Others can share our oil, but we are barred from gold. Where is Bugaje’s geographical pyrotechnics?"

I look forward to reading your full-blown essay on the nature of the control and the state-sponsored disparities in the ownership rights over our mineral resources by the respective State Governors. This is one way you took for inside another essay, no work. Period. That topic deserves your time, space, and attention. As a Naijadeta native and as a prominent voice in the affairs of our nation-state, that topic merits a free-standing profile in your weekly column. Thank you.

"No one sees the other’s teardrop. We hear Yoruba sob, or see Fulani tears and are deafened by Igbo cry. We hardly hear the Nigerian lyric for the dead." "When such discordant funeral notes happen, it means we don’t have a nation yet. It means we are just making a patchwork of unity. To grieve together is to feel together."

We cannot see the other teardrop because that is the nation they gave to us following our independence. Sir Ahmadu Bello, the Sadauna of Sokoto and the First Premier of the Northern Region, and may his soul rest in peace, laid the foundation of our disunity. In 1953, Chief Anthony Enahoro made the first motion for Nigeria's Independence in 1956 or 57, the Sadauna of Sokoto opposed it, arguing that the North didn't want a second colonisation. Colonisation from where? From the East and West. Our independence had to be delayed until October 1960, to create room for the Northern Region to educate its needed workforce.

And that was how Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, who went to the United States to acquire Western Education after Zik of Africa (a Nigerian born) had returned from Obodo yinbo, was able to get independence for Ghana in 1957 ahead of Zik and Awo. Kwame went to America after Zik, but he came back and got independence for Ghana before Nigeria. Because Nigeria was and still is not one country.

In the mid-70s, when Obasanjo was the Military Head of State, Dr. Jubrin Aminu, who was at the time the Executive Secretary of the National University Commission, sent a memo to the Federal Government and argued vociferously against the proposed free education at all levels program. His thesis was that Southerners are likely to benefit more from the program than Northerners, because of the aversion to Western education by his own people. And the idea died. Where are we today, educationally?

I am not writing this because I hate one region or because I love one tribe more than the other or because I want to exacerbate the regional divide; not at all. I did because I want your readers to know the genesis of the disparities in the teardrop. I did because I want your readers to know that the disparities are endemic. And I did because I want the Nigerian leadership to get rid of their denial and confront the reality. The entitlement culture is ingrained. Is President Buhari ruling Nigeria as one country? Why is Gold exploration a Zamfara affair but the crude oil bloc in Oloibiri is not a Bayelsa affair? The counter-motion of 1953 is alive and well. Until it is confronted, discredited, and abandoned, we are not going anywhere. How can you confront it and put an end to it when their children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren are born into the culture?

If we cannot go Confederal or are willing to discard the Unitary Model, we can as well amend our constitution and take mineral resources out of the Exclusive list and make it a local affair. Thank you.

You are imagining the expectations of a President in an ideal world during a time of crisis, but not one who or whose speechwriters evince a sense of conquest and of victory. You lamented an unfulfilled hope, of a dream, derailed for lack of organization and a figurehead. But the architects of the invasion saw it differently. Wrongly, they fathomed clear and present danger to the throne that must be neutralized by any means necessary. And that explains the absence of empathy or compassion you anticipated in the speech.

This is only where I disagree with you: "When the snake of hoodlums came in, the #EndSARS euphoria came to an end." No, sir. I beg to differ. The "snake of hoodlums" did not end the euphoria, bullets did. Okay, the bullets did. The invasion of Lekki Toll-gate did. Turning off the screen and light at the Toll-gate did. The timeline of events speaks volumes. Looting began post-invasion and disruption of the peaceful protesters at the Toll-gate, not before it. Also, in Benin City, there was jail-break, but no looting pre-Lekki invasion.

Moving Forward

Towards the end of your essay, you wrote: "We saw also the north-south divide? North says it wants SARS, the south says no. Both have failed to listen to each other. It calls for dialogue, not mutual condemnation." And the answer is in your work.

Later in that same paragraph, you stated, "It brings up the north-south debate over state police. The state of police will make us rethink this matter. If the police were a state matter, each state will decide whether or not and how they want it." I share your views.

Here are my Recommendations.

For a start. let have (1) fully armed Federal Highway Patrol on all Federal Roads, equipped with modern telecommunication gadgets to, among other functions, ensure security, safety, and the speed limit on our interstate highways. If we have to merge or convert the Federal Road Safety Corp into that unit, fine. In addition, stations should be built for them by the highways, where those who are not on duty can unwind and change clothes, but NOT checkpoints on the highways as we have presently. (2) The old Mobile Police Force (Mopol) and the disbanded SARS should form the new SWAT Team under the control of the Federal Govt and must only be seen in public to restore peace during the time of crisis. Not the Military. (3) The entire Police Force should be localized - become State Police. (4) the Nigeria Security and Civil Defense should be upgraded to carry weapons and to guide all Federal Institutions nationwide and Foreign Missions in Nigeria. And (5) members of Nigeria Customs should be taken off our highways and cities. They should be at the borders, international airports, and seaports. Period. Roaming the highways or invading private warehouses is uncalled for.

