Fulani Empire or the Sultanate of Sokoto in Nigeria In 1804, Usman dan Fodio, a Fulani cleric, declared jihad to overthrow the Hausa Kingdoms in the north of the country. Many of his followers were Fulani. Because of his ethnicity, he was able to attract the Fulani clan leaders and wealthy Fulani cattle owners, who, like feudal lords, provided servants and troops for the jihad that began in Gobir, one of the seven origi- nal Hausa Kingdoms, located over Katsina and Zamfara. The new state that resulted from Usman dan Fodio’s jihad was the Sokoto Caliphate, named after his capital at Sokoto, foun- ded in 1809.
parts of the savanna and Sahel and led to the foundation of Is- lamic states in Senegal, Mali, Ivory Coast, Chad, Central African Republic and Sudan. Expansion attempts toward the Middle Belt were stopped by the resistance of local peoples to incor- poration into the emirate states. This history is important to understand the reluctance and fears of part of the population. Today, the Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Muhammed Sa’ad Abubakar III, remains the religious leader of Northern Nigeria’s Muslims and the most important Muslim position in Nigeria. However, he is engaged in the pur- suit of peace between conflicting religious and cultural forces. He has worked on actions of dialogue and understanding be- tween religions with Catholic Church leaders such as Cardinal John Onaiyekan and Bishop Matthew Kukah of Sokoto. On 22 August 2019, he was appointed as Co-President of the Council of Religion for Peace (CRP).
Usman dan Fodio created a huge empire in Africa. By the mi- ddle of the 19th century, the Sokoto Caliphate stretched 1,500 kilometers from Dori in modern Burkina Faso to southern Ada- mawa in Cameroon and included Nupe lands, Ilorin in nor- thern Yorubaland, and much of the Benue River valley. Usman dan Fodio’s jihad inspired a series of holy wars in other
3.3.2. Political and ethnic dimension The problem is further complicated by the almost total lack of political reaction. There are many complaints of inaction by the Federal government. The fact that Nigeria’s President, Muham- madu Buhari, is a Fulani, has raised suspicions and even accu- sations of failure to condemn and prosecute systematic attacks by Fulani militias. The audacity with which they travel to every corner of Nigeria in search of pasture for their livestock is unparalleled, and there are many instances of these herders encroaching on farmland in all parts of the country, armed with rifles and other weapons, and acting with impunity. The lack of meaningful prosecution of these men further fuels the belief that they have the federal government’s support. There is no conclusive evidence that this is the case, but the lack of willpower or motivation to stop the rise in these crimes makes it difficult to convince many Nigerians that there is no connection between the unilateral appointment of officials and the failure to prosecute the perpetrators of these
crimes against humanity and what appears to be a selective ki- lling of Christians 9 . Feelings of injustice and frustration on the part of the victims – due to the impunity of the perpetrators – is immense and in some parts of the country citizen self-defense groups have been created. This factor complicates the conflict even more but has been seen as the only solution to stop the violent attacks of the Fulani herdsmen in many places. “The scale of killings, displacement and wanton destruction of property by these Fulani jihadist militias only buttresses the now revealed agenda to depopulate Christian communities in Nigeria and take over lands. Tellingly, the government in power in Nigeria at the moment continues to do nothing about these persistent at- tacks, save to give laughable reasons like ‘climate change’ or that some Muslims too are sometimes killed in attacks by so-called bandits” , said Bishop Wilfred Chikpa Anagbe of Makurdi, one of the dioceses in Benue State.
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