As you read, another trailer is on its way, meandering through unmapped routes, traversing difficult terrains, and bribing its way along as it searches for a fertile homeland down Southern Region to upload its human contents: the emancipated almajiri and the rejected talakawas of the Northern Region. This is supposedly a national problem, yet it is evading a concerted national dialogue. Thus, prompting the affected states to resort to self-help: deportation.
Debating Quality Leadership
The year General Sani Abacha sacked the Interim Government of Mr. Shonekan, I was a student at the Nigerian Law School, Lagos. And as expected, the "future talk heads" will readily assemble to analyze the development. And they did. I remember walking to my hostel at Igbosere that unfaithful evening and bumped into a gathering of students at the entrance to the Dormitory, debating feverishly the bloodless coup. As I listened to the discussion, a consensus was emerging: Dismantle Nigeria permanently. And I waited and watched, without saying a word.
After a while, I interjected the flow of the discussion with a few lines that caught every one of them by surprise. I told them specifically that I am opposed to the dismantling narrative, but strictly against the quality or caliber of the leadership coming from the Northern region. I expressed my reservation over the individuals the powerful Northern political elite has consistently imposed on us over the years.
I told them how an Idiagbon a Yoruba Northerner could not execute a successful coup without integrating a notable figure from the Sokoto/Kano axis to confer legitimacy on the new dispensation. Stating that with Idiagbon by himself, there would not have been an IBB Coup. He would have retired him and his clique before they had the chance to organize and strike.
In a similar fashion, I continued, for an IBB Coup to be legitimate, they needed a notable figure from the same Sokoto/Kano Caliphate - Sani Abacha. For the eight years that IBB was in power, he could not dare retire Abacha, as unessential and corrupt as he was. That would have been the end of IBB administration.
In other words, pandering to the Sokoto/Kano Caliphate is a debilitating factor in our leadership selection process. And as a matter of fact, these two individuals - Abacha and Buhari - are not as academically gifted as those Officers from the Niger State and Middle-Belt axis. When IBB stepped aside, why didn't he retire Sani Abacha? Simple. That would amount to totally surrendering the leadership of the Nigerian Armed forces to the Lantang or Middle-Belt Mafia.
And I continued, citing the example of Adamu Chiroma, a retired Banker, and Mallam Maitama Sule Usufu, a former diplomat who were left out during the NPN Primaries for Alhaji Shehu Shagari. Adding that Alhaji Shehu Shaagri's highest aspiration was to be a Senator and not a President. And I stopped. It was like a bolt from the blue and no one expected it. And there was a brief pause in the discussion.
Then, this student who I have never met before or interacted with, stepped forward to do the unexpected. Facing me directly, he said, "every problem confronting you guys from the South, we have them ten times the same problem in the North. The poverty and joblessness you guys are complaining about, they are times ten in the North. Health, infant mortality, insecurity, poor infrastructural facilities, educational problems, just name the problem, it is times ten in the Northern part of this country." At that point, I interrupted him by asking if he understood what I just said. He answered affirmatively and continued in a prophetic tone.
He declared emphatically that he has been watching me since our first day at the Law School. Continuing, he said, "it is like we live in a different world or a different country." "I have noticed that some of you have been to the UK or America during the holidays." "Also, it is very apparent that your Mom, Dad, Brothers, Sisters, Aunts, Uncles, or Cousins either live overseas or have been there." "It is not the same story in the North."
And he continued. "There are towns and villages in the North where you would hardly find someone who has traveled to Lagos, talkless of traveling to the UK or America." Then, he paused.
Given the fact that he directed his speech at me, it was not unexpected that I should respond. I repeated my line against the dismantling argument, and demanded, instead, for a Confederal system of government.
And I concluded by telling him that I don't even know who he is, and I am appalled that he is directing his speech at me, even when I was not agitating for disintegration.
At that point, he stepped closer and said, "you don't have to know me, but I know who you are and I have been watching you since my first day in this Law School." Hearing that I said, "you know what, this is why I don't like to engage students in political debate."
As I was about walking away, he stopped me and said, please, listen to me, I don't know the office or position you are going to occupy in this country tomorrow, but whatever position you find yourself, do not forget this discussion and do not join hands in the demands for the breakup of this country. We have more problems in the North than you know. Noticing that no other student was talking beside the two of us, I excused them and walked to my dom.
