M O ENE
Friday, July 20, 2001

Wait not for the 'North' to exhale

"The form of Sharia as being championed by some northern state governors… is a complete departure from the true Islamic form of Sharia which could only manifest through revolution."
-- Sheikh Ibrahim El-Zakzaky
SHARIA

Sharia has come to stay. Attorney-General Bola Ige is not against it. The Federal Government now wants "uniform codification of Sharia laws among the states that are operating the Islamic Legal Sharia System"; Secretary-General of Jama'atul Nasril Islam, Justice Abdulkadir Orire, says, "Buzz off." A female member of the Edo State House of Assembly, Mrs. Esohe Jacobs, describes the Sharia as "the best approach to solving the problem of immorality prevalent among Nigerian youth." She said recently that "An average Nigerian believed in Sharia"! So let it be with the 'North' -- the Arewa north.

Nigerians cannot now honestly say that they do not accept Sharia, at least as obtained in core Arewa (Sokoto Caliphate). Even as the law descends on Christians, not many people are blinking. No mass movement is reported. Obviously, folks up north are getting the hang of the hand religion dealt them. Of course, they can always beat the setup. In Nigeria, money matters: The political Sharia that Nigeria's 'North' is practicing won't wash dyed-in-the-wool habits, as a certain boozer told a judge recently in Zamfara. Well, not until the Koran meets Bar Beach, Lagos.

I was in Jaji, Kaduna State, for my national youth service. There were elements of Sharia in those days. I didn't find the rules offensive -- I was not living them. I saw them as the culture of the people. I respect people's culture, as long as they respect mine. But I was amazed when both state and federal governments doused the amputation of an Ondo native by nomadic Fulani cattlemen. The only power in Nigeria that could and should have stopped the detonation of danger decided to hibernate and play the three monkeys: seeing nothing, saying nothing, hearing nothing -- and doing nothing.

When the Government allowed Zamfara State to amputate Mallam Buba Bello Jangebe, a Nigerian citizen, I wrote a cyberforum piece titled: "Let them have Sharia." Someone said I should not broach such an idea: "Not with the Kaduna killings." Later, another would say: "Not with the public flogging of Livinus Obi." If they had listened to me, I would have explained: It is not so much what the 'North' wants, it is what the others want out of the colonial contraption we call country. If these brethren wanted Sharia and went ahead to implement it regardless of our concerns, nothing stops the 'South' from implementing the laws of communal resource control, as handed down by the ancestors. It could be called any name in Edo, Efik-Ibibio, Igbo, Ijaw, Isoko, Itsekiri, Kalabari, Yoruba, etc.

NO REASON IN RELIGION

What gets my goat about the dispensation of justice Zamfara style is that the main culprit is protected. We read about Ms. Bariya Ibrahim Magazu, but no one has charged the degenerate who made her a woman at 16 or the father who allegedly served her to settle a debt. What about subjecting all of them to penile amputation as recommended by Bola Ige? Ouch! Check this out: Emir Jokolo of Kebbi (formerly of the Buhari-Idiagbon 53 suitcases saga) is dragged to Sharia court. No show! The court rules for the man whose wife (a sister-in-law of the emir) was being given away to another man by Jokolo. The emir ignores the Sharia court, tells his governor where to get off, and goes on with his plan to usurp the right of the bride's parents! Now, does Sharia distinguish between the rich and the poor? Aren't we all the same before Almighty Allah?

Sharia Zamfarana has come to stay. We now know it is not necessarily about religion; it is a continuation of the politicization of religious dogma. Sheikh Ibrahim El-Zakzaky, the leader of Nigeria's ultraconservative Shiites, condemned the introduction and stressed that only Saudi Arabia could truly and morally afford the luxury of Sharia in its original format. Nigeria's former Permanent Representative to the UN, Alhaji Yusuf Maitama Sule, "rationalized the introduction of Sharia law," and claimed: "President Olusegun Obasanjo was aware when moves were being made in 1975." Yet he (Sule) "lamented that the penal code as practiced in the then Northern region and still practiced now is a 'bastardization of the Sharia legal system' and asked that Muslims be allowed to practice their faith and that Sharia will not and will never affect Christians." [Obasanjo Was Party To Sharia, Says Maitama Sule, This Day (Lagos), January 24, 2001] There is really no point raising more hell about Sharia; let's just deal with the politics of it.

