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Killing you softly. The Death of the North. And Who Cares……. By Mohammed Dan-Ilori
The bank consolidation policy by the Central Bank of Nigeria was deliberately formulated to deprive the north, a region by far bigger in size and population than the southern part of Nigeria of the ownership of 17 banks to just only one and also from controlling 20 per cent of the total banking industry of Nigeria to just four per cent
Most northerners as usual do not care about anything other than their personal gains and this is true irrespective of their educational backgrounds or status….. in as much as this could be termed as natural or human, it is likely that the interest of the environment is more important than the simple interest of an individual. This is true even in the jungle among the animals….. the similitude of that view is like that of the views of Europeans looking at Africa. Surely the government is likely aware of that and it is using it well. very well…… and they are trying to prove to the world and even to the northerner themselves that they are right. But are they?
ALL the southern banks are now world class thanks to the consolidation policy. But only one of the banks is ours in the north. Even that only one… is it wholly ours? Certainly no. but then who cares! after all we are northerners. Consequence of the consolidation policy is that the north is left with just one bank of northern origin with only 60 per cent northern ownership.
Is the north the only region on the country? Have you asked yourself why the bird-flu is only in the northern part? Or why there are reports of increased levels of the poliomyelitis infection in Kano, Jigawa, Katsina States and other northern regions? No one has given forward any intelligently acceptable conclusions.
The Federal scholarships Board does not evenly offer its services to all Nigerians with the North always being discriminated…. What follows from the Governors or the secretaries? Nothing. Nil response. Seems like nobody really gives a hued about this part of the country not the federal Government not even the states…. And now not even the people.
Same Obasanjo government has upgraded Egbin thermal station by 40 percent and has built new thermal stations in the south-west and is building seven new ones in the east with none planned for the north. "Very soon, he will sell these stations to our disadvantage unless we stop sleeping. The North is then as usual Dead remarked a seasoned banker from the North.
The north is made and is by policy not to be allowed to grow or progress…. And your educational institutions and health centers are the markers. If only the university of Ibadan has an averagely comparable numbers of lecturers from the North as with Ahmadu Bello University has from the south then probably we can sit and talk….
ALL in all of the northern part of the country could not produce a standard television station or a world class quotable by international media newspapers (this I say with all due respect to the impressive and impeccable newspaper - the trusts) Not even the educational or health sector but also the number of secretaries, nurses, even the number of sub-staff you have employed in to your institutions gives you a picture of the future you have in the North.
The next plan likely is to get somebody very UNINTELLIGENT or without any Northern sentiments, support him, then put him in the Abuja Villa while they hold the remote control. After all we are NORTHERNERS!!! we do not understand anything. What OBJ did to his region during his 2 terms of service is by far larger and greater than what the "Northern" military did in all of its existence. The projects are all for the future development of his region even after he leaves office..... And the North? Mhm! who cares. Northern Governors are mostly not directed towards planned infrastructural developmental projects for the future. we are so much into local polity and without any focus and directions. We sell our future for just pennies into our pockets...
I do hope that we will wake up open our eyes and read between the lines. Efforts are required to bring changes to the situation just as Mamman Shata has said in his song “ yan arewa ku bar barchi! Most of us are very welcoming and brotherly… yet these characters are considered as foolish and insightful in their eyes ….and they are proving to you that they are right. I am not intending however to suggest strike or a revolutionary front against the ruling government, or create chaos in Nigeria but rather to remind us in the North of what we are building with our own hands….. I just do hope that what we are building are not the graves that will swallow us. …… its not too late however to salvage the situation. I just hope I am wrong. Though I know with certainty that I am not.
Mohammed Dan-Ilori, Jigawa State, Nigeria. |