What is 'The North'? Who Are the Northerners'?: Ayagi's Pseudo-Dialectics
By
Paul Mamza
Professor Ibrahim Ayagi's article entitled
"What is 'The North'? Who are the 'Northerners'?" Daily trust, 7-8th
August 2002 and "Who are the Northerners?" New Nigerian, 7-8th
August, 2002 is one of the most absurd treatise on the subject matter I have
come across in my life time. The absurdities find succour in the very
content of his analysis of the perceived grudge of the Arewa Consultative Forum
(ACF) against the government of Chief Olusegun Obasanjo. While it is
common knowledge that discourse can serve as a fertile ascendancy to
commemorating intellectualism and political savvy, the blame for the present
fiasco must not be laid squarely at the door of only one regional group as Ayagi
profusely offered in this long abolitionist piece-However, Ayagi's piece is not
an isolated case in this recalcitrant passion for vanquishing any effort by the
people of the North to relieve themselves from the imposition of an unjust
nation-state paradigm, the Southern Media with the aid of some absolutist agents
of fury in the North have since the inception of this regime blamed the leaders
of Northern origin and even the poverty-wrecked and miraculously limping
ordinary Northerners for the human tragedy behind the past and present perpetual
flux the nation witnessed, though intellectual honesty and fastidiousness only
agrees that you can never be in control when you are not in power. But
Ayagi's submission was more an astonishing piece to me, his stunning capacity of
strategizing blames ignore the overbearing realities on the ground and portrayed
him as an embattled 'genius of war-words' unconsciously or consciously
quarantined in the smoke of battle thereby confusing friends with enemies and
enemies with friends. I doubt very much if a mere rhetorical trope can
disrobe the masquerade of his fixed and immutable affair. But the hyena
needs not to be humbled and humiliated before it captures the difference between
a leopard and a jackal. Futility history had it that unproductive
campaigns yield no results, it is therefore illogical for any discerning mind to
think the unthinkable under an unimaginable circumstance about the perversities
in current political debacle, the consequence is self-delusion. Ayagi asked
"what is 'the North!?" who are the 'Northerners'?. Before I
answer the questions raised, there is an urgent need to extract the salient
issues contained in his article. Ayagi said in his article that he lives
in the North and later that he is a northerner from Kano. He's assumed
posture throughout the piece therefore was a brilliant formulation for a
symbolic tolerance and accommodation rather than apportioning exactitudes
responsible for the endemic crisis of nationhood. He also discarded the
virtues which reveals that in terms of tolerance and accommodation, an ordinary
Northerner is second to none in Nigeria, it is only in the North that people
from the South come and settle, get assimilated in the culture and tradition,
gets access to all the opportunities available to its people yet no body raise
eyebrows about it. You can hardly differentiate between these 'settlers'
and the indigenous populace in most parts of the North. That is not to say
some politicians in North are clean in terms of justification of ethnic
animosities for political offensive thereby contributing in the feasting on the
remains of a benighted behemoth called Nigeria. But interest groups who
channeled their strengths to minimize casualties and encourage purposeful
leadership at all levels of governance should not be mistaken with other ethnic
armies whose major role is to safeguard a political dementia, unless if the
democracy we are practicising limits freedom of participation and expression in
this case free from violence and militancy. The most intriguing aspect of
Ayagi's piece is in his grouse with some Northerners evidently the Arewa
Consultative Forum in voicing a representative dictation which even a dilettante
in politics knows that it's far fetched to assume that every shade of opinion
must always be synchronized to run a dynamic political system. America
which is the symbol of democracy in the whole world write its constitution
starting with the phrase "We the people of the United States of America
…" which may not be an all-encompassing expression but in principle
accepted as such. Ayagi instead preferred the Governors of states to play
the role the Arewa Consultative Forum is presently performing without taking
note that all the nineteen Northern Governors, the Emirs and Chiefs in the
Northern states, prominent politicians in the region, technocrats, businessmen
etc gave their blessing to the birth of A.C.F. The variegated membership of the
forum is enough a reason to prove this point. Is it not the Executive Governor
of Sokoto state, Alhaji Attahiru Dalhatu Bafarawa that told the whole world that
the entire North has not been treated fairly in terms of execution of
developmental projects? How many Northern governors disagreed with the
Bafarawa's historic declaration at the A.C.F's Second Anniversary?
Ayagi's claim for an improved economy amounts
to an act of defending the indefensible. The exchange rate as at 1999 was
N80 to a US dollar but today it is in the region of N140 to a dollar. I
don't need to be an Economist to ascertain the level of the present economic
stagnation the Nation is facing. Of what use is it to increase the
worker's pay when the value of the naira depreciates per second per second?
