I Speak As A Northerner
by
Since the inauguration of President Olusegun Obasanjo as the civilian President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, I had resolved to give him 12 calendar months before I make any comment.
In recent times, there have been rumours, accusations and complaints against the President's administrative or executive decisions. The most dangerous and least founded whisperings have come from some elements who claimed to be speaking for the north. I do not claim to come from the so-called "core-north", but I am a Northerner, whatever that might mean.
The governor of my state attends, as of right, the meeting of the governors or administrators of the northern states of Nigeria. I am supposed to be a joint owner/benefactor of all the assets of the joint commercial, educational and social assets of all northern states of Nigeria. Therefore, for these facts, I am a northerner. It is rather pathetic and embarrassing to be forced to listen to some spurious allegations that the North is being marginalised by President Obasanjo in the recent appointments or generally speaking, the actions of his democratically elected government. In fact, another charge is that the President is appointing Christians rather than Muslims into key posts in the Federal Government. I do not hold any brief for the President, neither can I fathom the motivation for his acts and utterances, but I can tell you the following:
The claim that appointments of persons of "Middle Belt" rather than "northern" origin into critical government positions is rather misguided and self-serving. During the period of military rule, those who are complaining now, did not make any distinction between the Middle-Belt and the North. In fact, in the name of the "north", they took all benefits and the "north" of that time included the Middle-Belt. Equally, in the time of critical national crisis, the Middle-Belt was automatically classified by this same group as being part of the north.
Furthermore, at the meetings of the Northern Elders Forum, the late Alhaji Abdulrahman Okene, was the chairman, until his death, he came from the Middle-Belt, they did not tell him that his Middle-Belt origin was an impediment to the assumption of such an important office. The issue of appointment of Christians rather than Muslims is a non-issue. Nigerians demonstrated their maturity and unity in 1993, when they elected a President and Vice-President on a Muslim-Muslim ticket, this mature and beautiful mandate was scuttled by a military led by Northern elements of Islamic religion. The North did not stir up in protest or indignation, rather they supported its criminal annulment, so wherein lies their moral right to assert indignation on religious grounds?
Apart from the above, the bulk and mass of the North is happy with the actions, appointments and promise of the government of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as it is presently constituted. The only persons or groups who can complain are the political parasites, the political jobbers, the lazy monopolists, the unfair competitors, the incompetents, and those who have been benefiting from the unfair terms of existence of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Honestly, these class of people do not count in the new Nigeria that is coming out of its cocoon. A new country is being born, this new country has no place for these men and economic parasites.
By the way, which North is being marginalised? Is it the North of the talakawas, the Almajiris, the water sellers or the firewood sellers? No! Emphatically no! The only North that is being marginalised is the North of the lazy extortionists, the laid back dealers in LPO, the foreign exchange barons, the North of the oil lifters, the North of the stirrers of religious strife, in short, the North of the negative forces.
If you think I am lying, ask yourself these questions: How long has Obasanjo spent in government as a civilian President? How long have those complaining been serving in various governments as representatives of the North? What have their tenures achieved for the North? Honestly, the answer to the last question is in the negative! Today in Nigeria, the North is the most backward in terms of education, industrialisation and economic empowerment. In the name of the North, these grumblers perpetrated atrocities that can never be forgotten in the history of Nigeria. In the name of the North, they created unfair import monopolies, failing to establish industries. In the name of the North, they antagonise other parts of Nigeria, subjecting the innocent ordinary northerners to limitations and abuse from their fellow countrymen. In the name of the North, they steal the nation blind, in the name of the North, they desecrate sacred national values. I say, enough of their pretensions.
We can no longer stomach their misguided and arrogant question of their personal and selfish interests with the interests of the North. Let them come out with the truth, that they are afraid, they carry the fear of their guilt. Their guilt are many - if Obasanjo succeeds in his crusade, he would have achieved a revolution. This revolution will sweep away men who benefit not from competence and integrity, but by their ability to form caucuses, factions and stratagems. We also know that these individuals are afraid of the probes and the subsequent exposure of their misdeeds in the economic, political and ethical realms of public life, which such probes will lead to.
