated to
America about 500 years ago. Can you then call them white American settlers?
The Europeans also migrated to Australia and to South Africa with many years of
struggle with the black majority to gain independence from them. Now, supposing
they were majority, would you call them settlers?
“I want Nigerians to understand that wherever Fulanis settle, they
always mind their business. It is wrong to refer to them as settlers because
those who call us Fulani settlers are the ones to be called settlers.
‘“Igbos claim they descended from Jews but settled in Nigeria.
Even Yorubas also claim they came from the Middle East, while Hausa people
equally claim to have originated from Abyssinia, the modern Ethiopia,” Bello
said.
He claimed that while Yorubas are “asking for a country to be
created for them and Igbos are using arms and ammunition to try to secede from
Nigeria, Fulanis, in the various places they have dominated for centuries, have
never asked to secede from the country.”
He
added: “Fulanis have never referred to any group as settlers but instead they
have carved out places for non-indigenes to go about their normal businesses
without harassment or intimidation.
“Even in Kano, Sabongari was
carved out for mostly non-Muslims resident in the state. Those that went for
the Second World War, when they came back, in order not to contaminate those
indigenes on ground, a place called Brigade was mapped out for them to reside.
“We Fulanis welcome others but, unfortunately, Fulanis, despite
being the largest ethnic group in Nigeria, in West Africa as a whole and
perhaps even on the continent, we do not discriminate.”
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