This topic hopes to bring to you northern bashings from across national and world spectrum. This is with a view to taking lessons as necessary. The positive aspects would also be brought to you.
The first topic below is a must by John E Philips from Japan is quite interesting. Please read on.[/color]
GASKIYA TA FI KWABO (Kaduna, Nigeria) 28 ga Maris, 1994, shafi na shida
A GANINA:
DALILIN DA YA SA BOKO YA TSERE WA AJAMI A HALIN YANZU
daga John E. Philips, Yabase, Akita, Jafan
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ana buga littattafai da jaridun Hausa ta hanyoyin rubutu iri guda biyu. Amma fa, hanyar boko ta rinjayi hanyar Ajami a halin yanzu.
Me ya sa haka? Ko saboda boko na ilmin zamani ne? Ko ko saboda wata babbar k'ullalliyar mishan ce?
Wannan babbar matsala ce a tarihin harshen Hausa. Akwai maganganu daban daban a kan matsalar, amma saboda binciken da aka yi a gidan adana takardun tarihi a Kaduna, a jaridar nan da kake editan za ka ga labarin na hak'ik'a.
A lokacin da Turawa suka zo nan Nijeriya, Hausawa sun yi rubuce-rubuce a harshensu tun-tuni. Wasu malami, musamman d'an Marina na Katsina, sun yi amfani da bak'ak'en Larabci don rubuta wak'ok'in Hausa har suka k'irk'ira wasu sababbin bak'ak'e, kamar su tsa, don rubutun Hausa daidai wa daida.
Kafin zuwan Turawa ana amfani da Larabci don aikin hukuma da yin wasik'a a k'asashen nan na Afirka ta yamma. Hausawa fa, suna rubutun wak'ok'in da yarensu da hanyar Ajami. Wasu 'yan mishan da masu ilmin harsuna, su kuma suna yin k'ok'arin su rubuta Hausa a boko. Amma ba su daidaita ba a kan yadda za a rubuta sautin Hausa da bak'ak'en boko.
Duk da haka ko Hausawa ba su daidaita a kan yadda ba su rubuta sautin Hausa a bak'ak'en Ajami ba. Har yanzu ana rubuta tha' a Kananci, amma ana rubuta shin [mai d'igo a k'ark'ashi] a Sakkwatanci [don "c" a boko].
Ko a farkon k'arni na ashirin akwai 'yan mishan wad'anda suka fi son rubutu da (Hausa) Ajami. Misali Mallam Robinson, wanda ya wallafa k'amusi na Hausa da Turanci a lokacin su yana yabon ajami kuma ya buga wak'ok'in Ajami da sharhi a kansu a Ingila.
Da Gwamna Lugard ya ci k'asashen Hausawa da mak'wabtansu sai ya ba su sunan "Nijeriya ta Arewa". Saboda k'a'idojin mulkin mallaka ya k'i ya bar Hausawa su ji abin da shi da wakilansa 'yan Ingila suke cewa a Turanci, kada su gane abin da Turawa suke nufi. Kuma wani bature ya gano cewa dalilin da ya sa Magajin Keffi ya kashe ya kyaftin Moloney she ne saboda k'aryar da tafintar Moloney ya yi ne.
An yi bincike, an tabbata cewa ma fi yawan tafintoci ko dai su ne b'arayi ko suna cinikin bayi ko suna cin hanci. 'Yan Afirka wad'anda suka ci amanar 'yan Afirka ba su rik'on amanar Turawa.
To, shi ke nan, sai gwamna Lugard ya yi fushi da tafintoci, ya ba da oda cewa dole kowane bature wanda yake aikin gwamnatin Nijeriya ta Arewa ya koyi harshen Hausa. Daga wannan oda ta shekara 1902 aka fara manufar nan "Ba Hausa, ba aiki." a Nijeriya ta Arewa. Wato in ba ka iya Hausa ba, ba za a ba ka aikin gwamnati ba. An nad'a farfesan harshen Hausa a Jami'ar London don ya koya wa turawan Gwamnatin Nijeriya ta Arewa harshen Hausa. Amma gwamnati ba ta yanke shawara cewa wace hanya za a bi a yi rubutun harshen Hausa don aikin gwamnati ba tukuna.
Akwai i Razdan a Sakkwato mai suna John Alder Burdon wanda ya goyi bayan Ajami. Ya fad'a cewa tun da ba za a fitar da Ajami daga adabin Hauasa ba ya kamata a yi amfani da shi a aikin gwamnati, kada a sha wahala gina sababbin makarantun boko a ko'ina.
Ko d'an mishan d'in nan a Zariya mai suna Kokta Miller ya yi rubutu da Hausar Ajami. Ya aika wa Gwamna Lugard da fassarar dokokin gwamnati a Ajami. Miller da Robinson suna rik'a rubutun (Hausa) Ajami har wasu Turawan Gwamnati, misali Kyaftin Moloney, suna tsammani cewa Ajami ba rubutun Hausawa ba ne na 'yan mishan ne kad'ai.
Amma Gwamna Luard basi saurari wannan nasiha ba. Gwamna Lugard ya k'i Ajami. Ya tsaryar da shawara za a yi amfani da boko a aikin gwamnatin Nijeriya ta Arewa.
Wani d'an mishan mai suna Macintyre ya rud'i Gwamna Lugard. Ya ga masa cewa Hausawa ba su iya karatun Larabci ba, har ya ce Ajami ba bak'ak'en Larabcin gaskiya ne ba. Ya aika wa Gwamna Lugard da wasik'a a Larabcin Afirka ta Yamma, ya gaya masa cewa shi ne Ajami, kuma ya gaya masa cewa Ajami ba rubutun Hausa ta hanyar Larabci ba ne har Lugard yana tsammani Ajami wata hanyar rubutu ce dabam ke nan. Macintyre ya gaya wa Lugard cewa Ajami hanyar rubutu wofaye ce domin babu azanci a ciki. K'warai da gaske mutumin ya yi babbar k'arya, amma Gwamna Lugard bai sani ba. Bai ji Hausa ba, balle Ajami ko Larabci.
Gwamna Lugard bai gane abubuwan da mutanen suka fad'a ba. Shi bai fahimci bambanci tsakanin harshe da hanyar rubutunsa ba, har ya ce in ana amfani da boko, Turawa masu aikin gwamnati dole su koyi harshe guda d'aya, amma in ana amfani da Ajami, dole su koyi harshe guda biyu. Duk da duhun kansa game da harsuna da hanyoyin rubutunsu, she ne Gwamna, she zai kafa odoji a Nijeriya ta Arewa. Duk da yake shi masanin harshen Hausa ba ne, shi ya yanke shawara a kan hanyar rubutun Hausa. Duk da shi ba malami ba ne, balle malamin ilmin koyarwa, shi ya ba da oda yadda za a rubuta harshen Hausa don aikin gwamnati da makarantun zamani a Nijeriya ta Arewa.
In an duba abubuwan da ya ajiye a fayil a Kaduna, tabbata cewa bai fahimci fa'idar amfanin Ajami ba. K'warai da gaskiya bai fahimci hanyar rubuta Ajami ba, balle tarihinta. Amma ya k'i bak'ak'en Larabci har ya auka wa k'asar Sudan da wasik'ar inda ya tambayi ko ana buga littattafan Larabci a boko. Babu wata amsa daga Sudan a fayil a Kaduna.
Duk da haka, da Gwamna Lugard ya koma Ingila don hutunsa a shekarar 1903, sai walinsa William Wallace ya ba da oda a ranar 12 ga watan Satumba cewa dole a soma rubutun wasik'a a Hausa. Babu masu ilmi boko a Nijeriya ta Arewa da yawa a lokacin. Saboda odar, an daina karb'ar wasik'un Larabci a gidan Gwamna. Wallace ya ce sai a fara karb'ar wasik'u a (Hausa) Ajami.
Da Gwamna Lugard ya komo sai ya sa Hans Vischer, watau d'an Hausa (wanda gidansa yake Kano har yanzu), ya koyar da Boko a wata makaranta a Birnin Kano. Hausawa da dama sun shiga makarantarsa. Suna so su fahimci ilmin zamani daga bakin bature. Da suka gane ba za su koyi Turanci a makarantar ba, balle fasahar zamani sai da yawansu sai suka daina zuwa. Don haka aka ce da makarantar "Makarkata."
K'warai da gaske an sha wahala, don ginin makarantun boko. Saboda rashin yawan makarantun, ba yawan masu ilmin boko. Sabo da rashin masu ilmin boko, ba masu aikin gwamnati sosai. Saboda rashin ma'aikatan gwamnati, ba kud'in haraji sosai a Nijeriya ta Arewa, da Gwamna Lugard ya komo Nijeriya sai ya had'a Nijeriya ta Arewa dad ta Kudu a shekara 1914.
Ga mu nan sannu a hankali Nijeriya ta had'a kai, Hausar boko ta rinjayi ta Ajami, amma a halin yanzu ba Hausa wadda take harshen gwamnati, sai Turanci. Dalilin kuwa shi ne odar da Gwamna Lugard ya ba da.
ICHEOKU
***a platform for political and social commentary***
Thursday, July 31, 2008. (http://meniru.blogspot.com/2008/07/lazy-northerners-arewa-admits.html?showComment=1219302180000)
LAZY NORTHERNERS, AREWA ADMITS !
Almajiris? Loafers! Leeches! Parasites! Panhandlers! Beggarly people! What nomenclature has not been used to describe the unbridled lazy aversion to hard-work of the people of northern Nigeria. Now, finally there is an admission by the one voice which speaks for northern Nigeria - AREWA, that the people of northern Nigeria are lazy and parasitic on the rest of the country. This is a truism of what everyone already knows but which nobody will admit publicly because of political correctness. Now that AREWA has publicly admitted to this fact, it is now fair game to discuss it openly. It is the culture of perfidy of institutionalized laziness (almajiris) which is the bane of Northern Nigeria. How can a culture inculcate in its people that a person's status is ordained by Allah and nothing should be done to change it. This makes it possible for the beehive of teenagers who loiter from one street corner to another in the north asking for handouts while their mates from the south are busy studying in school or pursuing various other vocations including trading. Why would the north not be poor and dependent on the rest of Nigerians when there is no viable feeder from within its populace to oil their economy? Let the truth be told that Nigeria might finally be rid of this clog in its wheel of progress. Now that AREWA has spoken the truth at last; let the freedom bell ring - free at last! free at last! If only this will jolt northern Nigeria out of their lazy stupor, then the job of Soludo, AREWA and Icheoku as well as other brave talkers is done. Finally Nigeria may have turned the corner by this clear admission of AREWA that people of northern Nigeria are lazy and parasitic. Icheoku re-echoes this sentiment of AREWA and affirms that AREWA is right on the mark with this admission. So lazy people of the north, wake up, roll up your sleeves and off to work you must now go to alleviate your poverty status! Asalam alekum!
Now read the said admission of AREWA that the northerners are lazy and parastic!
By Segun Olatunji, Kaduna
Published: Thursday, 31 Jul 2008
The Arewa Consultative Forum on Wednesday disagreed with the 19 northern state governors that northerners were not parasites on other regions of the country. ACF said that indeed, "northerners are lazy and parasites" on other regions, pointing out that there was no reason to run away from the truth.
This was contained in a statement on Wednesday by the ACF National Publicity Secretary, Mr. Anthony Sani. It, however, said that the people of the Niger Delta were responsible for the economic woes of the North, having raided the people of the Middle Belt who were part of the North as slaves for the whites during the colonial days. The forum also flayed the Senate President, David Mark, over his comment that the organisation consisted of failed politicians who were in the habit of imposing their views on northerners. Apparently referring to the controversy surrounding the victory of the Senate President at the election petitions tribunal, ACF said, "Winning election is one thing and earning the honour is another." The ACF further welcomed the assertion by the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Prof. Chukwuma Soludo, on the pervasive poverty and illiteracy in the North, urging him to match his expression of concern with positive actions in the area of employment according to Federal Character, as a way of reducing the problems. Meanwhile, the Northern Democratic Coalition on Wednesday condemned the First Northern Agricultural Summit that just ended in Kaduna, describing it as'fraud.' In a statement entitled, "Fraudulent Northern Agricultural Summit," and jointly signed by its Chairman, Alhaji Abdulmumuni Al-Basir, and Secretary, Elisha Kura, the group condemned the 19 northern governors over what it described as "another jamboree" aimed at fleecing the people of their money. The group said, "This is another fraud of the century because it has been confirmed that the governors of the 19 northern states, banks and individuals contributed N3.6bn to organise the summit. "This is an amount large enough to take care of a large number of the poverty-stricken people of the North. Clearly, this is an agenda of some self-styled leaders of the North to further enrich themselves to the detriment of the less privileged."
Posted by EBEKUO at 9:42:00 PM
Labels: we are very lazy.
*** This is typical of a northern bashing. What went wrong from the beginning? [/color]
Quote from: Tukurtukur on October 03, 2008, 01:54:13 PM
ICHEOKU
***a platform for political and social commentary***
Thursday, July 31, 2008. (http://meniru.blogspot.com/2008/07/lazy-northerners-arewa-admits.html?showComment=1219302180000)
LAZY NORTHERNERS, AREWA ADMITS !