It is rather too early for any individual to claim to be marginalised by this present Federal Government of Nigeria. It has been elected for four years, it has not even spent two years, so where is the parameter for judgment? A decent opinion may be passed after 100 days, but not within one hundred hours. Anyway, if Obasanjo appoints a minister for solid minerals, or a minister for defence, or a minister for anything of whatever religious persuasion or from whatever part of Nigeria, methinks that is actually irrelevant, what matters is the ability to deliver. Furthermore, the only mandatory requirement in matters of appointment into key positions in the Federal Government of Nigeria can be found in the constitution. The key factor is federal character. Obasanjo has satisfied this requirement, strictly. The issue of religion as a factor for appointments is not recognised by any valid federal enactment. In essence, an appeal to religious sentiments is tantamount to political atavism and, an overt call to anarchy. We honestly do not want anarchy and instability in Nigeria. Promoting primordial religious sentiments now, is indirectly trying to capitalise on the key factors of distrust, mutual suspicions and crisis, which we are trying to exorcise from the body polity of our beleaguered country. Right now, these elements whispering and spreading the message of confusion, mutual suspicion, hatred and religious divisions among our people are clearly not identifying with the hopes and yearnings of ordinary northerners. We are not interested in the selfish objectives of these men of whispers, we are only interested in somebody who can break the century old bondage the privileged few in the North have imposed upon the mass of the people.
I would rather a southern Christian minister for health ensure cheap, prompt, effective and efficient medical delivery system to my village in Northern Nigeria, or any other Nigerian village for that matter, than have a northern Muslim who refuses to deliver, but perform only by awarding contracts to family members and cronies, and help the poor only through patronage by alms-giving. The above is not to say that northerners are incompetent, or that they cannot perform, no! What we are saying is that those who are now complaining have no enviable track record of performance. They were appointed into positions by the military solely because of their abilities to whip up ethnic, religious and primordial sentiments, to enable dictatorships thrive. Now that an elected government has come, such characters are definitely out in the cold. They want to come in but having no enviable track record of good performance they have resorted to blackmail and calumnuous whisperings. They must not succeed, Nigeria must not succumb to blackmail. It is this same group of people who deliberately and callously suppressed the dissemination of knowledge and enlightenment to the mass of the Northern people. They deliberately distorted the trajectory of growth for the purpose of benefiting only themselves and their friends. They so loved the people of the North that they turned the North into an abstract regardless of the human development index. During their tenures in government, the North was not marginalised, because they were in office, but they effectively marginalised the people of the North by leaving them in ignorance, squalor and misery.
The current democratic disposition offers us a ray of hope. A hope that the age-long neglect and deliberate suppression of a people will end very soon. That a caring government will be established and the people will get a little justice. Now they are afraid of this hope, just a mere hope, and they are already frightened, this is because, a successful Obasanjo government will expose their duplicity. What degree of marginalisation can ever surpass the deliberate and appalling bungling of the Ajaokuta steel complex? This complex, if it had been properly handled would have created jobs for at least 100,000 Nigerians. At least, one-third of these would have been Nigerians of Northern extraction. These governments were conceived and executed in a corrupt fashion by Northern Muslim -led Federal Governments of Nigeria. So where is their moral rights to complain?
It is quite atrocious and galling to hear yourself being told that you are not a Northerner, but a Middle-Belter.
The poverty of thought being exhibited by such persons is quite mind - boggling, they are demonstrating an appalling juvenility of thought unexpected of self-proclaimed leaders of Northern Nigeria. Please, what have they done to wake up, revive and develop the massive potential of the North? Nothing! Honestly, I speak as a Northerner and, I am very angry with this hypocritical charges of marginalisation.
The only marginalisation that I will contend with is the one that develops infrastructure in other parts of Nigeria and ignores the North. It is the one that develops the manpower of the other parts of Nigeria and ignores the North. I do not reckon with the marginalisation of incompetent caucus men and, beneficiaries of ethnic and religious jingoism.