I apologize for invading your space. Thank you.

 The Boko Haram Culture and the Genesis of the Nigerian Educational Crisis. 

“In the Universities themselves, the Federal Government is now contemplating introducing free education. Whatever may be the merits of this considered step, its likely effect on the University population must be mentioned. It is going to result in an even greater imbalance in enrollment for the simple reason that at the moment, there are a fair number of highly eligible candidates for University education, mainly from the educationally advanced states, who unfortunately cannot enter University simply on financial grounds.” That was Professor Aminu in his memo, titled “Educational Imbalance: Its Extent, History, Dangers and Correction in Nigeria” when he was the Executive Secretary of the National University Commission. Obasanjo was the Military President at the time.

Please, permit me to break his argument for you in plain English. Why is this essay necessary? Because of the attack unleashed on peaceful protesters at Abuja and Lagos by Northern youths under the supervision of government agents 

Dr. Aminu's ethnic-influenced logic was that a nationwide free education program implemented at the national level has the potential to balloon the already existing educational gap between north and south. His reason is that candidates from the "educationally advanced states, who unfortunately cannot enter University simply on financial grounds", will eventually be able to do so if free education is introduced. 

He was not interested in the likely benefits of the program to Northern children. But was unduly concerned that Southern children will benefit more. It was his view that poor families in the north will not embrace the free education program at the same level as their poor southern colleagues. His reason was: the aversion of western culture and values by northerners. That was. So, the theory that Boko is Haram in the North did not start with us today. Dr. Aminu and some of his fellow Northern intellectuals used it to kill the Nigerian education system.   

Based on that understanding (Northerners do not like western education), he concludes that the idea of free education being contemplated by the government is not a national priority. And our federal military government bought and swallowed his retrogressive arguments hook, line, and sinker.  In other words, if free education policy is not good for the north that, unfortunately, needed it more than the south, it is considered not good enough for Nigeria at large. And that was how Schools of Basic Studies funded by the Federal Government became a culture in the North, but foreign in the South. 

And it was the same period that the Ali Must Go students riot took place. They removed subsidies on student feeding because it was too expensive for the government to fund. But what they didn't tell Obasanjo was that there are more Southern children in the University and they are benefiting more from the feeding program.

The truth is that the educational gap between the north and the south that people like Dr. Aminu wanted to bridge, by all means necessary, did not happen overnight in the south. It was made possible by the embrace of the teaching of the Christian Missionaries in the South - the integration of religious studies with the scholarly pursuit of Western education by the Ndigbo. And the free education program of Action Group in the western region, as well as, the acceptance and embrace of Western culture and values side by side with the Yoruba creeds by the people of the old western region of Nigeria.

Dr. Aminu acknowledged these facts in his 53-page memo, rather than strive to give it a nationwide experiment, he demanded that the rest of the country stands still for the north to catch up, whether or not the northern political leaders were willing to embrace the same values and cultures that made educational advancement possible in the geographical south. And that is the tragedy of the Nigerian educational system, evading abatement or total elimination. 

So, when you see videos of Hausa speaking youths on the attack in the past few days, out to kill and sabotage the peaceful protesters, you don't need to be reminded about the essence of the celebration of the culture of illiteracy by some Northern political leaders whose children are not only educated the Western ways but actually acquired them in the Western Countries. 

You are reading this and you are saying "this Alex guy hate the North, only a few of the Northern intellectuals espouse the views of Dr. Aminu." Yes, indeed; these few are the brain behind (authors) of some of our major public policy documents. For instance, the 1999 Constitution was written by the Legal Adviser to President Abach, now Professor Yadudu. What about the last creation of new states and local government councils? The same thing. In other words, these extreme few, well versed in feudalism and oligarchy obsessed, are managing our public affairs. 

I am not against any tribe. I am only stating how the policies that they openly pursued over the years undermined our unity and set us back economically. You should be worried about them and not me. I am a patriot. They are the bigot because they champion our divide and espouse a narrative of race and religion. And as long as they exercise control over the proceeds of our crude oil and customs and immigration, and at the same time, corner enough public wealth to send their children to school abroad and enough to share to the grown-up almajiris to do their bidding, Nigeria will not know peace and real progress will continue to elude us.