BASHIR MOHAMMED writes on the disagreement that characterized the recent Northern elders and leaders meeting in Kano, held as a prelude to the national conference.
Between North and FG
For some time now, there has been deep rooted animosity between the north and the federal government under the present dispensation. Although this is still contestable, it however remains a statement of fact that certain developments within the region, including the spate of insecurity in some parts of the north, are largely responsible for this cat and mouse relationship. To an average northerner, the administration has been nonchalant to the plight of northerners in the area of security, despite the obvious continuous deployment of troops to curb the menace called Boko Haram.
This and other issues came top at the recent meeting of leaders and elders of the region in Kano. The event witnessed a fusillade of accusations, condemnation and venom spitting by many prominent northerners, who were in unison in their castigation of President Goodluck Jonathan over alleged marginalization.
They spoke against the backdrop of the seeming disunity fast creeping into the once-upon a time united north in the face of perceived endless faux pas by the administration. Participants collectively called for a paradigm shift to the old north when the region always spoke in one voice and not a divided entity that it is today.
The Sardauna’s North
The old north derived its power, influence, and much revered status from the days of the late Sardauna of Sokoto and Premier of the Northern Region, Sir Ahmadu Bello. Today, the region is struggling hard to stay afloat amidst various challenges posed to it by the current reality .
Known for its pugilist ideological leaning in keeping the ideals and values of the North sacrosanct, coupled with the firm stance of some semi-reactive conservatives, the then ruling oligarchy had noticeably kept their fingers on the political tiller to remain relevant and perpetually indispensable.The late Sardauna in the opinion of those who worked under his tutelage, fought and died a patriot and martyr whose contributions to North’s rise to stardom are incontrovertible.
With the present democratic dispensation taking a scathing toll on the entire northern region, the northerners observed, the federal government is allegedly waging a campaign of vendetta and gross marginalization against the North, closing the space for diplomacy as to make it absolutely impossible to resolve a given stand-off.
The meeting
For what they described as Jonathan’s inept and rudderless administration, courtesy of what they also touted as antics of a lame-duck presidency, the Northern elders and leaders at the two-day consultative meeting, saw the compelling need to take a unanimous stand on how the North is being pushed to the lower rung of the ladder as a result of what they described as a subtle conspiracy theory to convene a phantom national conference.
The just-concluded 2-day conference received the prompt response of crème de la crème of notable prominent northerners, including those in the struggle for Nigeria’s independence from the repressive colonial bondage.
During the fire spitting conference, notable politicians from all shades of opinion as well as gurus from the intelligentsia and the academia, presented various thought provoking papers which elicited comments, observations and suggestions from the audience.
Setting the ball rolling was the eloquent and vocal former Nigeria’s permanent representative to the United Nations, Alhaji Yusuf Maitama Sule, the Danmasanin Kano.
According him, the northern leaders are ready to go to any length to defend their rights knowing that, the Augean stable is made to be rotten on the alter of primordial considerations.
Also speaking, a firebrand legal luminary, Solomon Dalong, on his part sounded a note of warning to the president asking him to step down for the convocation of a Sovereign National Conference by 25th March 2015, failure of which he said, the country should move in and decorate the members of the Conference as the only duly recognized leaders in the Nation. Jonathan, he stressed, should concern himself with the alleged missing $20 billion and the security challenge which has become a major source of concern to the citizenry, especially in the North.
Wrong timing
On his part, the former federal permanent secretary and leader of the opposition All Progressives Congress (APC) in Kaduna state, Dr. Hakeem Baba-Ahmed noted that, northerners were going to the national conference as mere spectators with nothing to contribute. He also expressed reservation on the timing of the conference, especially when innocent people were being exterminated by Boko Haram elements.
Ahmed however stated that, the conference will be embroiled in scuffles over composition of committees, rules and agenda, while urging northern delegates that would be attending to ask who exactly is waging the war of attrition to wipe them out in towns and villages of Nassarawa, Yobe, Adamawa Benue, Borno, Plateau and Kaduna states.
He further lamented that the North would participate at the conference at best as a spectator and victim of a well orchestrated conspiracy theory to exploit its weakness.
