The Hausa Fulani establishment, the Hausa Fulani politicians, the Hausa Fulani business class, and the Hausa Fulani royalty are all very angry with former President Olusegun Obasanjo. They are so consumed with rage such that if they had opportunity to kill him, they would do so without hesitation. They detest him as one detests the odious fart of a dying patient!

Obasanjo’s offence bothering on sin is that with his eyes open, he allowed Soludo to kill the sacred cow of the North, that is the Bank of the North. It is gratuitous ingratitude that Obasanjo should treat the North the way he did after the North put him in power at a time he was flatly rejected by his own people.

It will be recalled that the Bank of the North which hitherto served as the public milk provider for the northern establishment had always been saved by Northerners in Government including Shagari, Babangida, Abacha amongst others. It was because the bank was so strategic to the economic interest of the North that all great people of the Zone had always risen as one man to save it from collapsing.

Obasanjo was aware of this fact and yet encouraged Soludo to nail the coffin of their cherished treasure! Obasanjo knew that the Bank of the North was the life wire of that region, and yet allowed it to die.

To show the extent of the North’s anger against Obasanjo, one should listen to what a prominent senator by the name Kabiru Gaya who was Governor of Kano state between 1991 and 1993 said on the floor of the senate: “Soludo and those who gave him the hatchet job killed the only two banks we had in the entire northern region; Bank of the North and Intercity Bank. But the last word has not been heard. Soludo and his pay masters shall pay dearly for this.” He said this on February 9, 2009

But it was not only the senator that has poured vituperations on Obasanjo and the Yoruba and the Yoruba and Igbo nations over the collapse of Bank of the North and the call to arms for vengeance.

Another prominent Northern leader, in fact the Managing Director of the Unity Bank, a bank now standing in for the defunct Bank of the North expressed greater anger and a call to the Northern sensibilities to punish the South:

“This economic and banking reform initiated by Obasanjo was a mere ruse. The main agenda was to drag the Hausa/Fulani back a thousand years. He pulled us back and advanced the cause of the Yoruba and Igbo. Ninety-four percent of all the banks in Nigeria are in the hands of the Yoruba and Igbo. The Yoruba nation is not as large as we are, and in population, they are not in any way near us. And yet they control over 60% of all the major industries in the land. This same Yoruba people control over 44% of commercial banks and they virtually dominate the insurance industry. And they own the three largest sea ports: Apapa, Tin Can Island and Roro Port.” These were the words of Mallam Falalu Bello, Managing Director Unity Bank, spoken on March 6, 2008

Malam Falalu Bello did not stop at that. He went further: All the crises plaguing the North like religious riots and fanaticism, arson, murder, upheavals and communal clashes, will not abate until we deal with the Yoruba domination of the economic and financial sector. There can never be peace in Nigeria as long as the economy and financial muscle of this nation remain lopsided [in favour of Yoruba and Igbo]. And it was in order to correct this imbalance that we prevailed on President Yar’Adua to sack Soludo. It is in order to stop the Yoruba’s domination of the economy and to foster peace in Nigeria that Sanusi Lamido Sanusi was appointed Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria.” This is the crucial reason why five leading banks are in serious trouble, and the matter will not go away unless and until the Hausa/Fulani achieve their agenda.

What do the Hausa/Fulani really want? What is their agenda? They want to drive the Yoruba out of the control of the finance and economic sector and replace them with the Hausa/Fulani, or get the Federal Government which they [the Hausa/Fulani] control to take over and thus allow their [Hausa /Fulani] free access to the national treasury. But the Yoruba are not surprised at the antics of both Sanusi and the EFCC, because they are acting out a script already known to the Yoruba.

But how did it all start? It is wrong and mischievous to say that it was Obafemi Awolowo [1971-1972] or Olusegun obasanjo [1976-1977] who laid the foundation of the Yoruba’s prominence in the finance and economic sector.

