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Sun Set In Northern Nigeria By Chidi P Eze "No condition is permanent", was the most popular name on many of the mammy wagons (otherwise ugbo akpu) or lorries that ploughed the southeastern erosion tracks called roads. During my elementary days, we used to be excited when we saw those lorries with different inscriptions on their front boards above windshield and sides. There was "Remember God", another popular name. There was "Future will Tell”, the "Young shall grow", and "I shall return" and very many others. Actually, we did never truly understand the philosophical meanings to those names. But we had special attachment to those lorries based on the inscriptions. We graded them according to their operators skills. ‘No condition is permanent’ over shadowed all the lorries by it's name and the driver's maneuverability on that so well un maintained roads. During the three geopolitical description of Nigeria known as northern region, western region and eastern region, just before the later mid-western region, north was designated Nigeria's hill side, the west was known to be Nigeria's sun set, while the east was known as Nigeria's sun rise. Today, Nigeria's political and economic situation have rekindled my juvenile days and the philosophical meaning of the names on those lorries. I doff my cap and adore the visions of the owners of those lorries and their great wisdom in their choice of those names. Between August 1, 1966 and May 28, 1999, “One Nigeria” was a mere geographical expression and existed only in name, but not in practical terms. Federalism was just a baptismal name for medieval feudalism. The north, the conqueror was lording it over the rest of the regions. In the impecunious Nigerian polity, the north put the middle belt represented by the more educated and civilized Tivs, the Junkuns, the Angas, the Beroms, the Bachamas, the Ankwais, the Musheres, the Anagutas, the Pankshins and the Idomas in the front line of the battle fields. The far north represented by the Hausa/Fulani were the feudal emperors. The more educated and highly westernized south were made subservient to the intellectually and morally challenged north. For clarity, from 1960 to 1999, Nigeria had had 11 heads of government, with the north accountable for 8 of them which spanned a total of 36 years of 39 years of the nation’s self rule. Namely, Alhaji Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, General Yakubu Gowon, the British compromise candidate over Murtala Mohammed after the northern military mutiny July 1966, whom the west hated with passion, General Murtala Mohammed , Alhaji Shehu Shagari, Major-General Mohammadu Buhari, General Ibrahim Babangida, General Sani Abacha and General Abdul Salami Abubakar. The hatred the west had for Murtala Mohammed based on his atrocities in Asaba during the civil war, culminated in the removal of Mohammadu Buhari when he openly told the world that his government was an offshoot of Murtala Mohamed. Murtala Mohamed authorized and supervised the murder of General Ironsi, 6 months into his administration, and he was paid back with his own life 6 months into his own administration. Retributive justice! I wish to emphasize here that while Gowon was the head of government, one of his greatest acts was keeping the Hausa/Fulani wolves at bay for 8 years plus until July 1975. As head of government, he probably had no say in the development of infrastructures, otherwise the middle belt has nothing to show that it produced a head of government and the northern emperors didn’t care either. The military deliberately posted the military semi-literates as military administrators to the south not to develop it, but to share the allocation with the northern emirs. The state creation was entirely northern issue without the real impact of the southerners. The same with the local governments. Kano state and Jigiwa state combined, is a third of Lagos state, but the duo have 76 local governments compared to Lagos 20. Jigiwa state, a village of only one town Hadejia, whose population is less than 150 people with only one secondary school in 1976, has 32 local governments more than Enugu and Anambra states put together. Those northern leaders did not hide their open robberies and callousness against the south. Until lately, the petroleum ministry was always under the control of the Hausa/Fulani. Of the 774 local governments in Nigeria, north accounts for 445 or more. Those local governments were established as financial conduit pipe to siphon the nation’s oil money to the emirs and village heads, otherwise with 445 local governments it has nothing to show for them when compared to the amount of money being channeled to those local governments. The national census organized and executed by the Hausa/Fulani had south always minus half its population while north always tripled its population. Now when it is obvious that the Hausa/Fulani is not going to control the population manipulation in the up coming head count, it sought for and obtained the exclusion of ethnicity and religion from the questionnaire data. What a game? The northern model is what is good for the goose is not good for the gander.
During the northern hold on power, employment, appointment and distribution of the federal resources were classified and appropriated on class basis. The first class citizens represented by the Hausa/Fulani, the 2nd class represented by the Yoruba, the semi-2nd class represented by the middle belts, the southern Kaduna and the south-south and the 3rd class represented by the igbos. It was like that in all the Nigeria's federal establishments and institutions. Corporations, road constructions, industrial establishments whether military or civilian were either appropriated in Kaduna or no where else. The Defense industry corporation, the Kaduna refinery, the PAN (Peugeot Automobile Nigerian) Ltd., Senior Staff College, Nigerian Defense Academy, the Nigerian Military School, the Nigerian Civil Aviation Training School, major military divisions, installations, establishments, the Ajokuta iron industry which was originally to be sited in Onitsha, are all in the north in general and Kaduna in particular. The nation's capital that has engulfed most of the nation's resources seconded only to corruption was moved from Lagos to the north. Why not Makurdi or Jos? Where else in Nigeria did the feudal emperors establish any major federal presence outside the north? The best road constructions are in the north. While 2nd bridge was constructed in River Benue, Makurdi, in 1978, Niger bridge in Onitsha has been left to create tsunnami before anything can be done about it if there will ever be.
