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AREWA: Beyond the Marginalization Hysteria By Isa Sanusi I often find it difficult to make sense of the political essence of interest groups that represent northern Nigeria. It is indeed amazing how Northern elders think and pursue all those things we were made to believe are in the interest of Arewa people. Of recent Northern traditional rulers and their religious fellows have taken it upon themselves to fight the government of Olusegun Obasanjo who has since 1999 being pursuing an agenda of making the Northern leadership hegemony to taste what it feels and costs to be out of power. Let us assume that Obasanjo has no any reason to maltreat the North politically and our reason is we accepted him and voted him into power at a time when those he is empowering now rejected him and infact said we will regret having him as president. It is also true that Obasanjo has been deliberately pitching Northerners against one another for political gain. It is also a reality that almost all institutions of governance in Nigeria were manned by Yorubas because the president wants to make them discard their cynicism over his character and accept him as one of their greatest. On the other hand it is also true that Northerners have been ruling this country for longer than others. They did nothing in concrete terms to make the North better. Their best is seen in their wild accumulation and enrichment of few individuals who now always rush to their occasions. What we see on the streets of the Northern states are beggars and destitute growing on the wings of poverty and ignorance. Opulence is pronounced in the way those who have been in government live. Emirs were not left out in dragging us to obscurity. They now and than dish out traditional titles to crooks at a price and hardly champion the course of their people. The ulamas have always been identified with dancing to the tunes of he who will give them 'Allah ya baku mu samu abin miya'. They pray for thieves and rogues to succeed in stealing and other acts of rascality. They manipulate the holy books to appeal to he who can give them money. Our intellectuals have been behaving like illiterates, keeping silent in the face of deceit or getting into government to share from the benefits of being in power. Rich and wealthy are willing collaborators in unleashing hardship on the people. They are not generous even to themselves had their families. These categories of people are the problem and the major roadblock to the development of Northern Nigeria. Sadly enough they are the ones saying that they are fighting to protect the Northern interests. Northern governors were putting a dance of shamelessness by failing to perform in the abundance of huge allocation form the federation. They are rather busy enriching their wives and their relatives and buying choice properties all over the world. They left our schools in shambles and sent their wards to best schools in Europe and US. Now they busy using public funds to perpetuate themselves in power come 2007. Now that election year is approaching merchants of hatred have already started deploying sensitive sentiments to lure the common people into believing in the false claims of championing the interests of the North. It is like enough is becoming enough and the time has come for reawakening to make things clear. The people of Northern Nigerian will have to start distinguishing between personal interests guised as common interest. We have to start asking questions and understanding the motives of our leaders.
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