The North

The North, the Middle Belt and Nigeria: A Rejoinder to Nda-Isaiah

Joseph Dangme

Rinyom, Jos , Nigeria .

riyom2004@yahoo.com

It is unfortunate that people like Nda-Isaiah would attempt to ridicule serious issues such as the matter of the middle-belt by resorting to the obnoxious but customary political rivalry that makes it impossible for anyone perceived as the opposition to say anything reasonable. This campaign of smear and calumny against Chief Lar and the noble people that advocate the creation and recognition of the middle belt speaks volumes about Nda-Isaiah’s disposition to seek the truth. This is evident in the wild assertions he could not substantiate. Being self-confessedly rude only goes to prove Nda-Isaiah’s unreasonable motives in the matter.

For the avoidance of doubt, I do not hold brief for Chief Lar. I have since refused to acknowledge him as a just political godfather of Plateau State in respect of the elections that saw Dariye back into office. In the first instance, Lar it was who single-handedly gave Dariye the victory in the 1999 PDP primary elections even after it was known for certain that Jang had won. With Sango and others, they once again conspired against the Plateau man to reinstall Dariye as Governor after it was obvious the day was to be carried by Jang. This does not however detract from his political antecedents and achievements. Without any fear of contradiction, Chief Lar, as governor of Plateau State , touched the lives of all citizens of the state by far more than all his predecessors and successors put together excepting J.D Gomwalk of blessed memory. When Abacha had people like Nda-Isaiah scurrying for cover, Lar stood tall and firm in the quest for the end to military dictatorship. And Lar’s consistency in the cause of the middle belt since the 1970s when it was least popular portrays him as a leader who could be relied upon to sayt his mind and stand his ground. Even now that Middle belt-phobia permeates the northern air and generals like Useni have lost their focus-to stand with their people or curry favor from the northern elites whose political fortunes seem brighter than any emanating from the middle belt-Lar has refused to live a lie. His statement is the true picture of what is being felt by the people of the region- the need for self-identification and recognition. Let us therefore not let politics blind us to the facts before us.

It is accepted that while the Sardauna, Sir Ahmadu Bello held sway as the premier of the Northern Region, he not only coined the “one north” slogan, but lived it. The likes of Lar, Babangida, Abacha, and many other northerners benefited, handsomely, from his generous spirit of farness and justice irrespective of their ethnic extractions and immediate geographical location so long as it was within the demarcated boundaries of the north. For example, when Archbishop Onaiyekan of Abuja was named the best graduating student in the north after his secondary education, the Sardauna offered him scholarship, despite the fact that he was non-muslim and non-Hausa/Fulani, to further his education in any part of the world he wanted. He chose to go to the seminary, to the expected and understandable chagrin of the Sardauna. That was the man that made the north monolithic. Those days are gone, far gone with the demise of the Sardauna.

Lar and his co-middle-belt leaders could very well be accused of promoting self interest in the guise of the middle belt cause. This may be true. The Bernie and Prof Lar’s saga was a topic of voracious discussion even in Plateau State . But even his most ardent opponents concede that Prof. Lar could hold her own anywhere in Nigeria as an achiever, not less than most of those appointed ambassadors along with her. Not much was known of Bernie before her enthronement as an assistant to Obasanjo. But such are the materials that Nigerian politics and politicians are made of. Many, like the Fani-Kayodes feed fat on the legacies of their parents. But come to think of it could the same accusation not be extended to those who oppose the concept of the middle belt in the name of maintaining an old north that has become discriminatory to its supposed citizens, pitching the majority against the minority? What does Nda-Isaiah stand to gain by clinging to the notion of the old north by pouring vitriol in the face of his political betters like Lar and Ayu? And what does he stand to lose if the middle belt is recognized as an entity independent of the old north? As the one-time image maker of Buhari’s campaign, Nda-Isaiah stands to gain politically, socially and therefore economically by sticking to the old north where he perceives his political bread to emerge from. So in this respect what is the difference between Nda-Isaiah and those he accuses of self-serving in the name of middle belt cause? The difference may lie in the fact that others, like Chief Lar and Ayu have impacted, positively, on their people and have a followership across the lengthy and breadth of this country, whereas Nda-Iasiah is yet to lead a procession in his ward.