In the military, it was always the job of the Tivs, the Angas, and the Jukuns to topple the existing emperors, then install the Hausa/Fulani, who would share the booties, the resources and positions to themselves. In the same military parlance, it was either General Hadejia, alhaji ‘Setima’, Air vice-marshal Mustapha, ‘Mig’ Abubakar or Vice admiral ‘NNS’, Yar' Adua. In the divisional commands, any one who was not either Hausa/Fulani or pro Hausa/Fulani would be off limit to the command structure. Military promotions, appointments and assignments were purely northernized, Hausanized and Fulanized. Today the Hausa/Fulani have more retired and serving military generals than they have university graduates. Prior to the northernization of the Nigeria’s leadership, Nigeria had a federation and the recruitment, posting and promotion in the nation’s armed forces and the police were purely on meritocracy. The military and the police establishments were very efficient and well respected by the citizens. Of course there were two north, the main north largely the Hausa/Fulani and the peripheral north represented by Plateau State, Benue State and Taraba State. From 1966 to 1999 Nigeria, there were two forces of power. The northern military power, the dominant power and its civilian wing, for political coloration. Their names might be differed, but their goal was the same.. to control power at all cost and dominate the rest of the country. In the civil parlance, ministries and their agencies were also designated on the grading level, 1st, 2nd and 3rd grades. The first class ministries and their agencies were reserved as Hausa/Fulani rights, then the other classes were distributed to southerners in order of the Yoruba, the middle belt, the groups of the south-south and finally the igbos, until when things got worse then igbos were invited to come and clean them up. The police hierarchy, from IGs to DIGs and AIGs were either Hausa or Fulani, the chief justice, the federal appeal court chief judges, the custom controller-generals, the director-generals of the immigration service, the controller-generals of the prison service, the ambassadors to the western countries and the directors of NPA were all either Hausas or the Fulani. What did the Plateau State, the Benue State and Taraba State get for being used to grab power? Well, a school of strategic studies, Jos, a dormant airport in Jos, a dormant airport in Makurdi and local appointments for Taraba. Jos and Makurdi, perhaps were not suitable for industrial citations, because the presence of the Hausa/Fulani over there is minimal. As far as Nigeria was concerned, the south and the middle belt did not exist and even if they were, they were only existing in name. The relationship of the south and the north was on the basis of the northern masters and southern servants.
Who said there was one Nigeria? When Major-General Mohammadu Buhari was appointed military head of state in 1984, his first military action was the establishment of the ten northern governors association and the establishment of the unity schools to admit only the children of the ten northern states. Northern children were being paid a lot of money monthly to go to school, even laundry allowances were paid to them on weekly basis. Where was the money coming from? The black gold from the south. Sharia law was already in the making compulsorily, because a top official of the ministry of justice named Dr. Aina a Hausa/Fulani, was billed to draft the law and present to supreme military council for approval. But before that could happen, Buhari was already in federal prison. Under Buhari, while the north was being appointed, the south was being retrenched. It was a public knowledge that Fela was jailed 5 years for traveling out of the country with his band with about $1000, but the father of Buhari’s ADC, major Jokolo who was the emir of Gwandu in Niger state was allowed to come into the country with 53 suit cases un searched during that heat of currency exchange. Today, the Jokolos, God works in a miraculous way. Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, the current vice-president was the custom officer in charge of Murtala Mohammed Airport then. Other than the roads built by the Gowon’s government in Lagos, the subsequent northern leaders have nothing to their credit beyond northern Nigeria. Let me take that back, they had something to their credit, fraud, corruption and embezzlement. The dilapidation and total neglect of Nigeria’s tertiary institutions were made deliberate under IBB and Sani Abacha. Since the north could not catch up to south academically, tertiary educations MUST be neglected and destroyed. JAMB was Hausa/Fulani idea, born, breath and controlled by them to quotarize the nation’s universities admissions and flood the universities with highly academically challenged northern children. Still it had not worked out the way they had envisioned, the resultant effect being the extremely lower standard in the nation’s tertiary institutions and dilapidation of the institutions in the south. Things got so bad that for any southerner to open business in Nigeria, he or she must have a Hausa/Fulani as chairman. Even for the business to be registered. Similar situation affected Nigerians living in Diaspora. Some of these Nigerians traveling to Nigeria changed into attires to look more like alhajis or mallams on getting to Europe, so they could pass through Lagos without the usual and unnecessary security harassments. While all these were going on, the south was powerless, because the leadership of Nigeria was through the barrel of gun controlled by the north. The situation was worse for the igbos because every obstacle in form of obnoxious laws or decrees were always promulgated against their economic interests since they had no representative in the ruling military junta. The south has no right to the presidency or military leadership of Nigeria. This was attested by IBB’s nullification of the presidential mandate given to the late chief MKO Abiola in 1993. The removal of chief Ernest Shonekan who only served 3 months by the late Sani Abacha. Now the north is calling for the return of their property, the presidency, which they alleged to have given to the south conditionally. I wonder what they need it for, since they had it for 36 years, which has brought to Nigeria 36 years of economic misery, political, social, religious and cultural ruination, an unprecedented fraud and monumental corruption. Dear greedy north, I urge you to wait for at least 40 years. Your best bet would be to pay attention to your children’s education and development of your towns and elevate them to city standard to be able to compete favorably in a fast and dynamic world, rather than wasting your time asking for the presidency. If the Nigerian president is a penalty, you are 100 yards away from the goal post. To the southerners and southern politicians, the presidency, if not now, when? Failure will only subject the south and their children to perpetual servitude and history will judge you very hash.
Chidi P Eze. |