If the All Progressives Congress (APC) had not won the 2015 Presidential elections, Nigerians would have believed that by now the nation would be a paradise on earth. While campaigning in opposition APC leaders condemned practically every aspect of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) administration, but now that they have been in office for over two years it’s obvious that they have no magical solution to the nation’s problems. 

They claimed that there was nothing like fuel subsidy and that it was merely an outlet for stealing public funds, but as the Minister for Finance Kemi Adeosun recently confessed in a shameless display of deception, they have been paying it secretly since they entered office. They promised never to devalue the Naira but is has fallen to an all-time low. They promised to end fuel scarcity and that fuel price would drop to N50 per litre, but now the nation is experiencing its longest ever scarcity and fuel price currently stands at approximately N180 minimum. They promised that Presidential Jets would be turned over to a new national carrier, but they are still flying around at enormous unnecessary expense to the nation.

Why do we need to send our children abroad if we cannot develop one university system to compete with the foreign one?”  They have not forgotten that Tony Momoh said “stone us (APC) if we do not perform. Unfortunately for the APC propaganda may help a political party to win elections, but it can’t help them to govern, and that is exactly what has happened in the last 32 months.  There have been so many disparities between their words and actions that it is increasingly difficult to believe anything emanating from their leadership.

Despite all these contradictions the Minister for Information and Culture Lai Mohammed recently said that the country is in good hands and there is no cause for alarm contrary to all the negative narratives being posted on the social media and internet. Naturally he said this overseas in Spain while addressing those who aren’t on ground to experience the pervasive fear of being killed by either the supposedly “defeated” Boko Haram, rampaging uncontrollable Herdsmen, marauding highway robbers, or even the police themselves whose indiscipline and lust for blood is legendary as they habitually kill innocent Nigerians in the process of extortion.

The problem is that it is increasingly difficult to believe anything that top APC top officials say because they have lost credibility. For over two years they have blamed the mess on massive corruption by the PDP, but what have they done about corruption? Virtually nothing. The recall of pensions boss, re-instatement of NHIS boss, and dragging of feet over the Secretary to Government all indicate a selective approach to the much touted the anti-corruption war.

Legal luminary Mike Ozekome (SAN) has severally challenged the government to prosecute not only political opponents but also just one of its members for corruption, but this hasn’t happened to date and not a single “big fish” has been jailed for corrupt acts. Indeed, commentators have pointed out that several former Governors have benefitted from joining the APC.  Joshua Dariye joined APC and his corruption trail has virtually stopped. Uzor Kalu joined APC and his prosecution has been hampered by delays. Sullivan Chime of Enugu and Isa Yuguda also joined APC and their corruption trials have also suddenly benefited from hearing problems. This is the state of the nation that Lai Mohammed says is in good hands. That statement contradicts everything that is happening right now, and the time is long overdue for the president to reshuffle his ineffective Federal Executive Council (FEC) who are doing him a great disservice. The present circumstances in the nation are deplorable to say the least and government increasingly appears to lack compassion.

In the US when 15 students were killed recently President Trump addressed the nation. In Zamfara where 41 people were killed there was no presidential address, instead APC Governors including Zamfara State Governor Yari arrived at Daura.  In Nigeria murder and destruction of property have become everyday occurrences, quite tragically the Governor of Benue State Samuel Ortom has publicly accused the Inspector General of Police (IGP) of taking sides in the handling of the crisis between herdsmen and farmers in his state. The IGP had previously implied that he had no fondness for, and indeed an aversion towards the anti-open grazing law.

The mishandled crisis has left the nation with an additional 160,000 refugees in nine camps. Coupled with the increasing number of internally displaced persons, is the well documented fraud in relief material distribution. The political future also does not look rosy. Old cargoes are coming together to form coalitions on how to take their turn to rule the nation. It’s quite clear that forming yet another political party isn’t the solution to Nigeria’s problems more especially when it will be populated by discredited former PDP and APC politicians. 

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has openly admitted that they have no legal control over under-aged voting that took place in Kano during the local government elections. This despite the fact that they provide the national voters register which is supposed to be used for local government elections to the State Independent Electoral Commission (SIEC).  Instead of mouthing platitudes APC leaders should talk less and start listening well enough to understand that Nigerians have every reason to are apprehensive and little reason to be hopeful.