What strikes me as pathetic is the political analysis that Nda-Isaiah presents on the Plateau scenario. With such an oversimplification of Tarok politics, Nda-Isaiah has just provided inkling into why Buhari lost the elections. Hon. Victor Lar won the elections not on the ticket of the north but ANPP. To educate Nda-Isaiah, in case he does not know, ANPP is a political party that does not promote any regional agenda. It’s present Chairman is Chief Don Etiebet from Southern Nigeria . But I could be wrong as well and am open to be educated as well. However, suffice it to say that Bernie lost, not because Lar told his people that they are not northerners but because in the aftermath of the Wase crises where the Hausa/Fulani militia surprised, massacred and sacked the Tarok indigenes of the area, Chief Lar’s political godson, who happened to be the Governor, did nothing to help them. In fact Dariye was seen as the main protagonist and initiator of the crises in order to settle political differences. The Tarok decided to teach Lar a lesson by not voting his daughter to the House of Representatives. But if the contests were on the basis of Lar and PDP being anti-north and Jeremiah Useni and ANPP being pro-north, how come that ANPP never won another election after the House of Representatives? The House of Assemblies (only one, out of three, was won by the ANPP), Chairmanship and councillorship elections were won by the PDP. Did the people pass their verdict for the “anti-north” cause?

Let me educate Nda-Isaiah a little bit more on the politics of 2003 on the Plateau. Jang was the ANPP candidate and the favored person to win the elections after Dariye had exhibited total ignorance of the simple principles of governance. With the likes of Sango still in the race and three others, Plateauns knew that it would turn out to be a close election but not a few were certain that Jang would win! Some of us who not only supported Jang but contributed funds to the cause and campaigned, actively for him, were sure of victory at the polls. Despite the fact that many people expressed reservations on the Abacha’s Northern People’s Party as ANPP was dubbed, we had tremendous support and goodwill from the people who were already tired of Dariye’s ineptitude and wanted a change for the better. We pried the Northern Senatorial seat from PDP and four House of Representative seats on the basis of this goodwill. We got Saleh Hassan elected on the promise of acquiring the Hausa/Fulani muslim votes on the Plateau but got tricked by when they decided to vote instead, overwhelmingly, for their muslim brother, Alhaji Bello of UNPP when it was obvious he was a loser before the race even got started. But most importantly, o ur boat was sunk on the eve of the elections. People, suspected to be PDP members, pasted new ANPP posters of Jang holding hands in campaign with Buhari. That was how we lost the elections to rigging. The media- orchestrated statements of Buhari, which I have always held to have been distorted, did us in. The people of the plateau were still smnarting from the Sept. 7, 2001 crisis and the incessant attack on Berom, Tarok, Goemai villages by rampaging Fulani militia. The posters were therefore so well timed that we were shocked and had no time to strategize against it. Until now, I have always thought the PDP did it. I never knew that the Buhari campaign organization had their electoral hopes tied to a pro-north standpoint, which Nda-Isaiah is only now revealing, or so it seems to me. Apart from this singular incident that turned thousands of our supporters away from us on the eve of the elections, no amount of rigging would have suffice to deny Jang the gubernatorial seat now being occupied by His Emergency, Gen Alli whose first tenure on the Plateau was unique only in the fact that he frequented night clubs and birthday parties and earned the sobriquet “Alli Gulder”. For the records, despite the massive rigging of the PDP in Plateau State , only 5000 votes denied Jang the governorship of the state. That was how close we came to winning Plateau, no thanks to those posters.