Almajiris? Loafers! Leeches! Parasites! Panhandlers! Beggarly people! What nomenclature has not been used to describe the unbridled lazy aversion to hard-work of the people of northern Nigeria. Now, finally there is an admission by the one voice which speaks for northern Nigeria - AREWA, that the people of northern Nigeria are lazy and parasitic on the rest of the country. This is a truism of what everyone already knows but which nobody will admit publicly because of political correctness. Now that AREWA has publicly admitted to this fact, it is now fair game to discuss it openly. It is the culture of perfidy of institutionalized laziness (almajiris) which is the bane of Northern Nigeria. How can a culture inculcate in its people that a person's status is ordained by Allah and nothing should be done to change it. This makes it possible for the beehive of teenagers who loiter from one street corner to another in the north asking for handouts while their mates from the south are busy studying in school or pursuing various other vocations including trading. Why would the north not be poor and dependent on the rest of Nigerians when there is no viable feeder from within its populace to oil their economy? Let the truth be told that Nigeria might finally be rid of this clog in its wheel of progress. Now that AREWA has spoken the truth at last; let the freedom bell ring - free at last! free at last! If only this will jolt northern Nigeria out of their lazy stupor, then the job of Soludo, AREWA and Icheoku as well as other brave talkers is done. Finally Nigeria may have turned the corner by this clear admission of AREWA that people of northern Nigeria are lazy and parasitic. Icheoku re-echoes this sentiment of AREWA and affirms that AREWA is right on the mark with this admission. So lazy people of the north, wake up, roll up your sleeves and off to work you must now go to alleviate your poverty status! Asalam alekum!
Now read the said admission of AREWA that the northerners are lazy and parastic!
By Segun Olatunji, Kaduna
Published: Thursday, 31 Jul 2008
The Arewa Consultative Forum on Wednesday disagreed with the 19 northern state governors that northerners were not parasites on other regions of the country. ACF said that indeed, "northerners are lazy and parasites" on other regions, pointing out that there was no reason to run away from the truth.
This was contained in a statement on Wednesday by the ACF National Publicity Secretary, Mr. Anthony Sani. It, however, said that the people of the Niger Delta were responsible for the economic woes of the North, having raided the people of the Middle Belt who were part of the North as slaves for the whites during the colonial days. The forum also flayed the Senate President, David Mark, over his comment that the organisation consisted of failed politicians who were in the habit of imposing their views on northerners. Apparently referring to the controversy surrounding the victory of the Senate President at the election petitions tribunal, ACF said, "Winning election is one thing and earning the honour is another." The ACF further welcomed the assertion by the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Prof. Chukwuma Soludo, on the pervasive poverty and illiteracy in the North, urging him to match his expression of concern with positive actions in the area of employment according to Federal Character, as a way of reducing the problems. Meanwhile, the Northern Democratic Coalition on Wednesday condemned the First Northern Agricultural Summit that just ended in Kaduna, describing it as'fraud.' In a statement entitled, "Fraudulent Northern Agricultural Summit," and jointly signed by its Chairman, Alhaji Abdulmumuni Al-Basir, and Secretary, Elisha Kura, the group condemned the 19 northern governors over what it described as "another jamboree" aimed at fleecing the people of their money. The group said, "This is another fraud of the century because it has been confirmed that the governors of the 19 northern states, banks and individuals contributed N3.6bn to organise the summit. "This is an amount large enough to take care of a large number of the poverty-stricken people of the North. Clearly, this is an agenda of some self-styled leaders of the North to further enrich themselves to the detriment of the less privileged."
Posted by EBEKUO at 9:42:00 PM
Labels: we are very lazy.
*** This is typical of a northern bashing. What went wrong from the beginning?
ALLAH YA KIYAYE.
Old Northern Hausa Praise Singing by Taguimba
By Free Tutorials on Oct 4, 2008 in Flute Tutorial
The Hausa are a people based in Northern Nigeria and Niger, but are present in many parts of West Africa, with sizable communities present in Ghana, the northern halves of Benin and Cameroon. They are also present in the western Sudan (Darfur region) and smaller urban communities in North Africa.
This is an old clip taken from Nigerien TV of a well known Nigerien singer Taguimba from Dogondoutchi town in Arewa region, Niger, (she passed away recently). She belonged to the Bori cult (a minority cult that mixed Islam with traditional cult beliefs) singing deep northern Hausa traditional praise songs.
As the Hausa are a predominantly Muslim peoples, praises would usually start off with those of Allah and the Prophet. Thereafter, patrons from among the audience then may literally "shower" money gifts upon the Maka'da (griot praise singers) and in return get their praises sung (as seen in this video). The amount of money depends on the amount of praise, and commonly whole songs are dedicated to patrons who had given large donations of money (Politicians, Emirs, Traditional Chiefs (Sarki/Shugaba), Mallams etc.
Praise-singing is one of the oldest genres of sung music in the world and has a long recorded-history in parts of Asia and Africa. It should be noted that although the Hausa are a predominantly Muslim people, musical traditions, as well as instruments, are purely indigenous to the region.
Instruments:
GOGE: Traditional fiddle
TSIRIKI: Traditional flute
KWARYA: Calabash bowl
SHANTU: Gourd Shaker
visit and watch the artist performing.
The North Has Never Ruled Nigeria – Ibrahim
http://www.leadershipnigeria.com/product_info.php?products_id=35237&osCsid=68fbb99cc887e2e0016a682d334e699e
Emmanuel Bello
Alhaji Isyaku Ibrahim is no stranger to the intrigues of the nation's political history. A founding father of the current ruling party, Ibrahim was the main force behind most of the second republic political experience in Nigeria. He was a major force behind the NPN, the party that formed the government led by Alhaji Shehu Shagari. A principled politician, he is a respected voice across the nation. He has been in politics since the 50s. In this interview granted some media houses, Ibrahim expounded on various burning issues and contended that the North has never ruled the country since independence in 1960. LEADERSHIP SUNDAY Editor, Emmanuel Bello was there. Excerpts.
Nigeria is 48; do you see the growth commensurate with age?
No. If things were allowed to operate properly, we would have bypassed India, Malaysia and Indonesia because Nigeria has the manpower. If you recalled, Sardauna with his colleagues, within a period of ten years, they were able to transform the north from nothing to something. There was a great achievement with the little money they had. They were dedicated leaders and spent the little they had judiciously and there was a lot of transformation in the North. In the western region, which was richer than the other regions, Cocoa money was properly utilized with the late premier of the western region introducing the free primary education. The east, with the little they had, Zik was able to put up the Nigerian University, Nsukka. So you could see our leaders of that time, within a short period, there was development all over the country because the politicians were dedicated.
Unfortunately, there was interruption by the military in 1966 which brought about the end of Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa government. They came in under the disguise that there was corruption and civil disobedience. But in the constitution, the military was not given that role. But they came with their ambitions.
What actually happened was that these young military officers who went to Congo and saw people like Mobutu who, though a Corporal, was the Head of State of a country. Those of them who were there in Congo came with the ideas that they must change and then they look at their military background, some of them went to higher military academies like Sand Hurst and of course some of the politicians took the advantage to brainwash them.
So they came under the guise that there were these problems and we all know that the coup of 1966 was more of a one side coup and that was why there was a counter coup. But from then, the military was there for 13 years until the brief stoppage of Shagari government which was only four years and three months. Again the military have developed ambition and they came again and said Shagari government was corrupt and so on and so forth and they stayed for 17 years. The politicians were kept aside.
In 1998, we thought there would be some changes. People like me would form the PDP with a well articulated programme and the other political parties would articulate their own programmes.
Fortunately, PDP was able to emerge as the party who won the elections, but unfortunately for us the person who was supposed to implement the programmes of the PDP, which was well articulated and Nigerians had given us the mandate based on our very sound manifesto, he came with a different agenda. So he kept the programme and manifesto of the PDP aside and decided to do whatever he wanted, because he does not believe in democracy that is former president Obasanjo, which is why we are here.
During that period of eight years, there was no accountability, no discipline within the party and some of the founding members of the party were deliberate made uncomfortable within the party; some of them left because of certain circumstances within the party.
To summarise it, mostly the problem was with our military. They have their own ambition, but they did some good job. At least during the civil war, under Gen. Gowon, they did not interfere with the civil servants, technocrats. As you are fully aware in every country, when you have good civil servants, there would be continuation of good governance. Gen. Gowon was a man who believed in the system and he allowed the system of accountability where everybody was answerable during his time.
Then Murtala Muhammed came. He came with the idea of revolution, trying to change, but then he was there for just a couple of six months and those who are loyal who believe they came on a mission, they make sure their promise to hand to civilians was kept.
You have been involved in politics at a very young age, Many people believe that much of the problems lied with the politicians, who sometimes invite the military and when you are left alone you refuse to allow the growth of democracy. How would you react to this?
There are two schools of thought on growth. There were those who felt that under a due process of democracy they would not be able to be elected to come into power, because of the complexity of the country; our southern leaders got frustrated because of whatever they want, they still have to come to the North, because the North has a larger constituency. So some of them toying with the idea that the short cut of coming into power is either to connive with the military and overthrow the existing constitutional government. But they failed to understand the military mentality, so they played that kind of rough game with the result that the military used them. When they come to power they turn against them.
Therefore one cannot exonerate politicians in the sense that they did not participate. They did and I knew when I was in the Nigerian Youth Movement, there was a lot of approach that people should go to Ghana to train and come and conduct a kind of revolution. I was a recipient not to Ghana but to a higher political institution of the communist party in the Soviet Union from 1962 to 1964, with ideas that we want a change, a change in term of revolution, but not a coup.
There are people who complain that the basis of our disunity started with our founding fathers; Sardauna championing the cause of the North, Awolowo championing the cause of the West and Azikiwe, the East. You were close to these people. Were they tribal chauvinists?
First of all, I will not claim to be very close to them, because I was very young, but I had the opportunity to be a NEPU Secretary in the West and I had the opportunity to work with Zik during the election campaign in 1959. We started with the registration campaign, which started around January to March. But, in between, I was asked to go to Enugu to collect some files to go to the then Benue province to be in charge of the registration for the election which was coming up around December 1959. I conducted the registration in Benue province. At that time, the composition of Benue province were Idoma division, there was Tiv division there was Wukari division, Lafia division, Nasarawa and Keffi divisions. I was in charge to organise the registration on behalf of the NCNC/NEPU alliance. I was just a young man who was given the opportunity to be closer to the leadership. I can, from my experience, say Zik was a great nationalist. He was not talking about one part of the country. He was talking about Nigeria as a whole and he demonstrated that because for me, as a young man, I was there. Then in September 1959, when we started the election campaign from Asaba, I was given the opportunity to participate in the campaign in Zik's team, which started in Asaba on the 29, 1959. And we ended the campaign in Port Harcourt on 11 December 1959; and on the 12 December 1959, there was election.
I can say that our leaders from the outset believed in the country. But Sardauna paid more attention to the North because we have more problems. We are the people who were slightly backward and Sardauna concentrate in the North. He said: "well I believe in Nigeria, but we have to lay a foundation in the North". So one cannot accuse them of being tribalistic; they were nationalists.
The North has been in power for over three decades. But looking at the situation now, would you say that the power they held has translated to what the dream of Sardauna was?
Firstly, let me correct you, the North never ruled Nigeria. The NPC was a political party and the NCNC/NEPU alliances were political parties. After the general elections of 1959, NPC did not have the substantial majority to form a government, the same thing with NCNC and the Action Group. There was a move from the Action Group to have NCNC to form a coalition government and also there was a move from the NPC to the NCNC. So apparently, the NPC and the NCNC having been working for so many years, they felt more comfortable to come into alliance and to form what we called a coalition government, with NEPU as a junior partner. Therefore, you cannot say the North but the political party. NPC/NCNC/NEPU alliance formed a coalition government from 1959 or 1960 until the coup of 1966. The coup of 1966 was organised not by the military leaders from the North. It was organised by some military officers largely from the South East, which was why from the day of the coup, they targeted most of the senior army officers from the North and the West whom they eliminated. Therefore, you cannot say it is the North. The Nigerian army overthrows a constitutional government which was headed by Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa and Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe. So it is not the North.
Since then, if there was coup from the Nigeria Army, it is not the Northern Army, so anybody who says that the North has been ruling is being intellectually dishonest and does not know anything. NCNC/NPC/NEPU governing Nigeria from 1959 to 1966, after that is the Nigerian Army and they were the people who were in government until 1979; after which the short time of Shagari government of four years three months, the military again, Nigerian Army, not Northern Army overthrew the Shagari government. If you say the North, logically, how can the Northerners organize coup against Shagari.
Babangida belongs to Nigeria Army, Buhari belongs to Nigeria Army, and they don't belong to a Northern Army. The North has no Army of its own; it is Nigeria who owns the Army.
(Cuts in) But the July counter-coup was seen largely as a reprisal from the North?
(cuts in) But even if it is a counter coup, was General Gowon only the Head of State? Admiral Wey was there, the service chiefs from their respective places were there. But when they came to establish the government, it was the Nigerian military, because Gowon was the head, of course, Admiral Wey was there from the Navy, Kurubo was there from Airforce, he was from the South South. So, I still emphasise: it was the Nigerian Army.
What Sardauna did by propping people from the North was believed to strike a regional balance with other regions that were seen to be more advanced or so than the North at that time. Will you say that that philosophy has been sustained by subsequent Northern leaders up this time irrespective of the tribal cleavages around him?
For me, Sardauna was a great leader and a man of vision. He loved the North, but then he also loved Nigeria in General. Of course, he wanted north as top of his priority because he was the Premier of Northern Nigeria. He gave us a philosophy which helped us to have confidence in ourselves. His philosophy was that being you a Nupe, a Birom, a Tiv, A Kanuri, a Fulani or Hausa; and he carried on, be you Christian, a Muslim or Pagan, you are a Northerner. This is a great philosophy which he has impacted in us. You find every Northerner, where ever you come from, you are a Northerner.