I do not want to get lost in a definitional quagmire between fame and celebrity. Some people may think that there is really no difference between them. Others think the line is very, very thin. Yet some others may think that it is a distinction without a difference. Whatever you think, keep it to yourself.

My business today is the species of homo sapiens called celebrity. I have chosen to adopt Daniel Boorstin’s definition of celebrity as “a person who is well known for his well-known-ness.” Those who belong to this club come mainly from the performing arts, sports, beauty pageantry and related fields. They are musicians, dancers, actors, actresses, beauty queens, bloggers, social media activists, OAPs (on-air personalities), masters of ceremony, comedians and many others whose vocation share the same territorial boundary with the above named. But as is customary in Nigeria, some hustlers who are probably denizens of yahoo-yahoo-ism are putting their feet in the door seeking to be recognized as celebrities. Celebrities all seem to have their social media platforms – Twitter, Facebook, Instagram – on which they strut their stuff. They post regularly the pictures of themselves in various degrees of undress, pushing out their buttocks or bosoms so that we all can see that they have them. Some of these things that they flaunt are enhanced by the gift of technology. Let us thank them all the same for the favour. Some of them regale us with the lurid tales of their wives’ or husbands’ infidelities and of their fights with or flights from their enemies in their lines of business.

Some of them have grown their craft and are recognized as ambassadors for products or services by well-heeled companies. That is recognition well merited. Some of them have established clothing or perfume lines and merchandising outlets thus expanding their survival possibilities. A few others with the milk of human kindness have done works of charity quietly or noisily. How they do it is unimportant because philanthropy has in its womb transformational possibilities for the lives of beneficiaries.

Many of these celebrities are very beautiful or handsome or have mastered the art of packaging themselves to achieve the illusion of true beauty. They now call themselves a brand. Everyone of them thinks he or she is a brand even if all she has to her name is one waka-pass role in a shitty movie produced in one shit-hole country in Africa (apologies to Donald Trump). They dress beautifully or obscenely or in some gaudy or avant garde manner precisely to draw attention to themselves. They boil or fry their hair, part it in the middle or left or right. Some pull the hair to one side such that it covers one eye, Rihanna style. You may call them one-eyed queens. Some use hair attachments from some factory or mortuary in India or Brazil, but what does it matter? Hair is hair.

Many of them talk about growing their brand. Don’t mistake that for working assiduously for solid achievements. To many of them it means the choreography of self-promotion, of self-advertisement, of flaunting their flesh or of talking raw. That is what they do on many platforms, mainstream and social media. Conversation has been transformed by technology and globalisation. This has come to be seen as the Age of Full Disclosure and with it has come the baggage of indecent exposure. Some of these girls talk about their virginity without wincing as if they are talking about ice cream or donuts or ofada rice. That thing never used to be talked about openly in those days by decent people. But today, even decent girls who still have it don’t mind opening it up for the public to mentally examine it. In other words, they have permitted the public to disvirgin them mentally. So, they are no longer as virginous as they think they are. A few months ago, a Korean girl was advertised as wanting to sell her virginity for $2 million. I haven’t followed the story to its orgasm, to the point of the painful breaking of the hymen in exchange for wads of hard-earned dollars, but, if the deal was sealed, she, too, has become an instant celebrity.

In Nigeria, the media have made an enormous contribution to the emergence of the new celebrity. Television stations now have entertainment, sports, celebrity platforms, where they showcase the clothes, shoes, hair and lipsticks of celebrities. Some of these celebs now have their own television programmes, where they become interviewers instead of interviewees. The hunted has now become the hunter. The Saturday and Sunday newspapers have upped their game. They are now giving big play to love and relationship issues, fashion trends and fads, both dignified and not-so-dignified on Saturday and Sunday. Some of them publish special magazines on Sundays dedicated to style, fashion, parties and other razzmatazz issues.

