SOURTHERN KADUNA: THE MEDIA BIAS TOWARDS HAUSA/FULANI

By Jabir Ishaq

 “In dictatorships the media is controlled by the State. In democracies the media is controlled by wealthy individuals with political affiliations. Objective media and journalists simply do not exist in the mainstream.”

————-Robert Black

Southern Kaduna is one of the most complex place in Nigeria, one can’t understand the social, economic and political reality of the Community unless by thoroughly studying it.

The mainstream media has awash people into thinking the Area is only for a specific Religion, thanks to the majority Christians there who believe every Hausa/Fulani who happens to be there is a mere settler, while in reality the Hausa/Fulani were dominant in Southern Kaduna for over 400years.

The mainstream media has made people believe that the Hausa/Fulani muslims are on a mission to cleanse the Christians there, one thing you’ll ask yourself is, how does people who know they’re minorities with no government appointments nor representatives be the ones to take up arms and on a mission to cleanse the majority? This doesn’t make sense at all, you’ll only hear of Southern Kaduna supposed “massacre” when there’s a counter attack by the affected Hausa/Fulani, you’ll never get to hear about what led to the attack by Fulani. The Hausa/Fulani has been keeping silent thinking they can avenge all what has been done to them and this gave the Southern Kaduna Elite the opportunity to spread lies and propaganda to the media, Southern Kaduna Muslims are the oppressed, from 1992-2015 you’ll hardly call a single Muslim from southern Kaduna that is elected to House of Reps, Senate or KDSHA, I don’t think you can call morethan 3 if there is, so how does people with No government representative oppressed those with power? This doesn’t make sense or whatsoever.

From 1980 to date, there’s been a series of conflicts around Southern Kaduna, not a single one of them was started by the Hausa Fulani.

One thing that’ll make you wonder is, the investigative panels that were set by Various government never for once indicted a Hausa/Fulani man as the guilty party, the most popular one was Justice Niki Tobi panel of 1992, it found Zamani Lekwot and his kinsmen Guilty and sentence them to death, but because of his military connection under IBB, he was pardoned. The recent culprit arrested by the Kaduna State government is also a pointer to who the actual killers are, uptill now, there’s no a single Hausa/Fulani that was arrested and found guilty, this’s even when one of them was a Governor, the late Patrick Ibrahim Yakowa which he was also attacked by his people on different occasions, he was even Nicknamed Gwamnan Hausawa (Hausa’s Governor) because they feel he Favors the Hausa’s, while in reality he was a menace to the Hausa community, because under his watch over one thousand Hausa/Fulani Muslims were killed and injured, houses destroyed living over 11 thousand Hausa/Fulani displaced, scattered around 8 IDP camps within the states without doing anything, there are record on ground.

If there’s any Genocide in Southern Kaduna then ofcourse it’s against the Hausa/Fulani minorities.

Now going back to how the mainstream media are helping the perpetrators of the killings happening in Southern Kaduna to promote their Political/Religious motives in the media without the Journalists investigating the actual occurrence theirselves.

For example when the Fulani in Kajuru decided to counter attack on the 12th May 2020, the media only reported that one without reporting the initial attacks done to them earlier that month, we have shared videos of the displaced Fulani people in kajuru, but not a single media reported that incident, there was even an Aljazeera Documentary on similar attack in Same Kajuru, but our local media reported none of it, and The Christians in Southern Kaduna And other hypocrites outside kaduna were trending hashtags on Twitter and other social media space, so to them the only live that matters is the Christian Lives not the Hausa/Fulani muslims.

Southern Kaduna women are quick to come out Naked to protest just to get sympathy, they’ll never caution their children when they are planning on attacking innocent Hausa/Fulani muslims, they even encourage them, but the moment the victims decide to counter attack you’ll see them naked, shouting and holding useless placards with useless captions just to get sympathy from outsiders.

SOKAPU are also the media Darling, they are given the platform to share lies and propaganda on the media space without giving fair hearing to the Hausa/Fulani group, the recent interview on Channels TV between The SOKAPU President and Mr Sanusi Maikudi is a pointer to how the media are being biased, when Mr Maikudi was giving out points, the camera cut him, and this’s an interview that was supposed to last for 30Mins, but because he was spewing facts leaving the SOKAPU president with nothing to say they cut short it to 20Mins, this’s the only Minutes someone from the Hausa/Fulani Community was given a platform to share out their own side of the story.

Earlier 2019 The likes of Audu maikori, Kefas and Ndi Kato were peddling fake news about Christians killings in Kafanchan, FCE gidan waya to be precisely, the mainstream media decided to pick up that news without actual fact finding, after all it later turned out to be fake. If at all the average Poor man know how to operate Twitter, that news could’ve started a fight in Kaduna.

Another open bias by the mainstream media is shown during The recent crisis in Zangon Kataf, the media ignorantly refused to report the actual cause of it.

It started as a land dispute between the native Kataf “Atyap” farmers and the indigenous Hausa farmers of Zango town, when the native Hausa people decides to use their inherited farm land and the Atyap youth decides no “settler” will use “their” lands, and this led to the merciless killing, burning of Fulani huts and properties, these Fulani people had nothing to do with the conflict between Hausa and Atyap community,

The attacks lasted for about 4days, from 11th June to 15th June 2020, but none of the mainstream media reported this, the Kataf youth decided to blocked the main highway in Zangon Kataf where they unleashed their terror, attacking innocent travelers who also have nothing to do with the conflict, they burn some of their cars, some were destroyed and all.

The fulani that were chased away from their houses in Neighboring villages in Zangon Kataf were taken as IDPs in zangon Kataf by the Hausa community, we have videos, pictures of all these, but not a single media house reported this incident, but they lend their voice in the baseless hashtags going on in social media, the likes of #SouthernKadunaMassacre , #SouthernKaduna etc.

Similarly, the Fulani Communities have been suffering similar organized attacks by Adara Youths in Kajuru Local Government and other parts of Southern Kaduna without them doing anything wrong, their only wrong is being Fulani Muslims living Lawfully in Southern Kaduna.

I call on the government to look into this and help the Hausa/Fulani communities in Southern Kaduna, let the world know the actual truth about it.

Jabir Ishaq