When Shagari came, the situation has changed. Shagari contested on the platform of being a president of Nigeria. He campaigned throughout the country on that basis and he got the mandate on the platform of being a Nigerian. So he could not possibly go back to say he would implement the kind of philosophy of Sardauna. But the governors who happened to come at that time from the North, it was their responsibility in their respective state to have that kind of idea of the unity and loving each other to build upon what Sardauna left behind. Unfortunately, within the short period, there was another military intervention which lasted for about 17 years and the generation kept on changing.
The younger generation thinks about their states, because they have responsibility from their own state. So the situation kept on changing. One cannot possibly say whether they follow the philosophy of Sardauna. They might have had the idea that Sardauna was talking about the North but today we are talking about so many state in the North; about 19 states. We are talking about two divisions forming a state. Like Jigawa, they were all under Kano province, but now they became their own state and we have Kano State.
You go to so many states like Bauchi province, you have Katagum, Azari and Gombe; Gombe is now a state; Bauchi is a state; Katagum is now to become one. So a lot of things have changed. But the philosophy of Sardauna and its legacy is still there, that is why whatever you do, our Southern brother always wondering at the cohesiveness of the North. Their leaders were not able to build that kind of philosophy in the mind of their people. That is why when you go to Ibadan, you will hardly see people from Delta or Edo having houses in GRA, because their leadership philosophy was quite different. The same thing applies when you go to Enugu, you will not get people largely from the South South having properties in Enugu. Whereas in the North, because of that philosophy of Sardauna and also Malam Aminu Kano, we were given the opportunity, everywhere we meet for convention, we got to know each other; like my friends whom we grow up together; for years if I see Senator Hamisu Musa or former minister Musa Gwadabe, we were friends because we started at an early age and the friendship has been there because of this philosophy of being together.
The North has been called parasitic and this is due to the over dependence on the oil from the South. Can the North really live without this oil?
The word "parasite" is unfortunate. Perhaps the people, who now claim they have oil... let me give you the history on how we came about oil in this country. Late Muhammad Ribadu was the first minister of Mines and Power under Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa in 1956 or 57. Ribadu, with his great vision and Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, they decided to invite Shell Petroleum Company to find out the possibility, whether we have oil in the creek areas. Shell were here and were playing game saying there was no oil; late Ribadu was temperament, he was a result-oriented person and so, one morning, he called all the shell big boss and told them: "I give you one week notice, pack your things and leave this country''; he insisted whatever be the negotiation, they have to go and they left. Then we were still under the colonial masters. They came back and, after three months, they said they have discovered large commercial quantity. So shell was in the field. Ribadu, a Fulani from Adamawa, and Sir. Abubakar Tafawa Balewa had a vision and that vision was to make sure that we utilise our resources, because we are all Nigerians. At the time they were doing this there was the railway from Kaura-Namoda to Port Harcourt. Nobody ever bothered how the railway got to Port Harcourt. Is it with the oil money that the railway was built? There was no oil. So for a Nigerian to call his fellow Nigerian a parasite shows that we are not patriotic and don't believe in our country.
If you believe in your country, the man you are calling a parasite shares the same nationality with you, you cannot possibly indict yourself if you have integrity. North has never being a parasite to anybody.
In the modern times we are talking about political food, we complement each other. But if somebody decides to be arrogant, thinking because he got oil, but he has no land. Checkout the vast land in this region, we can not be poor. We practically feed the rest of the nation with food. You can not have such vast land from oturkpo to the northern fringes of Jibiya and call us parasites. No that is unacceptable.
(Cuts in) obviously, you were talking about Agric revolution, but that was neglected?
(Cuts in) I told you the leadership, the governors, who came in were the ones that neglected their people, not because we the Northerners are poor. We are being given money to build our own areas, but the few governors have been pocketing the money. I thought you in the media would have focused on each of the governors in their respective state: every week or every month when they collect this money from the federation account; you should be able to have your own information on how they utilise these money for their respective states. Once somebody is collecting and is misappropriating the money meant for development, you cannot come and accuse the innocent people of poverty.
An ordinary Northerner still goes to the farm, to farm and bring food. If you are driving from Benue to Katsina, you will be seeing people selling food on the road side. They are farmers. How can you accuse them? You can only accuse the leadership who are misappropriating the funds from the federation account.
What is the way forward for the North?
The way forward is for us to put our heads together, from now on, and say any Northern governor who collects money for the development of his own people should account and identify the projects he is spending the money on. We should be asking them.
We should set up a programme, in the next six months, which will insist that no Northern governor should travel abroad. They were being elected to serve the people; from now on no Northern member of the National Assembly should travel abroad because they were elected to work for their people. It is only in Nigeria that you find a legislator traveling all over the world to do what? How would you work for your people if you are hanging in the air? You sit down and decided your own salary. Even the man who did not know the road to airport before, but who was elected to serve people is traveling with all the allowances running to trillions which Nigeria is spending, the legislators.
Let me asked you when last did you hear an American governor coming to Nigeria? Or a member of the American Congress or the Senate coming?
Yesterday they voted, you saw them voting. They were there intact, because their people elected them and they listen to their people. But if it is Nigeria and you had called for voting, you would hardly have half of the people in the House; they will tell you one or more of the committees are in Soviet Union, they are in Japan; so all of now have to start saying no. Our members of the National Assembly have nothing to do abroad. They should sit down and work and they must be accountable. The same thing with the sgovernors of the states; any governor who decides to be traveling would no longer be the governor of that state. So we have to start that revolution.
............for more go to: http://www.leadershipnigeria.com/product_info.php?products_id=35237&osCsid=68fbb99cc887e2e0016a682d334e699e
Running Out Of Patience
Youths under the auspices of Northern Development Initiative for Progress carpet leaders of the region for their alleged self-centredness and call for a speedy redress of the situation
By Femi Adi /Kaduna
Tired of being kept in a state of economic deprivation and educational backwardness, some concerned youths under the auspices of Northern Development Initiative for Progress have raised an alarm over what they described as the "bleak future of the North and its people". The youths who mobilised themselves from different parts of the northern states converged on Arewa House, Kaduna recently, to express their concern over the alleged retrogression and dwindling fortunes of the North. At the end of the meeting, the youths were agreed that the problem facing the North was that of leadership.
The complaints of the northern youths were that unemployment was on the increase and shortage of food was ravaging the population, even when agriculture was said to be the main occupation of the northerners. They further lamented that illiteracy has continued to reduce the population, particularly the youths, to a dependent people.
Angry over the lip service paid to developing the North by the past and present crop of leaders, a cross section of the youths interviewed by this magazine could not help but express anger over the "misrepresentation of the interests of the North and its people by northern leaders."
See the 13 October, 2008 issue of TheNEWS Magazine.
The Northern Nigeria Economic and Investment Summit 2008 (NEIS-2008) and the Oil Question October 6, 2008
Abubakar Atiku Nuhu-Koko (http://www.nigerianmuse.com/20081006104314zg/projects/EnergyDevelopmentProject/the-northern-nigeria-economic-and-investment-summit-2008-neis-2008-and-the-oil-question)
In the past couple of months this year, the North (also known as Arewa) or simply the northern geographical region of Nigeria comprising 19 States of the federation has been the focus of national attention regarding its relative underdevelopment and having very high rate or the highest rate of incidence of poverty across all strata of its population compared to the rest of the country.
In addition, it has been branded by some ill-informed and divisive Nigerians as lazy and parasitic on the oil wealth derived from Nigeria's Niger delta region. For instance, very recently a number of public officials, especially ministers responsible for finance, national planning and economic management of the country have spoken about some of these disturbing developments. For example, recently, on more than one public outing, the Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Professor Chukwuma Soludo attested to the abject poverty ravaging the entire social fabric in the north.
Professor Soludo even went to the extent of suggesting to the federal government to declare a national emergency on tackling abject poverty and Almajiri (Begging) phenomena in the north in the same vain as tackling the vexed environmental despoliation and modern development deficits in the troubled Niger delta oil and gas rich region of the country.
Professor Soludo's analysis of poverty in the north drew a very large number of public reactions in the mass media from some concerned elements from the north. Some of the reactions can be said to be well thought, emotional and challenging. And, equally, some of them can be said to be contentious and more often than not, ill-informed, ridiculous and without logical grounds. For example, as I would elaborate on this issue below, the Chairman of the Northern Governors Forum (NGF), Chief Servant Governor Muazu Babangida Aliyu (Niger State Governor) is one of those who responded to this challenge, amongst others.
Chief Servant Governor Aliyu went to the extent of issuing a rebuttal and posited that the north can survive without relaying on oil and gas revenues; by relaying on its agricultural production and solid mineral resources. The NGF went ahead and organized a Summit on Agriculture to underscore the seriousness of the stand of the forum.
There is also renewed interest in revitalizing the New Nigerian Development Company (NNDC) – the only surviving common heritage of the defunct northern Nigerian regional government. The NNDC is planning to go into the business of frontier oil and gas exploration and production in the north.
The Northern Nigeria Economic and Investment Summit 2008 (NEIS-2008) scheduled to take place on Monday October 6, at Abuja Sheraton Hotel and Towers under the umbrella of the Conference of the Northern States Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture (CONSCCIMA) is another initiative to further underscore the seriousness of the north and to send a clear message to its traducers.
Several reasons have been adduced as to why the States in the north are lagging behind all the other States of the federation in terms of all indices of physical, socio-economic and political development. Some of the reasons propounded are true and some are outright false, laughable, outlandish and disingenuously ridiculous to say the least. For example, some public affairs commentators have blamed the underdevelopment and very high incidence of poverty in the north to its feudal and colonial histories, religion and culture.
Whereas, some other commentators have audaciously blamed the prevailing predicaments in the north to the actions and inactions of some retired generals of the Nigerian armed forces of northern extraction while they were at the helms of affairs of the nation. Northern elites as found in the business and political class and bureaucratic and technocratic levels (at the federal, states and local governments' levels) also share similar blame.
There is no doubt whatsoever, that, some of these factors have contributed to a large extent to the seeming backwardness in physical and other socio-economic developments in the north relative to the rest of the country. However, there are overwhelming empirical evidences, which show that the causes of poverty in the north are not different from the causes of poverty elsewhere in the rest of the country.
The major fundamental differences are at the levels of severity and magnitude of the incidence of poverty among the Nigerian populace. The level of access to western education and modern employment opportunities are also critical factors of consideration. For example, poverty is more acute in the north compared to the south; there is more human misery and squalor in the north evidenced by the large number of Almajiri (Beggars) cutting across all age brackets and gender.
The north has the least percentage of educational enrolment and success rate in national examinations in the country because of the neglect of education by the sub-national governments.
Nevertheless, there exist a large body of empirical literature that attribute the paradoxical extreme level of poverty, impoverishment and lack of basic physical and socio-economic development especially in many developing and transition countries to the abundance of natural resources (oil, gas, timber, diamond, coal, etc) in some of these countries.
That is to say, natural resource abundance is a 'curse' in some of these countries rather than a 'blessing' – a sort of Paradox of Plenty (Karl, 1997). A type of situation keeping millions of people impoverished despite the wealth of their countries (Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, 2006).
In addition, the north has over the years been lampooned, demeaned and characterized by all manners of people from across the river Niger, as lazy bunch of people that are forever parasitic on the nation's natural endowment of petroleum resources (i.e. oil and gas) that occur in the nation's Niger Delta region.
This charge is outlandish, false and politically motivated in order to generate geo-political discontents within the polity. For instance, soon as one of the so-called militants' gang leaders recently publicly pronounced that the people of northern extraction are lazy parasites and that the entire region is parasitic on the oil and gas revenues derived from the Niger delta region, a flood of counter offensive pronouncements denouncing the charges was unleashed.
For example, both the Northern Governors Forum (NGF) currently chaired by the Niger State Governor, Chief Servant Dr. Muazu Babangida Aliyu (Talban Minna) and the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) chaired by General I.B.M. Haruna (retired) did not waste any time in condemning these charges as false, mischievous and calculated attempts to misrepresent and distort the enormous contributions of the abundant natural and human resources found in the north to the overall gross domestic product (GDP) of Nigeria in the past and at present.
Similar condemnations and rebuttals were also registered in the media by a number of concerned individuals, civil society organizations and some privately-owned northern media houses.
Furthermore, as earlier mentioned above, one of the fallouts of this discourse was the immediate hosting of a Northern Summit on Agriculture held not long ago in Kaduna, Kaduna State. The Summit was facilitated by the NGF and ACF in collaboration with a private agricultural consultancy outfit.
Again, as earlier mentioned in my introductory section above, another similar but this time around more comprehensive event - the Northern Nigeria Economic and Investment Summit 2008 (NEIS-2008) has been scheduled to take place on Monday October 6, at Abuja Sheraton Hotel and Towers under the umbrella of the Conference of the Northern States Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture (CONSCCIMA).
The summit is to be co-chaired by former head of state, General Yakubu Gowon and former president, Alhaji Shehu Shagari. The chief host is the Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Muhammadu Sa'ad Abubakar III. The keynote addresses are to be delivered by former Pakistani Prime Minister, Right Honourable Shaukat Aziz and Professor Ibrahim A Gambari, the United Nations Under-Secretary for Political Affairs and Chief UN Negotiator on Myanmar (formerly Burma).
This write up is not aimed at joining issues with either those who made the accusations against the north or those who try to defend the north against these false accusations. Rather, this write-up is a contribution to the ongoing public discourse on the subject of petroleum resources revenues derived from the export of the Nigerian petroleum resources; with origin largely from the Niger delta geo-political region vis-à-vis the charge that the north is parasitic on the rest of the country (Niger delta region in particular).