About thirty minutes later, another student who was at the discussion came into my room to chastise me for walking out of the gathering. He said, the guy likes you and he knows you very well. And I asked, how, I have never met him before. My visitor repeated, he knows you very well. Adding, he knows that you are one of the Executive members of the Edo State Bar Student Association. Hearing that, I was a little bit amazed, asking my friend, who is he?
My visitor told me that the guy is a Middle-Belt native, precisely from Jos, and a graduate of the Ahmadu Bello University Faculty of Law, Zaria. He added that the student was the President of the ABU Law Student Association (LAWSA) before coming to the Nigerian Law School. And I said, "impressive, a Jos native, no wonder I couldn't figure his accent."
The following morning, I bumped into the gentleman at the Obalende Bus Stop on our way to class, and we both acknowledged each other by nodding our heads, without saying a word.
My stand on the discussion at the Law School Dom has remained with me until this very moment. As I told the gentleman and the other students in that discussion, I have never asked for the dismantling of this country in my copious writings or in my pronouncements in the public. True Federalism, yes. Unequivocally. A Confederal system of government, yes. Unequivocally.
But I have never ceased to demand a new approach to leadership selection in the North, nor ceased to have problems with the caliber of the personalities emerging from the North as our political leaders.
They see the South as a conquered territory. And the ninety-nine problems (apology to Jay Z) that the gentleman articulated more than twenty years ago are still with us today. Despite their appropriation of the political power at the center, they remain willfully blinded on how to make life better for the majority of the talakawas and the almajiri population.
Debating Quality Leadership
The year General Sani Abacha sacked the Interim Government of Mr. Shonekan, I was a student at the Nigerian Law School, Lagos. And as expected, the "future talk heads" will readily assemble to analyze the development. And they did. I remember walking to my hostel at Igbosere that unfaithful evening and bumped into a gathering of students at the entrance to the Dormitory, debating feverishly the bloodless coup. As I listened to the discussion, a consensus was emerging: Dismantle Nigeria permanently. And I waited and watched, without saying a word.
After a while, I interjected the flow of the discussion with a few lines that caught every one of them by surprise. I told them specifically that I am opposed to the dismantling narrative, but strictly against the quality or caliber of the leadership coming from the Northern region. I expressed my reservation over the individuals the powerful Northern political elite has consistently imposed on us over the years.
I told them how an Idiagbon a Yoruba Northerner could not execute a successful coup without integrating a notable figure from the Sokoto/Kano axis to confer legitimacy on the new dispensation. Stating that with Idiagbon by himself, there would not have been an IBB Coup. He would have retired him and his clique before they had the chance to organize and strike.
In a similar fashion, I continued, for an IBB Coup to be legitimate, they needed a notable figure from the same Sokoto/Kano Caliphate - Sani Abacha. For the eight years that IBB was in power, he could not dare retire Abacha, as unessential and corrupt as he was. That would have been the end of IBB administration.
In other words, pandering to the Sokoto/Kano Caliphate is a debilitating factor in our leadership selection process. And as a matter of fact, these two individuals - Abacha and Buhari - are not as academically gifted as those Officers from the Niger State and Middle-Belt axis. When IBB stepped aside, why didn't he retire Sani Abacha? Simple. That would amount to totally surrendering the leadership of the Nigerian Armed forces to the Lantang or Middle-Belt Mafia.
And I continued, citing the example of Adamu Chiroma, a retired Banker, and Mallam Maitama Sule Usufu, a former diplomat who were left out during the NPN Primaries for Alhaji Shehu Shagari. Adding that Alhaji Shehu Shaagri's highest aspiration was to be a Senator and not a President. And I stopped. It was like a bolt from the blue and no one expected it. And there was a brief pause in the discussion.
Then, this student who I have never met before or interacted with, stepped forward to do the unexpected. Facing me directly, he said, "every problem confronting you guys from the South, we have them ten times the same problem in the North. The poverty and joblessness you guys are complaining about, they are times ten in the North. Health, infant mortality, insecurity, poor infrastructural facilities, educational problems, just name the problem, it is times ten in the Northern part of this country." At that point, I interrupted him by asking if he understood what I just said. He answered affirmatively and continued in a prophetic tone.
He declared emphatically that he has been watching me since our first day at the Law School. Continuing, he said, "it is like we live in a different world or a different country." "I have noticed that some of you have been to the UK or America during the holidays." "Also, it is very apparent that your Mom, Dad, Brothers, Sisters, Aunts, Uncles, or Cousins either live overseas or have been there." "It is not the same story in the North."