LET THEM HAVE SHARIA

I had a second opportunity to say: "Let 'em have Sharia" to a few friends during Rimigate (his breach of protocol at World Igbo Congress's Dallas convention -- for that was the issue, as far as I am concerned). The Kano powerhouse said in his speech, which he had no business reading at the banquet, that Sharia was a fait accompli and called for a brotherly parley. Good talk; yet, someone should have stopped him, as a certain malam did to General Jeremiah Useni (rtd.) at the last Gamji lecture in Kaduna. With all due respect to Alhaji Mohammed Abubakar Rimi, what is there to talk about as far as Sharia is concerned? There is no reason in religion. Religion is about faith, not logic.

"Political Sharia" has not been properly defined. It is a form of ethnoreligious cleansing. As Sharia enters it critical stages, with the alleged pronouncement of retired General Buhari that Muslims vote ONLY for their kin, there is a need for others to articulate and conceive a proactive plan of action and chart a new course. It pays to talk and act tough in Nigeria. No one would have taken Governor Orji Uzor Kalu seriously if he had just played to the perpetual appeasement of Aso Rock. Kalu vowed to pull down federal tollbooths, and Obasanjo sent down works minister Tony Anenih, and the demanded road construction commenced. Now, both men are gradually making up. Recall that Na'abba survived; Okadigbo didn't. That's politics for you. The 'North' is pushing the envelope to create perpetually enabling external enemies, who would excuse the nonperformance of the royals and the elite.

WAITING TO EXHALE

In a Tempo piece of June 28, 2001 titled "Massob And Murder of Northerners," Shehu Sani suggested possible retaliation for the harassment of Northerners. "To intimidate persons of northern Nigerian origin living in the East is to strengthen the resolve of anarchist, divisive elements and anti-democratic forces in the North. It also exposes the enterprising and prosperous Igbo community in the North." The studied submission coming from the president of Civil Rights Congress, Kaduna tells us that "forces" are being primed as the dark clouds of 2003 gather. If "persons of northern Nigerian origin" were "intimidated" each time a person of eastern origin is killed up north, there would be no "person of northern Nigerian origin" in the East.

The coming of another orgy of killing is inevitable. The Nasarawa nightmare is a reminder. The latest Sharia saga in Tafawa Balewa, Bauchi, a predominantly Christian enclave, is another. These pockets of explosion point to an avalanche of blood come 2003 -- unless those at-risk organize and prepare. The OPC attacks on Hausa communities did not stop because the government supposedly banned the group; they stopped because the Hausa called their bluff, ferociously fought back, and screamed the loudest. Those who live in up north and are not of the 'North,' know the score by now. They should count their teeth with their tongues, gauge the air up there, and constantly evaluate the situation.

DO OR DIE

There are two serious options open to "migrants" in Nigeria. One: To stay wherever they are and fight for their rights, even if it kills them. If they must stay, then they must make sure they are organized to play the politics of the place peacefully but laced with enough dogma to be taken seriously. If they stay in the market all day and do not shell out enough money to those in the forefront, they would take marching orders from murderous charlatans. Alternatively, everyone should be encouraged to move back "home" en mass. Enough already of deceit-full nation building, where life and property cannot be guaranteed! There is no need to wait until a physical independent entity becomes a reality to start putting in place all the structures of ethnic or regional nationhood -- if our different ways we must eventually go. "Goal without logo," I call it.

If Ndiigbo could organize Biafra within weeks, despite of the unholy alliance of Anglo-Soviet machine and Arab mercenaries, nothing would stop an economic boom in time of relative peace. Suddenly, the "Biafra of the mind" that Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu spoke about in May 2000 begins to make sense. That's what Arewa is doing under the cloak of Sharia: separatism on installment. One LARGE Nigeria is okay and great, but we either stay apart a wee bit or the friction of our togetherness would consume us. Let's face it: Arewa (northwest) is up and running with Sharia; ditto, Bornu (northeast) to an extent. Oduduwa (southwest) is ready to go with a constitution, flag, etc., but it waits for a national conference to rubberstamp it. South south awaits "resource control." The identity-confused 'Middle Belt' (as per Gowon's dismissal of the term) waits to see if an alternative to Arewa would emerge. As usual, Ndiigbo hang onto to the trackless train of one Nigeria.