Also that, the abject level of poverty in the north was/is due largely to the laziness of its peoples. Hence, this write-up is an attempt to throw light and to put into proper context the true position of the contentious issues at stake – i.e., Nigerians of northern heritage are parasites on oil and gas resources from the south and that the high level of incidence of abject poverty in the north was caused primarily by the laziness of the Nigerians of northern heritage.
I begin by stating that it is not only in the north, but the high level of incidence of poverty found all over Nigeria was and is caused by the discovery, production and export of Nigeria's oil and gas natural resources. Also, that, Nigerians of northern heritage are not the only lazy 'parasites' on oil and gas natural resources found in Nigeria's Niger delta region.
All Nigerians irrespective of their geo-political extraction are dependent on the God's given hydrocarbon resources located in Nigeria's Niger delta region and its offshore maritime limits. The discovery of hydrocarbon resources of oil and gas in Nigeria in the late 1950s and the export of these energy resources from that period to date are largely responsible for the past and present predicaments facing the country.
That is to say, oil and gas discovery and the mismanagement of the huge export revenue inflows from these resources destroyed Nigeria's agricultural mainstay and economic backbone.
Hence, the discovery of oil and gas in Nigeria's Niger delta region and the mismanagement of the huge export revenue inflows from these resources created a wide gap in income distribution; horizontally and vertically in the country. As a consequence, more than 60% of Nigerians hardly survive on less than US$2 a day.
All basic social, economic and human development indices are on unsatisfactory scale compared to other developing countries especially those not blessed by God with abundant natural and human resources like Nigeria.
Having made these points, I would like to draw on the body of empirical literature to support my stand on these vexed issues. The very familiar and much talked and written about "Dutch Disease" and "Resource Curse"/"Paradox of Plenty" offer conventional economic and political explanations and throw sufficient light on the past and present development predicaments of Nigeria despite its wealth coming from its abundant natural and human resources.
These concepts would be elaborated and applied below in explaining and buttressing the points I made above. I am therefore not breaking any new grounds academically, but applying and restating the truth; separating emotions, geo-ethnic sentiments and petty geo-politics from the known facts and realities.
Thus, this piece is about proper contextualization of the vexatious issues raised by the ill-conceived perceptions and the misplaced responses to the issues from both sides of the aisle in involved in this national discourse.
Geo-Political Distribution of Natural Resources in Nigeria
Before the discovery of oil and gas (petroleum resources) in Nigeria's Niger delta region in 1956, Nigeria enjoyed the luxury, again, of God blessing it with vast agricultural and solid mineral resources endowments distributed differentially in all its geo-political regions (now States and Local Governments) of the federation. For example, substantial deposits of a variety of minerals are commonly found as follows:
• Coal deposits mostly around the South-eastern part
• Limestone, tin ore, gold, granite in the North
• Cassiterite, columbite, gold in the south west
Also in terms of agriculture for example, Nigeria was the world's largest cocoa exporter in 1960. The following statistical snapshots tell the history (Note: statistics/data used in this section obtained from the Hon Finance Minister, Shansuddeen Usman, 2007, Public lecture at the Imperial College, London, UK):
In the 1960s, the Nigerian economy was driven largely by the non-oil sector, especially agriculture:
1. Agriculture contributed 70 per cent of non oil GDP.
2. Employed about 65 per cent of the total labour force
3. The country enjoyed moderate standard of living; food self-sufficiency and was a net exporterof agricultural commodities.
However, since early 1970s, precisely as from 1974, with the first major oil boom arising from the old-aged Arab-Israeli conflicts in the Middle-East, the macro economic picture began to change from agriculture driven spatial economy to petroleum driven "enclave" economy. For example, according to official Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the World Bank's statistics, annual production of both cash and food crops dropped significantly in the latter decades of 20th century, cocoa production dropped by 43%, rubber dropped by 29%, cotton by 65%, and groundnuts by 64%.
Oil boom in 1970s and 80s changed the scenario to look as follows:
1. Agriculture's contribution to GDP went down drastically:
• 1970s 48 per cent
• 1980s 20.6 per cent
• Last 5 years (i.e. 2003-2007) 5.6 per cent.
• Other features of the oil boom periods:
1. High exchange rate, which reduced agricultural competitiveness
2. Prolonged economic stagnation;
3. Rising unemployment and poverty and decay in infrastructure;
4. Widespread corruption-especially deleterious effect on public sector management;
5. Protectionist policies for affected lagging agricultural and industrial sectors and
6. Nigerian economy became more reliant on oil earnings, for example, from 1992 to 2002:
• Average GDP growth rate 2.25 per cent
• Average population growth rate of 2.83 per cen
• Deteriorating standard of living – poverty level up to 70 percent
• Average inflation rate 28.5 per cent.
Thus, what can be seen is that, in the decades prior to the 1990s, Nigeria developed an oil monoculture economy, in which 95 percent of foreign exchange and more than three-fourths of government revenues were derived from crude oil exports. Conversely, export agriculture atrophied in the 1970s, while manufacturing and value-added services stagnated, yielding a political economy overwhelmingly concentrated on the distribution of oil rents from the central government.
Although the above scenario has been replicated in a number of oil rich and exporting developing countries throughout the world and thus not limited to Nigeria alone, there are also other countries with similar natural resource endowments that followed a different and almost directly opposite developmental trajectory. For example, oil rich Indonesia and Malaysia, and diamond-rich Botswana and copper-rich Chile are comparable examples with Nigeria (Norway is an exceptionally different example as it had attained all the necessary conditions of economic, social and political development by the time it made its oil and gas discoveries) but with different developmental outcomes far superior to that witness by Nigeria.
So if abundance of natural resources endowments equates to prosperity and greatness as witness in Norway, Canada, United Kingdom, Botswana, Chile, Indonesia, Malaysia, Russia, United States of America etc why not for Nigeria? How come abundance of petroleum resources in Nigeria becomes a curse for its peoples, its economic growth and prosperity and its political development?
This is the fundamental question and issue that need to be addressed in our search for sustainable economic growth and prosperity and pursuit of political stability and peaceful coexistence as a nation.
Thus, the narrow-minded branding of fellow Nigerians as lazy and parasitic is just one of the political games use by the Nigerian political elites. They use their misinformed and misguided political thugs to continue to drag the country into the abyss of continued underdevelopment. They do this in order to continue to perpetuate their mismanagement of the nation's resources for their personal ends using the instrumentalities of the existing dysfunctional democratic and institutional arrangements.
Hence, it is in this type of situation that Nigeria's enormous wealth in terms of natural and human resources endowments becomes a 'curse' rather than a 'blessing'; thereby missing the golden opportunities to grow and be counted among the world's developed economies and societies. According to Paul Collier (2007), resource curse and trap "... closes off the path that most societies have taken to building a balanced form of democracy, namely, through economic development."
The next pertinent issue is how to cure the Dutch disease and break the resource curse syndromes. Again, in Nigeria we are following and or pursuing the wrong paths that lead us to dead-end. For instance, the ruling elites and economic managers are being externally tele-guided by the 'Washington Consensus' ideological paradigm and internally bedevilled with and by rent-seeking political, bureaucratic and technocratic order and institutional arrangements.
Responses to the illogical challenges
Thus far, the responses to the challenges thrown at the north by other fellow Nigerians from the southern geo-political divide are not that inspiring and illuminating to say the least. I can understand the underlying undertones; emotions and sentiments that follow their reasoning as contained in their respective responses to the challenges.
However, as mentioned above, both sides of the aisle in this ongoing national discourse on the following subjects: oil revenues, northern parasitism and poverty and national cohesion are playing only to the public gallery for political gains. For instance, the responses from both the Northern Governors Forum (NGF) and the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) respectively, that the north can survive without relaying on oil revenues accruing to the federation account and from which they receive their respective shares to run the affairs of their respective domains is misleading....
Continued next post...(See below).
...continued from previous post.
The Northern Nigeria Economic and Investment Summit 2008 (NEIS-2008) and the Oil Question October 6, 2008
Abubakar Atiku Nuhu-Koko (http://www.nigerianmuse.com/20081006104314zg/projects/EnergyDevelopmentProject/the-northern-nigeria-economic-and-investment-summit-2008-neis-2008-and-the-oil-question)
It is based on misinformed and misunderstanding of the dynamics of the present Nigerian spatial economic structure, the dynamics of oil discovery vis-à-vis the wider productive economic sectors and its political economy.
First of all, I agree with the position that the north is not lazy and parasitic on the natural resources located in the southern part of the federation. The abundant land and fresh water-based agricultural resources and solid minerals in the north, together with those agricultural and mineral resources in the south are still the mainstay of the Nigerian populace and their subsistence economies.
Moreover, the revenues accruing from the export of Nigeria's petroleum resources are consumed by less than 30% of the populace. That is to say, more than 100 million Nigerians do not appreciably benefit the proceeds of Nigeria's petroleum revenues.
Ironically however, over 100 millions Nigerians whose sources of income are from agricultural production and small and medium enterprises have been negatively affected by the debilitating Dutch disease and Resource curse effects of petroleum resources discovery, production and export.
Furthermore, another point that needs consideration is that, should there be any appreciable decline in the level of subsistence food production in Nigeria due to the vagaries of weather and climate or other causal factors (human and or natural), Nigeria's net oil revenues inflow and foreign reserves will not be enough to guarantee it more than six months at best, of sustained food import bills to bridge the gap.
This is because of the volatile nature of oil revenue inflows, crude oil demand and supply fluctuations and its depleting nature. Therefore, oil revenues are not permanent national income and or solution to Nigeria's development needs. They can dry up as had happened in other climes and Nigeria will not be an exception.
Secondly, I disagree with the proposition put by the NGF, ACF and others, that, the sub- national governments (States and Local Governments) in the north can go it alone in reviving and revitalizing the long neglected agricultural production sector without input of the central government.
The reasons are not farfetched. As stated above, the Dutch disease seriously effected on the Nigerian economy; particularly on its agricultural sector of which the north plays a very high significant role and contributes substantially to both the subsistence and export components of the agricultural sector. For instance, the Dutch disease is transmitted via foreign exchange inflows from exporting crude oil in the international crude oil markets.
As a result of this, a country's local currency appreciates in value relative to or against other foreign currencies. Hence, the country loses its comparative and competitive advantages of its other non-oil exports. In the case of Nigeria, the agricultural export sector lost out to the new found oil export sector.
The debilitating consequences of this twist are what Nigeria has been grappling with in the past fifty years or so. For example, since early 1970s, the increasing role of oil revenue inflows into the Nigerian economy made the main export commodities produced by the farmers in the north such as cotton, groundnuts, hides and skins etc to collapse completely.
The same thing happened to the non-oil export commodities such as cocoa, palm oil etc produced in the south by the farmers. It only the central government that can make and implement appropriate macroeconomic policies that can change the existing situation as it were.
Therefore, in Nigeria it is the responsibility of the federal government and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) (and not the sub-national governments) to fashion out an economic policy and development framework to that addresses and solves the debilitating Dutch disease and the Resource curse syndromes respectively.
Unfortunately however, for over forty years, the federal government and the CBN have woefully failed to get the policies rights compared to Indonesia and Malaysia, for example. There is a large body of existing empirical literature that documents this failure by Nigeria.
Thus, .the negative impact of this shift created serious conditions of unemployment, poverty and an army of Almajiri in the north; that are commonly found roaming the streets of all major Nigerian towns and cities begging for food and money to survive. Furthermore, oil exploration and production are very high capital intensive and highly technically skilled activities.
Hence, oil exploration and production create an 'enclave' type of economy; with almost no job openings for the largely unskilled agricultural labor force that were displaced by the impact of the booming oil tradable sector.
Therefore, the north being educationally and technologically disadvantaged or left behind by the rest of the country for historical reasons, did not benefit appreciably from the few job openings created by the oil and gas companies at all levels of operations and management cadre. This further explains the worsening poverty level in the north vis-à-vis the rest of the country.
Thirdly, the provocative and divisive issue of parasitism of the north on Nigeria's oil wealth derived from the Niger delta region is a disinformation and propaganda ploy designed principally to further advance the equally controversial agendas of resource control, 'true' federalism, and restructuring of the country. All over the world, nature did not distribute natural resources equally across the geological substrata. Nature has provided for every nation (i.e. geographic space/entity) a unique pattern of distribution of human population, flora and fauna, weather and climate, geology, land (soil) and water etc.
To fully develop, a nation must wisely harness these resources for sustainable growth. And it is the ability of the people to use their God given ingenuity to harness these diverse resource endowments for their collective benefits. It is from these collective resources of humankind that nations and individuals derive their welfare accordingly. Therefore, it is utterly disingenuous to brand the north as parasitic on the south for its survival.
Those behind this rather crude, illogical and unintelligent proposition need to rethink another game plan in their quest for achieving whatever agenda they are pursuing. It is in light of this that I would not like to take too much space and time here dwelling on the issue.
Nevertheless, I would like to advice the Northern Nigeria Economic and Investment Summit 2008 (NEIS-2008), the Northern Governors Forum (NGF), the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) and the Northern Union (NU) and concerned individuals alike that they should not over-react to this worthless proposition thrown principally to incite and provoke the polity into mindless and time wasting confrontation.
The focus should be on how to escape the debilitating Dutch disease and resource curse syndromes ravaging the country as whole; the north in particular. That is to say, how do we move from the paradox stagnation and poverty traps in the midst of resource abundance to growth and prosperity wisely harnessing our God-given human and natural resources for the common good?
