Chief Solomon Asemota was a Police officer in Ife when the 1966 conflagration enveloped the country. He was not in support of the pogrom and after he resigned from the Police he studied Law and by dint of hard work rose to become a SAN and infact was a senior Attorney to some top oil companies operating in the Delta. A courageous advocate of good governance he had fought many battles for the down trodden, the masses and one of the few that supported our anti genocide crusade when it was suicide to do so under the military. At the last time in New York celebrating the Achebe books we met and his recommendation for a new Nigeria was read after Wole Soyinka papers ….here is his own presentation to the Christian youths when he was the President 1777 of thee CAN …
The British under Lugard perceived the north as the location of the superior race. Islamic religion of the so called finer race was a better –regarded form of paganism than the fetish practices of the savage south. It was also clear that that Lugard decided to withdraw to Kaduna so as to ‘escape the political stress center of Lagos, that was clearly too turbulent for him in 1914”. The indirect Rule administrative policy adopted in the north was to maintain, strengthen and educate the Fulani and Kanembu ruling races, so that the regeneration of Nigeria may be through its own governing clan and its own indigenous institutions.
Lugard accused Christianity of being potentially disruptive and intolerant. As can be seen, since the amalgamation, the light-skinned Hausa/Fulani, clothed with Islam, because the ‘secured north’. The struggle for supremacy between Muslim and Christians was one of no contest in favour of Islam.
Ideally, the amalgamation would not have taken place but for its financial implication. Lugard’s own appreciation of the situation was summarized thus; the ‘necessary for amalgamation’ under the two headings of finance and railways. Not only had the northern protectorate been running at a substantial operating loss – in itself a direct contradiction of one of the traditional British colonial maxims that every territory must be self-supporting – but its treasury had been subverted by heavy grants-in-aid from both Great Britain and the southern protectorate. At this time, the prosperity of the south was increasing rapidly thanks to the high duties imposed on liquid imports. Such source of revenue was unknown of the Moslem north. As Crowther observed, “the Northern line from Baro to Minna was build with funds diverted from the revenue of the southern protectorate”.
Enwerem in his book, ‘A Dangerous Awakening,’ maintained that, ‘while the southern politicians saw independence as opportunity to have a Nigeria ruled by Nigerians, the members of Hausa/Fulani ruling class saw it in the same way but with a fundamental exception: Than, they wanted a Nigeria ruled not just by Nigerians, but by those belonging to, or approved by the Hausa/Fulani Islamic ruling class.’
Religion is an ideology and like every ideology, it can be characterized either as a place or tool. The Hausa/Fulani ruling class not only used Islam as an ideology, but they also mastered the game of polities, because, when it was time to settle for politics in the First, Second or Third Republic and various military administrations, they played the game better than other ethnic nationalities in Nigeria. Hassan Kukah in his book, ‘Religion Politics and Power in Northern Nigeria’ maintained that the Hausa/Fulani game of politics is however characterized by intrigues manipulations and ad hoc alliances. A game in which the northern ruling class sould neither be challenged, shaken nor threatened. According to Enwerem, ‘the maintenance of this dominance has been made possible largely through ecumenical politics and apparently natural ability of the Hausa/Fulani Islamic class to refine without sacrificing their overall interest. It must be remembered that after the coup of Major Nzeogwu and its apparent ‘success’ in January 1966 followed with the installation of Aguiyi-Ironsi as Head of State, it was the Hausa/Falani ruling class that went round to instigate the northern soldiers who were mainly Christians of the Middle Belt to stage the counter coup of July 1966, that saw Yakubu Gowon as Head of State.
The Hausa/Fulani ruling class effectively used Gowon to continue the propagation of Islam, when Nigeria joined the Organization of Islamic Countries i.e. (OIC), on an observer status, to take over mission schools and hospitals by government in norder to slow down the growth of Christianity and introduce the quota system. The effects of these policies was that the Huasa/Fulani Muslims benefited more than any other group in the country. Some Christian schools were even given Muslim names.