VOICE OF THE PEOPLE

The South has pandered to the North for too long. The North has always wanted to go it alone, but the South would not let go. Before independence and even after July 29, 1966 mutiny, the people up north wanted to paddle their own canoe. Post 1999, they wanted no part of the "dividends of democracy," preferring instead to introduce Sharia. The South fought on, condemning the continued state-sanctioned brutalizing and dismembering of poor citizens. No one sat back to read the plot. Is Sharia good, fair, and operable? A direct yes or no is irrelevant. If Alhaji Yerima Sani promised his people Sharia, and they voted him in, he is obliged to deliver. However, in all laws made by man, some aspects might become irrelevant and even obsolete; but it could still be a good body of laws, if amended and or applied in conformity with today's world. The United States of America enslaved their fellow humans, prohibited alcohol consumption, banned abortion, disenfranchised women, etc. In a southern state, it is still a law that every citizen must take a shower at least once a year! We must all learn as we evolve and listen to the voice of the people.

But this Sharia saga is about something else; it is not about Islam per se. Politicians are using it to blackmail the presidency of Chief Olusegun Obasanjo. In the process, they attack people who are different and their own people who are weak and poor, the hoi polloi. They sell short the stipulations of great scholars of the early era for petty political porridge in the information age. Now that the poor people are yet to see El Dorado, in spite of the donation of their wrists, they are asking questions. Governor Kwankwaso of Kano is now threatening journalists who reveal the deceit with Sharia. Apparently, the flogging of Livinus Obi and the demolition of churches have not brought down the kingdom of Allah. Obviously, politicians have been toying with the lives of their people. These cheats and charlatans could pay for their foolishness if REAL Sharia ever evolves. So you see the reason for the latest offensive from Arewa. You see why the 'South' should have let the 'North" have Sharia, if only to expose the falsity of "one North."

CONCLUSION

The 'North' is waiting to exhale. The offensiveness of Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) under Alhaji M. D. Yusuf should not be ignored. The 'North' has indigestion from some bad plot it swallowed; its problems are therefore internal, just as in other regions. Yet, ACF is speaking from all sides of its mouth, attacking everything 'South.' Read MD Yusuf tell it to the Vanguard on Saturday, 16th June, 2001: "We did that [scrap power sharing] in the north for years but you in the south seem to be getting backwards in your thinking and dragging us backwards." Huh? Who delayed independence? Was it not Professor Jibril Aminu who closed southern universities to allow the 'North' to catch up? Then it was Buhari's turn to tell Nigerian Muslims how to vote. Gowon's turn also came, and he ceded Middle Belt to Arewa, something he had done before with Bakassi going French.

Demonizing of Ohanaeze started long before M. D. Yusuf became 'King of the North.' I revisited his highly offensive speech in "Yusuf: You sef!" There is nothing in Ohanaeze submission to the Oputa Panel [See www.ohanaeze.org] to rattle the 'North,' yet ACF doggedly won't let go of a group of gentlemen and ladies with which it should be working together. ACF maintains a cemetery silence over the 20 trillion naira compensation demand by the Middle Belt; yet, they won't let go of a demand by Igbo people, who suffered the worst crime against humanity since the abominable Hitler's Nazi regime butchered six million Jews. The latest media offensive against southern organizations and individuals, especially the castigation of former President Dr. Alex Ekwueme for the zonal structure and power sharing -- and for which Ohanaeze has issued a warning, is just another unnecessarily forced stop on the road to Nigeria's destiny. A fraudulent fishing trip! But the import is not lost on inquiring minds. Waiting to exhale on the rest of us is a calculated attempt to wiggle out of a national conference, where everyone should sit down and resolve the Nigerian puzzle once and for all. The future of Nigeria should be set by dialogue.

