The author of this Blog is proceeding on indefinite Sabbatical, starting from today, January 24, 2017. We thank you - our fans and visitors - for your patronage and sustained interest in the views and opinions that we have shared over the years. But for your continued interest and visit, this Blog would not have garnered the uniqueness that makes it a one stop shop for public policy and current affairs enthusiasts, leaders, and heads of state and government, as well as, their cronies and consultants.
Once again, thanks for sharing my world. As I take this bow and starting anew, yet again, for the unknown, I ask for your prayer. I can only define the goal and the journey, but the challenges, the navigation as well as the fulfillment, as always, are in the hands of God. So long, my friends.
Once again, thanks for sharing my world. As I take this bow and starting anew, yet again, for the unknown, I ask for your prayer. I can only define the goal and the journey, but the challenges, the navigation as well as the fulfillment, as always, are in the hands of God. So long, my friends.
AA
Though the main theme of this Blog is True-Federalism-focused, the author has never for once equivocated on his abiding faith in one true, strong, undivided Nigeria, where equal rights and justice are never illusion, but inalienably vested and broadly available.
And like the moribund demand for Sovereign National Conference, the ongoing calls for Restructuring by most Southern commentators and dislocated political leaders will die stillbirth, unless the agitators start lecturing Nigerians on what exactly is restructuring, why is restructuring necessary and what are the expected benefits. Finally, Southern public affairs commentators and political leaders should learn to speak and write clearly. Above all, they MUST know when to take a stand on a national issue like their Northern colleagues. Because Northern political leaders, since amalgamation, never for once equivocated on what they want out of the union. They decide and we concur.
Given the fact that I consider this Blog an educational platform, I want to cite few examples to buttress my point on the issue of "Northern political leaders decide and we concur." I take the time to do this, not because I nurse any hatred towards Northerners, but because I cherish equal playing field, and the absence of it, is largely responsible for the discontent and insurrections enveloping the Nigeria political landscape right now.
One.
The Northern Region didn't want independence from Great Britain as of 1953 following the motion of independence moved in the Western House by Chief Anthony Enahoro. Sir Almadu Bello, the number one citizen of the Northern Region then, rejected the demand on the ground that he did not want "second colonization." In other words, Great Britain should stay longer, because his Northern Region, as at then, was deficient in trained manpower resources germane for a purposeful realization of the benefits of political emancipation. Simply put, he did not want the invasion of Igbo and Yoruba at the departure of the colonial masters. And as he demanded, Great Britain complied. And our independence was put on hold until Sir Almadu Bello was ready.
Two.
They created Mid-West Region out of the Western Region, not because they love the Mid-westerners, but because "chopping" that geographical landmark out of the old Western Region will massively dilute Awo's influence in the Nigerian geopolitics in terms of electoral strength and vote counts in the Nigerian Parliament. Why was Middle-Belt Region not created out of the massive Northern Region, given the strident demands for its creation then? The agitation for the demand of Middle-Belt Region as of 1963 was more fierce than the demand for the creation of Mid-Western Region.
Three.
They opposed a Unitary system of Government, introduced by Aguiyi Ironsi to unify the country following the assassination of the Sadauna and Abubakar Tafawa Balewa and many other prominent Nigerians in the 1966 coup. The young Military Officers then of Northern origin, buoyed by Northern intellectuals and influential Civil Servants, considered a Unitary system as the emergence of the much dreaded second colonization of Northern Region that the Sadauna feared pre-independence. And Ironsi died. And civil war erupted.
Four.
Following the emergence of the oil wealth after the end of the civil war, and knowing full well than the more States and Local Government Councils each of the regions has, the more of the oil wealth that would go to that region, Northern Military leaders from Yakubu Gowon, IBB to Sani Abacha, went on state and local government council creation bind that massively favored the same Northern Region that Sir Bello considered untouchable, when there was no oil wealth to share and when defeating Obafemi Awolowo by any means necessary was the vogue.
Five.
The pattern that came to play at the creation of State and Local Government Councils, was replicated in the sharing of oil blocs and oil fields in the Niger Delta. Why are Southern political leaders and those stooges in the National Assembly not complaining? Consider for a second, the debates that culminated in the rejection of the passage of the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) by Northern Political leaders; there is no Southern Governor or one of Niger Delta extraction, known to be on record, to take a stand for the passage of the Bill. They don't want history to record them as one who espouses a philosophy or line of thought condemned by Northern power leaders.
In spite of everything, is the Northern region better off from the massive dominance of our political system by Northern Civil Servants and Northern Military Officers? Not at all.
That is the most dominant part of the Nigerian question that Southerners who are agitating for the dismemberment of Nigeria should consider deeply - why is Northern Region abysmally underdeveloped?. Why is the Northern Region a sorry state, in spite the dominance of the oil sector, military, influential positions at MDAs, Foreign Officers, etc?