This can be done as other countries, like Nigeria, have successfully overcome similar predicaments. This should be challenge and task before the organizers and participants of NEIS-2008, NGF, ACF, NU, CBN, the Presidency, National Assembly, States and Local governments and above all, all Nigerians irrespective of geo-political and geo-ethnic configuration, coloration and extraction.
Therefore, escaping the Dutch disease and Resource curse syndromes requires dynamism of national cohesion, solidarity and mutual respect and collective will power and not divisiveness under any guise.
Where and how do we start? Good governance - translated to include good implementable economic policies, honesty, transparency and accountability is the key and roadmap to successful overcoming or escaping the debilitating impacts of Duct disease and Resource curse syndromes.
The good news is that we don't have to reinvent the wheel all over again. There are practical steps to take and smooth pathways to follow in order to escape from the tyranny of the Dutch disease and Resource curse syndromes.
Nigeria must liberate its Central Bank and Finance Ministry from the shackles of the powerful 'Washington Consensus' bosses at the World Bank (WB) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Without doing that there will be no light at the end of the tunnel.
The world acclaimed renowned learned economists and titans of the field such as Nobel laureate Professor Joseph Stiglitz, Paul Collier and Jeffrey Sachs, just to mention but a few, for example, have said it all in their earth breaking compelling testimonies as presented in their landmark publications on these issues.
For instance, their principled anti-Washington Consensus posturing should be eye-openers to our public policymakers (economists and political economists), practitioners and politicians.
Nevertheless, some of the ideas espouse by the Washington Consensus practitioners are great. But ironically, in most cases, they usually become very unpopular because they are not pro-poor oriented policies.
The organizers of NEIS-2008, NGF, ACF, NU and concerned individuals in the north should get organized and team up with other concerned stakeholder groups (including the National and States Assemblies) and individuals from the rest of the country to ensure that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the Finance Ministry are liberated from the shackles of the Washington Consensus.
The world at large is witness to how for example; Professor Stiglitz successfully demystified the entire Washington financial and economic establishment through his most powerful principled arguments that have yet been made against the World Bank and IMF and their policies in developing and transition economies.
That is to say, Professor Stiglitz rebelled against the very global establishments that once fed him – according to Ian Fraser of the British Sunday Tribune Newspaper. There are a lot to be learnt regarding these issues from world respected economists such as Stiglitz, Collier and Sachs, amongst other anti-Washington Consensus; - 'Born Again' and converts!
Furthermore, the organizers of NEIS-2008, NGF, ACF and NU should borrow a leaf from President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua (UMYA). One of his strategies of addressing the lingering Niger delta conundrum includes establishing a Technical Committee to distil, harmonise and present all the previous recommendations made on how to address the problems of the Niger delta region over the years. The government will then use the comprehensive document to design an acceptable and implement-table roadmap or blueprint for the Niger delta region.
I would suggest similar initiative for the organizers of NEIS-2008, NGF, ACF and NU. For instance, in the immediate past 8 years or so, numerous Workshops, Retreats, Conferences and Summits were convened/organized to address issues, problems, options and solutions to the socio-economic and political problems facing the north that have defied solutions since the demise of the legendary late Ahmadu Bello (Sarduanan Sokoto), late Abubakar Tafawa Balewa and their other fellow contemporaries from all over the north.
It is only logical to compile and harmonize the outcomes of these talk shops. Also, least we forgot, just about the current democratic dispensation was about to be ushered some time in 1998/1999, the defunct Turaki Committee; the precursor to the ACF and NU, produced and printed a guidepost or roadmap for the transformation of the north.
That handbook was produced in large numbers for distribution to all those in position to make a change for the better in the lives of the ordinary persons in the streets of the north. Unfortunately however, those elected into various political offices and leadership positions in the period 1999-2007 never used it. If they did, the north today will be discussing something different and not the same familiar lamentations we are used to hearing over and over again!
I also agree with my elder brother, Mohammed Haruna, the veteran journalist who, a couple of days ago, commenting in his regular column in both the Daily Trust Newspapers and Gamji.com Website, that talking is important but there comes a time when we should talk less and act more.
In his own words "By all means, let's organise seminars on how to end poverty in the region - and by extension in Nigeria as a whole - but we must accept the obvious fact that words alone can never solve our problems" - Mohammed Haruna (01-10-2008).
The north should be seen to be methodically organized for the common good as it used to be before it was Balkanized into 19 individual States. It must revive itself and at the same time work hand-in-hand with the rest of the country to restore the lost glories before the discovery of the 'devil's excrement' – oil.
Finally, I would seek for shelter under the cover of Jeffrey Sachs's conclusion of one of his numerous compelling and forceful articles to also conclude this rather lengthy and boring write-up:
"Oil revenues need not be a curse. When properly managed, they can play a special and important role in overall economic development in low income countries, especially by providing the public financing for critical investments in key public goods. As long as this is done, the fears about Dutch Disease are likely to be exaggerated... For the poorest of the poor, priorities will lie in meeting basic needs and basic infrastructure... expanding access to higher education, science, and advanced technologies. In all these cases, there will be a likely advantage in using the oil earnings as an income to cover priority public spending, rather than viewing the oil earnings as an income flow to be transferred back to households... considerable care must be given to managing the large macroeconomic risks of oil income flows, as well as to spread the benefits of the oil earnings across generations. This is best achieved by converting oil flows into long-lasting financial, physical, and human capital" (Jeffrey D. Sachs, 2007, pp 173-193. "How To Handle the Macroeconomics of Oil Wealth", Chapter 7, in Escaping the Resource Curse. Humphreys, M., Jeffrey D. Sachs and Joseph E. Stiglitz, editors).
I pray that the message contained in this concluding part of the write-up will sink in the hearts and minds of the organizers and participants of NEIS-2008, NGF, ACF, NU, CBN, the Presidency, National Assembly, States and Local governments and above all, all Nigerians irrespective of geo-political and geo-ethnic configuration, coloration and extraction.
Therefore, I repeat what I mentioned above that, the challenge of escaping the Dutch Disease and Resource Curse syndromes requires dynamism of national cohesion, solidarity and mutual respect and collective will power and not divisiveness under any guise.
The north must face the challenges before it in a manner that enhances and solidifies our cherished national unity and solidarity and avoid joining unnecessary provocative and time wasting distractions from any quarter.
I wish the organizers and participants very successful and fruitful deliberations in this worthy and timely initiative.
for more details please visit: (http://www.nigerianmuse.com/20081006104314zg/projects/EnergyDevelopmentProject/the-northern-nigeria-economic-and-investment-summit-2008-neis-2008-and-the-oil-question).
Arewa needs to take up the challenge. Haba "yan arewa ku bar birci ..." Shata of blessed memory.
Oga tukur nice one i can see ur handwork. So the post in 'ask the person below u' was a mistake kenan. So i take my earlier comment back.
The Punch of Nigeria on the web viewed on 12 Oct 2008.
Nigeria as a wayward child
By Casmir Igbokwe
Published: Monday, 10 Nov 2008
There are different sides to the name Raila Odinga. As a computer virus created recently by hackers, Odinga replicates itself and attacks hardware. As a politician, the name reminds one of the violence that trailed the Kenyan presidential election earlier in the year. The violence was sequel to the allegation that President Nwai Kibaki out-rigged Odinga in an election he presumably won. As the incumbent Prime Minister of Kenya (a position he got after a power-sharing deal with Kibaki), Odinga is now a leader on whose shoulders many of his compatriots lean for support. An aggregate of these attributes came to play last week when the Kenyan leader X-rayed the problems of Africa, nay Nigeria, in a lecture he delivered to mark the Silver Jubilee anniversary of The Guardian newspapers in Lagos.
Skip to next paragraph
File
Nigeria as a wayward child
At first, Odinga identified and attacked what one may call the hardware of Nigeria's problems. According to him, he was in Nigeria during the 1999 and 2003 elections as well as in 2006. Somebody told him then that the presidency was rotated between the North and the South; that since Chief Olusegun Obasanjo had taken the turn of the South, it was time for the North to ascend the throne again.
The Prime Minister stressed, "I asked what happens to the South-East and I was told that the situation is like that because Northerners do not trust the Easterners. If you say that some people can vote and cannot be voted for, then why are we here? Something similar to that happened in Kenya too in the past when they said that the uncircumcised could not lead the country. This situation causes disintegration. The right to vote also confers on one the right to be voted for."
Amplifying Odinga's standpoint, renowned author, Prof. Chinua Achebe, said, "At the end of the 30-month war, Biafra was a vast smouldering rubble; the cost in human lives was a staggering two million souls, making it one of the bloodiest civil wars in human history. I find it difficult to forgive Nigeria and my countrymen and women for the political nonchalance and cruelty that unleashed upon us these terrible events, which set us back a whole generation and robbed us of the chance clearly within our grasps to become a medium range developing nation in the 21st Century." He described Nigeria as a wayward child.
Clearly, there are animosities and mutual mistrust among different entities that make up Nigeria. And this is at the heart of the country's problems. Some may say leadership is the major problem. Others may say it is corruption. To an extent, that is true. We need purposeful leaders who will galvanise the people towards a common goal; leaders who will not only promise to build roads, hospitals, and provide water and security, but will also fulfil such promises in record time.
As for corruption, the challenge is also enormous. Last week alone, there was a harvest of arrests, detention and prosecution of leaders suspected to have engaged in corrupt practices. In Abia State, for instance, the Independent Corrupt Practices and other Related Offences Commission reportedly intensified investigations into the money laundering allegations against the Abia State Governor, Chief Theodore Orji. The Commission had purportedly detained the state's Accountant General, Mrs. Bridget Onyema, for allegedly transferring a total of about N1.9632bn as travel estacodes for the governor, his deputy, their wives and families and 23 others to attend World Igbo Congress in the United States in September this year.
Besides, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission on Thursday in Abuja arraigned the Chief of Staff to Rivers State Governor, Mr. Ezebunwo Nyesom Wike, over alleged N5bn fraud. The EFCC, also that Thursday, arraigned former Minister of Aviation, Babalola Borisade and three others over their roles in the N6.5bn aviation fund scam. The same Thursday, the EFCC raided the offices of the Nigerian Aviation Handling Company Plc in Lagos to unravel the mystery surrounding the mismanagement of NAHCO's N210m.
I don't think it's in our blood to be inherently corrupt. I don't also think that it's in our system to breed dubious leaders. Individually, Nigerians excel in any endeavour they find themselves, anywhere in the world. Why then is it difficult for us to excel as a country?
The answer lies in Odinga and Achebe's observations. The burning nationalism that moves people to die for their country is lacking in most Nigerians. That is why a leader goes to Abuja not to serve the greater interest of the people, but to loot the treasury in order to satisfy his selfish interests. The nation can go to blazes for all he cares. Arrest that leader tomorrow, his townsmen will be the first to protest and accuse the authorities of witch-hunting their son.
The common assumption in Nigeria today is that the North will not allow Vice-President Goodluck Jonathan to assume the mantle of leadership if anything happens to the President.
The truth is that it is easier for a Nigerian to get better opportunities in a country like the United Kingdom than in Nigeria. A brilliant student of Southern extraction will likely be denied admission in most universities in the North because Northern students, who may have performed below average, must be admitted first. Same thing goes for a brilliant Northern candidate seeking admission into a Southern university.
This is partly why there is a proliferation of ethnic groups like the Arewa Consultative Forum, the Oodua People's Congress, the Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra, Ijaw National Congress and so on. These groups are basically there to champion the interests of their own people.
The delusion in many parts of the East now is that Biafra will soon gain independence from Nigeria. Already, we have characters who go by the name Igwe (king) of Biafra. Some have made themselves commissioners or ministers in the yet to be actualised Federal Republic of Biafra.
I was home in August and I had a chance encounter with one Igwe Biafra in my home town. He was so sure that President George Bush of the US had consented to the independence of Biafra that he vowed to commit suicide if it failed to materialise by September this year. Well, September has passed, and I'm not sure my Igwe friend has committed suicide.
Nigeria needs to reassure the Biafran Igwes that they are still part of Nigeria. It needs to reassure the Ijaw man that the oil in his backyard is a blessing and not a curse. It needs to let the OPC man, the Arewa irredentist and sundry ethnic jingoists know that there is no deliberate attempt to sideline any of them in the scheme of things in the country.
One major way to do this is to hold a conference of ethnic nationalities. Representatives of each nationality will tell one another the home truth and then map out strategies on how to live together as a nation or how to separate peacefully if need be
Man with 86 wives
HYPOCRISY
...Masaba's lawyer accuses Etsu Nupe
•Says many of those fighting his client are guilty of same offence
From Kenny Ashaka, Kaduna
http://www.sunnewsonline.com/webpages/news/national/2008/oct/16/national-16-10-2008-010.htm -Thursday, October 16, 2008.
It is like the classical epic novel, One Week, One trouble. Just when you think the case of Nigeria's foremost polygamist, Alhaji Abubakar Bello Masaba, is gradually fading out of the memory of Nigerians, it resonates with great vigour.
Last week, Masaba's case was thrown out of the Upper Sharia Court, Suleija, and handed over to a Chief Magistrate Court in Minna, bothe in Niger State.
This definitely is the most unusual moments for the Etsu Nupe and those opposed to the marriage of Masaba to 86 wives. Few weeks after the leader of the 86 lawyers for Masaba 86 wives, Mr Mohammed Sanusi, threatened to expose those behind the travails of his client, the "crackdown" has reverberated in Kaduna.
