PRESS CONFERENCE
STATE OF THE NATION: Racial Displacement Invasion
Distinguished members of the Press, and fellow citizens of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, we welcome you to this Press Conference. We thank you for joining us as we deliberate on crucial issues that concern our country. It is our hope that the government and people of Nigeria shall consider the issues we shall raise in this conference.
National Christian Elders Forum (NCEF) wishes to commence this Press Conference by expressing heartfelt condolences to our compatriots who were bereaved of their loved ones in various fatal incidents. We remember a distinguished member of the NCEF, Elder Shyngle Wigwe, whose children died in a fatal helicopter crash in USA. We also remember our fellow Christians who were brutally murdered by Islamist insurgents in the Northern parts of the country. Worthy of mention are the Nigerians killed by kidnappers and those felled in various avoidable death occurrences. May the departed souls rest in peace and may God comfort and strengthen the families they left behind.
As we mourn those who have died, particularly those murdered by religious insurgents, we urge the living to consider that the same threat is hanging over the heads of the survivors, if government does not attach seriousness to the activities of terrorists in the country. The problem facing Nigeria is a complex one and it is evident that we are facing an organized invasion by foreign forces masquerading as religious extremists. Nigeria is facing a racial and cultural domination agenda disguised as religious intolerance. In addition to the wanton murder of Christians in northern Nigeria as well as in the Middle Belt zone of the country, the genocide by the terrorists termed “bandits” against Hausa Muslims in states like Zamfara, Kebbi, Katsina, Kaduna, Sokoto, and Niger states strongly confirm that while religious intolerance is part of the problem, racial domination is the goal.
At the early stage of the Islamist insurgency, Abubakar Shekau gave the impression that Boko Haram was launching a jihad. As the years went by, it expanded into the elimination of ethnic nationalities who are Muslims. It should be remembered that it was under the guise of religious campaign that Othman Dan Fodio took over control of Hausaland. We are concerned that the same pattern is being repeated. What started as religious campaign in northern Nigeria is now spreading all over the country with an immigrant group, descendants of Othman Dan Fodio, claiming ownership of Nigeria, over and above the indigenous ethnic nationalities that own the land.
It is an open secret that hostilities have broken out between the Hausas Muslims and the Fulani Muslims in some states in northern Nigeria. The cause of the hostilities cannot be said to be religious. It is land grabbing.
While the indigenous ethnic nationalities in Nigeria are accommodating and tolerant, they are not suicidal. The pressure that is being placed upon Nigerians by the terrorists and their sponsors can no longer be treated as sectional religious discrimination. The emerging concern is that the entire indigenous ethnic nationalities in Nigeria are now at the risk of racial extermination.
National Christian Elders Forum is calling on Nigerians to be aware that the insecurity in the country is not only aimed at eradicating Christianity and traditionalists but has a long-term goal of Arabization. If Nigerians treat the emerging threat with levity, the country may end up like other African nations which the Arabs took over and exterminated the indigenous African race that owned the land. Such countries include Egypt, Mauritania, Algeria, Libya, and Sudan. Already, the Arabs have announced that they have selected Nigeria as food hub for OIC member nations. This announcement was made without prior discussion with the ethnic nationalities that own the land, and without the consent of State Governors who statutorily control allocation of land in the country.
In Plateau and Kaduna states, data exists that hundreds of villages of the ethnic nationalities have been taken over by foreign Fulanis. The owners of the land have been driven into IDP camps while the names of the villages have been changed to Fulani names. In Plateau state, over 102 villages were reportedly taken over by Fulani invaders while in Kaduna state, over 109 villages have been dislodged. The owners of the land are in IDP camps. Recently, a community leader in the Niger Delta, Mr. Asari Dokubo, posted in a video clip that thousands of Fulanis have entered the country and they have taken over villages in Bayelsa and Rivers state. He raised alarm that a displacement invasion is ongoing. Similar reports have been made in Taraba, Benue, Adamawa, and in other parts of the country.
