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Our
Anger With Hausa-Fulani --- Yohanna Madaki
Since the
debacle that led to the eventual removal of the then Emir of Muri
in 1986, Colonel Yohanna Madaki has not been the same. As Madaki
who was then governor of the defunct Gongola State recalls, "that
decision was seen as revolutionary, they could not understand why
a Bajju like me, an arne should have the affront to remove a Fulani
Emir who had the power of life and death." He may have also ruffled
some shoulders when he earlier embarked on the tortuous historic
journey to Alantika Mountains which eventually thrust the plight
of the Koma, a people still living in their pristine state into
national discourse. For his effrontery, Madaki got booted out of
the military. He was dismissed from the Army but this was later
converted to retirement by the regime of General Ibrahim Babangida.
Since then
Madaki, also a lawyer has been enmeshed in the struggle for the
emancipation of what he perceived as the oppressed and pauperised
people of the Middle Belt from the stranglehold of the Hausa Fulani
ruling class. He discusses this and other issues in this interview
with TONY IYARE at a forum in Lagos, which also featured
some other leaders of the political zone like Mr Isaac Shaahu, a
former leader of opposition in the defunct Northern House of Assembly,
Commodore Dan Suleiman, chieftain of the National Democratic Coalition
(NADECO) and Colonel Mohammed Onuka, who both held forte as military
helmsmen in old Plateau and Edo states. Excerpts:
Why are the
people of the Middle Belt asking for reparation in spite of the
fact that they were not confronted by the same problems of the Igbo
whose human and material losses during the Civil War cannot be quantified?.
The position
of the Igbo is distinct from that of the Middle Belt because it
has existed as a region. The problems of the Middle Belt, has not
been opened to the outside world. The only information about the
area came during the time of Joseph Tarka when there was a dissenting
voice that the concept of a big North will not allow the development
of people with distinct identity, which the colonialists themselves
conspired to suppress. The colonial masters believed that if they
could not own Nigeria, at least they could own the North. Today
with greater awareness, this struggle is now a reality. Whatever
the people of the Middle Belt do to realise themselves is justified.
At the end of the day, I don't see the Igbo succeeding in that kind
of claim but specific claims by organisations and individuals may
be feasible. But claims in that magnitude (6 trillion Naira) is
going to be difficult to articulate. The idea of one big North cannot
be sustained. It is important for people to appreciate why we are
holding on to this position.
What makes
the people of the Middle Belt different?
Sometimes when
I talk I say it is a racial issue. If you were dropped in the Middle
Belt and in Sokoto, Gusau, Kano or Katsina, you see the distinction
in several ways-language, socio-cultural setting, religion, physical
features and even geography. The belt maintains a stretch North
of the South, South of the North and that belt cuts across even
rainfall and vegetation. The reality is that it cannot be mistaken.
The white men were quick to identify the distinctiveness and classified
it as a non Muslim group. This awareness is not only to children
but to everybody who have been able to survive the discriminations
over the years.
Why was it
necessary to discriminate against your people?
At the beginning,
it became clear that if the people of the Middle Belt are united,
they will pose a serious challenge to the Hausa-Fulani group that
the British had some understanding with. The British told the Hausa-Fulani
that we'll leave you as you are, we will not interfere with your
culture and religion but help us to rule. And the Hausa Fulani said,
help us to subjugate this people (the people of the Middle Belt)
to make it conducive for us to rule. So education was denied to
our people. It was a policy to deny education but because it was
a necessary instrument of colonialism, people were taught to read
and write in Hausa in order to make them pay for tax. Because the
Middle Belt was in the hinterland, there was no cash economy. That
is not to say that trade did not take place. Going to a missionary
school attracted tax besides the general tax imposed on all male
of 15 years and above. Besides that, if a child was allowed to go
to school, his parents were tasked. You can say it was just one
pound but how do you raise one pound? If that is for buying yourself
for taxation on education, you have to raise money several times.
Instead of preventing you from going to school, taxes were imposed.
Secondly our people formed the bulk of soldiers recruited to fight
for the British in the First and Second World Wars and formed a
large chunk of the labour force that built the railway. The Kachia
railway was built on slave labour. Every family must send a male
child to build the railway. The same goes for the building of the
city wall in Zaria for instance. The war largely depleted the population.
I don't want to extend it to the period of slavery when the Arab
slave traders invaded the hinterland. These were our lot until JS
Tarka raised the banner of the people. Don't forget that a major
draw back is that the people do not speak one language. The struggle
is more pronounced in the Tiv area because they have a large population
that speak same language and fought the war. So the Middle Belt
was subdued through denial of education which is a singular vehicle
of conveying social progress.
But why this
divergent of opinion in the Middle Belt on how to forge ahead?