Speaking to Daily Sun in an exclusive interview in Kaduna last weekend Sanusi accused Etsu Nupe of hypocrisy saying that the traditional ruler himself was a product of the 13th wife of his father.
"We have examples of those who are guilty of the same offence they charged Masaba. The Etsu Nupe, who threatened to banish Masaba is also guilty because he (Etsu Nupe) is a product of the 13th wife of his father. The cousin of the present Etsu was also reported to be the number 20 something wife to Masaba. She is just like a mother to the present Etsu Nupe.
"The immediate past chairman of Niger State Chapter of Jama'atu Nasril Islam left behind 30 wives and all the wives and children inherited him according to Islamic way. This is to the knowledge of these Islamic scholars who are now championing the issue of Masaba. So, our belief is that something must have gone wrong between Masaba, the Etsu Nupe and others opposed to Masaba."
It is as if, Sanusi's research into the family background of Masaba's traducers had been concluded. Now its time to "blast", or so it seems.
Sanusi proved quite combative and open in the 15 minutes encounter with Arewa Report. His words were chosen with care and delivered with gestures of his seemingly restless hands. Again and again, he proclaimed the innocence of Masaba and his wife.
As it were, Sanusi is building a reputation for being outspoken. Neither the Etsu Nupe nor the Islamic cleric in the north would escape his acid-laden tongue. Sanusi shoots straight from the hips. Excerpts:
How far have you gone with the case against Alhaji Bello Abubakar Masaba?
The case is no more that of the Upper Sharia issue. Even the Alkali himself has realized that he has no jurisdiction to try or determine the issue. He was asked to determine the issue under the penal code. He discovered he has no such powers to do that in his court. For this, "Suo mu tu" he was compelled to transfer the case to the Chief Magistrate Court 1. And less than 24 hours when the case was transferred to him on October 6, 2008, we were at the Chief Magistrate Court 1. The only charge against Masaba now at the Chief Magistrate Court 1 is the one that has to do with section 210 of the Penal Code of Northern Nigeria. That is insulting or inciting contempt of religious creed. So, that means the issues relating to the number of wives as provided under section 283, 386 of the Penal Code has been dropped. Masaba now is only facing only one count charge.
That is the one under the provision of section 210 which is insulting or inciting contempt of religious creed. And what did Masaba do to commit the offence? He said he saw Allah face to face. That was the allegation. This man denied it. In that case, Masaba ought to have been granted bail because the punishment for the offence is only two years imprisonment if convicted. It has an option of fine or both. By the provisions of section 340 and 341 of the Criminal Procedure Code, the Magistrate is enjoined to grant Masaba bail. But inspite of his application for bail coupled with the provisions of the law on that in the CPC, he is still being denied bail. This is a clear pointer that Masaba is facing the powers that be and not the Judiciary. That is the situation.
Nigeria: Shekarau's Harvest of Awards
Daily Independent (Lagos)
21 October 2008
Posted to the web 22 October 2008
Isioma Madike
When he set out to contest for the position of governor in Kano, one of Nigeria's most popular, populous and economically buoyant states, the odds were stacked against him.
Indeed, few people gave him any chance of beating an incumbent who, apart from belonging to the "all conquering" ruling Peoples' Democratic Party (PDP), also enjoyed a special relationship with the then presidency.
But he was confident that the "Talakawas" who he ate and shared a common belief with were behind him, and he triumphed. He did not only win the first time in style, he broke the jinx and become the only governor among 16 governors that have ruled the ancient city since the creation of the state in 1967 to govern the state for two terms.
Like a palace political pundit, who teaches that the king's nuances, gestures and other non-verbal signs communicate deeper symbolism than prepared speeches, the wise "king" is saddled with ambitious "princes", but conducts the act of statecraft through prudent wit, understated tact and delayed judgement. Subtlety is the language of his palace. It is not difficult for experts to read and there has never been any need to interpret his mind to the people.
Ibrahim Shekarau, described as a populist leader began to interact with the people from the grassroots in Kano State through an interactive programme tagged, "Dandalin Tattaunawa" from his first term in office. He had promised that, "We will go round from one local government to another to allow our people to forward their suggestions to us because this will give us chance to know the true lives of our people." He has not turned his back on his people since then. According to residents of Kano, Shekarau has been using his position and resources to better the lots of the common man in the society. The society, in turn, has been appreciative of these efforts as well.
At this moment in Nigeria's history when the question of honour dominates the nation discourse, when men of conscience and integrity have risen not to accept recognition that could compromise their covenant with the commonwealth, Shekarau received three awards in one week. It is particularly interesting, considering that honour merited but unsolicited is a tapestry of nobility.
It began on Friday, October 10, when the governor bagged the prestigious "2008 Best Governor Award" at the Fifth Annual Africa Awards Night ceremony organised by the Security Watch Africa at the Sheraton and Towers, Abuja. His deputy, Mohammed Gwarzo who received the award for the governor responded thus: "this honour is a source of inspiration and motivation to the present and future generation.
"This administration would not relent in its efforts towards implementing programmes that enhance development for the betterment of the people," Gwarzo remarked.
Like the famed Oliver Twist, Shekarau was not done yet with awards. He was second time guest to the Northern Youths Awareness Forum, an amalgam of the Northern Youths Organisation (NYO), which picked him as the best performing and best leadership governor in the North at the famous Arewa House, Kaduna.
The chairmen of political parties in Nigeria added the "Defender of Democracy" to the prestigious awards saying that Shekarau typifies the most exemplary public conduct and moral Fibre. "He was given the Award for two basic reasons. One for being the first person to win election against the run of play because, his defeat of Kwankwaso has given hope that other smaller parties could make it despite their size; secondly, Shekarau has distinguished himself," the leader of the chairmen, Maxi Okwu said.
Though his critics may not have seen anything tangible in his administration, the people believe that Mallam, as he is fondly called, has really done much. They cite long term planning, consultations and moves to partner with both private sector and foreign investors of some Western countries to turn Kano into a model state by 2011 to buttress their point. "Gaskiya, Mallam is a true leader. He is accepted and respected by the people of Kano. He is trusted and tasted," Musa Ibrahim, a Kano resident said.
Relevant Links
West Africa
Nigeria
Born on November 5, 1955 in the Kurmawa quarters of Kano city, Shekarau, who began his primary education at Giden Makama, obtained a Bachelor's Degree certificate in Mathematics/Education from the Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria. He was at various times a teacher, school principal and deputy director of education before he led the All Nigeria Peoples' Party (ANPP) to a stunning governorship victory in 2003
Nigeria: North - Reviving Sardauna's Waning Legacy
Daily Independent (Lagos)
COLUMN
17 November 2008
Posted to the web 17 November 2008
Sukuji Bakoji
Kaduna
"The Northern Region, as it is today, is the product of three main factors -geography, history and the character of its people. I need to expand on this, but I must emphasise that these three factors have produced a real feeling of unity amongst the people who inhabit our region. We have divergences in custom, religion and language. But we have emerged and progressed out of the stage in the life of a people where such differences constitute a barrier to unity."
These were the words of the late Premier of the defunct Northern Region, Sir Ahmadu Bello, Sardauna of Sokoto. No doubt, the premier was one of the most powerful politicians of his time, during the First Republic. He served as the Premier of the region in pre and post-independent Nigeria - till 15th January 1966, when he was assassinated during the first military coup d'etat. This strong stranglehold had in the main led to what has been described, though contentiously in the geopolitics of Nigeria as the "monolithic North" or, "the Northern Hegemony." This, coupled with its size both in land and population, has been regarded as the criteria for the much-orchestrated Northern domination in the Nigerian polity. Analysts believe that it was during the time of the late Sardauna that the area actually knew what could easily be referred to as total unity. He had, in fact built his philosophy on the unity of the North. Others were its rapid development, particularly in Western education, the preservation of all that was best in its diverse cultures and traditions and the reform of the corrupt systems. He also advocated that shared interest had to be achieved and sustained as important factor of solid foundation for the unity of the North in particular and the nation generally. In fact, by 1964, some analysts believe, it was quite clear that the Premier was satisfied that the North had developed politically and administratively that he no longer feared the region would ever be incapable of defending its interests and values as well as maintaining its unshakable unity within the federation.
According to renowned social critic and Catholic priest, Matthew Hassan Kukah, one of the most potent weapons used by the Sardauna, " is political ecumenism - that is the ability to accommodate all shades of opinions and peoples. He put this to great use in his efforts of using the apparatus of modern democracy to transform Northern Nigeria into a modern Caliphate." Barely two weeks before his gruesome murder in January 1966 by the military coupists led by Major Chukwuma Kaduna Nzeogwu, at his official residence named Arewa House, Kaduna, Sardauna had delivered a short but perceived powerful speech at the launch of the New Nigerian newspapers. The entire speech, which contained only 777 words arranged in just two short paragraphs on two pages and entitled, "Truth as the Greatest Weapon stated: "When one pauses to reflect on the recent history of our growing county, one cannot but come to the conclusion that a newspaper of this nature in this region is very real necessity. It used to be generally considered as being improper for one to blow your own trumpet. But the fact has emerged and has been demonstrated time and again that nowadays if you do not blow your own trumpet, nobody will blow it for you - for the simple reason that they are busy blowing theirs. I am, of course, not saying that the New Nigerian should be a trumpet-blowing newspaper as such. That is very far from my thoughts. What I am saying is that such a newspaper is necessary to tell the world in words and pictures, the exciting story of Northern Nigeria as it unfolds by day."
Indeed the paper came out to become one of the greatest weapons the late Premier employed to promote his Northern agenda. The paper, from day one, also showed no reservation in carrying out its brief and expressing the direction it would go. In its first editorial it had stated truculently thus: "As a Northern newspaper, we shall seek to identify ourselves with the North and its people, their interests and aspirations. For that, we have no apology to offer." Consequently, in spite of the revolutionary changes in political and social directions, which followed the coup of January 1966, the character, and direction of the New Nigerian and its Hausa version, Gaskiya Tafi Kwabo remained unchanged for as long as they could. The papers gallantly promoted, protected and projected the Northern interests, especially during the civil war between 1967 and 1970. However, though both could be said to be surviving till date time has certainly taken its heavy tolls on them, and made them shadows of their old selves. They are no longer what the Sardauna had wished them to be. But observers contend that it is not alone in this.
Ahmed Joda, one of the Northern leaders had indeed captured the reason for this apparent lamentable state of affairs: "The New Nigerian today is not what its founding fathers wished it to be. Yet, could it have been otherwise? The North itself is no more. Certainly, it does not possess the cohesive and binding power it commanded up to January 15, 1966. It is, today, 19 states with 19 different governments whereas only one existed before. The exercise of creating states in itself spelt a fundamental shift of direction. The many and different ethnic groups have gone their different ways, and courses. They cannot be expected to share the same visions as they did before."
In fact, those who have known or studied the life and times of the Sardauna also single out his exceptional commitment to education and development as the fulcrum of his life commitment. Some say he was obsessed with the relative backwardness of the North in Western education and economic growth. And he was passionately committed and optimistic to the region's progress. "What we lack and what we must endeavour to build up as quickly as possible is a strong body of well-informed public opinion which will not let itself to be fooled by any glib soap box orator, but will examine each statement on its merits and single out what is false and worthless. It is for this reason and with this object in view that the Yaki da Jahilci (war against ignorance) committee, which has already put in a lot of constructive work, was put in place. The battle to defeat ignorance and apathy must be fought in towns and in the villages, in the streets, on the farms and in your homes," the late Premier asserted.
Nigeria: North - Reviving Sardauna's Waning Legacy
(Page 2 of 2)
One other thing that gave the late Northern leader his peculiar character was his perceived pragmatic choices and approaches in political choices. He was said to have extended his political alliances to the people and groups far and wide in the country besides having an abiding faith and belief in the people, which made him earn their trust and confidence, instead of commanding their loyalty.
"He drew his authority from the people and built the policy of his government around their wishes and aspirations. In spite of his imposing physical frame and regalia, he never imposed his authority on the people. He did not seek for political relevance on the account of his aristocratic family background, religion or region. He worked the hard way by proposing a programme of economic and social development, which the people voted for, and their free choice were respected. His programmes for socio-economic development of the North applied to all communities. These were the sterling qualities that defined the person of the Sardauna and why he was relevant to the society in his time and even up till today," one analyst posits. Besides, the late premier, aided by talented lieutenants and committed public service, his admirers say, established a system of governance based on probity, justice, fairness and unity of purpose. "Sardauna and his crop of lieutenants worked tirelessly for inter-communal and inter-religious harmony as well as inter-ethnic accommodation. In short, by the sheer force of his character and impeccable leadership pedigree, he created a culture of brotherliness, irrespective of religion or tribe, which made the people from the over 250 tribes and linguistic ethnic groups in the North to call themselves yan Arewa (northerners)," they say.
The popular slogan then was One North, One People, One Destiny, was therefore not in vain, analysts maintain.
However and ironically, over the years, this legacy and sense of oneness bequeathed to the area appear to have been substantially eroded or suffered serious setbacks, many think. In other words, more than 42 years after the death of the Premier, his legacy in the North observers maintain to have continued to degenerate by the day due to pervaded corruption, the maladministration, mind-boggling looting of public treasury, conversion of public assets and funds to private use, destruction of systems and procedure to facilitate calculated and massive frauds. Other elements, critics equally identify, and finger for the current state of affairs there, include deliberate use of deceit and blatant lies by Northern politicians and leaders as a mode of public administration, and the myriad of despicable conducts, which have attended the operations of their states and local governments since 1966, all elements believed to be unimaginable during Sardauna's Northern Nigeria.