The recent visit of Hamas terrorists to Nigeria, bearing in mind that Hamas is not the government of Palestine, neither does it represent the Palestinian people in any legislative capacity, also raises concern about government’s commitment to fighting terrorism. Shortly after the abduction of 287 secondary school children in Kuriga, Kaduna State, a security expert, Dr. Kabiru Adamu, stated on Arise TV that the location of the camps of the bandits was known to government four years ago. Even if the Buhari administration failed to act, what stopped the Tinubu administration from dismantling the camps of the terrorists?
NCEF is calling on the indigenous Muslims in Nigeria to calmly examine these issues and take positions that will be in the long-term best interest of their ethnic groups. What is going on is more than religion. For hundreds of years, before the Europeans started slave trade in Africa, the Arabs have been preying on black Africans as slave market. The Arabic word “abeed” refers to a black African, as well as to a slave. The late Osama bin Laden shed more light on the Arabic word “abeed” in an interview in his lifetime when he said, “this is why whenever an Arab looks at a black African, what he sees is a slave.” This word, “abeed”, has not been expunged from the Arabic language.
This is the time for the indigenous ethnic nationalities to carefully define their friends and foes. The amount of blood that has been shed in Nigeria, involving indigenous Christians, Muslims, and traditionalists, prove that the indigenous ethnic nationalities have the same enemy. That enemy is a foreign invader. The killings going on in Nigeria were not motivated by the indigenous ethnic nationalities. Unfortunately, some of the local actors were manipulated into thinking they were pursuing a religious agenda, but the puppet masters have no religious goal in view. It is all about racial displacement.
In view of the foregoing, National Christian Elders Forum (NCEF), wishes to recommend as follows:
- The Report of the 2014 National Conference, which included a draft new Constitution for Nigeria, should be implemented without any further delay. NCEF joins its voice with that of the eminent Nigerians in the Patriots Group, that held a Conference on 18th March 2024, calling for a new Constitution for Nigeria. The perennial amendment of the Constitution by the National Assembly should cease, and the legislators should start work on a new Constitution for Nigeria. After five alterations to the Constitution, without any significant positive impact on the country, the National Assembly should commence work immediately on adopting the report of the 2014 National Conference with its draft Constitution.
- There should be an immediate ban on nomadic cattle rearing. Cattle owners should be compelled to set up ranches at their own expense as business entrepreneurs. It should not be the responsibility of the government to fund one enterprise at the expense of other businesses in the country. After all, when the cattle are sold, the proceed is not handed over to the government.
- The RUGA project should be abolished. In the first instance, the Federal Government has no statutory right to allocate land in Nigeria under the Land Use Act. This is the responsibility of the States. Any business investor that requires land should apply for land like other citizens. Preferential treatment should not be accorded any group in Nigeria.
- The ethnic nationalities should assert their right and ownership over their ancestral land and assert the dominion of their thrones in Nigeria.
- The ethnic socio-cultural groups such as Afenifere, Ohaneze Ndigbo, Arewa Consultative Group, Middle Belt Forum, and PANDEF should consider these issues in greater detail. Nigerians have no problem with each other. It is external forces that are seeking to tear the country apart for hostile takeover of the land and its resources. The demand for devolution of power should be intensified by the ethnic nationalities.
- President Tinubu should set forth his agenda for Nigeria instead of following in the infamous footsteps of his predecessor whose tenure brought only grief and penury to Nigerians.
- NCEF wishes to reiterate its earlier recommendation that President Tinubu should appoint a Special Investigator to conduct a Commission of Inquiry into the causes, as well as expose the actors, in the various acts of terrorism and religious insurgency that overwhelmed Nigeria since 2009.
The purpose of this Press Conference is to awaken Nigerians to the reality of foreign invasion against the country. Nigeria is facing racial displacement invasion. It is this foreign invasion that is responsible for the insecurity in Nigeria and compromise of the delicate political balance in the country. While every Nigerian is free, according to Section 38 (1) of the Constitution to express his/her religious conviction, citizens must be careful not to jeopardize National Security under misguided religious fervour.
God bless Nigeria.
Dr Samuel D. Gani
Chairman
National Christian Elders Forum
11th April 2024
Dr. Samuel Danjuma Gani, CON, Chairman,