My position is clear: the entire Nigeria needs to be rescued. The appalling educational and wealth gaps between the Northern Region and the Southern Region are enough to convince you that all is not well in the Northern Region. The political leaders have succeeded in using religion as a weapon of oppression, using it to checkmate the rebellious proclivity reputed of the Talakawa.
In addition, have you ever seen a Northern youth living overseas, running from poverty and oppression in line with their Southern counterpart? Just negligible numbers, but on an educational scholarship. Not because they don't want to. The social awareness is lacking. On that ground, I want to draw your attention to a discussion I participated in by accident when I was in Law School in Nigeria.
"Every problem that you can imagine in the South is ten times in the North." "In the South, almost every family has a relative, Mother, Father, Sister, Brother or cousin living overseas or has visited overseas." "You cannot say the same of the Northern region." " Also, there are villages or communities in the North where no one has ever been to Lagos, talk-less of knowing the feel or color of the Nigerian International Passport." That was was a fellow Law Student directing his speech at me at a small gathering of Law Students, while we were at the Nigerian Law School, Lagos.
It was the weekend of General Abacha's sacking of the Shonekan's interim administration. Why I opposed disintegration, I nevertheless, questioned the quality of leadership imposed on us by the Northern ruling class. Coming closer to me, and, in fact, facing me, he said, I have been watching you since my very first day on this campus, and I don't know the position you will occupy in the Nigerian political system tomorrow. Whatever the position you find yourself in, please remember this discussion. And before you lend your voice to the demand for the dismantling of this country, always remember this discussion. I did not take his demand lightly because I expect him to direct his protest speech at those calling for separation and not me who had issues with the barely literate leaders from the Northern Region. I told him so in a stern voice and walked away from the discussion.
Later in the day, another student who was at the discussion came over to my room and informed me that the student who directed his protest speech at me earlier in the day is a graduate of ABU. He told me also that the gentleman is a Jos native and was the ABU LAWSA President before coming to the Nigerian Law School. And I have lived by that request till this very moment.
I have never wavered in my condemnation of the quality of leadership coming from the North. And I have never wavered in linking that poor leadership quality to the nature of leaders coming from the South. I firmly believe that dividing the country along tribal or geographical lines is not the answer. The present leadership has to go. All the Obasanjos, the Buharis, the Aneni, the Danjumas, Osenis, Tinubus, Nnamanis, Amaechis, Yerrima, Okorochas, Oshiomholes, Kwankwaso, Akpabios, Iboris, Sarakis, etc, must go. The Northern Region can boast of gentlemen like Umar Ganduje, Abubakar Umar, Professor Ibrahim Ayagi, Emir Sanusi of Kano, Professor Jega, Nuru Ribadu, just to name a few. These are the Nigerians of Northern extraction that we need in public office, not the generations of the retired Generals who see the Southern Region as a conquered territory.
Posers for Southern Power Brokers:
How come the Olisa Agbokoba, Femi Falan, Gani Fawehinmi, late Professor Festus Iyayi and all the radical intellectuals of southern extraction are never considered for State or Federal governments jobs like, for instance, Junaid Mohammed, Bala Usman, Bala Mohammed, el'Rufai, Nuru Ribadu and Professor Jega of Northern extraction? Professor Yagudu, after collaborating with President Abacha to calibrate Nigeria and the 1999 Constitution, is back to the classroom. Same with Professor Jega, after the conduct of the last Presidential election. Can you reach the same conclusion with respect to Professors of Southern extraction who served in any of the past governments? Where is Professor Soludo today?What about Professor Sagay? How come he is not back to the classroom? Can you name his signature achievement in political office since he left the classroom?
Do you also know that Professor Nwabueze collaborated with the Abacha dictatorship to destroy the Nigerian University system while he was the Minister of Education? It came to a point that a Northerner, in the person of Dr. Jega, then ASUU Chairman (now Professor Jega, former INEC Chairman), cried out, lamenting that he did not understand the interpretation given by Professor Nwabueze to a "working understanding" reached between ASUU and the previous Minister of Education, Professor Bab Fafuwa. This story was reported by the Guardian Newspaper on its front page. That dubious interpretation shut down our Universities for close to half a year. Who was the Professor serving, Abacha or the people? Certainly not the people. At that historic moment, only the Nigerian Law School was left untouched. And I was a student at the Law School at the time.
Why is Chief Tinubu quiet with respect to the demands for creation of more local government councils in Lagos state as he demanded during the Obasanjo's Presidency, given the fact that Lagos State and Kano State, while they are officially documented to have almost the same population, do not control the same number of local government councils. Kano State has 44 local government councils, and Lagos State has about half of that.
That, my friends, is what is missing within the Southern political leadership - awareness of the disparities in the allocations of offices and positions, but consciously blinded about it.
