TAKING a second look at what you described as your attempt to deconstruct the prevalent perspective about Northern Nigeria, may I say that what you called a prevalent perspective about the North is more than just a perspective. It is a perspective that is informed by the understanding of your ideology.

An ideology that Hausa/Fulani Northerners have shown the whole world over time. An ideology that they have NO VALUE FOR HUMAN LIFE. That is why they can wake up and slaughter people in the name of whatever cause they believe in without thinking twice.

You said  “that anger against injustice became trailed by an alienating violence. But this should not surprise anybody with an understanding of history”. Oh yes! People really understand the Northern history; that is why they have a perspective that cannot be deconstructed by your pen.

They know what the Northern (Hausa/Fulani) ideology is by their history. You referred to jihad. That is your history. The history is that there were jihadists that lived in a pre-colonial society.

They fought jihad and killed as a way of fighting for their causes and centuries later their descendants/followers in post-colonial republic Nigeria are yet to accept a better way of fighting a cause without killing people and destroying properties in a republic or country where there is freedom of worship, right to live, right to security within the constituencies of the republic.

They have not realised that there is a difference between the pre-colonial society of Usman Danfodio era and the Federal Republic of Nigeria of the 21st century.

What other history does a Hausa/Fulani have that you referred to in the quote above? I know that churches were burnt in Kano and Christians killed between 2001 and 2003 as a result of crises in the Middle East between America, Al Qaeda, Taliban, Iraq and Afghanistan. It has become a history and again this shows the people the Hausa/Fulani ideology.

So I did not waste time to inform my elder brother in Sokoto to seek for a place of safety immediately President Obama of America announced the killing of Osama Bin Laden in May 2011, because I envisaged of reprisal in the Northern Nigeria.

Later the media reported that such attack was planned but for quick intervention of Nigeria security agencies it did not take place. This is just an illustration of how the Northern history which is not different from the present has clearly defined your ideology which we all know. You have only shown your ignorance and lack of understanding when you called the reaction of people to the post-election violence a prevalent perspective.

Nothing else reveals your ideology than a striking resemblance between your history and the current event; your past and your present. The jihadist preferred sword to pen and they refuted Western education. Recently, their followers lifted up sword against young university graduates. When your history is repeated; when there is conformity between your past and your present people will not just have a perspective about you, they will know your ideology.

The truth you should accept is that it will take a Sovereign National Conference to bring all of us together to address such fundamental ideologies and reform Nigeria, and make it a country with true federalism.

In conclusion, I will advise you to go and set up an NGO that will be responsible for the reorientation of Hausa/Fulani Muslims instead of trying to make a case that does not stand intellectual reasoning. I will be glad to work with you. Finally take time to apologise to Prof. Wole Soyinka, CAN and Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor.

Mr. DAVID OCHU,  a commentator on national issues, wrote from Lagos.