These newspapers also give acres of space to trivia about the celebrities: their perfume makers, clothes and shoes designers, what they eat at breakfast, lunch and dinner. The papers ask them who kissed them first, who disvirgined them and maybe who was the witness. They ask the actresses to name their first movies and whether they were on the casting couch before they were assigned roles. The girls are often asked who their celebrity crushes are and my census of their answers is that my brother, Richard Mofe Damijo, (RMD by popular acclaim) is their favourite. They may fantasize about him because he is a tall, handsome man whose clothes also sit well on him but RMD is a very successful professional who has worked very hard to reach the top. His success is based not on his looks but on his gravitas; it is the grind that gave birth to the glamour he exudes. Sweetheart, as you crush him please take that on board.

One of the girl-celebrities was interviewed in one of the weekend newspapers some weeks ago. The male reporter asked her, an actress or musician, what was the selling point in her body. She said it was her boobs. Apparently, she sensed that the reporter must have noticed that her chest was as flat as his own, so she quickly added that she doesn’t have big boobs but that her “nipples are a bomb, very long.” It must be a sense of editorial decency that prevented him from asking her to show him how long it was, whether it was as long as Third Mainland Bridge in Lagos. This fellow has broken the decency boundary. Where is her mother? Well, maybe this is the new normal.

Someone said the other day that if some of these celebrities were asked to fill a form with the space for SEX they would probably write: five times a week, because they do not know better than that. That may be bad belle but the way some of them carry on may leave you wondering whether the schools they went to did go through them at all.

Our celebrities have introduced into our relationship lexicon something called “Baby Mamas.” To the uninitiated these are women who have children out of wedlock for philandering celebrities. I wonder why the are not called Baby Papas. Having children outside wedlock is nothing new but the difference today is that the celebrities have brought a lot of drama into it. They are trying hard to make our society to accept it as the new normal. It is not. In an era of incurable diseases such as HIV aids unprotected sex by unmarried persons is a mark of irresponsible behaviour. And when it is exhibited openly by people that ought to be role models to youths it is an unacceptable form of iconoclasm. Celebrities by their status and stature do not live for themselves only. They live for society as well.

Some of them have given a shot in the arm to the Office of Citizen. Two worthy examples come to mind here. Charles Oputa, better known as Charly Boy or Area Fada, and Tuface Idibia are eminent musicians who have used their prestige for public good. They have been involved in organizing demonstrations against bad government policies or in activities to strengthen the electoral process for more efficiency. They have also spoken out in favour of building a better society. All citizens share with the government the responsibility for building a better society. That is the followership schedule of duty. But our celebrities, the genuine ones, have a higher responsibility because of their endowments to help redefine societal values using their well-known-ness credentials.

One news story that dominated public discussion in the past few days was the grotesque tale of how a mystery snake consumed the whopping sum of N36 million from the Benue State office of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB). There are indeed moonlight tales emanating from the offices of JAMB.

The first astonishing story was narrated by a sales clerk in the Makurdi, Benue State, office of JAMB. On interrogation, the woman told the far-fetched story of how a “spiritual” snake consumed the stupendous amount of money received through the sale of scratch cards to JAMB candidates. The money, she said, was kept in the office safe from where the mystery snake took the entire collection.

What an incredible tale fit to be narrated to idiots. But wait, that was not all. Just as everyone was digesting the disingenuous story, news emerged of another dubious tale from the Nasarawa office of JAMB. In this particular case, the sum of N26 million could not be accounted for because another untrustworthy staff of JAMB had claimed that the money, along with the remaining scratch cards, were incinerated inside his car during a road accident that occurred on his way to the Abuja office.    

These two stories deserve a national award for the best fictional thrillers of 2018, if not that they are both serious cases that border on audacious theft of public money. How two staff of JAMB located at different offices could weave such unbelievable tales and expect the nation to believe them is in itself a mystery. Has JAMB become an easy conduit for the perpetration of crimes of extraordinary proportions? While the man and woman await their day in court, what we know for now is that JAMB and the nation have been scammed, defrauded and deceived.

The hare-brained story of a mystery snake that was narrated by a sales clerk is as much a reflection of the stupidity of the woman. The story symbolises lack of standards and moral values in our society. It is puzzling how a public servant could connive with her house aide to rob an institution of government of such a large sum of money.