As far back as 1892 when Europeans established the African Banking Corporation, they chose Lagos as their headquarters. And while majority of staffers were Europeans, they still had local employees. And these employees were almost ALL Yoruba. Not a single person from the North of the Niger.

In 1894, a shipping magnate by the name of Alfred Lewis Jones, a European, together with a few friends bought the African Banking Corporation and changed its name to Bank of British West Africa. And that was the first bank in Nigeria, based of course in Lagos. They changed the name to Bank of West Africa in 1957, and in 1965 to Standard Bank of West Africa. In 1969 they changed the name to Standard Bank of Nigeria. And in 1979, they changed its name to the current name of First Bank of Nigeria

As mentioned earlier, Europeans were the majority staffers with sprinkles of Yoruba people. But as the bank grew and expanded, and based in Lagos, so the Yoruba staffers grew and expanded, naturally.

In 1917, the British colonialist government decided to establish their own bank, and so founded the Colonial Bank which was bought in 1925 by the Barclays Bank of London and changed its name to Barclays Bank of West Africa. And in 1969 changed the name to Barclays Bank of Nigeria. And it was changed to Union Bank of Nigeria in 1990.

As with the story of the African banking Corporation, the Colonial Bank was based in Lagos, and the Yoruba employees grew with the fortunes of the bank. No employee was from the North. And that fact has nothing to do with the Yoruba nation.

Bank of British and French founded in 1948 followed the same pattern. BBF later became United Bank for Africa [UBA]. Another French interest founded International Bank for West Africa [IBWA] which metamorphosed to Afribank

So between 1894 and 1930, the Yoruba filled these banks to the brim, employed purely on merit by their owners. 1930 is critical to our discourse. That year, a prominent Yoruba Nigerian son by the name Herbert Macaulay, invited two friends and founded the first indigenous Nigerian bank by the name of Industrial and Commercial Bank. This was a wholly Yoruba bank, even though the bank was shortlived.

But in 1933, another set of prominent Yoruba sons namely; Dr Akinola Maja, T. Adebayo Doherty and H.A. Subair founded the National Bank of Nigeria.

Twelve years later, another set of enterprising Yoruba sons namely M.A. Okupe and A.A. Alade founded the Agbonmagbe Bank. Agbonmagbe Bank metamorphosed to Wema Bank.

Thus between 1900 and 1945 there were only four banks, namely First Bank, National Bank, union Bank and Wema bank. Euoropeans owned two, the Yoruba nation owned two. It was from these four banks that other banks sprang.

When Chief Nnamdi Azikiwe returned from his sojourn overseas, he settled in Lagos where he originally grew up. He spoke fluent Yoruba, bought a business in Tinubu Square area. He had friends amongst the owners of National Bank and even teamed up with them before founding Tinubu Bank in 1946. He changed the name to African Continental Bank, the first indigenous bank established by an Igbo.

But in the whole of the North, it was 30 years after the Yoruba established banks that some Lebanese based in Kano approached Sir Ahmadu Bello and with his government established Bank of the North in 1960. At that time the bank had to rely heavily on Yoruba expertise for its staffing and managerial operations.

This story, and this history is what the present crop of Hausa/Fulani leaders are very ignorant of and are scheming desperately to edge out the Yoruba from the banking industry. The Yoruba are therefore well equipped to deal with whatever machinations Sanusi may have up his sleeves. And if a bathroom wants to turn itself into a big lake, the house owner and the whole world shall see [and of course checkmate its disastrous ambition]

abasaheed@yahoo.ca This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it Texts only: 0807 777 5030

we are now sounding like the most paranoid set on the surface of the earth!


secret ko ashiri ni

@Poster and Author,

The north has started and we have done nothing. Are we going to wait till they get rid of all of them before we act.

It is not only the North that has been pulled back in time by 100 years, the whole Nigeria has been pulled back.
there used to be train when i was growing up.
there were pay phones.
there used to be order.
traffice weren't as bad.
People were able to take care of their family.
now it is worse.
So Nigeria is just a nice nation going backwards in all things