What about the indices that control market forces? Increase in the wages
of workers not withstanding life is more miserable today than the pre- 1999
days. In the area of award of contracts for developmental projects which
Ayagi said was even, I will not argue the assertion because he is the current
Chairman, National Economic Intelligence Committee and hence is more disposed to
this official evidence. But the reality of the situation is that it is
apparent there's zero implementation in the North due to non-existent projects
during the Obasanjo's second coming. Probably intermeshed in a mystifying
nod, Ayagi found it very difficult if not impossible, to separate an incubus
from didactic qualities when he offered that "The ACF marginalization
proponents should know that it is not easy today to get a finer, more honest,
transparent and dedicated Nigerian than President Obasanjo" and in a swift
twist of sparring partnership quipped that "There is only one living
Nigerian with attributes that can stand the test of probity and the high
principles of President Obasanjo. "In fact this writer" said
Ayagi "had, long before 1998 (and still has) the belief that only two
living Nigerians could be trusted to lead Nigeria and manage the Nigerian
economy honestly and efficiently. In a letter to one of the two exemplary
Nigerians in 1998 this writer mentioned these facts or beliefs. He did not
mention the name of the other trusted and honest Nigerian. However, for the
avoidance of doubt, the transparently honest incorruptible, upright and
trustworthy Nigerians that this writer could trust to rule in Nigeria"
concluded Ayagi "are President Obasanjo and General Muhammadu Buhari".
Here I noticed a miscarriage of comparison in the area of the parameters used.
While it is very true that General Buhari has all the attributes mentioned by
Ayagi, I doubt very much if President Obasanjo meets any of the attributes used
as a yard stick for comparison probably he may satisfy some of these parameters
during his reign as Head of State (1976-1979) but obviously not today. The
massive corruption, nepotism, ineptitude, injustices happening during his second
coming is unparalleled in the history of the nation. Lest I forget, it
seems the Professor forgot to assess the present security situation in the
country and the human right abuses that happened in the last three years.
What manner of oversight is that? How can the economy of the nation
flourish under this present state of insecurity? Which investor will come
and invest here in Nigeria under this turbulent situation? What cogent
reason will Chief Obasanjo give for the continued detention of late General
Abacha's son even after been cleared by the Supreme Court and the wiping off
from the face of the earth of Odi and Zaki-Biam communities? What about
the insecurity of pay of security men? Never in the history of the nation
that policemen went on strike for poor condition of service.
Listing further "the economic achievement
of the Obasanjo administration so far" Ayagi had this to say "The
Anti-corruption commission exists today but did not exist before May 1999.
This portrays the leadership of President Obasanjo in the true and genuine
stature: a leadership that believes that corruption is the root cause of most of
Nigeria's problems and is out to fight it in all its forms and
manifestation". While it is agreeable with the assertion that
corruption is the root cause of most of Nigeria's problems, there no will to
face this problem head-on at present. Ayagi should have known that the
problem of Nigeria is beyond establishment of new commission or formulation of
new policies. We had fantastic policies and flamboyant commissions both at
present and in the past, the medication to these endemic problems lies in policy
formulation and installation of proper framework for the effective running of
the commissions, it is the lack of these medications that had disposed-off its
national savvy and for this reason the present anti-corruption commission
can be likened to a "Ware house for storing grains". Grains in
this case can be interchanged with petitions. May be a more serious
government will come and look at these petitions in future!
In order to fabricate a nationalistic posture for Obasanjo, Ayagi listed Northerners and Muslims that are key figures in the government and wondered why the North is "crying". Actually, the style of leadership that was conceived by Chief Obasanjo during his second coming tends to agree with what Late Chief Bola Ige, the Former Attorney General and Minister of Justice wanted to say but in a different mould that "Obasanjo's government is implementing AD agenda". Actually Obasanjo's government is implementing the "Yoruba Agenda" and that is why he prefer to include in his government only Northerners whose wives are Yorubas and probably have overbearing influences on them or Yorubas from the South that have settled in the North and are regarded as Northerners or Northern Yorubas from Kogi/Kwara axis. Only few lucky Northerners who did not fall under any of the three categories are appointed and most of them are in non-strategic positions of authority. The preponderance of the undue representation of the Yoruba political appointees over the other ethnic groups in a multi-ethnic society fall short of the claim by |Ayagi that the President is fair. Key appointments were ethnically offered to the South West a the expense of national integration and stability. In the economic arena; the Central Bank Governor, the Accountant General of the Federation and the shameful insistence of Mr. Ajiboye as the Auditor-General of the Federation reveals nepotism at its grotesque. Similar antecedents are enshrined in the security, bureaucracy, diplomatic settings etc. What is more devouring and threatening to national stability than this blatant display of tribalism in the assumed course of determining and re-inventing a failed state like Nigeria? Is it proper to justify outright servility by our leaders in the name of sycophancy? Where is the objectivity in supporting injustices and illegality? To answer Ayagis questions "Northerners are people who have great faith in God and whom by the special grace of God tried to ensure justice, equity, tolerance and accommodation in and out of power. They are firm believers in the unity and integrity of the nation - Nigeria, where they hold forte in a special geographical map of occupation" by this definition northerners are the building and bridging block in Nigeria. These qualities were proved several times by several persons in the North. "The North is a region in Nigeria where Kano, Kebbi, Sokoto, Zamfara, Benue, Taraba, Gombe, Bauchi, Nassarawa, Jigawa, Adamawa, Yobe, Borno, Kaduna, Niger, Plateau, Kwara, Kogi and Katsina states are located".
Thank you.
Mamza wrote in from
A.B.U., Zaria