North for Naught? An Open Letter to Late Premier of Northern Nigeria Sir Ahmadu Bello,The Sardauna of SokotoBy Aliyu Salisu Barau
Lecturer in Geography and Environmental Studies Federal College of Education, Kano
Introduction This letter comes from one of the millions of youths that missed your vibrant and radiant days. We are nevertheless well nourished by the vital rays of your ever-shining and indelible legacies. I beseech Your Lord to keep on pouring His Infinite Mercy to your provisional abode till the final day breaks.
Allah shi maka rahama, the cardinal objective of this semi formal letter is to brief you on the effete and sorry state of the Northern Region particularly in respect of the performance of your markedly unqualified successors. I mean, the Northern High Command – politicians, emirs and chiefs, intellectuals, religious leaders and tradesmen. Allah shi kyauta kwanciya, you may ask why this letter from an unknown boy? You may also question my inspiration. Maigirma Sardauna, many of the northern youths, like my humble self, borne after you have departed grew to know your impeccable title and admire and revere enemies of your enemies because of what we see, hear and read about yo u. Many roads, buildings, institutions, and individuals are named after your name or honorific. There are as well, plethora of poems and songs in your honour, which convince me of your godly and selfless service to the northern region. Your name is ever blossoming across the country especially that your portrait is now on the 200-naira currency note but more due to you incombustible integrity. Indeed, Mr. Premier, we have no one to match you. The distance between your reputation and that of current elected northern rulers is like that between the sun and the earth (approximately 150 million kilometres).
What prompts writing this letter is the recent diamond-hard and humiliating truth expressed by President Obasanjo. The Executive President unequivocally notified the governors of the northern provinces that Nigeria was not ready to wait for the tortoise-speed of the north in the race towards making a new Nigeria. The president has indeed said a premeditated truth. I cherish Obasanjo’s ingenuity and especially the way he ingenuously made the statement. It is my firm conviction that most of the paining issues and problems prevailing in the northern region are homemade. Doubtlessly, Nigeria as a whole is skirted by cornucopia of aches. So conspiracy has little place in the interpretation of the ordeals of the north. In effect, it is better to outline and underscore our own share of inactions plaguing our enviable country. Allah shi ky auta bayan ka, even before the said statement of Mr. President, I wallowed in melancholy for the outcome of the lately concluded national political reform conference where the north was hooded, booed and hooted at for what some sections of the federation perceive as stark parasitic posture of the north in cooking the wealth of Nigeria. This is indeed, a heating hit that beckons on me to write to the Sardauna.
Hence, I will present some of the key problems and issues that make Arewa vulnerable to every sort of assault. You will wonder, why on earth, should Arewa be on this gradient of inconsequence in Nigeria. This is indeed uncharacteristic of your thought and teachings. We read that you didn’t compromise the interest of north and northerners. Your political contemporaries and those who read knew that north wasn’t an ‘attachment passenger’ in the Nigerian vehicle. The north had the unity, numerical, political and economic strengths to dance sing and act boldly in the Nigerian theatre. Th at seems to be a thing of the past. Your junior colleague Mallam Maitama Sule, Dan Masanin Kano wisely and succinctly zips up our predicaments thus:
The institution of family has broken down. Respect for elders and constituted authority, which used to be cardinal principle in our society, is now at its lowest ebb. Honesty where it does not has become meaningless. Symptoms of revolt loom large in the horizon. In short, there is meaningless in philosophy, insecurity in polity, chaos in politics, corruption in economy, immorality in society, frustration in literature and lack of creativity in arts…we have lost being ourselves and we are now poor caricature…
I will paraphrase some of the key areas and aspects that led to the degradation of the northern Nigerian peoples:
Pre and post and power shift Allah ya jikan Sardauna, the aftermath of your martyrdom bred yet another series of chances for the northerners to rule Nigeria until the so called ‘power shift’ which transferred power to south on the platter of iron. North had to give power or else… I must say that all the northerners that led Nigeria before the power-shift in 1999 did not compromise the unity of Nigeria. That is a good legacy. Certainly, Nigeria fails because of failures of all Nigerians in divergent and variant ways. Nonetheless, a renowned African scholar with much Arewa-philia and phobia for Nigerian disunity, namely Professor Ali Mazrui views all the northerners that ruled Nigeria before the power-shift under changing prism. In short, Mazrui categorised all the African leaders of hither and yonder. Yakubu Gowon and Abdulsalami Abubakar along with Mandela were labelled as leaders of reconciliation. Murtala Mohammed and Muhammadu Buhari fall under category of disciplinarians. Abacha was typified with his regime’s zero-tolerance; Shagari is absent in the typology, while IBB was identified as leader that could be Nigeria’s Charles de Gaulle but his experiment failed. The interesting fac t is that all of them could not help the north to bridge the widening digital gap between it and the south.
