re faseun and the north

Re: Faseun and the North’s Moral Dilemma – A Vote for Rational and Strategic Positioning

Lamido Sanusi’s article titled FASEUN AND THE NORTH's MORAL DILEMMA, is as usual blunt and, a brilliant piece. In that article, Lamido lamented how some northerners Governors suddenly found another job for themselves – that of calling for the release of the Bamaiyis and the dismissal of their case as was done to Dr. Frederick Faseun. It will be a different ball game if the Governors insisted that the Abacha crowd variously charged and tried for alleged murder, be granted bail.

Lamido did the north a good job by countering those who believe that the north must be as blind as the south west in the pursuance of its interests. Lamido hits the nail on the head when he argued that, northerners (of all extraction) are fundamentally just people and abhor injustice no matter who commits it, where and when. When people who are least qualified to speak for either or both the north and Islam try to use the two as convenient labels in prosecuting what they believe constitutes northern interests, then there is a big problem. Lamido said it as it is.

The truth is, the north must begin to reclaim the moral high ground it had occupied before the corruption spree of the IBB years and the insanity of the Abacha era. It was basically the moral uprightness and political discipline of the north that made the region invincible and indispensable. It is only a return to that vintage position that can re-position the north for leadership in the pan-Nigerian family. We cannot climb back to that enviable height by emulating the deliberately blind ways of the Yoruba south west political establishment and ignorant media executives and a retinue of misguided noise-makers and empty commentators who know next to nothing about what they normally write or comment on.

The point really is that, the present set of people occupying various positions of authority are themselves misfits and incapable of articulating or defending northern interests least of all acting on them when they are properly envisioned. 'North' and 'Islam' must never be made to be mere convenient rallying points irrespective of the issues or principles at stake. Such a disturbing anti-climax of a political giant that has chosen to shrink to the level of an ant is not in the character of the intellectual, moral and leadership traditions of the north. We are not myopic lots who invoke pre-modern sentiments for the sake of hoping to gain one advantage or another from the common Nigerian state. At the risk of being arrogant, northerners have always been reputed for their shrewd political calculations, honesty and sincerity of purpose. Northerners are not known for siding with injustice.

Many of those who want to play the northern card in the matter of fighting for the Generals who committed more atrocities against their own people than they have allegedly committed against others, are direct beneficiaries of the same mess that took the north to the cleaners. Majority of them opposed any voice of reason especially from the north) against the evil machinations of those that usurped power and abused it. None of them raised an eye-brow when Kano's industries – the nerve of northern economy for example, were decimated by policies (or is it non-policies) of our supposedly ‘sons-of-the-soil’. They turned their backs when the solidarity and unity of the north was sacrificed on the political chess game board of our so-called northern Generals.

It did not bother them when these Generals, pampered by the south west media as "military democrats" (whatever that nonsense could mean) were setting brother-northerners against each other in order to hang on to power. These elements never cared when the northern educational infrastructure was collapsing fast like a pack of cards. They were not bothered when poverty was spreading like wild-fire, more among northerners than among southerners. They worried not when these Generals did massively and mercilessly assault the sacred northern values of honesty, sincerity and up-rightness. They did not complain when credible northerners were silenced and denied the right to give the right leadership and direction that Nigerians, especially northerners lacked for decades.

These same rotten eggs were among those who were falling on their backs and kissing the ass of the acolytes of unjust rulers (who by sheer accident of history come from the north). Most of them were (and remain) incapable of distinguishing the interests of the north and those of individual northerners. It is remarkable to note that, when the Babangidas and the Abachas were walking tall in the corridors of power they never did what they are now being accused of doing either for, or in the name of the north.

It does not baffle any sane mind that, most of these people have been blindly led into the objectionable styles of unreasoned, non-rational and even irrational approaches to politics of blackmail and ethnic bigotry of the south west. All because of a serious moral comatose in which their friends plunged the north, down from its position of moral leadership that every Nigerian had conceded to it in the past.

Even at the level of political calculation, it seems that most of these guys are not really capable of identifying the political and other interests of the north. So they are messing up in their unstrategic approach to addressing issues of justice and equity. It is not, either in the short or long term interests of the north to either compare Faseun's case with that of the Abacha crowd, or for the north to throw its weight behind suspected criminals even before their cases are disposed off. Doing so is as suicidal as it is unstrategic.

No, the Generals have failed the north, and woefully too. We must have the gut to admit this fact of our most recent history and insist that, northerners must not allow themselves to be ridiculed or called names for the ‘sins’ of their so-called ‘sons’ who completely ignored the teachings of our elders. It was Malam Aminu Kano who warned that, although we believe in one Nigeria but at the end of the day we must all retire to our fathers’ houses – since one Nigeria cannot shelter us from the cold of the night! We must be the first set of people to rise up against their injustices and charge them for dragging the north into the gutter and inviting abuses and curses on all of us – all because of a dime or two.

