Fani-Kayode Blasts Kukah for comparing todays situation in the South with civil war of 1966

“To compare the situation of the Fulani in the south today to the situation of the Igbo in the north in 1966 is disingenious and dishonest. The Igbo did not slaughter the Fulani in the 1966 northern pogroms but rather it was the Fulani that slaughtered the Igbo.

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By Scannews24.com Last updated Jul 18, 2019

Former Aviation Minister under Goodluck Jonathan, and Peoples Democratic Party Stalwart, Chief Femi Fani Kayode has responded to statement made by the Catholic bishop of Sokoto diocese, Matthew Kukah, that Demonising herdsmen, especially those of the Fulani extraction, could lead to a breakout of violence.

The Catholic Bishop made the remark on Tuesday at a colloquium while delivering keynote on ‘fake news and hate speech’ organised by the Olusegun Obasanjo centre for African studies, an arm of the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN), said hate speech often precedes any genocide experienced in history.

The clergy related the profiling of the Fulani to what happened to the Igbo leading up to the Nigerian civil war between 1967 and 1970 regard to incessant attacks by suspected herdsmen whom some tag Fulani.

He said: When I look at my passport, it has the coat of arm and map of Nigeria. Then right in front of the data page where all my information is, I have the Bini. I am not a Bini man, but I am eminently proud of this. I didn’t even know it was here, because I had to go through the passport page by page,” he said.

“When I opened the passport the first thing I saw was Zuma Rock, then I see Tiv dancers. Who gave them permission to put Tiv dancers? Then I got to next page, before I came to this poor Fulani man who is standing with his cows.

“Suddenly, this is the only thing we have chosen. Why is it exciting? It is exciting because this is the time for us to ‘hate’, literally tag every Fulani as a herdsman. We are on a very dangerous precipice.”

Reacting on his Twitter handle, Kayode said “To compare the situation of the Fulani in the south today to the situation of the Igbo in the north in 1966 is disingenious and dishonest. The Igbo did not slaughter the Fulani in the 1966 northern pogroms but rather it was the Fulani that slaughtered the Igbo.

“In 1966 alone no less than 100,000 innocent and defenceless Igbos were butchered by the Fulani in the north. Today it is again the Fulani militias that are slaughtering thousands of Igbo, Yoruba and other southerners all over the south. They are also killing Middle Belters.

“The south and the Middle Belt do not have a tradition of killing the innocent and the defenceless but the Fulani do. If they do not want to be stigmatised and regarded as butchers and terrorists they must stop their herdsmen, militias and cells from slaughtering our people.

“During the civil war the whole of Nigeria unleashed genocide on the innocent Igbo civilian population of Biafra but that was an isolated event. The Fulani have been doing it to others since 1804 up until today.

“Any comparison between the behaviour and experiences of the Igbo and the Fulani in Nigerian history is painful, insensitive and inappropiate.

“The Igbo have suffered too much at the hands of others for them to be compared to the Fulani. It is like comparing the experience of the Jews to the experience of the German Nazis or the Arabs.