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By Femi Fani-Kayode

“Useful idiot” is a political term which is often used to describe the misguided supporters of an unreasonable, irresponsible, ill-conceived and ill-advised cause.
First coined in western Europe in the late 19th century, the term was made all the more popular by its usage in Mona Charen’s excellent book titled “Useful Idiots: How Liberals Got It Wrong in the Cold War and Still Blame America First” which was published in 2003.
I believe that it is a term which adequately describes some of our politicians, leaders, writers and public commentators in Nigeria and as a matter of fact it is well-deserved.
Consider the following.
Two weeks ago and a day after Fulani terrorists slaughtered 35 innocent and defenceless people, including women and children, in his state, Governor Yahaya Bello of Kogi state said,
“Fulani herdsmen killings in Kogi state is a family affair, we shall resolve it”.
His tepid reaction attracted national and international angst and public opprobium but Bello apparantly did not “give a damn” and neither did he tender an unreserved and public apology for hurting our collective feelings or offending our sensitivities with these words.
There is nothing that I despise more than those with a slave mentality. And nothing reflects that pitiable condition more than Yahaya Bello’s luke warm response to this utterly outrageous event.
Three days after the young Governor spoke these irresponsible words, the Fulani herdsmen, who were obviously encouraged and emboldened by his shameless disposition and the implementation of his cowardly policy of appeasement, struck again and killed a traditional ruler, his wife and 9 other innocent souls in Kogi state.
They burnt the palace and homes of their victims and as they fled they shot them, slit open their throats and removed their body organs and vital parts.

That is the price that is being paid and the monumental tragedy that has befallen the people of Kogi who are evidently stuck with a Governor that is prepared to sit by idly and openly encourage and espouse those that seek to wipe out his people from the face of the earth and take all their land by the force of arms.
There is no greater shame or betrayal of a mandate than this.
The only one that comes close to it is Plateau state’s Governor Simon Lalong whose intervention, after the mass murder of hundreds of members of the indigenous population in neighbouring Benue state by Fulani herdsmen a few weeks ago, was equally shameless and offensive.
Lalong expressed the view that the blame for the genocide that was being perpetuated against the people of Benue state ought to be placed, not at the doorstep of their killers, but rather with their Governor, Samuel Ortom.
He went further by telling the world that he had warned Ortom about the implications of passing an Anti-Grazing law in his state and that by passing that law he had upset and provoked the Fulani herdsmen.
This coming from a Christian brother and fellow Middle Belt Governor!
Sadly, and as a graphic example of the grovelling appeaser that was compelled to eat his own faeces and the village idiot that was forced to drink his own urine, a few weeks later Lalong’s own people in Plateau state, where he had evidently refused to pass an Anti Grazing law, were butchered by the same Fulani terrorists and herdsmen.
Is this poetic justice? I think not because the people of Plateau state do not deserve it. It is more of a tragedy of monumental proportions and it is indicative of the consequence of being saddled with a primitive, cowardly, insensitive and grovelling field hand as a Governor who fails to appreciate the fact that adopting the line of least resisitance and implementing the shameless policy of appeasement, coupled with the unconsciable display of crass weakness, attracts nothing but aggression and does nothing but encourage the bully and the aggressor.
Whichever school he went to, if any, never taught him that in order to preserve the peace you must show strength and a willingness to fight, even against all odds, when pushed against the wall.
Many in Nigeria appear to have failed to learn this basic lesson and that is why we are in the mess that we are in.
Sadly the perfidy and slave mentality of men like Bello and Lalong pales into insignificance when one considers the deceit, self-serving doublespeak, servile disposition and intellectual dishonesty others.
Let me give an example.
When the world called the Niger Delta militants, “Niger Delta” militants, no-one complained.
Yet the other day Pastor Reno Omokri (AKA Wendell Simillin), a notable columnist and public commentator who launches scathing, commendable and, I must confess, laudable attacks on the Buhari government from the relative safety of his home in the United States of America attempted to rationalise Vice President Atiku Abubakar’s inexcusable faux pax by suggesting that Fulani herdsmen should not be tagged “Fulani” herdsmen, “Fulani” terrorists or “Fulani” militants.
Left to him we ought not to mention the word “Fulani” in this context.
His sordid attempt to becloud the issues and shade the truth has exposed him for what he is and has proved beyond any reasonable doubt what he really stands for.
It has also proved that he has no guts, no substance and limited intelligence.
Unfortunately this deplorable virus of unabashed mendacity, shame, servitude and slavery is spreading fast.
Prince Tony Momoh, a Buhari loyslist, the Minister of Information in President Ibrahim Babangida’s government, and a man that I have always held in high esteem, appears to have also been afflicted and has said the same thing.
