Over a year ago, Olusegun Obasanjo, the maligned messiah who shepherded Nigeria from the brink of collapse delivered an expedient coup de grace and returned Nigeria to where it truly belongs. In spite of our oohs and aahs, Mallam Umaru Musa Yar’ Adua has been able to recapture Nigeria from Southerners back to the sunny North, for a massive overhaul of its present composition. We are in a politically surreal time. Before our very eyes, the electoral fraud that gave UMYA presidential victory has turned into a decidedly Nigerian morality tale. This power exchange is not lost on some sophisticated commentators and expectedly anti-Northern polemics have reached a fevered intensity.

One of the ongoing political catastrophes of modern Nigeria is that a tiny band of cabal from the North can continue to calibrate power, dominion and control over the destiny of Nigerians on well grounded ideology of Hausaism. With Northern re-entry on the political centre stage, it is fitting to say that Southerners should stop pretending that Northerners share a common view of Nigeria or even occupy the same secular, heterogeneous and diverse country. The history of Hausa-Fulani systematic domination of our collective destiny has a long but banal history. Our cousins in the North, well, political dictators, have long evolved this gigantic and secretive Arewanised project, which I will call Hausaism to eliminate obfuscation.

Hausaism as a political ideology manifests itself as a practical tool to control, contain, dominate and harass Southerners to submission to Hausa’s mysterious yet political omnipotence that had been in existence since the dark period of Tafawa Balewa. The core objective of Hasaism is the desire to promote an advantageous patriotism through forced unity. It believes in promoting peace as a byword for stripping Southern resources for a tiny cabal in the North. It sees militarism as containing weapon against restive agitators for separation of nationalities. So in its brute hegemonic character, it brooks no power sharing. It does not pretend to share sacred political ideals like egalitarianism, communalism and accountability.

The tiny class of plunderers behind Hausaism are rigid in their geopolitical structure of Nigeria. Southwest is purposely zoned as the intellectual powerhouse of Nigeria. Southeast is likewise foreclosed as the economic and wealth creating zone for Nigeria. For the minority, read rapacious exploitation. Then, the Olympian North is the determinant centre which exploits, controls, contains, directs and muzzles the aspirations of the rest of Nigerians to a very predictable satisfaction of our Northern overlords and emiratic zombies in huge turbans.

Over the years, the Hausas have used Hausaism has a potent political weapon to arrogate to themselves the ownership of Nigeria.  A little history may recapture this tale of appropriation. Ibrahim Babangida is an enthusiastic supporter of Hausaism in its benign form. However, our memory is still fresh with his atomisation of corporate Nigeria with the evil genius of his settlement strategy.

He redrew Nigeria’s political landscape, fooled us with his genial and affable manner. He pretended to be pragmatic and democratic but at heart he was a dangerous Hausaist who brought Nigeria to the brink of war through the ignominious annulment of June 12, 1993 election. Are we short of insight into why he annulled the election? No! The strongest reason for his satanic gesture was in fact this: no election, no democracy could change the fixed geopolitical arrangement of power in Nigeria.

Chief MKO Abiola, the late billionaire businessman remained the most famous victim of Hausaism in its oppressive form. His ambition to stand as presidential candidate of the old, discredited National Party of Nigeria was rained down with a simple, yet insulting riposte---------the presidency was not for sale! The annulment of his historic June 12, 1993 mandate and subsequent murder was the most resounding punishment for his political audacity.

Enter General Sani Abacha. He was an extremist agitator for the supremacy of Hausaism in its violent form. Consumed by demonic ambition, he failed to correct the June 12, 1993 political fraud but instead embarked on massive realignment of Hausa hegemony. With Abacha, Nigerians experienced the birth of bitter violent extremes and the enthronement of Hausaism as controlling machinery.  The Yoruba and the Igbo were placed under restrictive sphere which undermined the prospect of launching a unified counter-hegemonic force as an agency of progressive change in the South.

The bloodlust for power among the Hausas could be located in their intellectual disability to create a society as vibrant, potentially rich, educationally sound and democratically-driven as we have in Southern Nigeria. To hold to their contemptible privilege and unmerited positions, the Hausas have to promote strong clan unity, militarism and domestication of weapons of war to contain and tame Southerners and thus denied them ‘freedom sphere’. Chief Anthony Enahoro’s brave move to empower a broad movement of counter-hegemonic force under the umbrella of NADECO was thwarted by Abacha’s goons who hounded and hunted prodemocracy elements to extinction. Pa Enahoro had to operate from the trenches of London until Abacha ate apples marinated in hemlock.

After Abacha’s death, Abdulsalam Abubakar was coronated as the new Abuja matador and later morphed into an assassin. We have to thank General Ibrahim Babangida for his brilliant Machiavellian political intelligence. Olusegen Obasanjo was headhunted by Babangida as a soothing balm for the sore boil of the Yoruba people occasioned by the beating to death of Chief MKO Abiola in Abacha/Abubakar Gulag.  Rather than allow secessionist ‘wankers’ running into their trenches, Obasanjo was adopted as a trusted ‘son’ and allowed to hold fort for 8 years as a rearguard against insurrectionist tendencies from agitating Southerners.

