Fulanistion: Sultan slams Obasanjo, Afenifere, others

The Sultan of Sokoto, Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar lll, has blamed Yoruba for their roles in the Fulani herdsmen violence, what some Yoruba leaders recently termed Fulanisation,  going on in the southwest.

According to him, those behind kidnapping and criminal activities in the region are not acting alone—they could not operate successfully without the collaboration of the natives and local people.

Abubakar said this at the inauguration of Sheikh Idress Faazazi Morgaji Central Mosque in Iwo, Osun State at the weekend.

He charged Nigerians to stop blaming a particular tribe for the insecurity challenges facing the country.

Yourba leaders and groups have been voicing out about President Muhammadu Buhari’s Fulanisation agenda–because they see the president as not tackling the Fulani herders in their widespread violence across the nation.

The Fulanisation coinage was brought to public discussion by former President Olusegun Obasanjo who any believe is still hurting because Buhari was re-elected.

Obasanjo’s kinsmen in the Afenifere, the Oodua Peoples Congress, and others also took it up, saying the president is not doing enough to  stop his ethnic group allegedly perpetrating violence.

But the Sultan said rather than blame a tribe, every Nigerian should be patriotic to correct things that were wrong in the society.

 “It is important for us to be courageous and expose those behind unlawful and criminal activities in the society,” he said this through his representative, the Executive Secretary, Muslim Ummah of South West Nigeria (MUSWEN), Prof. Dawud Noibl.

“Some people in Yorubaland must surely cooperate with those involving in kidnapping and others social vices to succeed. Foreign criminals don’t know how to move around without the assistance of the insider. They are given accommodation and they are also supplied food.

“Some Yoruba people must be giving the evil perpetrators the moral support to describe the area where the families of victims can pick them after collecting their ransom,” he said.

There has been an uptick in the rate of violence, including kidnapping, carried out by suspected Fulani herdsmen in the region lately.

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The suspicion usually doesn’t go down well with the elites among the Fulani.

Sultan is the grand patron of the Miyetti Allah, a cultural group of the nomadic Fulani in Nigeria.