And he continued. "There are towns and villages in the North where you would hardly find someone who has traveled to Lagos, talkless of traveling to the UK or America." Then, he paused.
Given the fact that he directed his speech at me, it was not unexpected that I should respond. I repeated my line against the dismantling argument, and demanded, instead, for a Confederal system of government.
And I concluded by telling him that I don't even know who he is, and I am appalled that he is directing his speech at me, even when I was not agitating for disintegration.
At that point, he stepped closer and said, "you don't have to know me, but I know who you are and I have been watching you since my first day in this Law School." Hearing that I said, "you know what, this is why I don't like to engage students in political debate."
As I was about walking away, he stopped me and said, please, listen to me, I don't know the office or position you are going to occupy in this country tomorrow, but whatever position you find yourself, do not forget this discussion and do not join hands in the demands for the breakup of this country. We have more problems in the North than you know. Noticing that no other student was talking beside the two of us, I excused them and walked to my dom.
About thirty minutes later, another student who was at the discussion came into my room to chastise me for walking out of the gathering. He said, the guy likes you and he knows you very well. And I asked, how, I have never met him before. My visitor repeated, he knows you very well. Adding, he knows that you are one of the Executive members of the Edo State Bar Student Association. Hearing that, I was a little bit amazed, asking my friend, who is he?
My visitor told me that the guy is a Middle-Belt native, precisely from Jos, and a graduate of the Ahmadu Bello University Faculty of Law, Zaria. He added that the student was the President of the ABU Law Student Association (LAWSA) before coming to the Nigerian Law School. And I said, "impressive, a Jos native, no wonder I couldn't figure his accent."
The following morning, I bumped into the gentleman at the Obalende Bus Stop on our way to class, and we both acknowledged each other by nodding our heads, without saying a word.
My stand on the discussion at the Law School Dom has remained with me until this very moment. As I told the gentleman and the other students in that discussion, I have never asked for the dismantling of this country in my copious writings or in my pronouncements in the public. True Federalism, yes. Unequivocally. A Confederal system of government, yes. Unequivocally.
But I have never ceased to demand a new approach to leadership selection in the North, nor ceased to have problems with the caliber of the personalities emerging from the North as our political leaders.
They see the South as a conquered territory. And the ninety-nine problems (apology to Jay Z) that the gentleman articulated more than twenty years ago are still with us today. Despite their appropriation of the political power at the center, they remain willfully blinded on how to make life better for the majority of the talakawas and the almajiri population.
A Disturbing Reality!
But for the Boko Haram insurgency and the invasion and sacking of villages and communities in the Middle-Belt and North-East, Southerners would not have known of the appalling state of infrastructural facilities and the standard of living in some parts of the North. I am not denying the fact that we have poverty and joblessness at all the Makoko villages in the South, but I am not so sure that we still have communities living in mud houses in the South voluntarily and comfortably.
Today, the world and the international news media have given up counting and reporting the number of bandits and Boko haram related death in Nigeria, especially in the Northern region. Indeed, we have a President who is a Northerner. And the Minister of Defense, Chief of Army Staff, and the Security Adviser, all Northerners. Yet, they cannot stop the killing in their neck of the woods or elsewhere in Nigeria.
Worse of it all, foreign mercenaries do not have problem invading Nigerian communities in Sokoto and Zamfara States, holding the natives in bondage, and subjecting them to extorted taxation. It has never been so bad in the history of our amalgamation. Yet, we have a son of the Sokoto/Kano Caliphate as the President, who is a retired Major General in the Nigerian Armed Forces.
Today, there are thousands of his people in the streets of Aba, Benin City, Lagos, Owerri, Onitsha, Port-Harcourt, Ibadan, Akure, just to name a few, soliciting for alms to survive. But their big brothers who pray like them and speak like them, live luxuriously in the big houses at Abuja, UK, Niamey, and Dubai.
Every day, they die like chicken, uncounted. They are butchered and they are butchering the harmless unhinged. They are slaughtered and they are slaughtering others. They are dislocated and they are dislocating thousands of others. They are evacuated and they are sacking others. They are dispossessed and they are dispossessing others of their belongings. They have no home and they are rendering thousands homeless. They have no history and they are rendering thousands unaccountable.
Yes, they are Northerners. But they are first, Nigerians. And they are the tragedy of the identity politics of Northern political leaders, which most commentators referred to as irredentism. And that is the thesis of this essay - The Ills of Identity Politics of Northern Intellectuals and Political Elite.
