Born to rule

BY TERFA NASWEM

The way hate writers misinform the ignoramuses about the Hausa/Fulani oligarchy’s maniac to perpetuate in power, one would be tempted to reason that Hausa/Fulani is someone with a long beard, always chewing cola-nuts. When talking about ethnic politics, particularly the hate campaign against the Hausa/Fulani’s “born to rule syndrome”, such hate writers forget that every major ethnic group in Nigeria wears the “born to rule toga” among minorities in their mist. For instance, the Tivs are the “born to rule” in the eyes of the Idomas and the Igedes; the Igala the same in Koji; the Northern Kaduna to the Southern Kaduna and so on and so forth.

Granting Ojukwu’s Biafra became a reality, the Igbos would have been another “born to rule” in Biafra as no non-Igbo would have stood the chance of becoming the President of Biafra through majority votes.

The fact that there has been inter-ethnic wars among various ethnic groups in Nigeria even within the Igbos fighting themselves as has been with Aguleri and Umuleri in Anambra East Local Government Area in Anambra State, and others show that the hate campaign against Hausa/Fulani has gone too far to a fault.

Where politics is a game of number, the majority is bound to have her way. This reality is often ignored by those who hate Hausa/Fulani to a fault. Even if the Hausa/Fulani have been ruling for centuries through the popular votes, it would still be a matter of majority votes. With the 1999 constitution as amended, the “born to rule” cannot do so without first having the majority votes and obtaining 25% of the votes in 2/3 of 36 States. Why do we turn round to castigate the “born to rule” when we (the non-Hausas/Fulanis) are always instruments to crowning him a King? Where were the “born to rule” in the 1993, 1999, 2003 and 2011 presidential elections that were won by Southerners: Chief MKO Abiola; Chief Olusegun Obasanjo (twice); and Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan respectively?

I hold the opinion that it is high time hate writers stopped this needless campaign of hate against the Hausa/Fulani, using a manufactured “born to rule” drug to poison the minds of free thinkers that the North(Hausa/Fulani specifically) wants to perpetuate in power. Yet these very people kick against zoning and rotational leadership which they stand more to again.