It is difficult to believe that the woman at the centre of the scandal mustered the courage to tell a lie in the public sphere. The story is so bad you don’t even know how to handle it, whether to laugh or cry. Should the story teller be garlanded or prosecuted? Are we chasing corruption or tracking shadows in Nigeria? What is the fundamental responsibility of anti-corruption agencies in the country? At times like this, you feel like denying your nationality.

Nigeria has since crumbled but, strangely, it is still pretending to be alive, to be standing unsteadily, precariously, and erratically on wearied legs. We live a life of denial. We are bombarded with official lies from the government and from private citizens. There is no one to believe. How could a snake that feeds on rodents and other animals big and small suddenly develop the appetite to consume millions of our local currency? The story teller alluded to a “spiritual” snake with the capacity to swallow money.

This is a reflection of what ill-informed religious teachings have done to our psyche. Here are some related examples. When people die in local communities, their relatives say they were attacked by “spiritual” forces. When a woman divorces her husband, she says she was advised to do so by “spirits.” When a married man is caught having a secret liaison with a married woman, it is another form of “spiritual attack.” When people die in accidents on our bad roads, they are seen as victims of “evil spirits” that ambush road users. No one talks about the condition of the roads or the level of intoxication of the driver of the vehicle.

Someone once asked the question: do people ever die of natural causes in Nigeria? A woman who is having childbirth issues must have had her womb tied up by “evil spirits.” A senior public servant who raids the treasury pleads for forgiveness on the ground that he was in a trance caused by “evil spirits.” Do all these excuses make sense?

Look, N36 million is not a small amount of money. The country can achieve many things if the money is properly invested in genuine causes. The lives of many unemployed citizens can be transformed instantly if the money is allocated to them as small-scale loans. Businesses that are struggling as a result of the poor economic situation can be revived with this staggering amount of money. Many indigent students who could not afford to go to universities and polytechnics could be empowered with the money, which could be given to them as scholarships. In fact, N36 million could be used to do a lot of things for local communities. The money could be used to renovate decrepit community clinics and dispensaries. It could be used to set up medium-scale farms, poultries or other forms of business.

It is deeply troubling for anti-corruption agencies to watch this sordid soap opera playing out in our society and pretend nothing is wrong or morally distressing. The nation deserves to be saved the current embarrassment caused by two staff members of JAMB.

I am prompted to ask some penetrating and uncomfortable questions. Are some public servants trained to lie? Why should the two JAMB staff in Benue and Nasarawa states treat us as gullible people who could be easily fooled? Should they have advanced ludicrous excuses to explain how a total of over N60 million went missing from JAMB’s coffers? Civil society is not that unsophisticated, you know.

Perhaps the most insightful and concise contribution that I have read about the history of the Fulani and their inordinate ambition and insatiable thirst for domination and conquest was provided by Mr. Gbonkas Ebiri.

His research and analysis of this topic is as historically accurate as it is outstanding. Permit me to share his words.

"Kingdoms that accommodated Fulani herdsmen in the past were eventually overthrown by the Fulani. In all situations, these herdsmen took up arms and fought for a Fulani leader to overthrow the kingdoms that accommodated them and their cattle. Examples in history:

The first Fulani Jihad was at Futa Jallon. Fulani pastoralists migrated here in large numbers from North Africa in the 1600’s (they migrated in smaller factions earlier).

Futa Jallon was a mountainous rich agricultural land. Shortly after the Pastoralist migrations, Fulani clerics migrated as well. they were called Ulamas.

In 1726, the Fulani community elected one of their own by the name Ibrahim Musa as their leader and gave him the title of Al – Imam (Leader of the Muslim community). Shortly after his election he proclaimed a jihad against the local rulers of the region and enlisted the herdsmen as soldiers in his Jihad.

His successor after his death and new Al- Iman, Ibrahim Sori completed the Jihad in 1776. The new Fulani aristocracy drove out many of the natives. Those they did not drive out, they enslaved.

Slave trade thrived in the region after the Jihad, this was when the slave castle at Goree Island (Point of no return) was built. They captured mostly the people of the Mandika tribe (this was the tribe of Kunta Kinte).

Another region not far from Futa Jallon was Futa Toro. It was rich in Agriculture and the stretch of the Senegal river passed through it. By the banks of this river was fertile farmlands.