Allah shi gafarta maka, many of the northern elites propagate that power-shift to the south is tantamount death knell of the north. Such lame thought is informed by the fear that some of us held that with power-shift the scalar canyon between the two regions will expand ceaselessly. Wasn’t the situation like that, when you as premier worked to bridge the gap? Why is it that within six years, you accomplished putting on ground an enviable university, a polytechnic, which southerners lack match of the twain? I believe that, the number of degree holders in your cabinet, the northern parliament and public service will hardly go beyond half dozen if there were at all. The truth is that, you had the heart for your people. Neither north nor south is ghost to be chased. I don’t see the south as magnet to repel but perhaps attract or trigger pace of our development trend. At a given period of time, the north witnessed flourishing of civilisation that makes Africa ever proud of. We had lady authors, young authors and time-honoured intelligentsias, commercial moguls and intrepid heroes that had no match in the whole of forest zones of Africa. Just like Obasanjo said, while presiding the bicentennial celebration of the Soko to caliphate more than a year ago, that, any nation that does not uphold its history is doomed. We are now languishing because we forget our history and throw away our heritage. Our contemporary political leaders are the authors of our predicaments. Do they fear God at all? He who fears God, a divine undertaking asserts that his heart will be opened for soundness in everything.
Allah ya jikan Sardauna, personally, I don’t see the power-shift as risk. It could not be sunset at dawn or darkness at noon for Arewa and its peoples. Unfortunately, after six years the moon for reversal is yet to be sighted. Allah ya kyauta. Most of our political leaders lacked the originality and creativity for vigorous development projects and programs similar to those Rimi did for Kano in the 1980s, which were envy of all states across the federation. But the question here is: are northerners like Rimi extinct, killed, lost or martyred. Certainly, northern politicians nowadays could not exhibit good qualities of Arewa – piety, modesty and honesty. Many of them are lieutenants of ghosts. Some go without headgear let alone turbans, which symbolise the virtues of the north. They only aspire and press for commercialised turbans. They make rash rush for public wealth. They become richer than merchants. Imagine that. They have abolished and spilled away their own history and background. Their children are tendered like houris; they are conveyed to quintessential schools in vehicles that are worth for presidents and prime ministers. All these are at the detriment of the ruled. Allah ya jikan Sardauna, such are the majority o f political leaders of the north. They are neither in the aura of NPC’s conservatism nor in the halo of NEPU’s progressiveness. Such character disposition is Anti-Nazareth and anti-Medina.
Education No body doubts the philosophy of tip toeing moves of the north for the independence till 1960. By 1960 north was at least halfway ripe enough to take charge of the region. The three years homework gave north a breathing space to organise its manpower needs for proper self-governance. To consolidate on that effort, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria and several other educational institutions were put in place. Apart from these, incessant opportunities were given to public servants to embark on assorted training programs outside Nigeria in order to fill in the chasms left by the British officers. It is unfortunate that up to date the north is far lagging behind the south in the educational development. None of the states in the north could fill its quota in the Nigerian universities and colleges. We compete with southerners in our own schools, colleges and universities. North is still dependent on the academic manpower of the south even at the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria. A lot has been said and written on this subject matter. No sociologist or psychologist could underestimate our intelligence and craft in every dimension of life. What is amiss is the solemn concern and concerted effort of your successors. Children of leaders of the north go to deluxe private schools that are well equipped both in manpower and materials. Why such tilted situations can’t render education for all a mere charade? Poor northerners now find sympathy and empathy in southern philanthropists. Westerners like Moshood Abiola and Gani Fawehinmi or easterners like Rochas Okorocha offered rosy scholarships and build schools for the underprivileged northerners. Our leaders are indifferent; they find no sham e in calling the north the educationally disadvantaged part of Nigeria. In general, the degree at which they work to reverse the situation is nothing to write home about. Allah ya jikan Sardauna, our history of Islamic scholarship is today challenged by the south. The number professors of Islamic studies is almost balanced between the two regions. This betrays our heritage of Islamic scholarship. Today, northern Islamic evangelists to sufficient extent depend on the southern Muslim publishing houses for the bulk of Islamic Da’awah literature. We indeed rely on the south for such items like the Islamic materials like translated books, CDs and VCDs. The situation of our time h onoured Quranic schools system is today in crises. The students are portrayed as nuisance, which indeed they are because we fail to support or redesign the system. In the case of Christian brethren, I can say that most of the churches remain extensively foreign to the north. I know that even COCIN remains largely in the Plateau and Adamawa provinces. Churches sculptured and nurtured in the south enjoy more followership than our northern carved churches.