Speaking in similar vein, former vice chancellor, Ahmad Bello University Zaria, Professor Ango Abdullahi explained the futility of attending the conference and dismissed it as a talk shop that will end in rhetoric.
Dissenting voice
In his submission, former an APC chieftain, Buba Galadima however supported the need for northerners to attend the conference despite seeming lopsided nature. This, he believes, will help expose to the whole world for proper scrutiny, the injustices and blatant persecution being meted out to northerners.
In his remark, former Chairman, Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Malam Nuhu Ribadu, lashed at the federal government over what he describes as the marginalization of the North and the escalating violence in the North-east brought about by an incompetent system. According to Ribadu, the North is in a cul de sac, as the institution of governance is in shambles and lamented that, the forces of colonization seeking to polarize the country along ethnic and religious lines are still holding sway.
He noted that, the insurgency was blatantly allowed to escalate as those saddled with the role in containing it took solace in adopting a taciturn posture towards it. “If at the present stage our leaders could not rise to the challenge of nipping the insurgency in the bud even before it goes out of hand, then one can rightly say, the system is incompetent and our leaders had failed the litmus test of leadership,” submits the erstwhile EFCC boss.
Ribadu however states that, all the major security chiefs saddled with the responsibility of maintaining security in the country are from the north, yet they have not proven their mettle in that regard. According to him, if the security chiefs had all hailed from the North-east, they would have kept vigil in all the major flash points ravaged by the conflicts.
As things stand at the moment, Ribadu says, the north is in the doldrums in the face of the abject neglect and wanton persecution it had suffered in the hands of those presently calling the shots.
On the cancer of corruption that has eaten deep into the nation’s fabric, Ribadu says , many of the apologists of anti corruption crusade are mere pretenders promoting the evil act and that, with a clear paradigm shift, they could be brought back to their senses.
In a remark, a former minister in the Second Republic and chairman of the occasion, Paul Unongo, posits that the North is ready to go to war if need be, stressing that, war would only be waged to safeguard the sacrosanct nature of Nigeria’s corporate entity as it was done in the last five decades.
Speaking with our reporter shortly after the conference, a public affairs commentator, Malam Aminu Idriss Fagge, slights the federal government for paying lip service to the issue of security and wondered why security in a democratic setting is an issue grossly despised.
While describing the administration of President Goodluck Jonathan as a spend-thrift, Fagge wonders why corruption should be promoted to high heavens at the expense of the down trodden who place too much expectation on the government.
On the national conference, the public affairs analyst describes it as an exercise in futility, believing it will only pave the way for forces of retrogression to behave like bulls in china shop and end up producing nothing.
Also in a paper entitled “Youth and future of the North”, a senior lecturer with the Department of Political Science, Bayero University, Kano, Dr. Aliyu Jibia, says going by simple analogy, youths explosion is not only inevitable and most surely unavoidable, noting that it is only sane and fundamental to begin to make preparation towards charting a more meaningful future.
The university don said like any normal human being, the youth has had dreams and as it is normal and human, the youth equally nurses such a dream no matter how wrong, no matter how imperfectly, warning that, the greatest tragedy is to attempt to block the realization of such a dream.
According to him, the youth by nature is full of energy and this excessive, often exaggerated show of energy, has to be channeled somewhere towards a more purposive, more constructive end or else it will divert towards a dangerous and more destructive purpose.
Viewed differently, another public affairs analyst, Mahe Kurfi expressed dismay at the dismal turn of events, claiming that the problem the region is facing today at the hands of those he described as despots in the corridors of power, was created by northerners themselves doing the bidding of some whimsical forces.
He said some northern elders are only shedding crocodile tears knowing that their parochial interest is at stake and want to use every slightest opportunity to stay put. Kurfi further noted that, over the years majority of the personalities that had ruled the country are from the north and yet they had failed to put the region on a high pedestal.
With the Northern elders and leaders making their stand quite explicitly clear according to political pundits, the stage is now set for the talk that would ultimately decide the fate of Nigeria as one indivisible entity. Certainly, this is the time for soul searching on what northern leaders did and failed to do.