The pace of
development by the different peoples is different and the issues
have to get to them by they experiencing this oppression. Some groups
are so small for their language to disappear and their culture subverted.
The Tiv language for instance is spoken widely, no Tiv child is
known to have lost his language. But some of the other ethnic groups
are as small as six thousand with an unwritten language, with no
access to iron smelting. Survival itself was hinged on trade by
hand. Trade was impaired. The development is not uniform. Some see
the invasion in their culture, some do not see it. Religion has
also imposed differences in the lives of the people.
How did religion
impose differences in the lives of the people?
We see Christianity
and Islam as countering each other. In the Middle Belt area, if
one becomes a Muslim, he becomes a different person. He doesn't
marry within his own group. Even the converts see their own way
of life from what they know. When people do that, it brings about
differences in culture and appreciation. One religion preaches obedience
and dependency, the other does not.
Why is this
so because differences in religion, which is also prevalent among
the Yoruba does not seem to have affected their cohesiveness? Here
(Middle Belt), religion has affected culture.
You know once
you become a Muslim, you become a different person. You no longer
appreciate your culture. The Yoruba speak one language even though
in different dialects. Because of their sheer size, the culture
remain strong and binding. That's why the Yoruba Muslim is different
from theHausa Muslim. For instance, the Maguzawa who were the original
inhabitants of Sokoto, Northern Zaria, Katsina and Kano before the
Fulani came, still keep their culture. If a Maguzawa is converted
to Christianity, his children are seized, his wife is taken away,
he is then taken to the sharia court. They are like the red Indians
of America. Today, a large population of the Yoruba, are Muslims
but they have not deviated from their culture. That's why they see
the celebration of Xmas and Sallah as mere festivities. The Middle
Belt has abandoned the celebration of Dodo. There is variety in
the culture of the Yoruba. Even the Yoruba in Diaspora share the
same culture. The accent remains. The Middle Belt is not a nation.
It is made up of nationalities. But all these differences are being
taken care off. As technology influences society, so is the awareness.
Middle Belters have accepted education but because of the deliberate
policy of denying them access to key economic area, they are largely
pauperised.
Has military
rule not redressed that given your number? A large chunk of members
of the armed forces who have dominated power have come from this
region. The thinking is that they've been able to turn around the
fortunes of your people through this process.
The fact is
that the Middle Belt didn't join the army as a means of assertion
but as a means of employment and to show manhood. For the people
themselves, the coming into the army did not produce any awareness.
Although Gen Yakubu Gowon became Head of State, he never saw himself
as a Middle Belter because of what he got. It would be difficult
if the Middle Belt were a nation. For instance the nucleus of the
first 100 army of Nigeria, were people from prison. How did they
get to prison? They were either taken prisoners through skirmishes
of the white man or the drive for taxation. The white people had
to fight pockets of groups. The army itself was not seen as an instrument
for fighting its own struggle. The Hausa-Fulani took interest in
the military only after the Civil War and they joined as the ruling
class. The Hausa-Fulani themselves had made the mistake of integrating
the people.
Why do you
have groups in the Middle Belt engaging in skirmishes against each
other? Why was it impossible to end the bloodbath between the Tiv
and Jukun in Wukari; Jukun, Chamba and Kuteb in Takum which went
on for a long time? The same with the recent disturbances involving
the Bajju and Ikulu
The story of
the Jukun is different. It has been an empire that extended as far
as Kano. If the Jukun has been able to establish a successful empire
like Danfodio did, it would have been different. The Middle Belters
see himself as Bajju, Ikulu, Zar, Idoma and so on. The kind of skirmishes
prevalent amongst groups in the Middle Belt also happens among the
cow and town Fulani resulting in the loss of lives. The issue between
Ikulu and Bajju is small but blown out of proportion by the media.
The Middle
Belt appear to be in a process of self redefinition with many groups
discarding their old names and taking on new identities. Why is
this so?
Even this conversion
and the change of their original names were part of the process
of assimilation of a people to be used. The names were derogatory
and represented a corruption of the people. As the people begin
to keep records, they started to ask questions. This awareness was
in proportion to the degree of oppression. Once you find someone
who has escaped from this people, they redefine themselves. The
youth begin to ask questions. One is happy that even the Hausa-Fulani
seem to have begun to accept these changes
What future
do you visualise for the Middle Belt?
There is need
for awareness in education. When people are hungry, the survival
instincts are re-inforced. When the relationship grows, religion
will be relegated. The North will have to accept the Middle Belt
as a distinct people. The South will also have to accept the Middle
Belt as a different people. The original Hausa man is still a minority.
What you have is a Fulani race whose language has disappeared and
now wears a new identity. The Maguzawa who are the original Hausa
are still there. As long as democracy thrives, so long wll tension
from ethnic and religious differences give way. In the future, one
can see the birth of a nation
How far do
you think the creation of chiefdoms can go in resolving the perennial
schism between the Hausa-Fulani and Middle Belt groups?
