Northern Governors: On the Right Track

Wada Nas

wada@gamji.com

The formation of the Northern Governors’ Forum has its roots in our history, going back to the creation of 12 states by the Gowon regime. This created problems on how to manage the common assets belonging to all the people of the region.

There was the Interim Common Service Agency, ICSA, which was entrusted with the management of such assets. Over time, it shared out some to them while others such as NNDC, BON, BCNN, NNN Ltd, Kaduna Polytechnic, ABU, ABS etc were all retained as the common property of successor states. Landed properties belonging to the defunct Northern Region, were equally shared out. This explains why all the 19 Northern States, to this day, have government lodges and guest houses in Kaduna, the then regional capital.

Overtime, the Federal Government took over some of these assets, leaving NNDC and BON. As collective shareholders, it became necessary for all the Northern states to collectively manage the two giant institutions, the largest of their type in the federation.

States created out of the regions of the South never adopted this method of equity. Bendel State, for example, does not have shares in the Oodua conglomerates when it was supposed to do so. This is not to talk of Delta and Edo States created out of the defunct  Mid-West Region.

The beauty of the Northern arrangement, therefore, is that any state that was created out of the region either during Gowon or Abacha has shares in what the Federal Government left to the North of the assets of the defunct Northern Region. Today, they have shares in the NNDC and BON, hence their regular meetings to decide their affairs.

It should be noted that the Northern Governors meeting has never had any bias in its composition. As we all know, several military officers, who held positions as military governors in some of the states, participated fully and as of right in all the meetings. In fact, they were the ones who gave life to it especially since Shagari. Contrary to some narrow opinions, therefore, the Northern Governors Forum was never one in which only people of Northern origin, in their positions as state governors, participated but a forum where non indigenes who held positions as military governors/administrators fully participated.

Non indigenes, therefore, know what was happening by virtue of their membership of same. People of Northern origin who served as military administrators, in other regions, never had this benefit in the same way non Northerners had in the North. There was a similar thing in the Old Western Region during Abacha but never lasted reasonably  well.

In the beginning, the Forum was essentially an economic one, dedicated mainly to the issues of BON and NNDC. This has been the main focus until lately when events outside the region started forcing it to debate other issues.

This arose basically from the persistent murder of Northerners in the South West, especially since the return of Obasanjo. There was the killing after the death of Abacha and the one that followed the rumoured death of Obasanjo. In Ibadan, it occurred thrice, several times in Shaki, once in Shagamu and two major ones in Lagos, the last of which was the most devastating.

It was the one that drew out popular anger and Northern Governors, knowing how the situation became explosive, had to speak out forcefully. Such then was the Forum forced to dabble into non economic issues; a circumstance that was imposed on it by “hostile outside” forces who are hell bent on destroying the fragile unity of Nigeria at all costs. To expect Northern Governors to fold their arms in the face of persistent attacks on their people, and for that matter for no reason whatsoever, is to see them as not quite representative of those who elected them. It would have been apolitical to keep mute in the face of such dangerous hostility, especially as it is capable of breaking up the country in unprecedented bloodshed. Unknown to many, their position, as articulated by their Nasarawa state colleague at the reception organized for Vice President Atiku Abubakar, was what doused the outrage in the North. When the people noticed that their elected leaders were with them, the temperature suddenly cooled down. This is very important to note, especially by those who have been insulting the governors on the issue. Their position helped in cooling down tempers, if only we care to know. That’s that.

At their recent meeting, they took far reaching decisions which involves the collective harnessing of their economic potentials, in the areas of energy, communication, solid minerals, agriculture, tourism, and transportation; including the Trans Sahara High Way and the greater meaning it entails. We need to think very deeply, particularly, on the highway issue and appreciate better its deeper meaning.

No one is in doubt that the North controls about 70% of our agricultural produce. It is the food basket of the nation. One month of food blockage could spell a serious disaster. Statistics have shown that not less than 30 trucks of tomatoes alone are shipped to Lagos daily. This does not include other items too numerous to mention.  From the South West, except  kolanuts, there is no meaningful internal trade between the two in favour of the North except for industrial goods whose factories are sustained by Northern raw materials. The numerously based agro-allied industries in the area depend largely on Northern produce. Either way, therefore, they are more dependent on us than we are on them. As some one joked recently, the North could inflict severe defeat without firing one single shot.

We “import” more from the East and the defunct Bendel State than from the West, but they too import more from us. The short of it is that the North benefit more from internal trade, which is by far more important than external trade, than the other former regions with petrol as the only exception, and which in any case is not internally controlled. 

Thus, there is great wisdom in the collective decision to pay more attention to agriculture. If well developed, the persistent economic blackmail we have been hearing could cease automatically.

It is also not in doubt that 78% of our solid mineral deposits are found in the North. According to statistics, non of those discovered so far is not available, except bitumen. Experts have also indicated that Nigeria could earn as twice from solid minerals what it earns from petrol. What is more, it has been said that the region has enough oil deposits to meet its needs. Of water resources, we know all. The Mambila water falls could generate hydro power to feed the area. And along with others, it could have more. The whole of the North could be described as a hydro energy sector. Unknown to us, the North has solution to the issue of resource control and indeed better placed than most of the others making noise.

The Governors correctly touched on the issue of desert encroachment, the need for hydro-electricity producing areas commission and solid minerals producing areas commission. Thus, they should press for Desert Control Commission along with the two others. Hydro-electricity and solid minerals along with landmass, and agriculture among several others are part of Northern resources that need be developed properly. If the will to do it is there, the road to success is obvious.

This is why we need to give them all the necessary support to free us from our current status of economic backwardness in the midst of great economic potentials. The truth is that the North is the richest part of Nigeria, which has been neglected over the years by the bureaucracies of successive Nigerian regimes in which the region has been having only but a little say.

Our prayers is that the Governors would sooner than later commission the experts they spoke of to start work without delay. Let their well thought out scheme not to end up in mere rhetoric’s and slogans only for the purpose of second term. With the people in full support of them, they have no reasons to let them down, more so that their popularity is growing by the day with their commendable defense of the interest of their people within a united Nigeria.