Nigeria: The Schism Persists

By

Abdullah Musa

kigongabas@yahoo.com

There are differences between the approach of the Democrats to governance in the United States of America, and that of the Republicans. Depending on the mood of their nation, they alternately lead the Americans, even though one must have succeeded more than the other. What they don’t disagree upon is the America ness of one another. They have one advantage over us Nigerians: the Anglo-Saxon world-view dominates all over the States of the country.

I sighted a column in one of the Northern dailies with a caption like this: “the humiliation of Soludo”. Up to the point that paper came out with that caption, Soludo was, may be still is, the Central Bank Governor of Nigeria. Why should it be in the interest of anyone that the central banker be humiliated? Later pronouncements seemed to suggest that Soludo shot himself in the foot: he announced a policy of national importance without deeming it fit to brief the person leading the nation first; relying so it were on the independence of the Central Bank. Where would the Central Bank be without a President of the country? Those with access to the corridors of power are saying that Soludo is a goner.

We are not really concerned with the fate of Soludo. He is a professional, has personal financial security, and may pick up his professorial chair afresh if he so wishes. Of interest to us is the jaundiced view of policies. We should not come to equate policies of the nation as being designed to favor a particular segment. We are not saying it does not happen. Obasanjo failed woefully when he became extremely lopsided in his appointments, not trusting other Nigerians to hold all the parastatals he gave to his kinsmen and women.

His aviation policy, his trade policy, even his banking reforms were perceived as targeting to emasculate the North politically and economically. There were grains of truth in the accusations. If such were the case, where is the Nigerian nation? Now it will be the turn of the North to undo all that which was done to harm it, and may be to pay back in the same coin. In the name of God which nation on earth ever developed with this kind of scenario?

All those who shone brightest during the Obasanjo era are on the apparent target list of the Northerners who felt at the receiving end of that regime. And President Yar’Adua would be adored only if he allows them their pound of flesh. No harm with seeking justice or retribution. What would be harmful is a misunderstanding of the reality of nation building.

In a totally united nation like America, you would not begrudge New York its pre-eminence as America’s financial nerve centre. But if you cripple Kano in favor of Lagos, and Kano elites cannot easily make Lagos home, (remember the condoned OPC massacres) then you logically stir the hornet’s nest of tribalism and sectional interest. Bank of the North went under because of the activities of the Northerners who ran it not because Soludo decided to consolidate the banking sector. But the popular sentiment being that Obasanjo killed Bank of the North and Soludo is the agent.

One wonders why Nigerians hate one another. When the North held sway, holding power through military coups, producing Abacha and Babangida in its wake, the South painted the North as the devil incarnate. All corrupt practices were Northern in origin. The Yoruba were saints. With power shift, the Yoruba bared their fangs, and one can vaguely remember something in law called nollei prosecute, or something like that in favor of a thieving Permanent Secretary. We are yet to know whether it is true that Chief Obasanjo ‘helped himself’, as one friend of mine used to describe those who either looted the treasury, or created undeserved benefits for themselves.

We definitely know that it was not the Hausa who took the then National Bank to the cleaners, nor was it the Kanuri, the kin of Bulama of Bank of the North who grounded ACB, African Continental Bank. We are all similar in our practices that collective properties should be looted, to the benefit of the elites who either control it at the federal level, or who own it at States and regional level.

If Arewa becomes brazen in its new found power, and brings down the economy through irresponsible spending in order to assuage the appetites of unrepentant government-milkers, we may not necessarily feel any shame. This is because we may have unearthed all the economic atrocities that Obasanjo facilitated, which culminated with the edging out of the North completely from the financial sector. Would the reforms be deformed?

Governments must spend money for the common good. In Nigeria, the common good is not difficult to define: we need functional and affordable education up to universities level; we need excellent road network; we need safe drinking water; we need affordable healthcare; our children should find avenues of employment after completing their chosen studies; and we need the basic security necessary for human endeavor to flourish.

We may need more; but I am sure if Yar’Adua were to provide all the above-stated needs, he would be given a pass mark as President. However Nigeria has precarious economic foundation. Any downturn in the oil price would see all our developmental objectives crashing in a similar or more disastrous pattern. It is with realization that one would feel most cheated if the reforms are jettisoned in favor of the ‘lets feast’ doctrine. Like I mentioned in another write-up, Nigerian leaders, particularly of Arewa extraction, are duty bound to re-engineer their understanding of what modern government and modern economies entail. To the Muslim Northerners, slavish acceptance of everything Western is an anathema; it is not so to the Southerner; and unfortunately Soludo is one. El –Rufai, Nuhu Ribadu are Northerners who are happy in the new mould.

We hear of States like Dubai, situated in conservative Arab heartland, yet they are thinking, planning and executing ahead in order to position themselves to face the future challenges. We should not refuse to acknowledge this fact, and insist that 2007, 2020, are all similar in every respects to 1960-1966, when the Sardauna model of development held sway.

Let’s shock Yar’Adua a little. He would do well to fund Nigeria’s Universities to the hilt, but that would not improve output in a commensurate manner. The only dividends he would garner would be the absence of strikes. This is so because the Nigerian lecturer is also a Nigerian civil servant. Improved conditions do not prompt him or her towards better services. It may stop him from striking, but in his heart he still envies the leader who is still more comfortable than him; after all this ‘servant leader’ is nearly a billionaire; (had Soludo got his way, he would have removed two zeros from Yar’ Adua’s 700 million, and what do we get?)

Kano’s civil service is the most pampered in the federation, but is it most effective? Go to the State and find out for yourself; living conditions are really deplorable.

Yar ‘Adua is caged by Northern ‘fat cats’; and if he does not allow them access to the country’s fleshy treasuries, they will eat him up. If I were him, I would definitely feed them, but would retain a Soludo, on leash.