All that resistance
to the creation of separate chiefdoms for these groups, have been
resolved in terms of truth. The policy began by the government of
Col Jafaru Isa has been improved upon by the new administration
in Kaduna State. There is no ethnic group in Kaduna today that does
not have its own chiefdom. When Tarka fought, they gave the Middle
Belt a state. Today they have their chiefdoms, even though it took
the form of war. I would not say that it's because they fought but
because there has been a protracted struggle involving other people.
Usually when there's war between the Hausa-Fulani and these groups,
it spills to the city of Kaduna and the federal government itself
will be concerned. It is just like the Palestinians and the Israelis.
A lot of progress is being made. Some may look at it and say, what
are you doing? Even the Emir of Zaria did not start as first class
chief. He started as a third class chief. The chief of Kagoro is
a first class chief.
How do you
see the Middle Belt developing in this scenario?
There has been
a tremendous progress. It was from a position of knowing nothing
to fast development. From the process of imposing taxation, on people
going to school, to our having Middle Belt universities. When the
country almost went into disarray, it was the Middle Belt and the
Midwest that facilitated the country remaining one today. Development
will come. The human being is created in such a way that change
is continous. One of the reasons for sacking Gowon was that he was
not yielding to pressure. The Middle Belt struggle has yielded dividend.
Their role in the military led to the split of the North that many
thought was impossible. The struggle has done a lot. Isaac Boroh
was sentenced to death only to have a stadium named after him. You
cannot kill the struggle of a people.
You are one
of the advocates of a National Conference. In what way will adequate
representation of your people be guaranteed at such a forum?
I don't want
to use the word equal representation but proportional representation.
In whatever way you do it, let people feel that they are part of
it. What a National Conference is to resolve is the issue of sharing
the national cake. These issues have to be pieced together. The
Middle Belt has made tremendous progress. From a position where
there was no information about the people to a situation where they
are now foisted on national discourse. The Hausa-Fulani has a reason
to fight because they see themselves loosing the grip of power.
But at the end of the day, Nigeria will be a nation where religion
will be thing of the mind. That period is coming.
Don't you
think you will need a media organ for the propagation of the feelings
and aspirations of your people? Are you thinking of establishing
a newspaper with a bias for the Middle Belt?
We are already
discussing a proposal for the establishment of a media organ to
articulate our views. The same resistance that was in the case of
education have been experienced in this area. For the person who
dominates, the less informed the person he dominates, the better
for him. More important is the readership. The reading habit has
not been sufficiently cultivated. A person who has not eaten cannot
afford 70 Naira to buy newspaper. He does not produce, so he does
not advertise. When I established the Weekly Scope, they asked me
why when we had the New Nigerian. The Standard set up by the government
of Joseph Gomwalk was killed by the Federal Government under General
Ibrahim Babangida. I want to assure you that not too long from now,
there will be a voice. It is the low readership that is not forcing
the allocation of resources to that area. (Isaac Shaahu interjects)
In those days of the United Middle Belt Congress UMBC, copies of
its organ, the Icharegh were usually sold out because its focus
was the struggle of the people. So if we set up a newspaper in that
mould, it will attract readership.
Why do you
think there's so much ignorance in the South about the Middle Belt?
The South has
to cure itself of the ignorance and wrong perception that every
one from the North is Hausa-Fulani. For instance during the Civil
War, the strategy of Biafra led by Odumegwu Ojukwu in attacking
areas like Shendam, Makurdi, Panshin, Gboko and so on was wrong.
If Ojukwu who was in Kano understood the Middle Belt politics, he
would not have attacked those areas. He was so blinded by the fact
that he and Gowon were classmates at Sandurst. If Ojukwu had reached
out to the Middle Belt, I was controlling a battalion in Zaria,
I would have removed the Emir of Zaria. There was an event in Kaduna
which Dr Alex Ekwueme was to feature originally. But his name had
to be dropped for Ojukwu because people were no longer comfortable
with Ekwueme's views at the Constitutional Conference set up by
the government of General Sani Abacha. But Ojukwu came there and
was drumming support for Abacha saying if anybody touched the general
there would be trouble. Ojukwu was even in London on behalf of Abacha.
The removal
of the then Emir of Muri in 1986 led to your sack from the Army.
This was later converted to retirement by the regime of General
Ibrahim Babangida. On a hindsight if you are faced with a similar
situation, will you still remove the Emir?.
I would have
sacked the Emir of Muri several times more. It's the council of
chiefs that actually removed the Emir. I addressed the council of
chiefs about the wrong doings of the Emir and they approved his
removal as Emir of Muri which was ratified by me as governor.
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