By Ken Tadaferua
ABUJA (Sundiata Post) Where is Ango Abdullahi, who turned 80 last December, an agronomy professor, former vice chancellor of Ahmadu Bello University and spokesman of the Northern Elders Forum? A most controversial and voluble personality, Prof. Abdullahi has been practically mute since last year, when he declared on behalf of the NEF, open support for the expulsion of the Igbos from northern Nigeria. He had also asked the north to prepare for break up of Nigeria. He also then rooted tongue in cheek for Biafra Republic. All these until the Northern Youth Council of Nigeria demanded his arrest for supporting the quit notice to the Igbos.
I do sincerely hope the Prof is healthy and strong for all through the current flares of communal violence and bloodletting between Fulani herdsmen and farmers, Ango Abdullahi has been uncharacteristically silent. I have waited in vain for his jarring, ultra conservative, Fulani/northern opinions which tend to drive the nation to the edge. But no word from the Prof.
It would appear, however, that Professor Abdullahi has been replaced as defender of the conservative feudalist Fulani faith and purveyor of same with absurdist propaganda by another university teacher, Professor Umar Muhammad Labdo of the Faculty of Humanities, Maitama Sule University (formerly Northwest University), Kano.
Labdo is recently reported to have said: “We Fulanis are destined to lead Nigeria for a long time because we are the most intelligent, civilized, educated. Abuja and Benue belong to us. The ancestor of Tiv is Fulani man, Fulani gave Abuja to Nigeria as a gift. We produce 85% of the beef Nigerians eat, we do not eat it.”
Labdo appears to have been well schooled by Abdullahi. The same propaganda, garnished with outlandish, false claims of resource ownership, of spectacular intelligence over other humans and served with large helpings of threats.
The usual thread of the propaganda is to repeat and fortify the following false claims: That Northern Nigeria (read as Fulani) in the colonial times bailed out eastern and western regions with subventions. That the Fulani of Futa Jalon own the oil deposits in the south-south region. That the Fulani own Abuja and Benue lands and indeed all of Nigerian lands. That the Fulani are destined by God to lead Nigeria because they are more intelligent, civilized and educated. There is a lot more.
You would think that a special people blessed with superior intelligence, civilization and education would have created a Singapore or Japan or Malaysia or Dubai out of a resource rich country like Nigeria
. But no. Despite their overwhelming long period of political control, Nigeria is a joke in the comity of nations. Look at the stats: Over 100 million citizens live in poverty. Over 40 million able bodied citizens are jobless. Industrial productivity is zero. Infrastructure, power, water, health, education etc are dead. Corruption is culture. All of these sinking social development indicators are worse in the northern region where the Fulani have a stranglehold over political power. Is the Fulani produce therefore the appurtenances of superior intelligence and civilization? Certainly not.
If Professors Abdullahi and Labdo definition of intelligence is to fill the pockets of a few men with political power and wealth by impoverishing a nation and its people, they may have a point. But I do not consider that intelligence. It is rather the lazy, greedy and destructive lusts of a feudalist age, long gone with the 1789 French Revolution. The world has changed. But our two professors and the handful of men they represent, despite high education, remain cocooned in feudalist dreams.
It does explain a lot of things about Nigeria. The deliberately kept huge numbers of viciously exploited, dirt poor, masses particularly in northern Nigeria. The grip on power and resources through political centralization and great reluctance to restructure the nation into competitively productive components. The inordinate hold on to the hugely profitable but cheap practice of cattle business that exploits poor herdsmen traversing cross-country foraging trails in this century of modern animal husbandry. Where personal greed takes precedence over best global practices and national prosperity, the claims of superior intelligence is a joke.
Indeed it is more than a joke. It is the proverbial straw that will break the camel’s back. The injustices, corruption, poverty, violence and insensitivity arising from the feudalist greed are all coming to a head. The stress points are growing. The rage is boiling. But as with selfish man, the path to change is ignored as the march to self destruction is inexorable. It will do Professors Abdullahi and Labdo a whale of good, to reset their minds into the 21st century and join hands with Nigerians to build a free, prosperous, modern and globally competitive nation running on efficiency, productivity, equal opportunities and God based core values. A word is enough for the wise.
PS: I mixed up Ango Abdullahi’s biodata with that of Professor Abdullahi Mustapha, who was also a former VC of ABU. Ango Abdullahi is an Agronomy professor born December 18, 1938 making him 80 years old. I have made the corrections in the essay. My apology for the error.
Source: Facebook