Of the New Sahara Desert, Northern Nigerian Youths, and Development Challenges in Nigeria

In the Mid 80s, Bendel Boys and Girls started trooping out of the country to Europe and North America in search of greener pastures. And those who were not successful with 'Oluwole" concoctions to secure a visa for the journey to the unknown, began the impossible: trekking through the Sahara Desert via Algeria or Morocco to Italy.

As it turns out, the voyage was always treacherous, replete with uncertainties, and tragedy-defined. A few of them succumbed to exhaustion and the unfriendly heatwaves of the Sahara Desert. And about half of those who survived the desert onslaught perished in the Meditarian Sea. Only a negligible few succeeded in reaching the promised land.

While I was on a tour of Europe in 1994 and 1995, I met with a few of the survivors. And all of them had similar stories to tell - of near-death, deadly disease, survival instincts, and miracles.

Now, flip the coin.

Between June of 2015 and December of 2016, I was in Nigeria. And I spent most of my time in Benin City and Abuja. While at Abuja, what I saw of some of our girls from the Middle-Belt and North-East presented a vivid picture of what Bendel girls went through in Europe about thirty or twenty-five years ago.

Also, in the past few days, we have seen hundreds of barely literate adults and infants of Northern extraction being shipped like animals from Kano and the Katsina States to the Southeast and the Midwest, allegedly in quest of greener pastures.

The hopelessness that compels the ongoing exodus of Northern youths to the Southern States is a reminder of the helpless situation that Bendelites found themselves in the mid-80s and early 90s.

The majority of those who graduated from Grammar School with good grades, thanks to Ambrose Ali Free Education program, couldn't get admission to higher institutions because of the application of the quota system and federal character.

Those who were fortunate to secure admission were not so sure of getting a job after graduation. So, the better alternative was checking out of the country. And they did in record number and by any means necessary.

About a year ago, when CNN started broadcasting the unsightly videos and pictures of Nigerian citizens undergoing captivity and slavery in Libya, the Federal Government, initially did not show concern. "No be we send them." A few commentators in social media wrote: "it is not a national affair."

Today, it is a different story and a different reality. Not all Northern kids are privileged after all. Those who, out of sheer ignorance, subscribed to the lies that western education is "haram" are beginning to realize the magnitude of the dummy sold to them by their political leaders.

Now, they are on the run from a culture that held them captive for many years, where the celebration of poverty and illiteracy was a regional pride. It is seemingly becoming obvious that religious activism is becoming an aberration. Thus, making the quest for economic emancipation the new normal.

Unfortunately, they are not like the Bendelites who bailout of the country many years ago. In the 80s, growing up in Benin City, the average Secondary School graduate knows about all the universities in America and how to apply for Form I-20.

You cannot say the same of these Northern youths. The majority of them do not communicate in the English Language and never had a feel or the color of the Nigerian passport.

Given that social handicap, their final destination in the search for greener pastures remains, not Europe or North America, but the Southern states of Nigeria. And that is what the development gap is about in the Nigerian context.

So, you can see the magnitude of the social divide between the South and the Northern regions of Nigeria. Yet, many of us are still agitating for "it is the turn of my region to produce the next President."

What makes the situation more complicated for these migrants is the trust factor. Given the atrocities of the Fulani Cattle Herders over the years as well as the antics of the leadership of the Myetti Allah, it is very very difficult to qualify or label the migrants as economic refugees who deserve help and proper accommodation.

I hope the leadership of Myetti Allah and the powerful forces behind the Buhari administration are watching. You fueled the political divide, hatred, and the hostile environment that makes these unfortunate migrants toxic materials and unwanted species in their own country.

There is more to leadership and political domination than cornering or hijacking the oil wealth of the nation for years, it is about using it to bring the best out of the less privileged in the society. And as the late Chief Obafemi Awolowo would say, it is not about becoming the President of a country that matters the most, it is the use made of the opportunity. We are seeing the use right now.