It is correct that we must continue to protest and fight the south western style of politics of blackmail and intimidation, especially of using the vexed theory of collective guilt and unfair concept of original sin. This is their very cheap way of declaring all northerners guilty for the apparent ‘mistakes’, misdeeds’ or even ‘crimes’ of just a handful Generals.

In their rush to judgement, they are quick in condemning the north for an Abacha (whatever his problems were), but never ready to give credit to the same north for a Murtala or a Buhari. They choose to deliberately ignore the honesty and moral uprightness of Balewa even as they condemn an Abacha. They deny the north credit for ensuring that Nigeria remains a single entity no matter its problems. They hammer on exaggerated ‘errors’ in appointments to a few Federal agencies in the last year or two of Abacha regime, but ignore that Falae’s short tenure as Secretary to the Government of the Federation ensured that, Ondo State alone had the highest number of senior officials in the Presidency. And the Federal Office of Statistics dominated by the Ngbatis, not northerners, of course compiled these statistics.

They are not ready to call themselves thieves when their demi-God cornered 360 plots belonging to innocent peasants at Maroko, Lagos. They will never acknowledge that Sir Ahmadu Bello Sardauna – simply the most powerful Nigerian during his life-time died and left behind not up to one hundred pounds, and no property. Yet, northerners are thieves because an Abacha was one of them. Politics of double standards and ethnic bigotry is the exclusive property of political illiterates and neophytes of contemporary Nigeria. Only one geo-political region in Nigeria is reputed for this – the south west.

When all other Nigerians united to move their country forward, the Ngbatis would have anything to do with it. Two significant events in our recent history elaborate this sufficiently and clearly: June 12 election and Obasanjo Presidency.

When MKO Abiola stood election for the Presidency, they fought, harassed, cursed, and castigated him. They called him uncharitable and unprintable names. Other Nigerians accepted him and massively voted for him. The Yorubas boycotted the elections. They espoused a siddn-look philosophy and stood by it. They called the whole transition programme "fraud", "a scandal" and urged all those who could listen to have nothing to do with it. The voters turn out on June 12 1993 in all the Yoruba states remains the least in the history of elections in Nigeria. Abiola secured more votes outside his south west base courtesy of the Yar Aduas, the Anenihs, the Rimis, the Lars, the Nwobods, etc. His friend – IBB, for reasons best known to him and Abiola, annulled the results of the election that clearly pointed to an Abiola Presidency. The Ngbatis rallied round to condemn and fight the north that massively voted for Abiola against Bashir Tofa – their own son. Northerners were held, charged and pronounced guilty by those who fought against an Abiola victory. What an injustice and a double standard! But that is politics – the Ngbati establishment way.

Then the northern establishment in consultation with Nigerians in especially the south-south and south east decided to promote Obasanjo. The south east, in fact, demonstrated political maturity when after Ekueme lost to Obasanjo in the arty primaries, they massively mobilized for an Obasanjo Presidency. They stood by the man from Otta even when they are clearly marginalized in the Nigerian power equation. The Ngbati establishment, on the other hand, would have none of it again – just as they did to Abiola. They fought the poor chicken farmer to a ridiculous level. Falae even went to court calling Obasanjo a secret cult-member and urging for his eection to be reversed. But the same Yoruba establishment changed their tune even before the chicken farmer was sworn in. Suddenly Lam Adesina became his unofficial spokesman competing with poor pot-belied Okupe. Bola Ige of the famous ‘siddon-look’ school of politics now became the philosopher to a PDP government that he did everything possible to prevent seeing the light of the day. That is the south west establishment at its best – masters of double standards and speaking from both sides of the mouth.

That is a sour meal delicious only to the double-speak loud mouths of the south west political establishment. It is one reason why northerners must continue to be different by upholding the highest standards of politics that has been legitimately ours for keeps. We cannot resort to the simplistic, myopic and mid-boggling style of the south west political establishments, because it is counter productive and is not strategic in the long-term. Such a short-cut approach is a very weak, untenable and unproductive strategy reserved for the faint-hearted and intellectually lazy analysts, politicians and activists. For this ungodly lot, unilineal primordialism in the interpretation of the world is the only or major standard in political discourse and action. I thought that, all fair-minded people especially northerners are above that. By its very conception and conditions of emergence, the north is far beyond unilinealism and one-track mind, having been constituted by cultural, religious and even cognitive pluralities. Same for the East and Mid-West (today's SE and SS zones). The south west is, perhaps, the only exception.