Another example: While the N'digbo are all over the place demanding for the resurrection of Biafra, they cannot defend their women and farm lands from the invasion of unlettered Fulani Herdsmen. Also, while concerned Northern Governors devoted their time and resources - as a team - to overcome the menace of Cattle Rustlers, no similar team effort is in place in the South to arrest the carnage of invading Herders, allegedly of Niger and Mali tribal origin.
My brother, the first step to unraveling the so-called Nigerian Question is overcoming the timidity of Southern Political leaders - timidity fueled by greed and resentment of the bold and the beautiful among the intellectuals.
Though the main theme of this Blog is True-Federalism-focused, the author has never for once equivocated on his abiding faith in one true, strong, undivided Nigeria, where equal rights and justice are never illusion, but inalienably vested and broadly available.
And like the moribund demand for Sovereign National Conference, the ongoing calls for Restructuring by most Southern commentators and dislocated political leaders will die stillbirth, unless the agitators start lecturing Nigerians on what exactly is restructuring, why is restructuring necessary and what are the expected benefits. Finally, Southern public affairs commentators and political leaders should learn to speak and write clearly. Above all, they MUST know when to take a stand on a national issue like their Northern colleagues. Because Northern political leaders, since amalgamation, never for once equivocated on what they want out of the union. They decide and we concur.
Given the fact that I consider this Blog an educational platform, I want to cite few examples to buttress my point on the issue of "Northern political leaders decide and we concur." I take the time to do this, not because I nurse any hatred towards Northerners, but because I cherish equal playing field, and the absence of it, is largely responsible for the discontent and insurrections enveloping the Nigeria political landscape right now.
One.
The Northern Region didn't want independence from Great Britain as of 1953 following the motion of independence moved in the Western House by Chief Anthony Enahoro. Sir Almadu Bello, the number one citizen of the Northern Region then, rejected the demand on the ground that he did not want "second colonization." In other words, Great Britain should stay longer, because his Northern Region, as at then, was deficient in trained manpower resources germane for a purposeful realization of the benefits of political emancipation. Simply put, he did not want the invasion of Igbo and Yoruba at the departure of the colonial masters. And as he demanded, Great Britain complied. And our independence was put on hold until Sir Almadu Bello was ready.
Two.
They created Mid-West Region out of the Western Region, not because they love the Mid-westerners, but because "chopping" that geographical landmark out of the old Western Region will massively dilute Awo's influence in the Nigerian geopolitics in terms of electoral strength and vote counts in the Nigerian Parliament. Why was Middle-Belt Region not created out of the massive Northern Region, given the strident demands for its creation then? The agitation for the demand of Middle-Belt Region as of 1963 was more fierce than the demand for the creation of Mid-Western Region.
Three.
They opposed a Unitary system of Government, introduced by Aguiyi Ironsi to unify the country following the assassination of the Sadauna and Abubakar Tafawa Balewa and many other prominent Nigerians in the 1966 coup. The young Military Officers then of Northern origin, buoyed by Northern intellectuals and influential Civil Servants, considered a Unitary system as the emergence of the much dreaded second colonization of Northern Region that the Sadauna feared pre-independence. And Ironsi died. And civil war erupted.
Four.
Following the emergence of the oil wealth after the end of the civil war, and knowing full well than the more States and Local Government Councils each of the regions has, the more of the oil wealth that would go to that region, Northern Military leaders from Yakubu Gowon, IBB to Sani Abacha, went on state and local government council creation bind that massively favored the same Northern Region that Sir Bello considered untouchable, when there was no oil wealth to share and when defeating Obafemi Awolowo by any means necessary was the vogue.
Five.
The pattern that came to play at the creation of State and Local Government Councils, was replicated in the sharing of oil blocs and oil fields in the Niger Delta. Why are Southern political leaders and those stooges in the National Assembly not complaining? Consider for a second, the debates that culminated in the rejection of the passage of the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) by Northern Political leaders; there is no Southern Governor or one of Niger Delta extraction, known to be on record, to take a stand for the passage of the Bill. They don't want history to record them as one who espouses a philosophy or line of thought condemned by Northern power leaders.
In spite of everything, is the Northern region better off from the massive dominance of our political system by Northern Civil Servants and Northern Military Officers? Not at all.
That is the most dominant part of the Nigerian question that Southerners who are agitating for the dismemberment of Nigeria should consider deeply - why is Northern Region abysmally underdeveloped?. Why is the Northern Region a sorry state, in spite the dominance of the oil sector, military, influential positions at MDAs, Foreign Officers, etc?
My position is clear: the entire Nigeria needs to be rescued. The appalling educational and wealth gaps between the Northern Region and the Southern Region are enough to convince you that all is not well in the Northern Region. The political leaders have succeeded in using religion as a weapon of oppression, using it to checkmate the rebellious proclivity reputed of the Talakawa.
