No serious-minded country relinquishes a region as rich and as resourceful as Northern Nigeria. Without the North, Nigeria’s much-vaunted potentials would vanish. Without the North, Nigeria would be nothing more than yet another balkanized and insignifi cant African country, or group of countries. Take the North out of the Nigerian equation and there can no longer be any black country in the world that can possibly attain the status of a major power in the world. Without the North, Nigeria and Nigerians would be reduced to nonentities.
Nigerians have been blinded by oil. Because of oil, we have become unproductively monocultural in our economy. However, oil is hardly the only major resource we have. Although oil revenues have brought us a great deal of fi nancial prosperity, at the same time it stunted the inexorable emergence of agrobased industries in Nigeria. Th e backbone of such promissory local industries is in Northern Nigeria.
Th e North is the breadbasket of Nigeria. A signifi cant proportion of the food we eat down South comes from the North. Moreover, the North is rich in mineral resources; far richer than any part of this country. Th ere is gold in Zamfara; uranium in Taraba; tin-ore in Plateau; columbite in Nassarawa; iron ore in Kogi; gysium in Gombe and limestone in Sokoto among others. Hydroelectricity for the country is provided from Kainji Dam and Shiroro Gorge. Th ere are game reserves in the North including Yankari and Argungu, which make it a potential moneyspinner for tourism. Th e North occupies 70% of Nigeria’s land mass, giving it comparative advantage vis-à-vis the South in terms of agriculture, raw materials and livestock. A large chunk of the North is arable and supportive of year-round food production. Th anks largely to the North, there is no tropical agricultural crop known to man that cannot be grown in Nigeria. With a transition from subsistence to mechanized agriculture, Northern Nigeria alone can produce enough food to feed the whole of Africa. Northern Nigeria is bigger than most African countries. Th ere was a time Nigeria is wasting a staggering 1.3 trillion naira on food imports; virtually one-third of the annual budget. But the North can produce all the food we need, thereby liberating valuable resources. Already, it is the North that feeds the South in Nigeria. Virtually all Southern food crops and livestock come from the North. Much of Nigeria’s water resources are also in the North. With the right policy mixes, the North will earn for Nigeria billions of dollars annually from agriculture. Th e Northern problem is the Nigerian problem. It is the problem of bad leadership. Northern politicians and military leaders have been the bane of the North and of Nigeria. Th ey have grown fat at the expense of the poor. Th ey have deliberately kept the poor uneducated, preferring to feed them from the crumbs falling from their table. But a new generation of Northern leadership is emerging. Usman Yahaya, Abuja