Thus, Hausaism was allowed to regain its strength and returned to power to further ruin Nigeria and concretise its long tradition of political supremacy.

With UMYA there will be a furthering or rather Hausanisation of the entire Nigerian Project. He is a Koran-thumbing, traditional and conservative Hausa die hard who is yet to taste purgatory. His term will not cause any seismic shift in the political agenda of the Hausas. The divine right to rule and control Nigeria’s political life, even though Hausas have led Nigeria through 40 years of unmitigated hell will continue.  The Hausanisation of important posts must have a makeover and soon his inner cabinet will be teeming with Yagudu........Yadudu......... Mohammadu........and Haladu to prepare our mind for years of political, economic and social wilderness.

There is an annoying but unconfirmed mutterings from the grapevine that Charles Soludo, the Central Bank wiz kid may be replaced to reflect the core agenda of Northerners-----the Hausanisation of Nigeria’s political, economic, social and cultural terrain. Hausaism has always been victorious due to Southerners complicity and irrational and internal division in their rank. We are political pygmy before the giant North. We are seen as weak, divided, ideologically empty and enslaved to materialism. As an ideology, Hausaism is becoming historically irrelevant in a country like Nigeria where voices of ethnicity are becoming ever more strident by the day.

To destroy Hausaism and its contemptible hold on the destiny of Nigeria, two approaches are necessary. One, there must be a sustained rebelliousness among the politically marginalised Southerners. The Ijaws have pioneered the art of a mini war, which, for good or bad, is a forerunner of the doom ahead if wisdom does not prevail among Northerners. Secondly, a Southern leader, I mean, not a Yoruba or Igbo leader, but a Southern leader, must emerge to co-ordinate the disorganised remnant of our middle and intellectual class. South’s appetite for selfishness, betrayal and distrust has to belong to a bygone era. Our shameless patronage toward the Northerners has to go. The new emergent response to Lugardian enthroned hegemony should be this: no region, nationalities, or tribe for that matter, is the sole custodian of power in Nigeria.

The Yoruba, Igbo, Effiks, Edos, Ishans, Ijaws and Igalas all have constitutional claim to Aso Rock irrespective of Hausas’ mythically-driven, divine mandate from Allah. Until the North rethinks Hausaism and force a change in their political antipathy toward Southerners, Nigeria will continue to remain a bitterly divided country, united by political fraud, sustained by force of arm while its destiny recedes further into uncertainty.  

Tijani lives in London.

Robot  Villager

# 1 ...Read the full article. Posted by Robot| 23.06.2008 01:30

philipikita  Villager

# 2 This article is sounding so not-different from the type of rantings by our rapacious political cannibals. It is pervasively hollow. So if power switches away from the Hausas, then what? Would that end the sufferings of the suffering Nigerian masses, who cut across all ethnic groups? Who cares who's in charge in Aso Rock? We need to seriously look at this overly simplistic view of a particular ethnic group as "the problem". Mark me, I am not clapping for the hausa oligarchs. No! We need to look at the bigger picture...we have a situation more complex than your so called fallacy of "hausanization". We are confronting a huge, draconian political/economic ruling class that cuts across ethnic groups. Reducing any approach to ethnicity would only strengthen them further and deepen their hold on power. Let's sometime view this from a class perspective, which had long been deliberately weakened in Nigeria. Remember good old student activism for instance...NANS rose against SAP, it was no issue of ethnicity; Ali must go never had any ethnic coloration; These two struggles for instance remain landmarks of reference and the ruling class never mention it, just like they want to kill the memory of June 12, so it would never ber heard or remembered. This kind of views by Taju will help PDP politicians angling for board appointments in "Grade A" federal agencies to claim they are standing in for you as Yoruba or Bini or Tiv. Shine your eyes, my brother. Posted by philipikita| 23.06.2008 03:22

superego  Villager

# 3 What's the new infatuation with 'Allah' and 'Islam' on the NVS nowadays? Is it the new keywords to make guaranteed hit articles? Recipe- Sprinkle the thread with 'Allah', drop two cubes of 'Islam' in strong words and voila you have a hit thread and possibly the attention to get a job in a cabinet in Nigeria. Posted by superego| 23.06.2008 03:39

cdimkpa  Villager

# 4 This article is a veritable wake-up call for the south. Unite or die, continue in your mutual distrust and perish. Continue hating each other while the north, namely the crassly incompetent hausa/fulani, continue to take home everything. It is a pity that the hausa/fulani have brainwashed other northerners into believing in one stu-pid northern Nigeria, yet the northern minorities are cheated out of power and positions due to the north. There is no divine mandate that the north should be the perpetual rulers of Nigeria. The problem with the south is essentially the phenomenon of I-too-know (sabi sabi). In all likelihood, it seems that an OBJ third term would have been better than the present go-slow, vissionless and sickly government. Every sane southerner should support MEND and its activity. Perhaps that is the ultimate solution to the northern rampage on Nigeria Posted by cdimkpa| 23.06.2008 04:39

i-go-better  Villager

# 5 Let the Yorubas take care of Adedibus/Obasanjos amongst them; Let the Igbos take care of the Ubas/Nzeribes amongst them; Let the S/South take care of the Anninehs/Odilis amongst them. If the Yorubas looked helplessly as Obasanjo/Adedibu/George mesmerised and politically decimated them unchallenged (totally out of character of the Yorubas), where will they find the balls to engage your fantasised "Hausaism" supremacy declaration? If the Igbos collapsed in stunned obeisance to the midget powers of nit-witted Uba clan, how do they rise up to the challenge of the rigid, rock-foundationed, super-power of your "Hausaism" hegemony? You have to remove the Saw-dust in your eyes before looking at the Log in "Hausaism" eyes! Posted by i-go-better| 23.06.2008 05:16

