Former Managing Director of the Daily Times of Nigeria, veteran columnist and author, Chief Tola Adeniyi has said the North which late Ahmadu Bello presided over is already dead.
Adeniyi, Convener of G9, a group of Southern and Middle Belt leaders of thought, who spoke in a chat OBINNA EZUGWU, also noted that the term Hausa-Fulani doesn’t exist.
He was was responding to a question on whether it is appropriate for Nigerians have already begun to speak about 2023 and if he is convinced that the north would relinquish power
“Two questions. One is insulting, it’s insensitive and sheer madness for a people to start, few months into a new administration to talk about another administration four years along the line. It’s a confirmation that political leadership in Nigeria sees politics as an industry. It’s like saying I have just opened a new shop and I’m projecting that I have to open another shop in four years time. The whole thing is insulting, it’s dirty. It is infuriating,” he said.
“The second question is about whether a section of the country is ready to yield power to another section. It is also insulting. When Nigerians talk like that, they make me sick. It shows that they have no self confidence. They have already surrendered the leadership of their own lives to other people.
“You can also Google an article I wrote about eight years ago titled: ‘Who are this They?’ When they kept saying, ‘They won’t allow us to have state police, They won’t allow us to do six years single term. They won’t allow us do this and that. Who are this They? They won’t allow the Igbo to ever rule Nigeria.’ Why should the collectivity of Nigerian nationalities continue to talk about some people called They? Who are this They? Are they people dropping down from the sky? The power you arrogate to this your They, who gave it to them?”
“There is no north. That’s another thing, there is no north. Which north? You can also Google an article I wrote, “Which North?” Go and talk to anybody in Taraba, he will tell you he doesn’t belong to the so called north. Go and talk to people in Zangon-Kataf, they will tell you they don’t belong to any north. Go and talk to people in Benue, they will tell you they don’t belong to any north. Which north? The north of Ahmadu Bello is dead. Whatever is called north in the time of the great Ahmadu Bello is no more there.”
Adeniyi also argued, when reminded again that there is still Hausa-Fulani north, Adeniyi that it is false as according to him, Hausa-Fulani doesn’t exist.
“There no Hausa-Fulani, there is nothing called Hausa-Fulani. Are there any people called Igbo-Yoruba? Are there any people called Ijebu-Egba? Is there any people called Ibibio-Kalabari? It’s all part of the deception. It’s all part of the political strategies to bamboozle people.
“There is no Hausa-Fulani. You are either a Fulani or you are a Hausa. Even if your father is married to a Fulani, it doesn’t make you Hausa-Fulani. Nigeria is a patrilineal society. The father is the owner of the child. Unlike some communities in Ghana which are matrilineal, like where Jerry Rawlings comes from. But in Nigeria, the child bears the father’s name. It is the same in Europe and the American world. So, if your father is married to a Fulani or your mother is married to Hausa, you are not Hausa-Fulani. I have grandchildren whose father is Italian. So they are Italians. There is no Hausa-Fulani.