The unilineal – one-track mind approach to politics by the south west political esablishment is no surprise given its entry point into the colonial concoction called Nigeria (despite the internecine wars and intra-ethnic conflicts on the eve of colonial conquest of their areas). But the only style of politics that the political establishment in the south west knows and practices (of course with resistance from time to time ala Akintolas, Akinloyes, Akinjides, etc.) is the resort to ethnic sentiments and identity. For the political establishment of the south west therefore, and even though they are the most schooled but least educated Nigerians, everything under the sun has (and must have) ethnic colour and explanation. This is understandable given the background factors. But such an approach coming from more advanced and politically more progressive (in the sense of being more inclusive) north is unacceptable. That is dragging the north centuries back. It is not in our character.

While the political establishments in the South east rally behind Ohanaeze, the south west around Afenifere, the north in its essence is far above that form of primordial and primitive form of identity, solidarity and loyalty. That is one reason why the north has never organized, and cannot start to organize around Hausa, Kanuri, Tiv, Nupe or such other ethnic identity. No the north, relative to the other regions, had for long been an anthropologically progressive entity and so has always been more advanced than its competitors within the pan-Nigerian family. Hence it has to build a pan-northern banner – Arewa Consultative Forum or even Middle-Belt Forum as opposed to ethnic platforms. This is not a matter of choice but of essence. So even from the perspective of a reactionary social analytical framework, it will look like a form of retrogression for any northern 'leader' to employ the same framework of looking at the world as the South west establishment are disposed to doing.

Nonetheless one can understand the basis of the emotional solidarity involved in fighting for the northern lost sheep - the Abacha Generals. The argument however is that we can go about it by using the standards of fairness and moral rectitude for which other Nigerians used to concede moral leadership to the north. Yes, we feel very strongly about the killings in Lagos and the south west. Sure we have every right to protest, and loudly too. True we must organize resistance (practically) to the attempt to impose Yoruba hegemony on Nigeria through media intimidation, violence, etc. The north had, times without number, demonstrated that it is certainly the master of the game and is indispensable whether any Obafemi or Adesanya likes it or not. Despite the obvious temporary set-backs, there is no reason for northern leaders to degenerate so low as to copy the ways of the south west.

If anything in the south west political calculus is worth emulating, it is no more than persistence and aggressive media war. Not abuses, and counter-productive strategies of reading ethnic or sectional meanings into just everything. We can only compare Faseun’s case with that f the Abacha crowd if the northern security officers are bold enough to come forward with clear evidence that implicates the evil man beyond the rational (though not necessarily legal) case. That is what the Yorubas did in respect of the Abachas. They muster their advantage of the control of the security apparatus to produce wild, suspect but nonetheless legally appealing case against the Abacha crowd. There appears to be hunting this generation of northern leaders a chronic failure to always fail to rise to the occasion. We no longer do our homework well before going public. We can legitimately complain about apparent lapses in the procedures for their trial, but not that, they must not be tried. From a layman’s point of view, the evidence of Rogers for example, is worth examining more closely in the interest of justice. We can insist on a fair trial but not no trial at all.

That is however, not to say that the Abacha crowd are not entitled to bail. There is a good case in insisting that they be granted bail. But when any northern ‘leader’ uses ethnic and sectional standards to explain away the entire case against the Bamaiyis, then we run into a serious moral dilemma that stands contrary to the revered ideals for which the north is reputed. No, my north is not that backward as to compete in unethical demands with the so-called ‘Yoruba race’ – that backward sub-specie of human beings that are the most decorated with degrees and diplomas even if they are the least civilized of all Nigerian nationalities.

The north has a very rich and laudable tradition that is rooted in the basic teachings to which all of us, northern Muslims and Christians alike were exposed from childhood: That, injustice is injustice irrespective of who commits it, whenever and wherever it is so committed. It is in our character to admit it when we are wrong. That is what made Sa’ad Zungur, Aminu Kano, Lawan Dambazau and J. S. Tarka for example, different from the rest. They taught us to fight injustice and to stand for fairness no matter who is involved. As Malam Sa’adu Zungur and these true nationalists taught: ‘speak the truth and damn the consequences’.

The Ngbatis do not, share this fundamental value with us. They will neither admit it when they are clearly wrong, nor will they ever have any shame in upholding double standards. They will prefer to deceive themselves that they are the most ‘educated’ (read: most schooled) whereas in practice their best brains are no more than men of low level intelligence for whom civility is an alien value. From their best Professors down to the Molue conductor on the streets of Lagos, there is only one route to understanding the world: ethnicity.

Northerners, even at their ethnic levels are more advanced than these Ngbatis and their strategists. We are civil they are something else. This is one serious distinguishing mark between us (northerners) and them…