NewStats: 3,262,043 , 8,175,949 topics. Date: Saturday, 31 May 2025 at 04:03 PM 635v3m

Away from politics, today's column on the back page of Saturday Tribune explodes myths and unmasks the ethnic origins of Nigeria's past military and civilian heads of state: Nigeria’s education system robs Nigerians of basic knowledge about their country and its people. That’s why although ethnic identity is a central part of Nigeria’s national imagination, most Nigerians know awfully little about the ethnic identities of their rulers.

In the absence of accurate, official information, most people have resorted to assumptions, guesswork, and outright falsehoods on the ethnic origins of their rulers—and on most things about the country, leading me to once characterize Nigeria as a “know-nothing nation” in my August 10, 2013 column.

I have chosen to dedicate today’s column to providing accurate, verifiable information about the ethnic identities of Nigeria’s past presidents and heads of state.

1. Abubakar Tafawa Balewa. Several people, particularly in the South, have assigned a Hausa, Fulani, or “Hausa-Fulani” ethnic identity to Nigeria’s first Prime Minister. But he was neither ethnically Hausa nor Fulani. Of course, if he was neither Hausa nor Fulani, he couldn’t conceivably be “Hausa-Fulani.”

He came from a small ethnic minority group called the Gere, whom Hausa people call Bagere or Bageri (singular) and Gerawa (plural). Gere is not mutually intelligible with Hausa or Fulfulde. It’s a wholly separate ethnic group that traces distant roots from what is now Chad.

As I pointed out in my January 23, 2016 column titled “Gere:Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa’s Real Ethnic Group,” a 1905 Journal of the Royal African Society article by a G. Merrick titled “Languages in Northern Nigeria” said the Gere are “closely related to the Bolewa [a minority language spoken mostly in Fika Emirate in Yobe State] and living to the west of them.”

2. Thomas Aguiyi-Ironsi: There is no question that Aguiyi-Ironsi, who became Head of State after Tafawa Balewa’s assassination, was Igbo from Umuahia in what is now Abia State.

3. Yakubu Gowon: Although he was raised in Wusasa near Zaria, which is home to Fulani Christians, his parents were Angas (also called Ngas) from what is now Plateau State. Angas is an Afro-Asiatic language like Hausa, but it is mutually unintelligible with Hausa.

As I pointed out in my April 3, 2016 column titled “Nigerian Languages are More Closely Related Than You Think,” “Another surprising fact about Nigeria’s language family classification is that Hausa, the most prominent member of the Afro-Asiatic family in Nigeria, shares the same ancestor with the Angas of Plateau State. In fact, just like Hausa, Angas belongs to the Chadic subfamily of the Afro-Asiatic language family. Yet two ethnic groups couldn’t be more culturally different than the Hausa and the Angas.”

4. Murtala Mohammed: Murtala Mohammed's paternal identity is the subject of elaborate, long-standing speculations. Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, who is now Emir Muhammadu Sanusi II, once wrote that Murtala Mohammed was Fulani. A few other people from Kano say the same thing. But several other people say it was only Murtala’s mother that was Fulani from Kano.

His paternal identity is shrouded in controversy. But the most credible clue to his paternal identity, in my opinion, is the assertion that his father was from northern Edo State. A man by the name of Austin Braimoh, who says he is Murtala’s paternal first cousin, wrote in a February 19, 2016 Vanguard article titled “ing Murtala Mohammed” that Murtala’s father's name was Dako Mohammed and that he migrated to Kano from the village of Igbe in the Auchi area of Edo State after briefly living in Lagos.

“It is well documented that General Murtala Mohammed made efforts to reach out to his paternal relations before his demise,” he wrote. “Two months into his tenure as Head of State, he was at Auchi to confer with the Otaru of Auchi Alhaji Guruza Momoh. He invited him to him to that year’s Hajj in Mecca. On his way out of Auchi, he directed that a mosque be erected at Aviele, near Auchi in a predominantly Muslim settlement. The mosque was completed after his death and named after him.”