Here's a love letter for you from Alani Akinrinade. Enjoy! One day, you'll be matured enough to thank me for all the knowledge I'm imparting to you. So, what are you gonna call this Yoruba "general" who fought to "keep BiafraNigeria one" ?????
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"..Because of different values, corruption, Nepotism, favoritism, ethnic and religious divisions, and election rigging resulting in outright tyranny have plagued them. Should we therefore work out a realistic prescription so that we can move forward? Must we wait until we are overtaken by the inevitable tide of history?
I wish to summit therefore that The Yorubas should
- divert their energies to finding freedom and space to
- conduct their own affairs the way the Yoruba people may choose within or without of the Federation of Nigeria.
The freedom to form new associations of nations that are contiguous, compatible and manageable seems worth exploring. Could that in fact be the task facing Africa as a whole? Or how do we envision future harmonious living between HUTUS and TUTSIS. What is the root cause of the genocide that has led to the macabre drama of firing squads in Rwanda as we are gathered here. The result of Eritrea becoming independent is a stronger Ethiopia, never mind a 30 years war, wasting lives, resources and opportunities. Now that Ethiopia has enacted a loose Federal constitution, permitting secession, no nationality within it has avail itself of that right. If the world had accepted redefining of boundaries and the regrouping of Nationalities as a norm, the war crime tribunal in The Hague will not be trying people for genocide, rape, arson etc now. Yugoslavia could have been spared the destruction that we all witnessed and is still ongoing. Genocide has started all over in KOSOVO.
Was it not clear before the time of George Bernard Shaw's Arms and the Man that the Croats and the Serbs were strange bedfellows? Or why is it that as we dine here tonight, most Bosnians are still unable to return to their homes, never mind the pervasive presence of NATO peace keeping troops. Similarly, inspite of ‘no victors no vanquished' the IBOS in Nigeria are still battling with abandoned properties with their immediate neighbors some 28 years after the civil war. We must thank our stars for being spared the horrors that could have been brought into our homes by television if the Soviet Union did not disintegrate peacefully. The Czechs and the Slovaks are making unprecedented political and economic progress and commanding the respect of the world.
Why on earth do we insist that Africa must be different? Why must the decision of some conference in Berlin, meant to keep the African off balance, become sacrosanct? Some of our people raise the question of viability of such a state. Please allow me to give a little statistics. Yorubaland has a definable landmass, fertile with abundant fresh water and luxurious vegetation. (248,574, square miles, larger than 12 African countries.) It has a virile, productive, confident, educated, and elegant population. (25, 996,182 by 1991 census, more populous than 11 of the 54 African countries). Access to the sea and all its resources. Friendly and accommodating neighbors. Gold, Tar sand, Timber, Palm-produce, Cocoa, even Oil in the Mahin, Epe and Badagry peninsular. My friends, perhaps we should divorce our selves from those idlers who only see oil as the only means of obtaining sustainable development. It is now a world where science, mathematics, technology and super computers have made nations, without any appreciable natural resource, great, and OIL, is it BLACK GOLD, has become a source of indolence, corruption and destruction.
Our nation, the Yoruba nation is undeservedly under siege. It had survived physical assaults before from the Hausa/Fulani jihadists. It had survived and been strengthened by its own internal wars, Adubi, Ijaiye, Egba, Kiriji. We have always single-handedly fought oppression in Nigeria. It was Yoruba lawyers who went to Kano to defend those who rose against political and ethnic oppression in the 1950's. They did the same for Shugaba in the 80's. The wetie and Agbekoya uprising were all skirmishes against oppression and lack of freedom. Even as we gather here tonight many of our people are being killed on the streets of Ibadan for daring to protest peacefully against military dictatorship.
While this is ongoing I hear people complain about collaborators or is it traitors in our mist. They have a right to complain, but, the situation is replete with similarities in history. There was war of independence here sometime ago. Were there not apologists for the British imperialists and native collaborators for the sole purpose of personal gain? Hitler pursued a damnable and obnoxious agenda but he was not short of palace jesters, ruthless killers, exterminators, and propagandists, including the notorious Lord Haw-haw, a Briton. Apartheid had black collaborators and its perpetrators probably still have, after its demise. The clown called Idi Amin ate human flesh for breakfast when he was president of Uganda and yet had a lobbyist on Capitol Hill pleading his cause for respectability, so why not Abacha.
So, why do we expect the cause of Nigeria's, or indeed, Yoruba struggle to be different? Why must our spirit be dampened simply because of the activities of black legs? Our people are back at the barricades and I suspect that if the barricades stand the invaders for a while, a lot more people will join in the fighting so they can be entitled to a share of the glory. It is in that believe that I do not think the complaints of those who blame those at the barricades that they haven't made enough efforts at recruitment of their kinsmen for this struggle is valid. Our people often say that ‘you do not need to persuade a blind man that the market has closed'.
Those of us that have not been touched by ethnic cleansing going on in Yorubaland will soon take our turn, if it is allowed to persist. But those who want to fiddle like the damnable Nero have a right to go down in history as Nero did. Let me conclude by quoting from a letter faxed to me as I was typing this. "We must either rise up now and fight with whatever means we have for our dignity and survival or forever we hold our peace. The sanctimonious living room analysis and pontificating over groundnut and drinks, which go on ad nauseam, must give way to concrete, hard-nosed willingness to make a difference.'
As we live here we must let those at the barricades know that we approve of their resistance by contributing generously to their well-being. Civil disobedience, the lowest spectrum of resistance has become an expensive operation to run for those at home. A regime that is bent on impoverishing its people, and staves them to submission has closed the door for extra resources for resistance. A courier from Ibadan to Ado-Ekiti requires more than 5000 Naira for transport, food, excluding lodging if his errand will take him a couple of days just for illustration. I am certain that your contributions will reach the appropriate quarters where it is needed to further the struggle. The Autonomy certificate will be a verifiable answer to our children when they ask "Dad what did you do when Yorubaland came under siege"?
I join my compatriots in saying A Luta continua."