Fighting to Frustrate the South Without Helping the North!
It is the one of them who confronted me at the Law School hostel who would grow up to become the like of Dr. Ahmadu Ali of the famous "Ali Must Go" student protest of the 70s who sponsored the removal of feeding subsidy for Nigerian University students. More Southern students are benefiting.
It is one of them who would grow to become Dr. Junaid Muhammad or one VC of the University of Maiduguri, a Minister of Education, a Minister of Petroleum Resources - the extremist Dr. Jubrin Aminu of the Nigerian University Commission of the 70s who canvassed vigorously AGAINST free education at all level on the ground that it would not benefit the North in the same magnitude that it would likely benefit the South.
It is one of them who would grow up to become a Professor and the Chairman of the national electoral commission who would openly manipulate the results of a Presidential election to perpetuate in the office of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria someone who indisputably believes that the Southern part of his country is a conquered territory.
It is one of them who would, thanks to crude oil dollars, secured a fulltime scholarship to study Law to a JSD level at Harvard University Law School, and become a Legal Adviser to a Military Dictator, and singlehandedly concocted a convoluted National Constitution while presiding over the lopsided calibration of Nigerian into unviable states and local government councils, all favoring his own region.
They tolerated the Almajiri culture. We consider it a national shame. To them, illiteracy is an honor. And Boko is Haram. Indeed, to them, poverty is a pride, almsgiving is noble, and sponsored marriages are the best way to emancipate the helpless youths. But they sent their children overseas to attend Grammar Schools and Universities to acquire western education and dignified social etiquette.
The truth is, if the northern political leaders are willing to cast their votes on every national issue dispassionately as a Nigerian first, and not as a Northerner, I can assure my Law School Student friend that no Nigerian commentator would be calling for the dismantling of this country.
I want my readers to do a review of the excuses they gave for impeding the passage of the petroleum industry bill into law, and you would be flabbergasted to know how chauvinistic they are on almost every national issue. See https://www.lexisbits.com/…/the-petroleum-industry-bill-pib…."
There is no denying the fact that poverty or joblessness in the Northern region is ten times what we have in the Southern region. But thanks to Quota System and Federal Character, the University-educated Northerners are never on the jobless lines, like their Southern colleagues. And if the educated Northerners remain silent in the face of the horrendous joblessness ravaging the Southern educated class, the more strident the demands for the dismantling of this country will take.
Conclusion!
Nigeria belongs to every one of us, both the rich and the poor. The Almaijiri population needs economic and social emancipation. Every Talakawa in our midst, from the North to the South and from the East to the West, deserves liberation and they are victims like every one of us. I am not asking for the dismantling of this country. Nevertheless, the time is now for every state in the union to have its own Police Force, create incentives for power generation and water supply, and partner with the Federal government, individuals, and foreign investors to exploit the abundant natural resources in its region.
The Unitary model, the centralization of power, and the concentration of our nation's wealth at Abuja are not sustainable and not for the best interest of all. Northern political leaders have destroyed a supposedly great nation by exploiting the timidity and greed of Southern Political leaders to hijack the leadership of this great nation; dominating most Federal MDA at the top, and in most cases, remain unaccountable to no one. They perpetuate nepotism unhinged; thus, enabling incompetence, insecurity, corruption, and a culture of low expectations. And that is why we are where we are today and why the Northern Youths are trucking themselves like animals in search of bread and butter in the Southern wilderness. To be continued.
But for the Boko Haram insurgency and the invasion and sacking of villages and communities in the Middle-Belt and North-East, Southerners would not have known of the appalling state of infrastructural facilities and the standard of living in some parts of the North. I am not denying the fact that we have poverty and joblessness at all the Makoko villages in the South, but I am not so sure that we still have communities living in mud houses in the South voluntarily and comfortably.
Today, the world and the international news media have given up counting and reporting the number of bandits and Boko haram related death in Nigeria, especially in the Northern region. Indeed, we have a President who is a Northerner. And the Minister of Defense, Chief of Army Staff, and the Security Adviser, all Northerners. Yet, they cannot stop the killing in their neck of the woods or elsewhere in Nigeria.
Worse of it all, foreign mercenaries do not have problem invading Nigerian communities in Sokoto and Zamfara States, holding the natives in bondage, and subjecting them to extorted taxation. It has never been so bad in the history of our amalgamation. Yet, we have a son of the Sokoto/Kano Caliphate as the President, who is a retired Major General in the Nigerian Armed Forces.