Economy Prior to the colonial era, in fact even before the Sokoto jihad, parts of northern Nigeria were renown in the famous globalised Trans-Saharan trade. In fact, some articles made in the present-day northern Nigeria were being imported to western and eastern parts of Europe. And our merchants were also prominent in many parts of Asia. By the time the southern Nigeria was nowhere to be found in the global map of trade or classical civilisation. Your great grand dad, Abdullahi Fodio reengineered the economic base of the caliphate where he directed each of the states to focus on one viable economic activity or the other. That made north a large economic empire in Africa. During the colonial era, the north contributed for its development through tax generated within the region as well as the lofty gains made through exports of agricultural products and solid minerals. I cherish the way and manner you worked to improve the economic of the north. Merchants like Alhassan Dantata were beneficiaries of your policies of wealth indigenisation. I shed tears for you. You were martyred without shares in companies, without foreign account or investment, without mansions, you lacked fat bank account even at the Bank of the North. Fortunately, you died poorer than any contemporary local government area chairman in Nigeria.
Allah ya jikan Sardauna, these days our fellow Nigerians render us a laughing stock. They question our tangible contribution to the economy of Nigeria. Consequently, we are now taunted and called names. All these are in the name of sharing petro-dominated national wealth. My melancholy lies more with the northern governors and intellectuals responded to oil producers during the recent national confab it came as if northern states were the only non-oil producers in the count ry. Are we simply telling them that we are parasitic? I always ask myself. What will happen to northern states if there is no oil-fuelled budget? What have we prepared for such imagination, and which can happen in the real world. Poll tax is abolished. How much do we contribute to VAT? How much do we expect from our sons and daughters in diaspora as remittance? How much do we expect from foreign exchange. Do we recourse to foreign aid? Who knows? Any way, some of us reason that our resources were used to develop the oil industry. I could not believe this. During the colonial and the first republic each of the regions was substantially generating its own revenue. Again, the oil development was bankrolled by the interested firms, who blindly sank money for gain or loss. Any way don’t we think that we have been settled for what we think we contributed?
Allah ya jikan Sardauna, I always wonder why the north could not accomplish robust economic development in spite of our abundant natural endowments that await development. President Obasanjo’s recent outcry to northern governors implies that south is losing patience with our ‘go slow’. Anyway, the devil will take the hindmost. In a way, there is belated and lame efforts to redress the situation. Some of such responses in fact freeze my mind. Why on earth must Northern Nigeria Development Company (NNDC) venture into oil exploration in some parts of northern Nigeria? What such intervention implies is that we lack initiatives at all. We crave for oil wells so that we can also earn 13%. No more, no less. Yes, I must say that our political leaders lack initiatives and dynamism of our forefathers like you, the Sardauna of Sokoto. Allah shi gafarta maka, I may substantiate this with some points. A cursory look at the nature of domestic and international commerce and trade shows that it remains unchanged both in the formal and informal sectors of the economy. Our upward movement in trade and commerce is infinitesimal if one compares us with Igbos who were crushed to smithereens in the Nigerian civil war. Igbos now hoist the flags of trade and commerce of Nigeria and they are foll owed by the by the Yorubas who grip the services industry with iron tooth. Southerners carved their own niche of business in our midst and we can’t do without them in many sectors.
