Femi Fani-Kayode
The following discussion took place on my Facebook friends’ page on May 2, 2016. Since it is already in the public realm, I have taken the liberty of sharing.
Though we have not seen much of each other for a while I have known Alhaji Muktari Shinkafi for the better part of the last 35 years and we are more like brothers than friends.
We spent a lot of time together in our youth and in those heady and blissful days of the early and mid-1980’s when I was still at Cambridge University and when I spent most of my leisure time playing polo at the Lagos Polo Club or at the Guards Polo Club in the UK, eating caviar and drinking champagne. We had great fun in those days and Nigeria was a much better and happier place than it is now.
At that time Lagos was something of a melting pot and everybody that was anybody in the country had a home there. These were the days before Abuja was built and Lagos was still our nation’s capital.
Simply put Marafan was like a second father to me. He was an arch-conservative and a man of immense discipline and courage and all of us at the Lagos Polo Club were in absolute awe of him.
The conversation was prompted by the fact that I posted some graphic pictures of the victims of the Fulani herdsmen in Agatu and Enugu. Those pictures can still be seen on my Facebook friends’ page.
Muktari did not feel that it was appropriate to post the pictures and the following conversation took place between him and I on the thread.
Muktari Shinkafi: Since we already have the Senate and House of Representatives in place, it will be easier to bring the issue next week of dividing Nigeria immediately after the budget issue.
The division of the country should be proposed based on six geo-political zones based on the following basis and natural/ human resources to sustain each zone: South-South (Oil, sea port), South-West (service industry, sea port and agriculture), South-East (Oil and commerce), Middle Belt (Agriculture and solid minerals), North-East (Oil, agriculture) and North-West (Oil, strategic solid minerals and agriculture).
We in the North do not deserve this negative propaganda and name-calling. Let us separate peacefully for the sake of our children since even after the separation, we will be surely bonded together by commerce and personal relationship.
We have millions down there that we are friends through business, marriages etc. I do not think posting these pictures is necessary as no one is sure of their source, they may be accident victims but some people are posting them to propagate messages of hate among us.
Femi Fani-Kayode: Before I would post such pictures on my wall I have to be certain of their authenticity and in this case I am. There are other pictures which are far worse and which I cannot post here. My brother, your people kill ours and we are not supposed to even complain about it or let the world know what is happening?
This barbarity has been going on in the Middle Belt and core North for years unchallenged and now you guys want to extend it to the South.
We will not take it, we will not allow it and we will not sit by idly as your kinsmen slaughter, rape and abduct our men, women and children and occupy our land.
It has been going on for far too long and now we are prepared to resist it. I agree with you that maybe it is time that we begin to consider the division of this country and the best way to start is simply to let the core North go its separate way first and leave the rest of us alone.
What baffles me is that most northern leaders are more concerned about the fact that these atrocities are being exposed before the world and evidence of it is being adduced than the fact that people are being killed.
I do not spread hate and I have no hate in me for anyone or any ethnic group. The truth is that, as you know, one eighth of the blood that flows through my veins is Fulani. I cannot hate myself.
You know very well that our leader and older brother, the Marafan Sokoto, brought me into politics in 1989 and I love him as if he were my father.
If Marafan was President today, this herdsmen problem would have been history long ago and so would Boko Haram.
He would care as much for the South and the safety of its people as he would have for the North where he comes from.
Muktari Shinkafi: Honestly, we the northerners have been at the receiving end since the beginning of this insurgency and Fulani herdsmen terrorism. If the division of Nigeria will bring peace, we wholeheartedly welcome the idea and the sooner the National Assembly begins deliberation, the better.
Femi Fani-Kayode: We both know that the National Assembly will not do it because the northern legislators and those that they represent are addicted to southern oil.
We can do it without the National Assembly if we so wish and the way things are going now we are getting close to that final parting day.
All we have to do is to begin to mobilise our people and tell them the benefits of going our separate ways and breaking up the country.
Muktari Shinkafi: I think the issue here is that you refused to acknowledge the frustrations of all Nigerians. We are all making these comments and postings because of total failure of the All Progressives Congress government to address critical challenges facing the nation instead. It is over one year now but they are still associating their failure to the Peoples Democratic People.
Where are Bakassi boys, kidnappers and the Niger Delta militants? Since the government cannot protect our brothers and communities there, let them come out and protect its people against these bandits (herdsmen).
They killed 25 people in my local government 10 days ago, stole grains and their valuables.
We resorted to use the vigilance groups and our young men to protect our farmers from the so-called herdsmen bandits from neighbouring countries.
Femi Fani-Kayode: I acknowledge the fact that it happens in the core North too but if the leaders and people of the core North can live with it the rest of us cannot.
They have a duty to fight it and to put a stop to it more than anyone else. The cows that they are herding all over the country and destroying peoples’ lives for belong to the Fulani elites and not to the herdsmen or cattle-rearers themselves.
The herdsmen are too poor to own the cows and they do not have the resources to purchase the AK 47s that they carry around and kill people with. What you said about APC’s incompetence and inability to run government is true though.
The conversation ended there. My brother Muktari did not respond to my final contribution and we have not spoken since then. Despite all I still cherish him and I hope that we shall remain brothers even after the great divide if it ever comes.
Fani-Kayode, is a former aviation minister
Copyright PUNCH.
All rights reserved. This material, and other digital content on this website, may not be reproduced, published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed in whole or in part without prior express written permission from PUNCH.
Contact: editor@punchng.com
The post A friendly chat with an old friend appeared first on Punch Newspapers.