Furthermore, the problems being experienced by the minority tribes in the middle belt is a relic of the subjugation they went through at the hands of the Hausa/Fulani feudalists before and during colonialism. It is characteristics of oppressed societies that have just found a voice of their own to express them in more ways than one, often times violently. Our leaders have of course exacerbated the problem through unguarded utterances in the name of defending their immediate people. This however does not take away from the fact that the minority tribes want a voice of their own following the betrayal by their once-upon-a-time brothers- the Hausa/Fulani. For example, the government of Tafawa Balewa was overthrown by predominantly Igbo-led coupists. Aguiyi Ironsi who inadvertently gained from the coup did not pronounce a death sentence on the coupists and even though they were put in jail, some got promoted while still incarcerated. Gowon was a northerner overthrown by another northerner, Murtala Mohammed, who became the Head of State. Another coup led by other northerners was staged, but like the Nzeogwu coup, was unsuccessful though Murtala was killed. Obasanjo was then literally forced, against his will, into accepting the leadership of the country with Shehu Musa Yar’Adua, another northerner, as his spear head. It was the latter that insisted on the death sentence for his fellow northerners by writing into our law books the penalty of death for failed coup plotting. Where was the northern espirit de corps or camaraderie? The far north took in to mourn “their own” and demanded for the blood of their “fellow northerners”. In circumstances where no concrete evidences were found to implicate perceived enemies, trump up charges were made and the persons executed. For instance, J.D.Gomwalk was acquitted in his first trial but re-arrested, tried at night, condemned and executed the same night. And if these actions were judiciously done to discourage further coup plotting, then the execution of Vatsa and Orkar and their co-coup plotters were understandable. Why then did the north cry out for the release of Shehu Yar’Adua when Abacha, a fellow northerner had him in his vise grip, convicted and sentenced him to death for alleged coup plotting? The trumped up charges against him were no different from Gomwalk’s!! There is the north for you.

In addition, Yakasai’s statement about the north’s marginalization was no ranting of a disturbed mind. It was a thumbnail of what the far north perceives as giving the child’s bread to undeserving persons. The exclusion of the likes of T. Y. Danjuma in the elders’ forum of the north is also no mistake. Danjuma’s figure looms larger than most yet he was not seen or remembered. It is a pointer and an eye opener to the fact that the north is not as it used to be. The compulsory retirement of the likes of DIGs Victor Pam, the present Gbong Gwom Jos, and Dabut at various times to create space for the elevation of their juniors of Hausa/Fulani extraction as IGs was not an oversight as well. The scenarios keep repeating themselves to the detriment of the minority tribes in the so-called north. If Nda-Isaiah could be sidelined from attending a Buhari organization meeting when he is publicly known to be less Buhari only to (probably?) Buhari himself, I believe the message should have been passed to him that things have changed. But would he know the difference even if he had been told in no uncertain terms that the party is over?

And to further point it out to you that the old Sardauna’s north does not exist any longer but in the minds of people like Nda-Isaiah, James Danbaba and Ishaya Bamaiyi are still rusting in Obasanjo’s jail even as the deafening silence of the north becomes ear shattering. It was realized that Al-Mustapha’s case was problematic because he had not only stepped on toes from afar but on his northern elders’ toes as well. But Mohammed Abacha, standing trial for the same offence, may even now be out of the country on picnic for all I may know. If these persons are regarded truly as northerners why is the north not making any frightening noise to get them freed as they did Mohammed Abacha?

And what, for that matter, has the middle belt region gained from the so-called one north? What political, social or economic benefits have come their way as a result of being a part of the new north, according to Nda-Isaiah, as defined, expounded, propounded and defended by Shehu Musa Yar’Adua and his present political acolytes? Or what visions of good hope and tidings have the apostles of the old north seen for the middle belt in coming seasons? And what calamities shall befall the old north if perchance, the middle belt gets its deserved recognition?

It is equally false for Nda-Isaiah to claim that the minority tribes in the middle belt region do not have historical and cultural affinity with one another. But we shall leave this spurious assertion for dissection at another time. For now the questions that still boggle the mind are: Who is afraid of the middle belt? And why?