The Dilemma Of An Average Northerner

By

I. I. Boyi

IIboyi@yahoo.com

Recent events in the country have clearly brought more than ever to the fore the real stuff the foundation of this country is made up of and if something is not done, and urgently so, the bubble will burst.

All the hullabaloo and brouhaha in the stalemated NPRC have succeeded in throwing up just one issue of significance to the ordinary northerner: that his section of the country has by design been a parasite to the rest of the nation.

The rest of the world views Nigerians with unconcealable suspicion a times bordering on disdain which permeates the whole state of the society. Our leaders are seen, and deservedly so, as incurably corrupt. An ordinary Nigeria is regarded a swindler until proven otherwise. Your options are either remaining in the country to engage grinding poverty in a hopeless battle till it knocks you out or as most do check out to Europe or America to sweep streets, wash plates or wash corps deliberately being oblivious of any one’s opinion of you.

Then the Northerner’s lot becomes worse. In addition to the generally shared stigma, he is seen within the country as a parasite to the rest of the nation. Except you’d decide to stop reading papers everyday you must read one thing or another that is very unsettling to you by your just being a northerner. A case of outside being too hot and inside too cold for living.

How can one explain a situation whereby the whole north went to the NPRC with no Agenda but maintaining the status quo? I felt ashamed.

Do our Governors realize that should this country break up or should the oil revenue by any reason stop coming their way, they can’t pay even their workers salaries? That is supposing we do not give a hoot about our self-acquired big for nothing status. Can’t we see beyond our noses for goodness sake?

The recent warning from the US intelligence committee report that the union may not last 15 years now though greeted with scorn and venoms from those in government and expectedly from the North should serve as an eye opener to the Northern Governors and leaders. By this, I am addressing most especially Governor Saminu Turaki, the Chairman of the Northern Governors Forum.

Either the US prophecy of doom turns real or not let’s utilizes it to our favour. Let’s make 15 years the target by which the North most be economically self reliant so which ever way the union goes, we as a people shall survive. So that we all shall never go to any conference again with all our intellectuals only to be insulted and called parasites with no agenda.

I will suggest that all those intellectuals that went to the conference should after the conference come back to Kaduna for another conference this time around for a direction for the north.

If that oil in the Benue thorough and Chad basin is not a myth, a figment of our imagination, the northern states should for a start contribute parts of their monthly allocations towards its prospecting and exploration with 10 years as target since it appears the FGN is not willing to venture there. Let the tin in Jos and the Baryte in Nasarawa state be maximally utilized. Let all other states discover and bring forth their mineral deposits and the realized moneys from the joint contribution be used in the development of this sector. Then let Agriculture be mechanized and generally modernized. For God’s sake everything that is supposed to be done should be done, but I must not be called a parasite in 15 years in this country.

When Clinton was America’s President, a teenage girl whose parents where US based Nigerians, dissatisfied with a particular Clinton Government polity wrote a letter to him in a newspaper demanding an explanation. She ended the letter by saying she made that demand because she was an American. Shortly afterwards, a lette r was delivered to her, personally signed by President Clinton with adequate explanation for his action.

So, Governor Saminu Turaki, as the Chairman of the Northern Governors Forum, what do you intend to about this most shameful situation we find ourselves in? I demand an explanation because I am a Northerner.

The title you are holding as the Chairman of the Northern Governor’s Forum has been just ceremonial since creation. Please give it some animation.

I. I. Boyi,                                       

IIboyi@yahoo.com

Word Bank Housing Estate                                        

Umuahia, Abia State.