Last week he said the following to the Sun Newspaper.
“Anywhere you go to people would say we cannot go to farm because of the Fulani herdsmen. This is when as a matter of fact the Fulani herdsmen are in more danger than any other Nigerian. Do we talk of Igbo armed robbers? Do we talk of Yoruba 419ers and so on? We talk of all these as crimes and we should be talking of the killings as also a crime. But because of politics, we are going into areas to make our children believe that the fear of Fulani herdsmen is the beginning of wisdom. So what Othman Dan Fodio could not achieve when he was alive in Nigeria we are achieving it through communication and making our own children afraid of the Fulani. Remember that the Fulani are in the minority in this country”.
Momoh has spoken like a true slave.
One wonders what has got into him, Reno Omokri, Simon Lalong, Yahaya Bello and all the other “useful idiots” who are falling over themselves to play down and obsfucate the hideous atrocities that the Fulani terrorists and the barbarians from Futa Jalon have unleashed on our people over the last three years.
Do they have to wait until one of their own loved ones have had their throats slit open, their blood drained, their eyes removed, their genitals cut out out and their bodies hacked into pieces before they see this whole thing for what it is and admit to who is behind it?
When a Governor says that it is “a family affair” when such things happen to the very people he is meant to defend and charged to protect under the constitution and when he does not call for justice for the victims of the carnage but rather says the matter will be settled amicably you know that you are dealing with an insensitive beast that is not only depraved but also sociopathic.
Worst still this is a Governor that has refused to pay the salaries of his personal staff and the state’s civil servants for many months and that spends most of his time trying to lock up, silence, frame up and intimidate his perceieved enemies, even when they are members of his own party.
Forgive my strong language but there is no need to be diplomatic when you are dealing with a low life and an imbecile. And the truth is that such a man is almost as vicious, heartless and unconsciable as the Fulani herdsmen that he seeks to serve and protect.
To those that cry more than the bereaved and take offence when the terrorists are described as “Fulani herdsmen” by others, one wonders why they did not complain about the use of the word “Fulani” when the respected International Terror Index described the killer herdsmen as “Fulani militants” and informed us that they were the “4th most deadly terrorist organisation in the world?”
Why did they not complain when the Chairman of Miyetti Allah, Bello Abdullahi Bodejo, the Sultan of Sokoto, the Emir of Kano, the Emir of Zazzau, the Emir of Katsina, Governor Nasir El Rufai of Kaduna state, Governor Abdullahi Ganduje of Kano state, Professor Ango Abdullahi, the spokesman of the Arewa Consultative Forum, Mafindi Danburam, the north-eastern zonal Chairman of Miyeti Allah, Garus Gololo, the leader of Miyetti Allah in Benue state and all the other Fulani leaders described the herdsmen as “FULANI” herdsmen?
Ganduje, who is probably the most forthright and honest of them all when it comes to this matter proferred a practical solution to the conflict by saying that all the Fulani herdsmen should return home to the core north and specifically to Kano where, he said, there was “plenty of grazing land for them all” and that, in any case, “that is where they belong”.
Ango Abdullahi had a different perspective and went as far as to say that the Fulani have every right to take their cows anywhere they like in the country including to peoples private land, homes, schools, places of worship and farms.
He said that the Fulani herdsmen had no choice but to butcher and kill those that stood in their way because they had been given what he described as an ancient right to what he decribed as “cattle routes” which he claims were given to them by our ertwhile British colonial masters as far back as 1904!
He said that the Fulani were compelled to slaughter all the innocent men, women and children that they met because they themselves were often insulted, provoked, robbed and attacked by members of the indigenous population and host communities.
He offered no apology for the genocide, ethnic cleansing and mass murder that the Fulani unleashed on the defenceless and innocent civilian population.
And neither did he explain why they felt the need to specifically target women and children, to carve up their bodies and to remove their body parts.
Instead he simply said the barbaric actions of the Fulani herdsmen were necessary and he sought to defend, justify and rationalise them.
He also said that those who wish to stop cow-grazing and that are calling for cattle ranches have “forgotten their history”, were “irresponsible and deceptive” and he ended it all by saying that “the north will never allow Nigeria to be restructured”. TO BE CONTINUED)

Five useful idiots and the spirit of the accursed slave [Part 2]

By Femi Fani-Kayode

On his part Mafindi Danburam gave a press conference in Jalingo, Taraba state on Sunday 18th March in which he complained that 54 Fulani herdsmen, who were all members of Miyetti Allah, had been arrested by the police and that his Fulani people were being subjected to persecution by the security agencies and indigenous political leaders in Taraba state simply because they were Fulani herdsmen and members of Miyetti Allah.