In the name of materialism they used to export armed robbers (misemployed southerners) to the north. Now we have recruited our lethal ones. On the other hand, our own misemployed (beggars) exported to south continue to increase unstoppably. Allah ya jikan Sardauna, the north is scripted with gold and south is penned in silver even at the Buckingham palace. It is now stark failure of your successors that soil our centuries earned reputation.
It is obvious that the Almighty has blessed north with more assorted natural resources as compared with the south. Nevertheless, it is flabbergasting that our leaders fail to pilot us or lubricate our engines of trade and commerce. For instance, why, I ask myself can’t we halt mass exportation of live animals to south? Why can’t we process the animals right here and take them down then in cold rooms. The same philosophy is applicable to most of other commodities that we take down there. Most of northerner’s conventional services in the south e.g. foreign currency exchange, shoe repairs and manicuring don’t synchronise with challenges of modernisation. Why must we lack foresight to re-establish the famous the Trans-Saharan trade by exporting our agricultural and industrial products to such a big market. There are more southern entreprene urs on this road now. Why can’t we establish viable trade links with the Middle East or southern Asia? Northern political class are merely actors in the play of deception. How many times do they tell us that they invited good friends/investors yet what transpires hardly pays for their travel expenses?
Allah ya jikan Sardauna, some of your government’s measures to help northern entrepreneurs is always fresh in my mind. For instance, there was a decision that banned multinationals in involving in retailing and host of other incentives, which were not warmed by personal interest. Let me relate to you the story of a project you were preparing to initiate before the call rang. I want to refer to large-scale irrigation project in the Kano river valley. I know that through a technical assistance from USAID the sui tability appraisals of the land was undertaken. After the civil war, Audu Bako, the then Kano state governor went on with feasibility studies and some 60, 000 hectares were set for development. Bako developed enviable dams for the project and started with a pilot project and subsequently phase I of the project which worth some 22,000 hectares. To date the phase I is yet to be accomplished after over thirty years. Such is example of northerners’ seriousness. Northern leaders have relegated agriculture to the back. Today, the north is almost completely dependent on the south for its eggs, chicken, processed animal feeds, veterinary products and pesticides. This is rather unfortunate. Yet, the leaders sleep well only to wake up expecting paid and prepaid God-worth-praises for the efforts that are mere figment of the imagination. What an ungodly act?
It is quite worrisome that up to date, the north could not plot any de facto and nationally presentable bank apart from the Bank of the North, which you conceived for us. Bank of the North is a proverbial cat with nine lives. In effect, Bank of North is helplessly gnawed to its fall by the northern states governments and heavyweight entrepreneurs. None of the northern banks could raise its head in the rays of banking industry of the country.
Youths History will never under-place your belief of taking youths along in lifting north to greater heights. In those days, we learnt that youths aged between 25-30 served as parliament and cabinet members. Such gallant youths proved to every overeducated southerner that they are colts worth being appropriated to every race-course. Alas, the contemporary youths are antithesis of those ones. We, the modern youths, look for instant gratification; we look for wealth without working for it. Arewa youths of today have become faggots itching to burn the country because of the interest of some ungodly political and sectional misleaders. I must tell Sardauna, this is certainly one of the most dangerous trends for the north. The population of the north is youthful. Bulk majority of the youths are unemployed, misemployed or underemployed. They lack foc us, fashion and passion for better north and Nigeria. We lack awareness, skills and attitudes and pilots to guide us. Political leaders in the north do not prepare anything for us in advance like you prepared for them - these our present day leaders. Nobody thinks about the gap between northern and southern youths in intelligence, hard work, handiwork or even potentials for troublemaking and troubleshooting. Our political leaders think towards moulding the poverty-consumed youths into tools for achieving their amorphous egos.
Talakawa The commoners in the north could not be exonerated in the census of the fiascos of the north. But it ought to be trumpeted time and again that, the lion share of the blame is always on the leaders who will give account of how they governed us. Talakawa of your days were enlightened and joined bandwagon for complete republicanism and plantation of justice in the budding northern region. They fought middlemen between them and palaces or white man’s office. Such northerners were valiant and intrepid. They didn’t salivate nor were they tempted by materialism. They resisted colonialist’s indirect rule superstructure and maintained that salvo even after the independence. They were the domestic opponents who gave you courage to work at times with them and at times without them. Such talakawa were la rgely orderly, enlightened, wise and fearless. The contemporary talakawa are caricature – bootlickers, timid, less enlightened, weak in thought and resistance to injustice. Talakawa nowadays admire and revere four-star-corrupted public servants that metamorphosed into public lords.