It was, therefore, against this backdrop and irked by the ugly trend, that the Northern Governors' Forum (NGF) under the chairmanship of the Governor of Niger State, Dr. Muazu Babangida Aliyu, established a foundation in honour of the legendary politician. In collaboration with the pan-Northern socio-cultural organisation, Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) headed by a retired army General and legal practitioner, Ibrahim Haruna. Already, the chairman of the NGF has set up a steering committee for the formal launch of the Sardauna Foundation. The committee is headed by the Secretary to the Niger State Government, Dr. Mohammed Kuta Yahaya, while the members include the Attorney General of Sokoto State, Inuwa Abdulkadir, Dr. Sale Abubakar and Mohammed Sadiq. Isa Mohammed Ekkan is the Secretary of the committee, while former civilian governor of Plateau State during the Second Republic, Chief Solomon Lar, is the legal adviser. The committee inaugurated recently is expected to work for the formal launch of the foundation on 15th January, next year to coincide with the 43rd anniversary of the death of the late sage. According to Aliyu, the import of the establishing the foundation is for the promotion of the cherished values and ideas of the late premier for other Northerners and future generation to emulate. It will also serve as a historical appraisal for the present and future generations of his personality and era.
Part of its activities would, according to him, be the award of scholarships to deserving Northerners to enable them pursue various fields of studies in universities both within and outside the country.
The overall objective will be the growth and development of the North in particular, and the nation at large.
To achievers, this Aliyu had re-inaugurated the Northern Traditional Rulers' Council, which ceased to function on 6th August, last year. The event at the historic Lugard Hall, Kaduna, was widely applauded and commended by a cross section of people. Aliyu had stated that the revival of the council 40 years after was an affirmation of the royal fathers' commitment to the unity of purpose for addressing some of the critical issues affecting the socio-cultural and economic developments of the North. It would also serve as a common platform to brainstorm and review the implementation of the decisions taken by the royal fathers, especially on issues relating to strengthening the peaceful co-existence in the 19 Northern states. "This forum, to my mind, should seriously be concerned with the problems of poverty, economic underdevelopment, unemployment, infrastructure decays, declining agricultural productivity, ethnic conflicts, domestic violence and rape, desert encroachment and desertification and most importantly the high illiteracy rates and educational backwardness of Northern Nigeria, with a view to finding lasting solutions to them. Indeed, you must look at the twin problems of gross indiscipline and rabid corruption, which has bedeviled our society, he said.
How all these measures turn out to bring back the old North of the late Sarduana, is left to be seen.
you are doing a very good job tukurtukur - chidanim zauro
ngila.
Ushe tadama!
Please tell our good people to read and contibute.
Assalamu alaikum,
These posts by my 'name-sake' (Muhammad Tukur) are actually a-must-read by all of us- more so very useful information that need to be digested and processed by especially members of this forum- could our much-talked get-together be the right forum for analysising these issuse raised?
One could see lots of issues that have been raised, which are seriously bothering us:
1. politics,
2. religion,
3. marital problems, etc, etc.
4. economy.
Allah (SWT) ya ciyar da mutanenmu, Kasarmu da Addininmu gaba-amiyn.
Quote from: EMTL on November 19, 2008, 04:32:26 PM
Assalamu alaikum,
These posts by my 'name-sake' (Muhammad Tukur) are actually a-must-read by all of us- more so very useful information that need to be digested and processed by especially members of this forum- could our much-talked get-together be the right forum for analysising these issuse raised?
One could see lots of issues that have been raised, which are seriously bothering us:
1. politics,
2. religion,
3. marital problems, etc, etc.
4. economy.
Allah (SWT) ya ciyar da mutanenmu, Kasarmu da Addininmu gaba-amiyn.
Weldone Takwara. You have provided a very good insight into the whole topic. These issues need to be discussed and analysed in our forum. A leadership should be provided at all levels to ensure that the interest of the North are defended and projected.
Thanks EMTL
The media and the genocide in Jos
Written by By Mohammed Haruna,
WEDNESDAY, 03 DECEMBER 2008
Most Nigerian media, the newspapers in particular, may have chosen to report it as anything but genocide against the so-called settler community of Jos, the capital of Plateau State, but that was plainly what the authorities in the state set out to achieve last Friday in the wake of the protests that greeted the local government elections in the State the day before.
The State's governor, retired Air Commodore David Jonah Jang, had always harboured deep hatred for the Hausa/Fulani who are predominantly Muslim. Jang is not alone among Northern minority Christian leaders who harbour such hatred arising from what they regard as a historical wrong done their forefathers by a colonial system that supported feudal rule in the North.
For Jang, this historical wrong took a personal dimension when he was retired in August 1990. This only seemed to have deepened his hatred towards the "hegemonists. "
This much was obvious from a long interview he gave The Comet, since rested. The interview was published in its edition of November 12, 2000. Asked by the newspaper early in the interview if he had forgiven those who sacked him, he answered in the affirmative. However, everything he said thereafter betrayed a heart and mind full of venom and vengeance towards those he held responsible.
He was, he said, retired without any justification. "IBB (military president, General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida)," he said, "kicked me out of the service before his regime came to an end and I don't know why I was kicked out till today and I have met him a few times after that and he has never told me why I was kicked out."
Jang was only one of 21 officers that were "kicked out" at the time, the majority of them Hausa/Fulani Muslims. Yet he seemed to have regarded this as a continuation of the historical wrong done his fore-fathers because they were different from those in authority in tongue and faith.
"Culturally, and all ways of our life", he said, "there is nothing common between us and our friends in the far-North". Then in what was clearly a gross misrepresentation of History, he claimed that Tin from Jos was used to develop Nigeria, presumably to the detriment of its indigenes to which he belongs.
"Tin, from Plateau State", he said, "was ...used for running Nigeria as a whole...Yet somebody has the guts to tell me Sardauna trained me. Could he not have trained me?" Jang conveniently forgot to mention those who laboured to mine the tins. Of course he also forgot to mention the many other natural and agricultural commodities that were used to develop Nigeria.
It was the modern day discrimination against his people, he said, which has fuelled the determination of the minority elites like him to carve an identity for those in the Middle-Belt region different from that of the so-called far North.
This, he said, was why the Middle-Belt Forum had, among other things, erected sign posts with the inscription "This is the Middle-Belt region" all over the geographical zone it regarded as Middle-Belt. "We want," he said, "to consciensentise our own people to understand that they had their own identity separate from the North."
For Jang, the defining character of this identity was religion, specifically Christianity. Asked by The Comet if he accepted the Middle-Belt as coterminous with the North-Central Zone, he said no. "We have already stated what areas we consider the Middle-Belt which are Southern Kebbi, Southern Kaduna, Southern Borno, Southern Bauchi, Southern Gombe, Adamawa, Taraba, Benue, Plateau, Nasarawa, Kogi, the Federal Capital Territory, Kwara and Niger." These areas are either predominantly Christian or have significant Christian population.
The latest manifestation of his hatred for the Hausa Muslim emerged only last month when a delegation led by Lt-General T.Y. Danjuma met the Northern Governors Forum to submit the report of a successful seminar organised by Leadership on how to move the North forward out of its ingrained poverty and backwardness. The team was given 25 minutes to brief the Forum. Former civilian governor of Kano State, Alhaji Abubakar Rimi, was to brief it on human resource development and education, while Dr. Audu Ogbe, a former PDP chairman and a large scale farmer, was to give a briefing on agriculture, the region's mainstay. Finally, Malam Abba Kyari, former managing director of the United Bank for Africa, was to brief the Forum on micro-banking.
Before they could start, Jang launched a tirade against the team on why no one would want to invest in the North as long as people go about burning churches. Predictably the team was taken aback. Danjuma had to literally shut him up for waiving a hatchet that most people in the region have been trying hard to bury.
Back in 1986 when Jang was the military governor of Benue State, he had a show-down with the State's civil servants. He had unilaterally slashed their allowances, pleading lack of funds. The civil servants threatened to go on strike if he did not rescind the cuts. The press reported him as describing himself as a locomotive that was ready to "crush any obstacles" in his path if they carried out their threat.
They did, but inexplicably, Jang beat a retreat by rescinding the cuts. Twenty two years on last Friday, the locomotive Jang, now out of uniform and in mufti as the governor of his native Plateau State, felt no compunction in crushing what he saw as obstacles between him and his open agenda of riding the Middle-Belt in general, Plateau and its capital, Jos, in particular, of its so-called settler elements.
The opportunity was, of course, the local government elections of last Thursday. All indications were that the ruling PDP was heading for a landslide defeat in Jos North Local Government to the opposition ANPP when the State Electoral Commission shifted the venue of collating the results out of the Secretariat to a location outside Jos. It did so twice before it finally announced that PDP had won on Friday morning.
Predictably, the ANPP protested. This provided Jang the opportunity he had always wanted to deal with the so-called settler community. As had been the case in previous riots in 2001 and 2004, the authorities claimed that the opposition had imported armed thugs from neighbouring states and from as far away as Niger Republic and Chad.
So far, they have not provided evidence to support their claims. Yet, as usual, the majority of the Nigerian media, in whose eyes the Hausa/Fulani are always the villains of the piece, have sheepishly echoed these claims.
Thisday on Sunday, (November 30, 2008), for example, said it "gathered that security operatives yesterday intercepted about 500 men armed with weapons on their way to Jos. Thisday could not however, verify the figure." Thisday's insinuation was obvious; it believed the settler-community did import armed thugs, only it couldn't verify how many they were.
Tribune was worse. Without any equivocation it claimed the so-called settler community were the aggressors. Its edition of December 1 carried the banner headline "Plateau poll crisis latest: People still trapped in Churches." Then it followed with two riders, one about the Christian Association of Nigeria calling for a 3-day prayer and fasting, the other about the Action Congress calling for cancellation of the election.
The newspaper quoted the chairman of the Plateau State Chapter of CAN, Archbishop Ignatius Kaigama, as saying Churches and Christian property were attacked and that the attacks themselves were "carefully planned and executed." No where in its entire report was there any word about the other side of the story.
Yet the newspaper itself, like almost all the other newspapers carried pictures of the charred remains of over 1000 vehicles at a second-hand car depot burnt along Zaria Road on the outskirts of the town. Not surprisingly, most newspapers chose not to identify the owner.
The owner, Alhaji Haruna Musa Adamu, was lucky he escaped alive. Several children in at least two Islamiya schools in the town were not so lucky; they were burnt alive. Most newspapers did not think this outrage was worth a mention.
By the time the dust settled on Sunday, the dead among the Hausa had reached over 400, according to the Red Cross and some of the global media like the BBC, the VOA and Deutche Welle. By Tuesday you would still search in vain in our newspapers for the scale of killings in Jos that was carried on in the name of religion and tribe.
Clearly, what has informed the editorial judgement of most of these newspapers is their prejudice against the "Hausa". The reports were also clearly informed by the assumption that the so-called settler community have no right to aspire to political leadership outside their ancestral homes. This explains why there were no reports about the local government elections themselves.
Yet, only last month, following President-elect Barak Obama's victory in America's presidential elections, these same newspapers were pontificating about the beauty of how a first generation American can run for the country's presidency.
In the words of Tribune on November 4, the very day of America's presidential election, "The fact that a first generation American, who is the son of a Kenyan father and an American woman is running for the American presidency – the most powerful office in the world – is a great credit to the American system."
Yet in the eyes of Tribune and others like it that carried on about how wonderful America is as a democracy, there was nothing wrong with massacring people for no worse crime than wanting to chose who they believe should be the chairman of a local government where they are in the majority.
Nigeria is of course, not America. In any case it has taken America more than two centuries for a half-black to become its president. Even then that does not mean the end of racism in the country.
However, even though Nigeria is not America, we cannot hope to end the ethnic and religious bigotry that has bedevilled our politics if our media persist in telling only one side of a story.
In May 1992 when the Zangon Kataf ethno-religious riots broke out following the earlier one in February, most of the media portrayed it as a one-sided pre-meditated genocide against Christians in Kaduna. Among the newsmagazines, Citizen which I managed, stood out almost alone in reporting both sides of the story. In our edition of May 25, we gave a graphic account of how it all started in Zangon-Kataf on a Friday and how it spilled over into Kaduna the following Sunday. We reported how a "well armed Kataf army" set upon the "Hausa" community in Kataf on Friday and how the following Sunday "a young Hausa mob and their allies armed ... with knives, clubs, cutlasses and Dane guns ... began to hunt down "Katafawas", in Kaduna and Zaria, among other places.
We interviewed community and religious leaders of both sides and quoted them extensively in our report. Yet the Lagos based Media Review, which is a media watchdog, singled us out for attack as telling only one side of the story. We could as well have titled our cover story "Zangon-Kataf crisis: The Hausa view point", said the magazine.
Our crime, as I said in my reaction to its editor-in-chief, my good friend, Lanre Idowu, seemed to be that we refused to join others in telling only the Christian side of the story.
Nothing appears to have changed since then.
ICHEOKU- Posted by EBEKUO at 9:00:00 PM
Labels: hausa fulani strikes again
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
DORA AKUNYILI POSTING, EXHIBIT 1A OF THE TROUBLE WITH NIGERIA!
Holly molly, this is a classical text-book example of putting a square peg in a round hole, Nigeria style! Nigeria can never seem to get its act right? Imagine the indefatigable NAFDAC chairwoman, Iron Lady Professor (Dr) Dora Akunyili being deployed to a mere glorified back-room ministry of Information and Communication? For what purpose, Icheoku may ask?
