FEATURE ARTICLE

Comrade Ifeanyichukwu MmohFriday, December 8, 2017
[email protected]
Jos, Nigeria

HOW HAS NIGERIA WRONGED NORTHERN NIGERIA SINCE INDEPENDENCE?


am about to ask a question and what I shall ask comes direct from my heart as a Nigerian. I may not wait for your answer as I purposed to answer myself. Here is the question: How has Nigeria wronged the North since independence? Are there events, incidences or specific cases of abuse that one can point at to justify the wanton killings and destruction of precious Nigerian lives currently going on in almost all the 19 states in the region?

Follow me closely. Nigeria's economic situation since the APC's rise to power in 2015 has gone from good to bad and from bad to worse and, while the ruling APC traded words with the PDP over whose policies actually lead the economy into recession, there are signs that the explanation secretly had more to do with the developmental imbalance between the northern region and the southern region than what the vicious tirade between these political parties told us.

You will recall that upon the take-off of this administration, apart from the ambassadorial and ministerial positions where adherence to the Federal Character Act was strongly recommended by the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Mr. President had gone on to share the Department and Agencies of government as he felt was 'equitable' in his mind. While the northern region got an unfair two-thirds of the security and economic positions, the south got the left overs.

He did not stop there but continued to replaced the vacant positions especially from the security and economic segment of government with another northerner. Nigerians took this painful 'swallow' with a smile. In time, there arose eventually those youths from the southeast and the south-south Nigeria who felt the burden to demand for equity. Mr. President wasted no time at all to order the deployment of army troops to these places that they should clamp down on those criminals.

Meanwhile, Mr. President saw no need to call to order his marauder kinsmen who destroyed people's lives and means of livelihood. It did not bother him that his initiative of returning Nigerians to the farms (as he envisioned it) could led to inflation. We have had Agric policies in the past but believe me that this one had some ethnic coloration to it. It was designed to enrich the feudal lords of the northern region at the expense of the other regions of Nigeria.

The APC agric policy was an adulteration of the win-win package previously put together by the Hon. Akinwumi Adesina led ministry of Agriculture a few years ago. Mr. President was meticulous to restrict Forex on some 41 items but diligently refused to be meticulous over the distribution and sale of fertilizer for 5,500 naira as government subsidized fertilizer sold for 8,000 naira by the same people he put in charge. Distribution was okay in the Northwest but was irregular in the other regions.

His able kinsmen, using their herds added salt to injury to what was left of the agric hoax. The anti-grazing idea which was once touted suddenly cowered in the face of a government-backed campaign against such by the Miyetti Allah Cattle association. Under his watchful eyes, the states that had so far dared to implement the anti-grazing law became the herdsmen number one enemies. Those who are still contemplating the idea are not left in peace but are equally mourning their dead.

Only recently, one of his lieutenant - Gov. Kashim Shettima of Borno State - openly said 'Restructuring my foot!' This is a Chief Security Officer whose state has been devalued over a period of time because of the failure of the polity to have been restructured. The Boko Haram terrorists have skillfully turned the state into a 'Persian gulf' despite the presence of the Nigeria Military and if he had to rebuild without the aid of the federal government, would not have Shettima supported restructuring?

The general feeling that development was more in the south than the north could not have come as surprise to anyone. Reasons being that right from independence till date, the south largely fared without federal aid; the discovery of oil notwithstanding. The southern region did not qualify for any attention as their natural asset became their worse nightmare. Through all those agonies, the tiny development that came through hard work is being envied by the north.

I am miffed at how northern Nigeria desired to have every other Nigerian lived and thought as they did. To attract development to a region is simple and did not seem to me to become a platform upon which any progressive region should become stigmatized. What is going on currently in Nigeria, is a case of the APC attempting to develop the northern region at the expense of the other regions. The use of federal funds to rebuild Borno state is a case in point.

50 years ago, the 5 states of the southeastern region came under federal fire and not even Mr. Gowon's RRR did anything near all that Borno state had benefited presently. Yet it appears that was not enough! The majority of appointees from southern Nigeria who are currently working with the APC are so upright in service but the majority of those from the north swim from one scandal to another in the face of an anti-corruption drive.

Is it an offense today that our fathers consented to a Nigeria Federation as put together by the Britons where a region was super advantaged in land mass than the other? Was their consent construed as a concede to the status of second-class citizenry? Northern Nigeria has been held down all of these decades as a result of the greed of feudal interests which is why it amazes me whenever I have to do a write-up on the socioeconomic realities in the region, how that this fact remained hidden from them!

If I may ask, where went those industries built in the region only 12 years ago during the Chief Obasanjo's presidency? Where went the Almajiri schools built by the Dr. Jonathan's government? Where went all the big Igbo industries in the region? Why is Aliko Dangote not investing in the region? Where are the industries abandoned by the Lebanese nationals after the indigenization policy? Why is Atiku Abubakar - the only northerner to invest heavily in the north - esteemed so low in the north?

And the Buharis, El-Rufais, Shettimas, Babangidas, Abdulsalamis etc, esteemed so highly? Is it not because whoever believed Western education more than they believed Islamic education was an enemy of the north? Emir Sanusi of Kano Emirate used to be the darling of feudal interest until he showed preference for the building of schools over the building of mosques. What does that tell you? That the south hindered the north from developing? Or that the north hindered itself?

60 after, what Sir Ahmadu Bello began to implement as 'northern agenda' has created a deeply impoverished region, a highly illiterate majority, a highly intolerant religious belief and a socioeconomically backward region whose hatred for civilization is sentimental. In his inaugural speech in 2015, Mr. President hinted that he had come to continue from where Uthman Dan fodio had stopped. He went on to refer to Uthman Dan fodio as one of Nigeria's founding fathers!

When the premiers of the western, eastern and mid-western regions then busied themselves orientating their people positively in an attempt to make them more accommodating of the other tribes in Nigeria, Sir Ahmadu bello concentrated on sowing the seed of hatred for the other tribes in the minds of his people. Today, the presence of the other tribes in the north spoils the mood of the average northerner who should've seen it as an asset to the region instead of a threat.

There is a high rate of polygamous marriage and drug abuse in this region only because they were told that population was a necessity if the region must remain the dominant force in the political equation of Nigeria. Therefore drugs like aphrodisiac were needed to satisfy the sexual needs of the many wives! Looking at all these, how has Nigeria been the cause of the prevalent socioeconomic backwardness in the north that should necessitate the APC's open hatred for the south?

And what role was Nigeria expected to play in aiding the development of the north that they have not so far played? Restructuring is another patriotic idea presently championed by southern Nigeria in the hope that it'll benefit the entire tribes within the federation. But what is the position of northern Nigeria on this subject? Their position has remained largely those of their hero Sir Ahmadu Bello despite that they have seen how their hero's agenda had held them backward developmentally.

Let me conclude here by saying that development does not fall from the skies; only a conscious accommodation of others can bring about a truly cosmopolitan north. Even if the whole of the Nigerian government positions should go to the northerners tomorrow, so long as there was not a rework of prevailing mindset of greed and intolerance for the other members of the Nigerian state; developmental imbalance will still remain a thorny issue.

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