Miyetti Allah And Its Unguarded Utterances By Akinleye Segun

A spokesman for Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore, the increasingly incendiary Fulani socio-cultural group, Salah Alhassan, on Tuesday, during a live programme on national television, Channels TV said, “Despite their education, Yorubas are the most primitive ethnic group in Nigeria when it comes to politics.”

This harebrained utterance, coming from the representative of the top-of-the-range barbarians, who are irrevocably stuck in their primordiality, is an outright slap on the faces of Nigerians, especially the Yorubas, who have had to tolerate the uncultured swines for long. The statement, a further testament to how President Muhammadu Buhari has emboldened the group, is another justification for the creation of the Western Nigerian Security Network (aka Amotekun).

Such unguarded utterances are not new from Miyetti Allah. The group deserves an award, if there is any, for its inane statements – from making the call for the arrest of Yoruba leaders in support of Amotekun to threatening not to relinquish power to the southwest in 2023, amongst others.

Even since the launch of Amotekun, the group has had no rest, like a man that swallowed mortar. Miyetti Allah, a group synonymous with death, destruction, anguish, tears and blood, evidenced by their rampages across the country, is not fit to hold sway in any country. Lest Alhassan has forgotten, the Fulani herdsmen, his tribe, was labelled as the fourth deadliest terror group in the world. To think that the uncouth figure on air dared to use the word ‘hate speech’ says all about his state of mind.

How did we arrive at the point where people of twisted minds and warped way of thinking go on national TV to talk down on other tribes? This, definitely is not the first time, but we can make it the last time by putting Miyetti Allah and its hoard of rampaging barbarians in their place.

Despite the years they have held onto power, legitimately and illegitimately, what do they have to show for it? The north holds the record for the highest number of out-of-school children, the highest number of beggars, and the highest number of child marriages. Terrorism, kidnapping and other vices have also made the north their permanent home.

Self-evidently, Alhasan is unperturbed. Rather than directing his efforts to stem the cataclysmic tragedy engulfing the north, he decided to bark at the wrong tree, typical of the northerners who have maintained total silence in calling out the inadequacies of their ‘son’ despite having to bury their people daily from the glaring insecurity issues that have ravaged the north.

‘Primitive’ and the Yoruba race are two parallel lines that can never meet, in case we need to take Alhasan and his ilks down memory lane. The Yoruba race he ignorantly called primitive, through Chief Obafemi Awolowo, introduced free primary education for all and free health care for children in the Western Region, a feat that has placed the Yorubas far above their folks. While the ‘primitive’ tribe was already watching television in 1959 (First television station in Africa), his folks were probably trying to start a fire by striking two stones.

Does Alhasan need to be reminded that when the former president, Goodluck Jonathan, attempted to take his region out of its backwardness and show that education is crucial to liberation by creating the Almajiri school, his efforts were kicked against? Isn’t that another indication of the inherent crudeness of his ilks?

It is essential to sound a note of warning to Miyetti Allah that any ill-advised foray into Yoruba land to carry out their trademark attacks on innocent farmers would be resisted. That is the essence of Amotekun and if, in its attempt to defend its people from the marauding Fulani herdsmen, the Yorubas are tagged “primitive”, then so be it. But certainly not from the mouth of a premium barbarian and his divisive, virulently-destructive group.