The compound word “Hausa-Fulani” is not a reference to an ethnic group because the Hausa and the Fulani are distinct ethnic, linguistic and cultural groups that cannot be conflated sociologically. There was however a historic meeting point in 1804 when the Jihad movement led essentially by Fulani Ulema (clergy) conquered Hausaland and established the Caliphate and ruling Fulani lineages all over Hausa land, the exceptions being Abuja (Suleija) and Bauchi. At the turn of the 20th Century, the British conquered the Caliphate and under the leadership of Lord Lugard, the system if indirect rule was established in which the “natives” were ruled through their “traditional rulers”. For the British, the stars of indirect rule were the Fulani ruling classes of the Hausa people and henceforth, the compound word Hausa/Fulani was inevitable in the political lexicon. It did not matter that the Fulani ruling classes had become culturally Hausa and that the great majority of the Fulani people were not part of this narrative.
For much of our post colonial history, indeed, since the emergence of the Northern Peoples’ Congress (NPC) in 1951, the Nigerian press, meaning the Lagos press, has referred to the Hausa/Fulani oligarchy as the cabal ruling and ruining Nigeria. The Hausa-Fulani oligarchy, were maintained in power by the British during colonial rule through the Indirect Rule system of Native Authority administration. During the First Republic, the NPC, a party considered as an instrument of the Hausa-Fulani oligarchy won both the Federal and Northern Regional elections. Since then, most succeeding regimes, civilian and military, have been monopolised by the Hausa-Fulani, and for some time, it appeared as if the perpetuation of Hausa-Fulani domination would continue forever.
Last week, I drew attention to claims by Igbo leaders that they are the most hated Nigerians. Today I draw attention to the words of Professor Dahiru Yahaya expressed in 1994 in preparation for the 1995 Constitutional debates. “The Hausa Muslim of the Far-North appears to be the target of the frustration of all other Nigerians. They are hated for the reasons of the political leadership imposed on them by the mutual suspicions of other Nigerians. They are subjected to humiliation by the South-Western Yoruba powerful media by which their culture, religion and leadership are daily treated to insults. They are also excluded from full economic participation by the Yoruba control of the financial institutions. In the private sector they are open to the exploitation of the Ibo control of the modern sector of private business activities. Ibos fix prices unilaterally by which Hausa money is siphoned daily. The Hausa are reduced to utter poverty and a large percentage of them rendered street beggars.”
In spite of the long years of Hausa/Fulani rule, some of their leaders have argued that they have been grossly and systematically under-represented in federal establishments in the country. They also argue that in their political practice, the Hausa-Fulani have been much more issue oriented than many of their other competing elite. My good friend Ibrahim Mu’azzam once did a review of the 1959, 1979, 1983 and 1993 elections demonstrating that the Hausa-Fulani, unlike the Yoruba and the Igbo, have never been a voting bloc and that they have consistently been involved in issue voting. “In 1959, the NPC had to go into coalition with the NCNC to form a Government. In the 1979 elections, Shehu Shagari’s NPN votes were higher in the areas defined as “minority” than in the traditional “Hausa-Fulani” enclave. It was in fact Kano that provided the test case on the legal interpretation of the elections. In June 1993 elections, The Hausa-Fulani from Kano, Jigawa and Kaduna voted Abiola of the SDP not their son and indigene, Tofa, of the NRC.” The icing on the Hausa/Fulani cake is that it was their political class that took a decision not to compete for the Presidency in the 1999 elections, despite their numerical majority in the country, so that a Southern and Yoruba candidate, Olusegun Obasanjo, could win the elections and atone for the M. K. O. Abiola debacle.
In response to this position, others have argued that if the Hausa/Fulani are under-represented in Federal establishments their people controlled for so long, it is because they have had an irresponsible leadership that refused to prioritise education for their people. If they are so few, it is because they have very few candidates to present the Hausa/Fulani have been told in numerous rebuttals. They cannot therefore blame the other if they have so many beggars in the country.
One important historical factor is that the first, second and third generation of Northern leadership were all groomed carefully by the British and their successors in a school – Barewa College. Ahmadu Bello, Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, Yakubu Gowon, Murtala Mohammed and Muhammadu Buhari were all trained in Barewa College which had a culture of leadership training chronicled extensively by John Paden in his book “Ahmadu Bello”. At this point, I will be thoroughly biased as a Barewa old boy myself and make the point that the culture of Northern leadership declined dramatically with the takeover by the “provincial” boys from the Bida and Kano schools – Ibrahim Babangida, Sani Abacha and Abdulsalam Abubakar. Barewa returned to the driving seat with Umaru Musa Yar’Adua but then he was not pure Barewa as he had started in Keffi and was too sick to rule anyway.
Self-centered secondary school analysis over, the fact of the matter is that the zeal with which the first generation of Northern leaders addressed the issues of promoting education and development in the North and Nationally over time declined dramatically. The North has nobody to blame but its leaders for being the poorest, least developed and least educated part of Nigeria today with a gap that is widening dramatically rather than reducing. The leadership of the North has produced the most marginalised Nigerians imaginable. We end this week’s narrative with a few words on the Fulani.
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The Fulani are mainly nomadic herd’s people and might very well be the most marginalised Nigerians. They are a nomadic cattle rearing population and do not own land. Over the past few years, there has been a recurring problem throughout West Africa when cattle belonging to the Fulani destroy crops belonging to farmers who in turn kill cattle and attack the Fulanis. A combination of factors based on climate change and poor governance are at the base of the problem. As the northern part of West Africa dries up due to climate change, the land can no longer support the animal stocks in the Sahel where grazing demands creates further fragility of the ecosystem and pushing the desert southwards. Since the only useful land to herders is south of the desert, they move their herds toward the agricultural areas of the sedentary farmers. Naturally, crops destroyed by animals are a source of tension for farmers who struggle to grow enough food to feed them in an unforgiving environment.
During the colonial era, cattle routes were protected and nomadic groups had secure routes through which they passed. The breakdown of governance in the region has meant that these routes have now for the most part been cultivated and it is becoming impossible to move animals without trespassing cultivated land. The issue is becoming a genuinely West African problem because some communities have expelled Fulanis and there have been retaliatory attacks in Nigeria, Ghana, Niger, Burkina Faso and Guinea where the tactic of forceful eviction of Fulani pastoralists by sedentary communities is currently spreading. As we continue our reflections on marginalisation, it seems to me that the core problem that is exacerbating the Fulani question in West Africa is the inability of our governments to address the governance of pastoral routes and manage the ecosystem in a way in which farmers and pastoralists can benefit from each other rather than fight. Next week, we will explore the fascinating narrative that led to the invention of the concept of the “Yoruba Race”.
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