Buhari’s Worsening Headache

President Muhammadu Buhari of the All Progressives Congress (APC) won a questionable second term in office last February, but the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is still refusing to accept the outcome and a period of uncertainty and unrest is likely to follow the outcome of the legal tussle.

With former Vice President Atiku Abubakar and his party, the PDP, alleging fraud and refusing to accept the verdict of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), the risk of political unrest still remains high in Nigeria. In the volatile Niger Delta for instance, the country’s main oil and gas region, which is widely regarded as the scene of some of the worst election violence, could easily cycle into Oil War in their quest for fiscal federalism/resource ownership and control.

However, Buhari, according to INEC, won the presidential election with 15.2 million votes (or 57 percent). His rival and fellow Fulani, Atiku Abubakar, going by the verdict of the electoral agency, received 11.2 million votes, or 42 percent.

Before the election, INEC took the decision to postpone the election for a week allegedly due to operation and logistical challenges. The electoral body said it had been made aware of irregularities prior to the election — although it has itself been the target of accusations from both the main parties, accusing it of trying to influence the result in favour of the ruling party.

Besides the Buhari/APC and Atiku/PDP seeming bitter political antagonism, the Buhari administration is equally facing a variety of security challenges. There is the lingering Boko Haram insurgency in the North-East axis. Insecurity in the oil and gas region is endemic. And, there is the spiralling violence between pastoralist Fulani herders and local farmers in the North-West.

This is despite the president’s equivocal claim in 2015 that Boko Haram has been “technically defeated”. The rampaging jihadists have continued to gain ground across Lake Chad and West Africa, where the humanitarian fallout is, if anything, worsening.

Boko Haram is the latest extremist group in Kano. In 2014, the city’s emir – the second most important Islamic leader in the country – asked citizens to “acquire what they need” to defend themselves against Boko Haram fighters. The following week, more than 100 people gathered at the city’s central mosque for Friday prayers would die in attacks.

The extremist group, which formed in 2002 in Nigeria’s northeastern city of Maiduguri, the capital of Borno State and initially operated in the areas around it, had come South and Westward, to places like Kano, where the attackers had hit several times earlier in the year.

Two girls – one looked to be 11, the other maybe 18 – stepped out of a minibus and walked to a mobile phone market. The blast killed a reported 15 people. A girl believed to be 13 detonated a bomb outside a mosque. Another set off an improvised explosive on a college campus.

In a neighbouring state, security agents arrested a 10-year-old girl with bombs strapped to her chest.

The Fali People

The free encyclopedia, Wikipedia, says the Fali people, called the Bana in Nigeria, are any of several small ethnic groups of Africa. They are concentrated in mountainous areas of northern Cameroon, but some also live in North-Eastern Nigeria. The Fali are composed of four major groups, each corresponding to a geographic region: The Bossoum Fali, the Kangou Fali, the Peske–Bori Fali, and the Tingelin Fali.

The Fali in Cameroon have been described as being centered on Garoua as well as the rocky plateaus and peaks of the Adamawa mountains in the country’s north. The Fali are sometimes referred to as the Kirdi, meaning “pagan,” a term given by the neighboring Muslim Fulani; after they fought against the jihadists and rejected Islam. Today the Fali in Mubi North Adamawa state are predominantly Christians.

According to the encyclopedia, the term Fali is from a Fula word meaning “perched,” a reference to how Fali compounds appear on the sides of mountains. The Fali in Nigeria primarily live in the Mubi District, Mubi Division of the former Gongola State.

The Fali speak various unrelated languages.

The Fali primarily engage in farming and hunting. Major crops include milletchickpeaspeanuts (groundnuts), squashtobaccookra, and cotton. The Fali are exogamouspatrilineal, and hierarchical, with society being made up of clans with distinct territories and chiefs, and tracing their origin to a common ancestor. They observe virilocal residence.

The Fali people trace their ancestry to the Ngomma, who founded the ancient capital of Timpil. Other accounts trace the Fali’s origins to the Sao civilizationon Lake Chad, which flourished from the tenth to the 16th centuries.

The original Fali religion is traditional African. It has been identified as monotheistic, involving belief in a creator god, Muttaf , and a mother goddess, Ona, the Earth. Followers of the Fali religion make prayers and offerings to ancestors to intercede with Faw on behalf of the living.[3] The Fali “conceive of Muttaf not only as creator and organizer, but also as a just God who is undepictable by human intelligence.”

The religion also includes belief in supernatural beings, including genies, sacred crocodiles, and the black snake, the master of darkness. By 2009, increasing numbers of Fali were [[Conversion to Christianity) Christians although many converts maintain syncretic beliefs. the total population of Fali is over 250, 000 people, with 99 percent being Christians (in Nigeria) and the remainder being Muslims and traditional believers. The dominant churches in Fali Land are Catholic, Baptist and EYN with few Pentecostal churches coming up in recent days.

Apart from Nigeria and Cameroon, the Fali people are also found in Ivory Coast. They have many subgroups such as Bossoum, Kangou , Peske, Bori and Tingelin, In Cameroon they are known as Garoua and Kirdi, they grow crops such as millet, Chickpeas, Peanuts, Squash, tobacco, Okra and Cotton .

They are mostly in Mubi of Adamawa state , farming and hunting also play a big role. The Fali ethnic group traced their ancestry to Ngomma who established ancient capital of Timpil and Others claimed they traced their origins to the Sao Civilisation of Lake Chad which flourished from 10th and 16th Centuries. Fali women known for their pottery, making of weave fabrics out of it .

Fao is known as the supreme deity which is God, they also have donkeys, horses, cattle, goats, sheeps, chickens and pigs, bees are made by taken honey out of them . Falis make their own arts of dolls and clay carving, Fali on the northern part villages consists of round dwellings made of mud brick and having thatched roofs. They are separate rooms are added to the house when the children reach puberty and young males live in their own square huts until they are married .Each special stones are to represent the family’s ancestor .

Other Fali subgroups include Mubi, Vin, Madzara, Bwin and Huli and It is claimed they had came from eastern part of Chad and even others claimed Sudan, and settled in Bagira, currently Bwin. They later moved down from the hills and spread throughout the region .

The Fali People who are located in Nigeria, some parts of northern Cameroon and Ivory Coast follow symbolism such as Margi amulet, Fali kirdi, iron sword, doll pouppe, and furnerary doll used during some funerals.

Subscribe to our newsletter for latest news and updates. You can disable anytime.