Between Shettima:  Fulani’s and Ejike’s Mischief.

By: Inuwa Bwala

Anybody with a fair knowledge of inter tribal or ethnic relationships should be able to to tell about the close ethnic affinity between the Kanuris and Fulanis.

Very often, they joke, mock each other and exchange banters whenever and wherever they meet. 

This is also true of the Babur\Bura with Karakare and the Tivs with Fulanis and several other ethnic groups.

It is rather nostalgic today, that such banters seldom find expressions in our relationships: such that we regard each other as real or perceived foes, based on either ethnic or religious profiling.

Kashim Shettima, the Vice President elect of Nigeria: a Kanuri by tribe often fascinates me whenever he encounters Fulani men or women  by trying to relive that fast disappearing sense of humour in the relationship between Kanuris and Fulanis.

There was this old video of the Distinguished Senator Kashim Shettima, now Vice President elect, exchanging banters with some Fulani locals he met at a construction site.

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In the said video. Shettima could be heard telling the Fulanis that they are slaves to the Kanuris, in which he mockingly tried to remove the scarf of one of them, before patting him on the back.

 I have witnessed several such jokes and banters between him and Fulanis, while I worked under him as Commissioner 

Honestly. Shettima’s sense of humour is awesome, especially when he meets the lowly placed ones, more often labourers who work at  sites or even in at public gatherings.

Shettima will jokingly seize Fulani scarfs or sticks and ask them to bail it or loose it. In such encounters, you will never believe Kashim Shettima is a highly placed individual, not even a state Governor, Senator and now Vice President elect.

Quite recently, he met some Fulanis in the holy land, and the video of the jokes he cracked with them was all over the social media, to the effect that he even gave them gifts.

It was rather uncharitable and obviously mischievous that one Ejike Celestine used the video of one of Senator Kashim Shettimas several banters with some Fulani folks to impute that Shettima visited bandits in their camp. 

A curious viewer of the said video, could see that the setting and background was not a bandit enclave, neither did the conversations reveal any form of camaraderie nor any sinister motive.

It is even more dangerous; the attempt by the writer of the rider to the video, portraying every encounter between any other tribe with Fulani, as a visit to bandits, or to profile every Fulani as a bandit. 

As Nigerians: no matter the issues that tend to divide us, we owe each other a duty to respect our relationships and give our leaders that statutory sense of respect.

Trying to embarrass Kashim Shettima using such devious techniques or trying to deepen ethnic cleavages by promoting hatred is a great disservice to our sense of nationhood. 

This latest attempt to create a narrative about Kashim Shettima may not be new, and those behind it may not be in a hurry to stop, but it is also not lost on right thinking people and discerning minds, that Shettima is not a friend to bandits  rather a compatriot of the Fulani. 

The relationship between the two ethnic groups based on mutual banters predate Shettima’s birth and emergence as a leader, and I dare say, no amount of misinterpretation could change the order.

Between Shettima:  Fulani’s and Ejike’s Mischief.