Of all the vital ministries in Nigeria, some of them in epileptic dyspnea, needing very urgent and intrusive emergency attention; and the re-invigoration of new blood, it was only the Information and Communications ministry that the Northern Oligarchs deemed a fit and proper cage to confine Dora Akunyili? Why did she even accept the position or will she die of starvation if she had said to President Umaru Yar'Adua, "thanks, but no, thanks?
The problem militating against Nigeria's rise to greatness is that mediocrities are always bestowed with the responsibility of running vital organs of the government which they are very much ill-equipped and ill-prepared to manage; while proven go-getters are usually relegated to inconsequential ministries because they came from the wrong geographical real-estate in Nigeria? Is anyone out there still wondering why the Nigeria-project has stalled all these years since her independence from Britain in 1960? Just take a cursory look at the ministerial assignments handed down today by President Umaru Yar'Adua of Nigeria and now tell Icheoku, which one of these mallams has any proven record of achievement to head their assigned ministry and a heavy-weight performer like Dora Akunyili is given an ordinary Information Ministry? Tomorrow, it is going to be the same result - a failed, comatose ministry on life-support and a Nigeria which still crawls since her birth. Icheoku concludes that Northern Nigeria is the bane of Nigeria!
With the successful antecedent of Professor Dora Akuniyili at NAFDAC, many a Nigerian thought that she will be deployed to the proven ground-zero of Nigeria, the POWER ministry; to go and wake up the slumbering, comatose never-expect-power-always ministry. President Umaru Yar'Adua is a talker but not a doer as he always disappoints Nigerians whenever it is time for him to walk his talk or show Nigerians, his seriousness with all his postulations. Umaru Yar'Adua promised to fight corruption in Nigeria and the first thing he did was to fire the corruption czar, Nuhu Ribadu! Umaru Yar'Adua promised Nigerians the return of the rule of law and the shutting down of ChannelsTV, arresting of e-media bloggers and harassing Independent Newspaper shows his own jaundiced-definition of Umaru Yar'Adua's rule of law? If Umaru Yar'Adau was serious about power emergency, why did he not assign an Amazon-warrior like Professor Dora Akunyili the task of giving Nigerians the ever-elusive power-supply? But no, Umaru Yar'Adua under pressure from fake drugs and goods dealers, simply removed their nemesis from NAFDAC and instead demoted her to a mere back-yard ministry of Information and Communication. May be Umaru Yar'Adua was planning the same Nuhu Ribadu-treatment for Dora, but decided to be more diplomatic about it? What position in the hierarchy of importance, amidst the very urgent needs of Nigerians, does the Information and Communication ministry occupy, that such a talented go-getter as Dora Akunyili, with her much vaunted abilities and capabilities should be muzzled up in such a fill-the-gap ministry? This is a big waste of an invaluable human resource! It is a complete misplacement of an asset. Talk of a complete disregard for proven performance. Umaru Yar'Adua has once again, failed Nigerians and it is about time that Nigerians realize that this sick man from Katsina is merely taking them for a ride - a really, long roller-coaster ride!
Icheoku says that Northern Nigeria is continually and with impunity, acting as the lord of the manor in Nigeria. Once again they have added impetus to this assertion by usurping all the key-ministries in the President Umaru Yar'Adua newly re-constituted administration. It is also pertinent to note that the same Northern Nigeria holds the presidency (Umaru Yar'Adua), secretary of government (Mahmud Yayale Ahmed), national security adviser (Aliyu Mohammed), Chief Justice of Nigeria (Idris Legbo Kutigi), president Court of Appeal (Umaru Abdullahi), as well as the senate presidency (David Mark); and one wonders where the very essence of Nigeria's federal character has suddenly disappeared to? And for a complete routing of Nigeria by the North, the North has, in addition, appropriated these very important ministries - defence ministry (Shettima Mustapha), agriculture and water resources ministry (Abba Ruma), national planning (Shamsudeen Usman), works and housing (Hassan Lawal), Federal Capital Territory: FCT (Adamu Aliero), petroleum ministry (Rilwanu Lukman) and Justice and Attorney-General of the Federation (Mike Aondoakaa).
Icheoku now asks, what is then left but the crumbles, when all these vital federal government ministries, both in responsibilities and size of budget with antendant employment opportunities and contracts, are aggrandized by just one section out of the three main sections or tripod of Nigeria? This is one case where the silence should no longer be golden and the Oha-na-eze, Afenifere, Niger Delta groups should denounce this fascist north for their wanton disregard for the continued unity of Nigeria. The North is perpetually undermining the unity-fabric of Nigeria by their crass, abashed domination of Nigeria. They do not have even an oil well, yet one of their own has to keep a watchful-eye over the oil-revenue? Where are the people of the Niger Delta, who own the oil lands and appurtenant waters? No, they are damn too "inferior" to oversee the revenue coming from the bowels of their land? This time, the other component parts of Nigeria should speak up and demand for fairness, their continued silence will be interpreted as cowardice of a slave, fearful of his slave-masters! Enough of this bullshit going on in Nigeria! At least they (North) should have waited until their complete mummification and islamization of Nigeria into an Arewa Islamic Republic, before becoming so brazen! If the table were to turn, would they, the North, accept such tacit exclusion? It is simply speaking, an abominable greed of the North, by the North and for the North!
Posted by EBEKUO at 9:00:00 PM
Labels: hausa fulani strikes again
controversial issues and suggestions – Lagos Metropolitan Community, NigeriaAug 28
REVEALED? SANUSI CBN acting to orders in AREWA northern agenda – Vanguard
SHOCKING REVELATION: Sanusi may not be acting in our interest after all. Chances are that he and Waziri of the EFCC are only protecting northern interest and are being used as tools to carry out the northern agenda since Soludo removed the Arabic language from the Naira. Please read on:
Vanguard on 23 March 2009, did a world exclusive on alleged plot by a group of individuals to take over five banks in the country.
Two weeks ago, the new Central Bank of Nigeria Governor, Mallam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi sacked the chief executives and boards of five banks, therefore confirming our scoop of March 23.
The story:ANTI-CONSOLIDATION forces have regrouped with the hope of dismantling the structures and forcing a takeover of the top five banks in the country, Vanguard can now reveal. The grand plan by the group is to cause panic and uncertainty in the industry and make the target banks look unsafe for depositors
Meantime, indications emerged yesterday that the Federal Government may announce the names of a new Governor of the Central Bank (CBN) and the Auditor-General of the Federation (AGF) in April just a few weeks before the tenure of the incumbents run out.
However, the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) has expressed concern over what it described as the rapidly deteriorating liquidity situation in the banking industry and tasked the Central Bank (CBN) to make public information on causes of the development as well as the scale of the crisis.
The Exclusive report on the present banking crisis shown here as published by VANGUARD March 23, 2009.
Northern Agenda
report on cbn's northern agenda revealed
Vanguard investigations revealed that the aim of the anti-consolidation forces is to cause loss of public confidence in the banking industry and compel the Federal Government to move in by injecting funds. Further, they ultimately plan to instigate government to take equity holdings in the targeted banks.
Vanguard gathered that the group at work is made up of former bank owners who lost out during the consolidation exercise, a powerful clique in the present government, and some aggrieved persons in three of the six geopolitical zones in the country who felt left out in the consolidation exercise.
Presidency sources disclosed that those who felt left out in the consolidation exercise are up in arms to recoup what they felt they lost during Obasanjo years.
Part of the plans hatched by the group is to ensure that the incumbent Governor of the Central Bank, Professor Chukwuma Soludo, does not get a second term. The plan is also to ensure that whatever gains consolidation recorded are discredited.
This, it was learnt, was meant to force the President to act quickly in the matter of appointment of a successor to Soludo as they anticipate that the president's slow move may scuttle their dreams and cause the renewal of Soludo's re-appointment for a second term.
The group's second game plan is to make Nigerian banks look unsafe in the eye of the banking public. Part of the game is to spread rumours that some banks are unsound and are on the verge of collapse. They send out text messages to individuals and account holders passing wrong information on their target banks. At the moment, the group's target is one of the high-flying new generation banks where they have sent out several messages.
New CBN Gov, Auditor-General to emerge April
The tenure of the CBN Governor, Professor Chukwuma Soludo and Auditor-General of the Federation, Mr. O. R. Ejenavi from Delta State will lapse in May 2009.
Naming nominees for the top jobs, according to a presidency source, will afford the Senate ample opportunity to work on them before they assume office.
While Soludo will complete his first term in office as CBN governor by May 29, Ejenavi will be due for retirement on age grounds on May 18.
However, among those being considered for the position of CBN governor include the Minister of National Planning, Dr Shamsuddeen Usman from Kano, who was a former Finance minister and deputy governor at the apex bank; another former CBN deputy governor, Obadiah Mailafia from Nassarawa, Mallam Isa Hayatudeen from Borno, a former managing director of FSB International Bank, incumbent Managing Director of First Bank, Mallam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, also from Kano, and Mallam Falalu Bello from Kaduna, Managing Director, Unity Bank.
But the most touted name so far is that of Mallam Isa Yuguda, the Bauchi State governor who won election on the platform of the All Nigeria peoples Party, ANPP, but defected to the ruling PDP last week. Yuguda is also an in-law of President Umaru Yar'Adua. Yuguda was also a former Managing Director of Inland Bank, a legacy bank in post-consolidation FinBank.
Past CBN governors include late Dr. Clement Isong (Akwa-Ibom), Alhaji Adamu Ciroma (Yobe); Mr. Ola Vincent (Lagos), late Alhaji Abdulkadir Ahmed (Bauchi); Mr. Paul Ogwuma (Abia), Dr. Joseph Sanusi (Ondo) and the current Professor Charles Soludo (Anambra).
It was also gathered that strict obedience to civil service rules will be observed in the appointment of a new Auditor General for the Federation going by the constitutional provision.
Section 86 Subsection 1 of the 1999 constitution states: "the Auditor-General for the Federation shall be appointed by the President on the recommendation of the Federal Civil Service Commission, subject to the confirmation of the Senate."
That of the CBN may be determined by other factors, mostly political considerations which are at the pleasure of the President without recourse to the commission.
The most senior director in the office of the Auditor-General currently is Mr. Ogunsina G.F from Ekiti State who may be appointed unless there is political maneuvering. Having been a director since 2004, it may not be smooth sailing for Ogunsina because, there is another senior civil servant Mr. Osonuga T. A. from Ogun State who was promoted a director in 2007 and is being propelled by other forces to occupy the office.
It's unfortunate top 5 banks are targeted, says official
A CBN official who spoke on condition of anonymity said that it is unfortunate that top five banks are the target. The banks, he said, are sound. The CBN had mistaken in the past the ongoing move as de-marketing by competitors in the banking industry, saying it is unhealthy competition.
The group is using this means to make depositors panic and undertake massive withdrawal of funds from the targeted banks in an attempt to cause liquidity problem in the bank. In that state they hope to cause a take over by the government which may buy a stake in the bank and later sell to members of the privileged group who may be appointed in the interim into the board of the banks.
Arewa worries over liquidity problem
However, the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) expressed concern over what it described as the rapidly deteriorating liquidity situation in the banking industry and tasked the Central Bank (CBN) to inform the people the cause of the development as well as the scale of the crisis.
ACF said that the commercial banks must have obviously lent too much money to people who either invested them in buying stocks or in the importation of petroleum products in the country, but are unable to repay such loans.
A statement signed by the National Publicity Secretary of the Forum, Mr. Anthony Sani however blamed the CBN for enquiring "into the volume of the so-called toxic assets of the commercial banks while refusing to tell Nigerians how or why in the first place, the banks found themselves in trouble.
The statement reads "The Working Committee of the National Executive Council of the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) held its meeting at its national headquarters in Kaduna on Tuesday, the 17th of March 2009. In attendance were all National officers of the ACF drawn from the 19 northern states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT). General IBM Haruna, the Chairman presided.
"Among other things, the meeting reviewed and discussed a number of issues and other troubling developments in the country. At the end, it resolved to issue the following statement.
"The ACF deliberated on the rapidly deteriorating liquidity situation in the banking industry and observed that Nigerians are feeling increasingly frustrated by the failure of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to disclose the true the true nature and the scale of the crisis.
"Even members of the National Assembly, despite their best efforts, have been unable to get to the truth of the matter.
According to Arewa consultative forum "All that seem obvious is that our commercial banks had lent out too much money to too many people who had invested them in stocks or petroleum importation but who are now unable to pay back. Beyond that, the public has no clear idea as how or why the loans were given and on what terms."
http://www.vanguardngr.com/2009/08/26/group-plots-takeover-of-five-top-banks/comment-page-13/ (http://www.vanguardngr.com/2009/08/26/group-plots-takeover-of-five-top-banks/comment-page-13/)
Remebering Alhaji Muhammasu Shata Katsina of blessed memory.
\"Nyan Arewa ku bar barci.\"
Assalamu alaikum,..... akwai abin tunani.
Quote from: EMTL on September 26, 2010, 09:32:03 PM
Assalamu alaikum,..... akwai abin tunani.
W.A.S mamesake/ Gaskiyane.
Whoever read or heard the song of late Malam Sa'ad Zungur entitled: Mulakiya, will believe that the word "Northern Nigeria", commonly known as Arewa is terribly shaking...
<http://allafrica.com/stories/201009270532.html>
Flood victims sleep by roadsides in northern Nigeria
AFP
Whatever the cause, the disaster has added to flood misery that had already
hit large areas of the north of Africa's most populous nation. ...
<http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5iguvcTEOiu7FW6ptKz_UKMeKNOgQ?docId=CNG.df9e6a188a034ac23300ab0760b91861.8f1>