The north, 2015 and sundry matters




Since the return of democracy in 1999, northern Nigeria has found itself in a dilemma. Rift between ethnic minorities and the major ethnic groups widened, occasioned by Muslim/Christian conflict in several states of the region. The crisis in the region was compounded by loss of power in the centre, bad leadership from the region’s political elite and the Boko Haram insurgency, which turned Borno and Yobe states into an Afghanistan of a sort. So many things happened in the past that drove the region to where it is now and still few of us think beyond the box. Instead, the region and its elite are busy fighting an unwinnable battle. We may be lucky to return power to the region in 2015, but will that be the end of the region’s hive of problems?
As all attention is now shifted to 2015, few of us are paying attention to the incessant carnage in Borno and Yobe. Just 2 weeks ago, the Maiduguri Air Force base came under attack. Attackers, numbering hundreds, who 2 years ago killed their victims with machetes, knives and cutlasses, have the audacity to attack a military base. With what is happening in Borno and Yobe, the region elite appear helpless, and no one seems to be safe in north-east villages. Apart from the condemnation of the Baga, Bama, Damboa and secondary school students’ massacre, nothing tangible was made by anybody in the region to tackle the insecurity situation in the region. The consequences of this is that, Borno and Yobe may be today, but the confidence with which these gunmen attack villages, police and military formation is a pointer to one fact; that all of us are not safe from these attacks.
With growing unemployment, political and social crisis, loss of societal values, breakdown of the family system; insurgency and criminality like kidnapping and armed robbery have become a daily occurrence. The devastating attacks of villages in Zamfara and Kaduna and the spate of kidnapping in Sokoto and other areas are indicators of the accumulated socio-economic problems the region is battling with.
Recent figures pointed a very dark picture of a region battling to survive – a region that just represent a shadow of its former self. With over 30% of school going children in the streets, most of whom depend on street begging to survive; the region’s future remained bleak. Another figure indicated that the north has more than 10 million out-of-school-children; this figure is minus the number of children who completed their secondary education without the basic qualification to enter higher institution. These crises were born out of the region’s elite preference of being worshipped by the largely complacent and ignorant majority who over the years has been traumatised by bad leadership and sheer arrogance.
With these mountain of problems, few individuals are bothered, the rest are consumed in the fight to return power to the region. Unfortunately, from the beginning most of us have come to believe that unless our 'own man' is the President we will be unable to secure those socio-economic amenities that are disbursed by the government. The north is not different, and if this assertion is anything to go by, the years from 1999 – 2013 proved to many in the region, that their interest can only be served if a northerner happened to be the President. However, we as intellectuals and who witnessed at least 3 decades of leaderships, both from north and south, we should know better. The years IBB, Abacha and Abdussalami spent continuously add nothing to the region but misery. From 1999 to date, the amount of money the region received amounted to over N10tr and what we have in the region are social indices compared only to Somalia and Afghanistan. That was even before the Boko Haram crises.
Shockingly, commitment from the region’s elite and our political leaders is discouraging. As Sunusi Lamido Sunusi “We are only treating the symptoms, not the ailment”. It is this incapacity to respond to these challenges effectively that added to the region’s woes. Today it is the northern PDP governors, most of whom performances in their states is woefully poor, that are fighting the President in an election that will take place in 2015. Both in absolute and relative terms, their states are the most poorest. This situation was not natural, it was man made and by no other person, but the same elite, who are today shamelessly pretending to fight the President for the collective good of the region.
If really the region wants to get things right, not only politically but socially and economically, the region elite need to rise above narrow selfish interest as if there is tomorrow. This involves committed and honest leadership, aggressive pursue and tapping into what God gives the region in terms of human and material resources. The region needs to redefine it position within the federation.

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