Northern Elders, Northern Muslims, and Double Jeopardy -By Tunji Ajibade

I am surprised members of the Northern Elders Forum, who are Muslims, have not backed some groups to campaign and have sanctions imposed on Nigeria over the killing of Muslims in the current state of insecurity. They would only be emulating what the ethnic groups of some of their members are doing. Or, isn’t what’s good for the goose not good for the gander? That Muslim members of NEF don’t do this for northern Muslims is an injustice. To add to this injustice done to northern Muslims, their southern brothers and sisters aren’t shouting “persecution of Muslims” as the other side does for their own. This is even though more northern Muslims have lost their lives in the North-East and in the North-West. To top it, northern Muslims are demonised for every act of insecurity in some parts of the North. This amounts to double jeopardy, and since one side is ever adamant to deploy religion to achieve other goals, Muslims, too, should feel entitled.

Recently, NEF said it wanted the FG to tackle “criminal violence and banditry” in the same North, where some tag every attack “religious persecution”. Those behind the latter are on platforms- online and offline- claiming only members of one religion are victims of criminal violence. They’re collecting signatures on X to pressure the US government to sanction Nigeria. NEF has members across the 19 states of the North. So, I ask all NEF members: Are people of one religion the only victims of violence and banditry? I ask because NEF as a body is silent regarding this claim. Its members, who are from areas where the claim is made, are silent too.

The claim of religious persecution has been taken to the US Congress, where lawmakers want the US government to impose sanctions on Nigeria. NEF is silent about this, too. Many other northerners who should speak up are silent, leaving only the President to defend the nation at that time. When sanctions are imposed on Nigeria for the wrong reasons, everyone will still call on the President to find solutions to the burdens sanctions bring on Nigerians. Yet, NEF watches as some misrepresent insecurity as religious persecution. It didn’t start today, and no one should think going around to misrepresent issues concerns only them and no other Nigerian. If anyone thinks they’re the only ones pained by the killings of any Nigerian, they need to be told that denigrating this nation and demonising any ethnic groups to outsiders pain other Nigerians too. Everyone has the right to campaign; deliberately misrepresenting Nigeria and its ethnic groups is a different matter.

How any group disparages this nation concerns every one of us. I keep asserting that if there are issues, let’s find solutions. Americans don’t come here looking for solutions to their internal problems. But some say they don’t trust the Nigerian government. It’s foreign governments they trust. Some of us would defend this nation to the best of our ability. And we would defend every ethnic group, too. No ethnic group has all demons, while other ethnic groups have all angels. If there are disagreements among people, and there must be, discussing and resolving them is the reasonable thing to do.

The group that goes about denigrating Nigeria and demonising one ethnic group for the actions of a few elements started under the past administration and it continues until now. This action has implications. I think the act of misrepresenting insecurity issues in northern Nigeria has been taken too lightly for too long, and narrow religious sentiments in the north and south of Nigeria fuel it. If it doesn’t stop, it might lead to where no one wants. It’s what I want to point out to members of NEF who have groups back home that misrepresent the challenges this nation has. For the insecurity situation, NEF, in a communiqué, demands that President Bola Tinubu impose “a state of emergency in northern Nigeria, acknowledging the extraordinary scale of the crisis”. NEF warned that a lack of action could endanger Nigeria’s stability and regional peace.

I think NEF misses what can endanger peace even more than insecurity. It’s hatred that some promote against their fellow northerners. Insecurity may end tomorrow. Solutions may be found, but hatred already spread won’t end. Violence that may break out from hatred from time to time won’t end. It may continue for generations – another double jeopardy at another level for all northerners. So, the worst of the dangers NEF fears will come from hatred being put in people. Regarding this, the President cannot help the North; it’s the North that can help itself and all NEF members of any religious persuasion have a role to play. Members shouldn’t gather to say one thing but return home to tell their people to hate one ethnic group or go about calling for sanctions against Nigeria. They shouldn’t be silent when this happens. Otherwise, keeping silent over misrepresentation only to assemble under NEF to issue communiqués has a name.

NEF should demand that all its members speak up against the spread of ethnic hate as well as every campaign to disparage Nigeria to other nations. NEF members can check every single religious online platform that carries news about attacks in the North. They’ll see how much space is devoted to demonising only one ethnic group for each attack. I once cited here how a website from the UK was lured into publishing materials which defined the entire Fulani people as “militias”, “terrorists”, and nothing more. Here I ask members of NEF who belong to ethnic groups where promoters of anti-Fulani materials come from: is this the truth about every Fulani person you have come across in your long careers? It amazes me how many Nigerians benefit from the kindness of people from tribes other than theirs, how the patronage of people from other ethnic groups helps them in life, yet when those ethic groups are demonised by their own people, they keep quiet.

Meanwhile, many Fulani people take action to address issues that have led to the wrong impressions created about them. For instance, the Sultan of Sokoto and head of Nigerian Muslims, His Eminence, Sa’ad Abubakar III, once said at an interfaith event that whoever committed an offence should be arrested and prosecuted, rather than criminalise every Fulani person. At another meeting with a Fulani group, the Sultan said every herder issue that led to the wrong impression about the Fulani needed to be addressed and stopped forthwith. Last weekend, one Fulani group met and said no Fulani herder should move around at night under the excuse of herding. Other groups have said they agreed that ranching should happen, but they needed some time for this adjustment.

To me, this means that well-meaning northern leaders of Fulani origin are making efforts to curb sources of tension between their people and fellow Nigerians. But it’s wrong to assume these leaders have absolute control over the many clans that make up the Fulani. Add the fact that some herders come in from outside Nigeria how disparate the situation becomes clearer. This indicates that time and more understanding are needed, and here, working with the identified leadership is key rather than going to other nations to tell them to resolve Nigeria’s problems. NEF should deploy its eminent members to build links of solutions and trust across the North, until peace is found regarding herder-farmer issues.

By the way, I’ve often wondered if NEF has concrete programmes it executes across the North, beyond the issuing of communiqués. I stated in the past that the calibre of personalities in many of the northern groupings, including NEF, could help undo some knotty socio-political and economic issues across the North. Most importantly, there’s a need to tread carefully around the hatred and insecurity that have been generated. Disparaging immediate neighbours won’t help anyone. For hate is a two-way traffic. Response will come even if it’s at the attitudinal level. Has anyone stepped into a setting and noticed there’s an air of tribal hostility against them? This has permeated the North for decades, and it could be made worse by the current demonisation campaign against one side. NEF as a body could have a mitigation programme regarding this if they had none yet.