Today, there are thousands of his people in the streets of Aba, Benin City, Lagos, Owerri, Onitsha, Port-Harcourt, Ibadan, Akure, just to name a few, soliciting for alms to survive. But their big brothers who pray like them and speak like them, live luxuriously in the big houses at Abuja, UK, Niamey, and Dubai.
Every day, they die like chicken, uncounted. They are butchered and they are butchering the harmless unhinged. They are slaughtered and they are slaughtering others. They are dislocated and they are dislocating thousands of others. They are evacuated and they are sacking others. They are dispossessed and they are dispossessing others of their belongings. They have no home and they are rendering thousands homeless. They have no history and they are rendering thousands unaccountable.
Yes, they are Northerners. But they are first, Nigerians. And they are the tragedy of the identity politics of Northern political leaders, which most commentators referred to as irredentism. And that is the thesis of this essay - The Ills of Identity Politics of Northern Intellectuals and Political Elite.
Fighting to Frustrate the South Without Helping the North!
It is the one of them who confronted me at the Law School hostel who would grow up to become the like of Dr. Ahmadu Ali of the famous "Ali Must Go" student protest of the 70s who sponsored the removal of feeding subsidy for Nigerian University students. More Southern students are benefiting.
It is one of them who would grow to become Dr. Junaid Muhammad or one VC of the University of Maiduguri, a Minister of Education, a Minister of Petroleum Resources - the extremist Dr. Jubrin Aminu of the Nigerian University Commission of the 70s who canvassed vigorously AGAINST free education at all level on the ground that it would not benefit the North in the same magnitude that it would likely benefit the South.
It is one of them who would grow up to become a Professor and the Chairman of the national electoral commission who would openly manipulate the results of a Presidential election to perpetuate in the office of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria someone who indisputably believes that the Southern part of his country is a conquered territory.
It is one of them who would, thanks to crude oil dollars, secured a fulltime scholarship to study Law to a JSD level at Harvard University Law School, and become a Legal Adviser to a Military Dictator, and singlehandedly concocted a convoluted National Constitution while presiding over the lopsided calibration of Nigerian into unviable states and local government councils, all favoring his own region.
They tolerated the Almajiri culture. We consider it a national shame. To them, illiteracy is an honor. And Boko is Haram. Indeed, to them, poverty is a pride, almsgiving is noble, and sponsored marriages are the best way to emancipate the helpless youths. But they sent their children overseas to attend Grammar Schools and Universities to acquire western education and dignified social etiquette.
The truth is, if the northern political leaders are willing to cast their votes on every national issue dispassionately as a Nigerian first, and not as a Northerner, I can assure my Law School Student friend that no Nigerian commentator would be calling for the dismantling of this country.
I want my readers to do a review of the excuses they gave for impeding the passage of the petroleum industry bill into law, and you would be flabbergasted to know how chauvinistic they are on almost every national issue. See https://www.lexisbits.com/…/the-petroleum-industry-bill-pib…."
There is no denying the fact that poverty or joblessness in the Northern region is ten times what we have in the Southern region. But thanks to Quota System and Federal Character, the University-educated Northerners are never on the jobless lines, like their Southern colleagues. And if the educated Northerners remain silent in the face of the horrendous joblessness ravaging the Southern educated class, the more strident the demands for the dismantling of this country will take.
Conclusion!
Nigeria belongs to every one of us, both the rich and the poor. The Almaijiri population needs economic and social emancipation. Every Talakawa in our midst, from the North to the South and from the East to the West, deserves liberation and they are victims like every one of us. I am not asking for the dismantling of this country. Nevertheless, the time is now for every state in the union to have its own Police Force, create incentives for power generation and water supply, and partner with the Federal government, individuals, and foreign investors to exploit the abundant natural resources in its region.
The Unitary model, the centralization of power, and the concentration of our nation's wealth at Abuja are not sustainable and not for the best interest of all. Northern political leaders have destroyed a supposedly great nation by exploiting the timidity and greed of Southern Political leaders to hijack the leadership of this great nation; dominating most Federal MDA at the top, and in most cases, remain unaccountable to no one. They perpetuate nepotism unhinged; thus, enabling incompetence, insecurity, corruption, and a culture of low expectations. And that is why we are where we are today and why the Northern Youths are trucking themselves like animals in search of bread and butter in the Southern wilderness. To be continued.
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