In addition, have you ever seen a Northern youth living overseas, running from poverty and oppression in line with their Southern counterpart? Just negligible numbers, but on an educational scholarship. Not because they don't want to. The social awareness is lacking. On that ground, I want to draw your attention to a discussion I participated in by accident when I was in Law School in Nigeria.
"Every problem that you can imagine in the South is ten times in the North." "In the South, almost every family has a relative, Mother, Father, Sister, Brother or cousin living overseas or has visited overseas." "You cannot say the same of the Northern region." " Also, there are villages or communities in the North where no one has ever been to Lagos, talk-less of knowing the feel or color of the Nigerian International Passport." That was was a fellow Law Student directing his speech at me at a small gathering of Law Students, while we were at the Nigerian Law School, Lagos.
It was the weekend of General Abacha's sacking of the Shonekan's interim administration. Why I opposed disintegration, I nevertheless, questioned the quality of leadership imposed on us by the Northern ruling class. Coming closer to me, and, in fact, facing me, he said, I have been watching you since my very first day on this campus, and I don't know the position you will occupy in the Nigerian political system tomorrow. Whatever the position you find yourself in, please remember this discussion. And before you lend your voice to the demand for the dismantling of this country, always remember this discussion. I did not take his demand lightly because I expect him to direct his protest speech at those calling for separation and not me who had issues with the barely literate leaders from the Northern Region. I told him so in a stern voice and walked away from the discussion.
Later in the day, another student who was at the discussion came over to my room and informed me that the student who directed his protest speech at me earlier in the day is a graduate of ABU. He told me also that the gentleman is a Jos native and was the ABU LAWSA President before coming to the Nigerian Law School. And I have lived by that request till this very moment.
I have never wavered in my condemnation of the quality of leadership coming from the North. And I have never wavered in linking that poor leadership quality to the nature of leaders coming from the South. I firmly believe that dividing the country along tribal or geographical lines is not the answer. The present leadership has to go. All the Obasanjos, the Buharis, the Aneni, the Danjumas, Osenis, Tinubus, Nnamanis, Amaechis, Yerrima, Okorochas, Oshiomholes, Kwankwaso, Akpabios, Iboris, Sarakis, etc, must go. The Northern Region can boast of gentlemen like Umar Ganduje, Abubakar Umar, Professor Ibrahim Ayagi, Emir Sanusi of Kano, Professor Jega, Nuru Ribadu, just to name a few. These are the Nigerians of Northern extraction that we need in public office, not the generations of the retired Generals who see the Southern Region as a conquered territory.
Posers for Southern Power Brokers:
How come the Olisa Agbokoba, Femi Falan, Gani Fawehinmi, late Professor Festus Iyayi and all the radical intellectuals of southern extraction are never considered for State or Federal governments jobs like, for instance, Junaid Mohammed, Bala Usman, Bala Mohammed, el'Rufai, Nuru Ribadu and Professor Jega of Northern extraction? Professor Yagudu, after collaborating with President Abacha to calibrate Nigeria and the 1999 Constitution, is back to the classroom. Same with Professor Jega, after the conduct of the last Presidential election. Can you reach the same conclusion with respect to Professors of Southern extraction who served in any of the past governments? Where is Professor Soludo today?What about Professor Sagay? How come he is not back to the classroom? Can you name his signature achievement in political office since he left the classroom?
Do you also know that Professor Nwabueze collaborated with the Abacha dictatorship to destroy the Nigerian University system while he was the Minister of Education? It came to a point that a Northerner, in the person of Dr. Jega, then ASUU Chairman (now Professor Jega, former INEC Chairman), cried out, lamenting that he did not understand the interpretation given by Professor Nwabueze to a "working understanding" reached between ASUU and the previous Minister of Education, Professor Bab Fafuwa. This story was reported by the Guardian Newspaper on its front page. That dubious interpretation shut down our Universities for close to half a year. Who was the Professor serving, Abacha or the people? Certainly not the people. At that historic moment, only the Nigerian Law School was left untouched. And I was a student at the Law School at the time.
That, my friends, is what is missing within the Southern political leadership - awareness of the disparities in the allocations of offices and positions, but consciously blinded about it.
Another example: While the N'digbo are all over the place demanding for the resurrection of Biafra, they cannot defend their women and farm lands from the invasion of unlettered Fulani Herdsmen. Also, while concerned Northern Governors devoted their time and resources - as a team - to overcome the menace of Cattle Rustlers, no similar team effort is in place in the South to arrest the carnage of invading Herders, allegedly of Niger and Mali tribal origin.
My brother, the first step to unraveling the so-called Nigerian Question is overcoming the timidity of Southern Political leaders - timidity fueled by greed and resentment of the bold and the beautiful among the intellectuals.