Given the number of people with “Auchi” ancestry who rose to prominence in the Kano society, including the legendary Isyaku Rabiu, this claim isn't far-fetched.

5. Olusegun Obasanjo: Obasanjo’s Owu ethnicity is well-known. There is nothing to add or take away from it. Of course, the Owu are a subgroup of the Yoruba ethnic group.

6. Shehu Shagari: Shehu Shagari’s Fulani ethnicity is also well-known. Although he also spoke Hausa, he self-identified as Fulani. His great-grandfather founded the town whose name he adopted as his last name.

7. Muhammadu Buhari: Apart from being phenotypically Fulani like Shagari, Buhari also never missed an opportunity to proclaim his Fulani ethnic identity. In fact, at 18, when he applied to enlist in the Nigerian military, he gratuitously mentioned his ethnicity. “I have the honour to apply for regular service in the Royal Nigerian Army,” he wrote on October 18, 1961. “My name is Muhammadu Buhari and I am a Fulani.”

8. Ibrahim Babangida: IBB’s ethnic identity is surprisingly a magnet for controversy and speculations. He has been called Gbagyi (whom Hausa people call Gwari), Nupe, and even Yoruba from Ogbomoso or Osogbo. But he told journalists and his biographers at different times that his immediate ancestors were Hausas from Kano who migrated to what is now Niger State.

I’d rather go with his self-definition of his ethnic identity than the evidence-free claims of others.

9. Abdulsalami Abubakar: Because Minna, where Abubakar was born, was founded by the Gbagyi, people have also assumed that he is Gbagyi. But he told a biographer that he was born to Hausa parents. Since Hausas are not native to Minna, it must mean that, like IBB, his immediate ancestors came to Minna from Nigeria’s northwest.

10. Umaru Musa Yar’adua: Yar’adua has been erroneously called “Fulani” because of his phenotypic features, but his immediate paternal ancestors are actually Tuaregs, possibly from Mauritania. The Tuaregs are a branch of the Berber cluster in North Africa. Many Tuaregs (whom Hausa people call Buzu) in northern Nigeria tend to be mistaken for Fulani because of the similarities in their physical features. I got to know that the Yar’Adua family are Tuaregs when I lived in Katsina town in the late 1990s.

Another prominent Tuareg family in northern Nigeria that people mistake for Fulani is the Baba-Ahmed family in Kaduna State.

11. Goodluck Jonathan: Jonathan is often mistaken for an Ijaw, but he is not. He is from a small ethnic group called the Ogbia (or Ogbinya), which is linguistically and ethnically unrelated to Ijaw. As of 2006, according to records, the Ogbia were a little over 266,000.

As I pointed out in my August 3, 2013 column titled “What’s REALLY President Goodluck Jonathan’s Ethnic Group?” while Ijaw belongs to the Atlantic-Congo branch of the Niger-Congo language family, Ogbia belongs to the Central Delta subphyla, but historians say the ancestors of the Ogbia people most likely migrated to their present location from present-day Edo State. Ogbia has its own dialects, which are all mutually intelligible, according to Ethnologue. They are Agholo (or Kolo), Oloibiri, and Anyama.

Concluding Thoughts
A distribution of the paternal ethnic identities of Nigeria’s presidents and heads of state shows that the Hausa and the Fulani each had two, and Yoruba, Igbo, Angas, Ogbia, Tuareg, and Etsako (or Afenmai) each had one.

Of course, that’s simplistic. Identity in northern Nigeria is more complex than that. Religion is a more important marker of identity than ethnicity is. For instance, although Abubakar Tafawa Balewa was Gere, he was culturally Hausa and was indistinguishable from a Hausa or Fulani Muslim.

Nonetheless, in the interest of historical accuracy, it doesn’t hurt to be familiar with the facts about the ethnic identities of Nigeria’s past and present presidents and heads of states.

https://www.farooqkperogi.com/2020/02/true-ethnic-origins-of-nigerias-past.html?m=1

All i know is;North is hausa and hausg is North.