Culled From Text of Speech made by General Akinrinade at the official launching of the
YORUBA AUTONOMY CERTIFICATE
by EGBE OMO YORUBA in Washington D.C –2ND MAY, 1998

We are secessionist and not apologetic about it. We will actualize the New Biafra for sure, but we'll not give the uncivillized Nigerian state an excuse to brutalize and murder our people again as they did from 1966 to 1970. Most of us in diaspora are the survivors of the first Nigerian state's orchestrated genocide against Ndigbo, which most world powers at the time acquiesed to.

Folanke,

As we see it, your Nigerian state is under torment, the centrifugal forces acting against the Nigerian state is so strong that nothing short of utter collapse can stop it.

Maximize your energy in galvanizing your people to the reality of a failed experiment in Nation building called Nigeria. The Odua people should give up this fear of not beign able to stand on your own as an independent nation.

Folanke,
We are not against the odua people seeking their own self-determination, I have not seen a single easterner who is against you fighting for your self-determination. Why is it that whenever Ndigbo say anything about their self-determination, you Yorubas come out of the woodworks to denounce it. If you have sealed your destiny with the Hausa/Fulani...I say goodluck, but please spare us your quasi patriotic sentiments.

Nigeria is not loved by any of its component nations. Not even those who have misruled her to date. This prompts the question why remain glued together?

But I sincerely believe that Biafrans living in the north will start making plans to return home prior to 2003. My hunch tells me they will return home. You must remember they are not their to socialize but business.

Hail Biafra

Sokie

Sometimes I ask myself the same question, why is it that whenever an Easterner stands up for his/her right the Yorubas (so called fellow southerner) will shout down on him?
Why is it that whenever an Igbo, Ibibio, Ogoni or an Ijaw man wants to fight for his right the Yoruba will immediately collaborate with the bloodthirsty northerners and start fighting the Easterners but when it's their turn they'll want everyone to help them?
They will be the ones talking about Southern solidarity which we all know can never work and will always be a doomed solidarity.
To be honest with u, I'll rather trust the Awusa man than trust the Yorubas. They are so unreliable. Trust them and they'll guide u to your early grave.