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National President, Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore Socio-cultural Association, Bello Abdullahi Bodejo has said that the Fulani people have fully adopted President Muhammadu Buhari as their candidate in February presidential election. In this interview with WILLY EYA, he spoke on various issues and alleged that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has resorted to giving bribes to the Fulani people to win their support.
It appears there is a division in your organisation on who to support in the coming presidential election. What is happening?
After we directed all the Fulani associations to endorse Buhari, some people went and collected N5000 to go to Sokoto for a meeting and called it coalition for Fulani association. Those people are not Fulani; the PDP presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar just wants to convert some people to Fulani for the sake of the election. Atiku himself is not a Fulani man. Does he resemble a Fulani man? Some Nigerians do not know that there are some original Fulani tribes. We have different types of Fulani. If you bring Buhari and Atiku, if they close your eyes and they tell you to select the original Fulani between them, who will you select? No matter how you try to resemble the Fulani, like if you are slim and maybe yellow, your face will show that you are not Fulani.
There is an allegation that you have collected money from the government and that is why you are supporting Buhari; those who hold this view said you did the same thing in 2015 and supported former President Goodluck Jonathan. How true is that?
If I collected money from Jonathan, you would have known because all the people who collected money from that government, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) is after them. They have been publishing their names in the paper. My interest is just on the welfare of the Fulani people. Have you forgotten that when Jonathan was there, we took them to ECOWAS court where we were looking for justice for the Fulani people? If they are giving money, maybe I am not matured enough to be given such money. Nobody has given me any money and I am not looking for anybody’s money. I am a typical Fulani man.
Many believe that Buhari’s government is divisive; why are you supporting him against Atiku who is believed to be more nationalistic? His critics support their argument with the lopsided appointments by his administration.
If Buhari finishes his tenure and power goes back to Igbo or Yoruba, let them also appoint their own people. No matter what you do, Nigerians regard some people including the Fulani people as enemies. But this is our time. The time that former President Olusegun Obasanjo was in government, anywhere you go to in Abuja, you saw the Yoruba. The Yoruba had a council in the villa and in every corner then, you found the Yoruba man. Who complained that time? When Jonathan was ruling this country, he gave some Northerners appointments but you saw how many Niger Delta people were around him then. They had opportunities more than those people who even had appointments. People say Buhari has given Fulani appointments but how many of them are actually in his government. Many of them people say are Fulani are not but from other tribes. Some say all the Service chiefs are Fulani but is Buratai a Fulani man? The current IG of Police, is he a Fulani man? Name the appointees one by one and I would tell you that they are not of the Fulani tribe. Buhari himself is a typical Fulani man but most of those his appointees are not Fulani.
Since preparations for the coming election started, there are no more cases of herdsmen/farmers clashes; as an insider, what do you think happened?
Some media houses like the Sun newspapers have done a good job and they have been able to expose the truth about the clashes. You people have been doing good and balanced stories and Nigerians are getting to know the truth about the clashes between farmers and herders. All the people who have been trying to fuel the crises, their plans have already failed. Many of them are in the opposition parties where they know they cannot win and they are already weak. They have already finished their money there. They have been going round doing rallies and pushing out propaganda and all that but Nigerians have known the truth and they have nothing to say again. Before now, anywhere you find the Fulani doing their legitimate business, some of these trouble makers follow them but thank God that we are now wiser and our eyes are open. What we are trying to do is to make people understand that some politicians lie against the Fulani. The whole world, now know the truth.
But from the campaigns of the various political parties, who among the two major candidates do you think will win?
What are you talking about? Buhari has won the election now. We are waiting for the swearing in. If you go around the country, it is APC that you see people supporting.
What is your view on the allegations by the opposition that the APC wants to rig the election? Even the US, UK, EU have raised the alarm over the possibility of not having a free and fair election in 2019.
All these countries have their own problems but they should know that Nigeria is a sovereign country and they cannot dictate for us. Let them face their own problems and leave us alone. I believe that 99 per cent of the Yoruba will vote for Buhari and the Igbo people are already for Buhari. And for the Fulani, no single vote from us will go for Atiku. All of us will vote for Buhari. Now, they are giving some fake Fulani N5000 each but I can tell you that the original Fulani will vote for Buhari. I believe that the money would soon finish and even those who collected will still vote for Buhari. There is somebody from Plateau of the Southern Kaduna tribe and he has been trying to convince some fake Fulani to vote for Atiku. Under my leadership, I said every Fulani man should go back to his father’s house. You know that if you say every Fulani man should go back to his father’s house, some would not know where to go to. Since I said Fulani should go back to their father’s house, some are stranded because they don’t even know where they come from. Those are the kind of people that Atiku can use now and they are the people they are giving N5000. They promised them N5000 but they gave them N3000. As I am talking to you, I have with me one of those they promised N5000 but gave them N3000. Even with that, they will not vote for Atiku. How can they invite you from Sokoto to Adamawa and give you N3000? For Buhari, we do not need any single naira from him. People will vote for him because of the natural love that Nigerians have for him. We will vote for him and we can follow him even to the grave. Everybody is saying four plus four but I think Buhari should complete it 10 years even though I don’t know how we can do it because of the constitution. People say Buhari is old and he has been going round the country campaigning when even some so-called young people cannot do it. Do not mind the Yahoo boys who are posting all kinds of things about Buhari. All those things are photoshopped. Buhari did not borrow eye or legs from anybody and they continue to say he is old and you see him campaigning everywhere. Some who do not know what to say are even saying that it is not the real Buhari we are seeing. All those saying those things are devils. There is a coalition who went to have a meeting in Sokoto and they lied to people saying they would give them dollars to endorse Atiku and they reached Sokoto but they did not see any dollar. They said they will give them N5000 each but they did not and now gave them N3000. They are fake people. If they see anybody related to Fulani or anybody herding cows, they say the person is Fulani. I can assure you that those people who went to Sokoto are those rearing cows for Fulani. God forbid that Atiku would rule Nigeria. Nobody should give Nigeria to Atiku. You have heard what he has been saying since he started campaigning. Nigerians should not listen to Atiku; let them leave Buhari to finish his job. All the PDP members who have been defecting to the APC, I am praying that God should bless them.
