Miyetti Allah slams Atiku, says ‘Fulani’s Identity Questionable’

The presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Atiku Abubakar has come under heavy criticism by the Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore, a Fulani social-cultural association, over his claim that President Muhammadu Buhari is not a real Fulani man.

While describing the claim as “pot calling kettle black”, the group said it is Atiku’s identity as a Fulani man that is questionable.

Atiku was quoted to have suggested that Buhari is a fake Fulani man during a campaign rally in Jigawa State on Monday.

He had said that Buhari is not a “full-blooded Fulani man because he cannot speak Fulfulde.”

He added that “a real Fulani man would not drag his followers into extreme poverty like what is happening under the All Progressives Congress administration.”

But in its response, Miyetti Allah, the umbrella body of herdsmen, which had since adopted Buhari as its presidential candidate lambasted Atiku for making such claim.

The group’s national secretary, Saleh Alhassan, argued that the fact that Buhari cannot speak Fulfulde does not in any way mean he is not a real Fulani man.

“The truth of the matter is that, in several places in Adamawa State, they speak Fulfulde. The fact that Atiku speaks Fulfulde doesn’t make him a Fulani man.

“If you look at Atiku physically, he doesn’t carry the biological features of a Fulani man. You look at Atiku and you see the Bantu tribe. He doesn’t belong to the Sudanic tribe.

“Also, we don’t know Atiku’s uncle and all Fulani know their uncles. Have you ever seen Atiku’s uncle? His claim to Fulani background is shrouded in uncertainty because nobody knows his uncles. Buhari’s ‘Fulaniness’ is not in doubt. His father was an Ardo, a Fulani leader. So, I think it is not an issue,” Alhassan said.

On why they rejected Atiku, he said the PDP presidential candidate “doesn’t share in our pains and problems.”