If the herdsmen were not Fulani and members of Miyetti Allah I doubt he would have bothered to say a word.

Not only was he arrogant and defiant but he also refused to express regret or offer any apology for the slaughter of thousands of Jukuns and members of the other local and indigenous ethnic groups that his Fulani kinsmen and fellow cattle-rearers have slaughtered all over Taraba state in the last few weeks, months and years.
Finally in his contribution, Garus Gololo said that his Fulani people and members of his organisation Miyetti Allah in Benue were responsible for the carnage and slaughter in the state and that they had unleashed the terror because some of their cows were stolen and because the state had passed an Anti-Grazing Law against their counsel and advice.
He warned that if that law was not scrapped that his Fulani people and members of Miyetti Allah organisation in Benue state would organise themselves for the second time and slaughter the people of Benue state yet again.
These are the type of people and the sort of mindset that some useful idiots are attempting to defend. And when these Fulani leaders not only confirmed that the murderers and genocidal maniacs were their people but aso attempted to rationalise and defend their shameless actions people like Omokri, Momoh and all the other useful idiots and accursed slaves remained silent because they had heard their masters voice.
It was only after Atiku Abubakar attempted to deceive Nigerians by weaving the self-serving lie that the terrorist herdsmen are not Fulani and when others, including yours truly, challenged him and told him to stop being economical with the truth that they crawled out of their woodwok and started complaining, whining and opening their big mouths.
They popped out of nowhere like the shameless cheerleders that they are and, like clowns in a paupers’ circus, started spouting rubbish.
I can understand the attempt to deceive us about the true identity of the terrorists coming from a Fulani like Atiku Abubakar who is clearly ashamed of what his people are doing and who understands its implications for the Fulani race and for his own presidential ambitions.
I cannot however understand, appreciate or abide such deceit coming from non-Fulanis like Reno Omokri and Tony Momoh? This is made even worse given the fact that the former claims to be a Pastor. It is shameful and it is evil. Both of them are desperately trying to be more Fulani than the Fulani themselves and the truth is that that they deserve to be pitied.
Did they not glean anything from the inspiring and courgeous words of General T.Y. Danjuma. On March 24th he said,
“There is an attempt at ethnic cleansing in the state and of course some rural areas in Nigeria. We must resist it. We must stop it. Everyone of us must rise!”
He then said “The Armed Forces are not neutral. They collude with the armed bandits that kill Nigerians! If you are depending on the Armed Forces to stop the killings you will all die one by one. They will every single one of us! The army facilitates their movements: they cover them!”
He went on to say, “The ethnic cleansing must stop in Taraba and it must stop in all the states of Nigeria otherwise Somalia will be a child’s play. I ask every one of you to be alert and to defend your country”.
And finally he said “Defend your country, defend your territory, defend your state! You wont have anywhere else to go!”
Can anyone dispute all that this great and courageous man has said? What Christians and non-Fulani Muslims are suffering at the hands of the Fulani in Nigeria today is similar to what the Jews suffered in Hitler’s Nazi Germany.
Danjuma is one of the most powerful, fearless, consistent, reverred and respected military officers in the history of our country and he has finally spoken. What we are going to do about it is now left to the rest of us.
We either stand up like lions and resist the evil in the land with all our strength or we sit down, crawl, beg, hope against hope and die like cowardly dogs with our tail between our legs!
The truth is that there is nothing that Danjuma has said that I and others have not said before. Nnamdi Kanu said it as far back as 2014 and I said it in 2015. Many insulted us, called us alarmists and laughed at us at the time. They are not laughing anymore!
In the light of all this some questions need to be put to the useful idiots in our midst and those questions are as follows:
Do we resist it and defend our land, territory and country by bending over, touching our toes with our heads, putting our fingers on our buttocks and spreading them wide open for the enemy to have his wicked way? Is that how to rise up and resist?
Do we resist by capitulating and behaving like slavish cowards? Do we resist by refusing to say who they are and where they come from and by failing to let the world know their true identity, race and mission? I think not.
And if any useful idiot and accursed slave is still in any doubt about who the killers that are carrying out these horrendous acts and this ethnic cleansing are and where they are from I challenge them to seek private audience with General T.Y. Danjuma and ask him. He is a man of wisdom and knowledge and there is very little that he does not know about this matter.
Those that secretly and covertly support genocide, ethnic cleansing and mass murder and that seek to hide the true racial identities of the animals that indulge in such cruel barbarity deserve worse than curses. They deserve to be hung, drawn and quartered.