This region was of great important to the Fulani pastoralists who migrated to the region around the same time they migrated to Futa Jallon. They could have the cattle feed and drink by the banks of the river. Shortly after the herdsmen arrived, clerics migrated as well.

They formed the majority of the Torobde clerics. A Fulani cleric called Sulayman Bal was nominated by the clerics as the spiritual leader. in the year 1776, Sulayman Bal launched a Jihad against the Denyanke dynasty and enlisted herdsmen into his army of the faithful.

They were overthrown and replaced with a new aristocracy of Fulani leaders. He died while trying to expand the empire to the regions of Trarzas. His successor, Abd al- Qadir completed the expansion and expanded the empire Southeast.

In our own Nigeria, the Fulani migrated as herdsmen and lived in communities. As at the time Dan Fodio arrived, they had Fulani leaders in almost all the Hausa City states with a large concentration in Katsina and Kano.

These leaders included Moyijo at Kebbi, Mohammadu Namoda at Zamfara, Salihu and Mohamadu Dabo of Kano. Very much like the previous Jihads, Dan Fodio was recognized as the leading cleric and given the title of ‘Sarkin Musulmi.’ (Leader of the Faithful).

He formed a community after his confrontation with the authorities at Gobir and called on the faithfuls to join him, from the community he lauched his Jihad.

Majority of his soldiers were herdsmen and another faction natives that fell for his charismatic leadership. Dan Fodio would eventually give flags of leadership to the Fulani leaders of the various Hausa cities.

By far, the Dan Fodio’s Jihad was the most successful and all Fulani Jihads in West Africa. He would also replace the Hausa kings with Fulani aristocrats, and like the previous Fulbe leaders, the new empire was hostile to the natives.

Their lands were taken from them and they were relegated to second class citizens in their ancestral homeland. Many of them were forced into slavery under an oppressive feudal system and others sold to Arab slave traders.

At Ilorin, the shortsighted rebel Afonja made it so easy for the Fulani to get rid of him. Unlike the other kingdoms where they migrated on their free will and chose their spiritual leader, Afonja personally wooed the Fulani to his kingdom and appointed Alimi as the cleric of the province.

Both vital foundations for a fulani takeover was given on a platter of gold by warlord. very much as in all cases, the Fulani got rid of him and ensured the throne of Ilorin for their kinsman.

So far they have not been able to invade beyond Ilorin. The warriors at Ibadan fought them back as well as Benin warriors. To conquer the south, it is important to have Fulani herdsmen and clerics stationed in the land.

It is important to indoctrinate natives who profess same religion with them to trade ther ancestry for a religious theocracy of a divine cleric.

Among the Yoruba people, they will succeed as they did in the old Ilorin emirates when many natives of old Oyo empire enlisted in the army of Alimi’s descendants to invade villages under Oyo and capture their fellow kinsmen as slaves to be sold to the Portuguese.

All observations of history prove beyond doubt that giving colonies and settlements to Fulani people under the guise of land for grazing is very dangerous.

The Fulani is obsessed to conquer the South and take it from the ancestral owners like they did to the Hausas. The South owns the Ports and oil. It owns the best companies and rainforests. That is what they secretly want and not grazing land for cows.

With scattered Fulani settlements in the south, they will bring their clerics and launch a new phase of Jihads from our base…. Cattle colonies is a plan to conquer the South.

Herdsmen are foot soldiers of the Fulani empire and the demand for lands in the South is a first step in future to take over the ancestral lands of the Southern people". (CONCLUDED).

I commend Mr. Ebiri for his courageous submission and I wholeheartedly concur with his conclusions and findings. He has said it all and there is very little left to say.

It is left for the Nigerian people to either resist the attempt to Fulanise their entire nation by learning from the lessons of history, increasing their depth of knowledge, creating awareness about the formidable challenges with which they are faced and rise to the occassion or they can sit back, act as if there is no danger or threat and be indoctrinated, stripped of all they have and all they are, conquered, dehumanised, enslaved and overwhelmed. The choice is ours.