On Degradation of Northern Environment and Cultural Signatures
Allah ya gafarta maka, degradation of northern Nigeria is also manifested in our fading cultural and ecological settings. Right from the colonial period through your regime, I heard and read that there were enabling policies and programs designed to protect the ecosystem and improve environmental quality and protect the many cultural monuments of the north as well. The aftermath of the contemporary political actors’ laxity to maintain the statusquo brewed many problems for the north. Nowadays, pollution in many forms and shapes is ubiquitous and disastrous, which is mainly as a result of disorderliness than exponential population expansion. In many areas our leaders connive with polluters for cover-ups. Erosion and desertification have a ll reared their ugly heads into the north with speed of light. Some of the grazing sites as old as your regime have been converted into private farms of our leaders. Such situation lead to bloody clashes between farmers and Fulani herdsmen because of scarcity of grazing sites. That is not their day or night headache.
Keeping the same pace of indifference, the northern leaders have let our cultural signatures like city and town walls in ruins. Many of them have disappeared at all and some of our priceless artefacts were stolen. In fact, there was a time when, a friend told to me that he found the graves of the deported and departed emirs of northern emirates in a nasty and untold state at Lakoja. Such is the north of our time.
Stars of the North Allah ya kyauta kwanciya, with such northern leaders mentioned all this long; we would have been for long since virtually extinct in Nigeria. In fact, we would have been completely nuisance in the country. But, I must say that there are some stainless steels upon which the flags of the north are still flapping. Such sons and daughters make north as undying as the sun. They are northern ambassadors that worth going to heaven without visa, they demonstrated sharpness in many aspects and endeavours of life. Such names are envy of every region in the country. The list covers many areas like politics, royalty, business, intelligentsia, academia, military and security, business, arts, sports, journalism etc. the names include the following:
I can sample out the Emir of Kano Ado Bayero, for the premier traditional rulers. Intellectuals and intelligentsia that shine north prominently include, Dr. Junaidu, Wazirin Sokoto, Dr. Maitama Sule, Dan Masanin Kano, Sunusi Lamido Sunusi, Reverend Father Hassan Kukah, Suleiman Kumo, Dr. Ibraheem Sulaiman, Dr. Ibrahim Tahir, Talban Bauchi, Ujdud Sharif, Ibrahim Ado Kurawa, Adamu Adamu, Aliyu Tilde and Abdulkarim Albashir among them. Our gems of journalism include Kabiru Yusuf, Sam Nda Isaiah, Bilkisu Yusuf, Halilu Getso, and Late James Audu among others. In academia, our pride lies with Dr. Yusuf Bala Usman, Professor Jibril Aminu, Professor Ibrahim Ayagi, Professor Mike Kwanashie, Professor Buba Bajoga, Professor Adamu Baikie and few others. In Business, moguls like Aminu Alhassan Dantata, Aliko Dangote, Admiral Murtala Nyako, Late Muhammadu Dankabo, Bamanga Tukur and Ahmadu Chanchangi are on the forefront. In contemporary partisan politics we have Sunday Awoniyi, Sola Saraki Abubakar Rimi, Late Wada Nas, late Gambo Sawaba and Balarabe Musa. For national defence and security we have sons that excel professionally they include: General Tunde Idiagbon, General Theophilus Danjuma, General Musa Bamaiyi, General Victor Malu (Rtd), AIG Abubakar Tsav (Rtd), ACP Nuhu Ribadu. In arts, late Mamman Shata and Danmaraya Jos, and Idris Abdulkarim are musicians of national taste. Northern prominent writers find representation in Zainab Alkali and Abubakar Gimba and Mudi Sipikin. In sports, Lawal Garba and Rashidi Yekini are our proxies in the world of soccer. Our legal luminaries are Justice Muhammad Bello, Justice Musdapher Akanbi, Justice Belgore, Justice Bashir Sambo, Khadi Ahmed Lemu and Khadi Abdulkadir Orire. Bureaucrats that earned confidence of Nigeria include Liman Chirom a, Adamu Chiroma, Gidado Idris, Aliyu Mohammed, Wazirin Jema’a, and Mallam Nasir El-Rufai.