Judging from the write up.
2 Hausas
2 Fulanis
1 Yoruba
1 Igbo

Others are minorities.

Sammy07:
.

.


Even internet can not cure your illiteracy. Don't worry continue to spin that trash of 3 ethnic group in Nigeria to your already myopic self.

Not a bad idea for History Students
One the other hand, I wish God will open our eyes to see what ethicity has done to this country

Abeg joo, I will Design a Professional Logo for your Company or Product For 2k Only. Offer valid Today Only. See my info below to Chat me

rafindo:
.


Even internet can not cure your illiteracy. Don't worry continue to spin that trash of 3 ethnic group in Nigeria to your already myopic self.

Have you taken your drugs today
It's past 8.

The north is still a mess despite their rulership over the years.

What about shonekan?

Sammy07:
Judging from the write up.
2 Hausas
2 Fulanis
1 Yoruba
1 Igbo

Others are minorities.

Hausa-fulani remains the right word...both must be together.

where is abacha and shonekan? We all contributed to the mess we have today. No one is living the wreckage.

MelesZenawi:


Hausa-fulani remains the right word...both must be together.

nothing of such is existing.

I have always told people who just lump north up as just an ethnic group, North is diverse just as the South, just that they are bounded by religion

I look forward to a day that reality about the imaginary Hausa-Fulani Oligarchy they sell to dummies get exposed s, Hausa is hausa, fulani is fulani, many Kanuri's Nupes, Gwari all intermarries Fulani, but Fulani smartly dominate hausa politically with the fraudulent hausa-fulani narrative... truth is Hausa can.never get Presidency, or even become a member of common Meyetti Allah, they cant even become Emirs and that was why they sided British Empire in chasing few fulani back

..






.

Caseless:
where is abacha and shonekan?
We all contributed to the mess we have today. No one is living the wreckage.

The list is not complete

Great article. Never knew about a couple of information in the article but the article is right about Goodluck Jonathan.He is Ogbia and not Ijaw like most people who are not Bayelsans or haven't lived in Bayelsa think. Ogbia is only POLITICALLY Ijaw but are in no way the same people.

No Abacus
No Ernest Shonekan

Sammy07:
Judging from the write up.
2 Hausas
2 Fulanis
1 Yoruba
1 Igbo

Others are minorities.

It's
HAUSA
YORUBA
IGBO. Others are Satellites of these three.

Citytrend:
Not a bad idea for History Students

What about Abacha? He was an Abomination.

You should have included failed leaders and failed head of states

Buhari is a Fulani from where please

What has ethnic origin got to do with good governance? We keep deceiving ourselves with tribal bigotry and using ethnicity as benchmarks for performance.

When sm1 is capable and can perform it’s obvious by certain traits and attributes ethnicity isn’t one.

If u like u can keep glorifying ur tribal bigotry and languishing in ur absolute ignorance.

So Hausa and fulani has produced 2 presidents each..
Can they now allow the rest to rule? At least Pity itsekiri and urobo them

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•
2⃣ DIGNITY is like VIRGINITY, once lost, it can never be regained.
•
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•
4⃣ SALARY is like MENSTRUATION, they always come once every month, and disappear in 3 days.�

Ok

Buhari's identity is still uncertain

If you could add Ironsi, why didn't you add Shonekan

What of acting president Osinbajo

Waiting for piggiiddiiioootts to come for my head...

In conclusion

Nigeria was sold to northerners for a peanut since time immemoral

Olu Obasanjo’s ethnic group is shrouded in secrecy just as Murtala

*

Fulani will soon have their own country, shecow will be the first President of the region that has 4ever bn a burden infested with parasites, he has warned someone never to come to near that territory again

***

And no general sani abacha

360degreess:
All i know is;North is hausa and hausg is North.

Liar....
There is nothing like North

Just group of rag heads whose elites use religion to dupe and impoverish