And if anyone still doubts the assertion that we are in mortal danger I would urge them to read the words of Professor Ango Abdullahi, the spokesman of the Northern Elders Forum and a leading member of the Fulani cabal, in a recent interview with the Sunday Vanguard Newspaper where he told us "why herdsmen must kill", where he sought to defend, justify and rationalise the bestial and barbaric acts of mass murder, genocide and ethnic cleansing that the Fulani herdsmen and terrorists have unleashed on the people of the south and the Middle Belt and where he claimed that the British had "granted" what he described as "grazing routes" in the Middle Belt and the south to the Fulani terrorists and herdsmen as far back as 1914!

Never in the history of our country, other than during the civil war, has mass murder, genocide, ethnic cleansing, the slaughter of infants and babies, rape, destruction and the burning and pillaging and violent occupation of other peooles lands and homes been justified and defended in this way.

Professor Abdullahi has proved to the world that we are a nation of bloodthirsty barbarians and sociopaths where human life has no meaning and has no value.

His views reveal nothing but madness in its most brazen form and the truth is that this reckless and irresponsible elderly man is playing with fire and is courting nothing but disaster for his Fulani people. Simply put he is begging for war.

I am disgusted and appauled by his cold-blooded, blood-thirsty and blood-lusting mindset but I cannot say that I am surprised. That is their way and these are their thoughts!

In addition to Abdullahi's absurd and provocative submissions the skeptics shoud also read Professor Umar Muhammed Labdo's insulting assertions about Fulani supremacy and the Fulani being "born and destined to rule" over the whole of Nigeria.

If, after reading the contributions of these two supposedly "learned" Fulani men, some still do not understand what is going on or that we have a major challenge in this country, then such persons are indeed part of the problem and are in dire need of help.

Permit me to end the concluding part of this essay with the following.

To those who say that my words are too blunt, plain and harsh and that suggest that I should be more circumspect and temperate when discussing the powers that be in our country, the state of our nation, the Fulani invasion and our ruling Caliph, I say the following: I am the Servant of Truth and the Voice of the Voiceless.

If I do not speak up and say what others know but dare not say who will speak for the downtrodden, the enslaved, the weak, the oppressed, the slaughtered and the silent majority?

It is a calling and I cannot but do as I do and say as I say. I cannot but speak bluntly and plainly, calling a spade a spade.

In any case bullies, tyrants, conquering foreign hordes and alien invaders neither understand subtlety and restraint nor do they appreciate its nuances.

Worse still they misconstrue gentle words and a kind and generous disposition for weakness and this fuels and feeds their appetite for bestial acts and tyranny and encourages their naked aggression.

Unlike most I fear not the heathan hordes that seek to conquer and enslave our people nor the bloody sword or the mighty roar of the uncircumcised Philistines.

I fear not the armies of Rome nor the occultic Egyptians with their satanic covenants, ancient spells and powerful invocations.

And neither will I bow, quiver or tremble before the Chaldeans or the Amalekites that rule our land with their unelenting display of violence, barbarity and cruelty.

I am led by the Holy Spirit of the Living God and I trust in Him for all. He is my strength, my shield, my glory and the lifter of my head.

I am in the Lord's power and hands and not in that of my adversaries or the enemies of my people. Most importantly I am persuaded that He will never leave me or forsake me.

I am also guided by the wise counsel of our very own Nobel Laureate and celebrated bard, Professor Wole Soyinka, who wrote the following historic and powerful words in his famous book titled, 'The Man Died' many years ago.

He wrote, "the man died in him who remained silent in the face of tyranny".

Today I proclaim, may the man never die in any of us.

Again I am inspired by the compelling, beautiful and eternal words written by the great 19th century author and English sage, Thomas Babington Macauly, in his famous poem titled 'Lays Of Ancient Rome'. He wrote,

"Then out spake brave Horatius, the Captain of the Gate: to every man upon this earth death cometh soon or late.

And how can man die better than facing fearful odds, for the ashes of his fathers and the temples of his gods.

And for the tender mother who dandled him to rest, And for the wife who nurses his baby at her breast.

And for the holy maidens who feed the eternal flame, to save them from false Sextus that wrought the deed of shame?

Haul down the bridge, Sir Consul, with all the speed ye may; I, with two more to help me, will hold the foe in play".

Today I pray that we be like brave Horatius and hold the foe in play.

Finally I am strengthened and encouraged by the words of King David in Psalm 27 when he said,

"The Lord is my light and my salvation, whom shall I fear?