And they have much to learn from the counsel of the great writer and veteran journalist Mr. Simon Musa Reef who said,
“when you betray your people, you render yourself untrustworthy before the very people you seek to impress”.
This is wisdom but sadly the useful idiots, blinded by their greed and their lust for favour, power, money and fleeting fame from their Fulani masters will not heed it.
They should visualise and imagine the killer herdsmen visiting their homes and as they are doing “one corner” with their wives, slitting open the throats of their daughters, sodomising their sons and hacking off the body parts and vital organs of members of their household they should ask them in Fufude whether they are Fulani or whether they are Chinese.
The fact of the matter is that these Fulani terrorists have slaughtered hundreds of thousands of innocent and defenceless people all over the country over the last three years and these imbeciles and shameless fools are still trying to defend them, rationalise their actions, hide their identities and cover their tracks?
And they call themselves Christians? They are not Christians but slaves and “useful idiots” to the Fulani terrorists.
Worse still I suspect that they are under a spell. If Fulani herdsmen rape their mother in their prescence, slit open her throat, drain all her blood in the gutter and gut her with a 12 inch Bowie knife before their very eyes they will simply say “thank you sir” and still defend them. That is how depraved, debased and self-hating these misguided creatures are.
On March 22nd, one day after the return of the Dapchi girls and in reference to the biggest, most repugnant, most nauseating, most stomach-wrenching, most repulsive, most cowardly and most chicken-hearted turncoats and useful idiots in the nation, I tweeted the following:
“Vice President Yemi Osinbajo and all the other useful idiots and accursed slaves have much to learn from a deeply courageous 15 year old Christian girl from Dapchi by the name of Liya Sharibu about what it means to be loyal to your faith and to be faithful to your God even in the face of death!”
I believe that each and every one of the useful idiots and accursed slaves that I have mentioned in this essay and all those that think like them, including that fat, ugly, frog-like, pamper-wearing polyglot from Imo state, that poisonous little midget and bearded dwarf from Anambra and that corrupt, lying, pot-bellied, mentally-unstable eyeball-rolling creek Haramite from Rivers, also need to learn the same lesson.
God will surely judge them for betraying their faith, for supporting the evil, for attempting to deceive the Nigerian people and for defending the indefensible.
Every drop of innocent blood that the Fulani terrorists have shed over the last three years will not only speak against the physical perpertrators of the crime but will also speak against accomplices like them too.
We live in perilious times and we are in a dire situation. Yet regardless of the dangers we owe it to the people that we love to stand up for what we believe in.
Our saving grace is that for every foolish southern and Middle Belt slave and useful idiot there are hundreds of thousands of clear-thinking, courageous, sensible, rational and inspiring ones that know the score, that are servants of truth, that are prepared to call a spade a spade, that speak truth to power, that are blessed with a brave heart, that are imbued with an excellent spirit and that are as constant as the northern star.
Nnamdi Kanu, Asari Dokubo, Gani Adams, Charles Ogbue, Government Ekpemupolo (AKA Tompolo), Bosun Emmanuel, Aniko Briggs, Ayo Fayose, Tony Nnandi, Matthew Hassan Kukah, Musa Asake, David Oyedepo, Paul Enenche, Johnson Suleiman, Isa El Buba, T.B. Joshua, Solomon Musa, Daniel Wilson, Chukwuemeka Ezeife, Tony Nyiam, Ayo Adebanjo, Ben Nwabueze, Pastor Chris Okafor and so many others are worthy of mention in this respect.
As an example permit me to share the words of my friend and brother Nnamdi Kanu which he spoke in February 2014 and which have proved to be prophetic.
He said,
“As they campaign vigorously for elec­tions you would think they are coming to grow the economy, en­throne justice, breed unity and tol­erance and love for one another. No! They are coming to enthrone Hausa/Fulani supremacy, to reposi­tion the security agencies by sacking all competent hands and replace them with their kinsmen in order to drive their ethnic domination of the south. The Fulani herdsmen will be armed and encouraged to slaughter us with impurity and their masters will protect them. They are coming to ensure that my people are enslaved forever. Those who do not believe me will soon see it happen before their eyes. The Fulani will take over the en­tire south as a continuation of their age-long agenda to Islamise Eastern Nigeria. They will brazenly seize our land in pretence of creating grazing fields for the Fulani. Then the con­quest will be complete and we will be­come their serfs forever.”
This hideous and unholy agenda is unfolding before our very eyes but many of our people are still in denial because the bitter truth is too difficult to grasp and too frightful to admit, accept or comprehend. (TO BE CONTINUED).