Allah ya jikan Sardauna, if the rest of northerners will take all the names above as models a lot of changes will unfurl leading to transformation of the northern Nigeria.
Northern Leaders – When to be Humane? Allah ya jikan Sardauna, I perceive that the northern political class is dominated by notion that they could only serve humanity and their community better when they are in the corridor of power. That is a wrong notion. I wonder why, within the two decades that Obasanjo waited for the next bout to powerhouse he kept himself busy doing one thing or the other. I mean things that pull and pluck benefits and blessings to his name, his people and Nigeria as a whole. Obasanjo from one society, organisation or project that wax and improves human life. For example, he developed a commercial farm, served with the Transparency International, and piloted Sasakawa agro-projects into Nigeria among others. With due respect and apology, I want say why, for example, why couldn’t Shagari come up with robust project for preservation of our historic sites in Nigeria so that National Council for Arts and Culture and UNESCO could feel that Shagari is a resource that world will join hands with in improving the well-being of humanity. Indeed, Shagari is in better place to lead northern intellectuals in projecting the image of Sokoto caliphate through among others compilation, publishing and propagation of the sublime works and sublime ideas of the Danfodios.
I expect that General Buhari to initiate a national or West African project for combating desertification. I believe that there are plenty of international organisations and agencies that could join hands with him without strings. I still cherish his dreams for corruption free Nigeria. But even out of partisan politics Buhari could be a pride of the north by initiating such projects. Babangida and Abdulsalami could equally initiate effective poverty alleviation projects in West Africa. Gowon has already done it. It is reflected in his national prayer project and river blindness eradication project, which has registered phenomenal success.
Allah ya gafarta maka, the north needs leaders with foresight and selfless service. The men and women around our leaders must equally be upright and God fearing. I sympathy with two governors in the north, one has good vision for transformation of his state but he lacks articulation and good aides. The other governor has zero record for misappropriations. However, his dreams to transform his state are hamstrung by insensitive people and aides and that develop apathy for his good creeds. This implies that the problems of the north are multifaceted and transcend the strata of the society.
Conclusion This exposé should not lead the good and godly to the valley of despair. Some generations and nations were more corrupt than us yet they achieved metamorphosis from that sorry state into sterling models for the many in our spacious world. Allah ya jikan Sardauna, I am not pessimist at all for the current situation in the north. The north can be rescued to the safe harbour. That is possible when we identify our umpteen problems and asses our needs for development. The north has every desirable human and natural resources to reposition itself. No doubt, in the failure of Nigeria, the south with its a ge old dominance in the public service could not be exonerated for the aches in the muscles of Nigeria. Believably, the south commands the theft of the Nigerian wealth. The south is culpable for the many fresh wounds and scars in the Nigerian body through its well-established nauseating mis-presentation and misrepresentation of Nigeria in the global arena. That manifest through organised crimes like human and drugs trafficking, money laundering, 419 deals. Unfortunately, these abominable characters are significantly permeating into the north. At this millennium, it is wrong for the north to be beleaguered by the ghost of the south. North ought to work with the passion that Sardauna had, and that is working under sun and rain to bail out Nigeria and Africa out of the quagmire. Our forefathers did this with sustained vigour. We can do the same now. In fact we ought to do it. It is better late than never. Allah ya jikan Sardauna, the se words of mine, I believe will be the same that you will offer supposing you are alive in our midst.
To compatriots, I say this: North is Nigeria and Nigeria is north. South is Nigeria and Nigeria is south. Most of the resources that we feud over are exhaustible and most of them are permanently non-renewable. But diversity of our rich land and its peoples is our best pride. I always meditate over the gluing effect of the soccer on us (though not a fan of soccer). There was a time when our national team camped in Kano in preparation for encounter with Algeria (or Sudan?) and I asked my self, if Nigeria lacks a clime with similar weather? Do we ought go out searching? We need each other for what God, the Almighty bestow on us today and that which will unfurl for us tomorrow.
Allah ya rahamshe ka. Amen.
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