Akpu-Nku  Villager

# 6 "Southwest is purposely zoned as the intellectual powerhouse of Nigeria. Southeast is likewise foreclosed as the economic and wealth creating zone for Nigeria. For the minority, read rapacious exploitation. Rather than allow secessionist ‘wankers’ running into their trenches, Obasanjo was adopted as a trusted ‘son’ and allowed to hold fort for 8 years as a rearguard against insurrectionist tendencies from agitating Southerners". Tijani It's quite clear to me that you feature prominently as the exact problems of the Southern Nigeria - whatever that means- you are propagating. Firstly, there is nothing like Southern Nigeria even before Lugard, but it was made so to reduce administrative costs before it was lumped together with the then monolithic Northern Nigeria under the Sokoto caliphate when Britain was at war with Germany. Lugard crafted the 3/1 majority to the minority North over Southern Nigeria as the collateral for independence because he favoured the North as the continuation of the British Monarchical Esterblishment through the caliphate, thereby killing two birds with one stone. My point here is that your bigotry will always take precedence over your views and opinions because that is the person you are and you cannot change that I'm afraid, even when you pontificate cohesion among Southern Nigeria albeit based on your already imposed ethnicist supremacy views, the very issue I thought you were railing against in your treatise. As a result Taju, I don't quite see how you can make Southern Nigeria to happen while having all that chip on the shoulder about a certain ethnic group you would love to hate, but that's just by the way. Confederation would be your best bet, which would give each confederate state (country) the chance to showcase their capabilities without having to grovel in the dark of status quo Nigeria hiding behind collective failure. Let us support one another in the south to achieve that rather than be a burden to one another. Posted by Akpu-Nku| 23.06.2008 08:48

allaccess  Villager

# 7 =superego;4295059096>What's the new infatuation with 'Allah' and 'Islam' on the NVS nowadays? Is it the new keywords to make guaranteed hit articles? Recipe- Sprinkle the thread with 'Allah', drop two cubes of 'Islam' in strong words and voila you have a hit thread and possibly the attention to get a job in a cabinet in Nigeria. Because it is part of the problem; you cannot have a part of Nigeria ruling for most of Nigeria's independent life without you questioning the methods adopted for such rule. Although sharia was introduced less than a decade ago the northerners have practiced it for over 40 years in Nigeria, one cannot help wonder if Nigeria is partly going backwards like Islam because we are sharing a country with jihadists whose priorities are different to the rest of Southern Nigeria. Posted by allaccess| 23.06.2008 09:43

superego  Villager

# 8 =allaccess;4295059243>Because it is part of the problem; you cannot have a part of Nigeria ruling for most of Nigeria's independent life without you questioning the methods adopted for such rule. Although sharia was introduced less than a decade ago the northerners have practiced it for over 40 years in Nigeria, one cannot help wonder if Nigeria is partly going backwards like Islam because we are sharing a country with jihadists whose priorities are different to the rest of Southern Nigeria. How about you look at the root of the Problem= Jesus. The faith of who amalgamated Nigeria, the original sin! The faith of who handed over Nigeria to the Muslim Hausa's in the first place? Divine mandate of Jesus to turn us out like this? No? Posted by superego| 23.06.2008 10:07

docokwy  Villager

# 9 People, I told you that Tijani is the true tribalists and was only preaching previously because Sabella Abidde spoke good of the Igbo. Hear Tijani now proclaiming the Yoruba as the intellectual power house (a supremacy claim, which is the stark opposite of what he preached about). Now which intellectual is he talking about? Adedibu or Aritsekola Alao?:twisted::twisted::twisted: Posted by docokwy| 23.06.2008 10:47

UncleTisha  Villager

# 10 =docokwy;4295059290>People, I told you that Tijani is the true tribalists and was only preaching previously because Sabella Abidde spoke good of the Igbo. Hear Tijani now proclaiming the Yoruba as the intellectual power house (a supremacy claim, which is the stark opposite of what he preached about). Now which intellectual is he talking about? Adedibu or Aritsekola Alao?:twisted::twisted::twisted: @Docokwy, I hope you are not trying to take style style steal our brother for the Itsekiris? Na dem dey put 'T' for Yoruba names, while the Edos dey put 'K'. :lol::lol::lol: Arisekola na authentic Ibadan man.... :D:D:D:D:D Posted by UncleTisha| 23.06.2008 11:10

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