Special Issues

Nigerian
News

more articles by Larr

“What the hell should the North need oil for? After all the groundnut pyramids of ancient times was an industry superior to Microsoft!” It was the sound of stupidity. It was the sound of strategic miscalculations drawn over decades of intellectual stagnation and lack of homegrown wisdom.

Northern domination: The Start of a long-drawn End
by Frisky Larr

---

“What the hell do I need beer for? After all the taste is bitter and sour!” That’s the sound of a man, who (according to a saying in one southern language) is unable to afford beer. This rhythm was echoed lately in the words of the spokesperson of the Northern Governors’ conference. It was the sound of frustration. The sound of desperation. “What the hell does the North need oil for? After all the color is dark and it pollutes the air!” These are sounds that would have been unthinkable years ago in the days of Yakubu Gowon. They would even have been unthinkable as recently as a few months ago when the euphoria of policy reversals and the strategic reoccupation of vintage posts took hold of the Federal Government currently led by President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua. There was a reverberation of the general feeling of the bird coming back home to roost after some temporary travail in a foreign territory out of the blessing of benevolence! “What the hell should the North need oil for? After all the groundnut pyramids of ancient times was an industry superior to Microsoft!” It was the sound of stupidity. It was the sound of strategic miscalculations drawn over decades of intellectual stagnation and lack of homegrown wisdom. Years ago, the land in the north was fertile enough to grow groundnuts and perhaps, many more products. Today too, the land is fertile. And so it is the south. Now that we know that the unusual dominance of Northerners in the cadre of political leadership after 1960 in Nigeria was no coincidence, now that we know that the unusually high number of senior military ranks among Northerners was no coincidence, now that we also know that the usage of this military mechanism as an instrument of power grab may not have been a coincidence after all, it is easy to understand the erroneous psychology that lured the Northern rulers into self-aggrandizement and the policy of armchair sit-backers! In broad daylight, they allowed the gains of the groundnut pyramids to waste away. Other countries upgraded and advanced the little opportunities they had. The northern elites would go back home every Friday. The day of Muslim worshipping. They would feed the poor, the beggars and the paupers at the gates of their mansions. They would be hailed as benevolent and Allah’s gift to mankind. But these beggars wallow in their poverty and see a ray of hope in remaining beggars. Today, a huge part of the beggar population in Nigeria are Northerners. The northern elite did not grow a sound base of creative intellectuals. At least, by virtue of statistical distribution. Illiteracy is still disproportionately high amongst Northerners. Simply put, the stage was trimmed by and large and all through the years to keep the Babangidas, the Atikus, the Yar’Aduas, the Dantatas etc. as the shinning lights of the northern star. This miniature model reflected on the whole of Nigeria as years of northern rulership progressed. Infrastructures deteriorated steadily. Gains made in the early post-independence period were systematically squandered. Coup after coups translated into regular reshuffling of political strategies. States were created and governor’s posted to several regions in arbitrary policies of spreading the northern dominance. A state once called Midwest turned Bendel. An indigenous governor of the early years raised the stakes in the state with developmental strategies that have stagnated since the seventies. When the orgy of coups began, governors were hardly indigenous any more. Northern governors were sent to the south to spread the pinch of dominance. They managed the states they were sent to rule like Executive advisers and not governors with a mission to develop. It was “chop and quench” and nothing else. Indigenous southerners learned fast and corruption became a matter of sweeping the state coffers clean. The money in the state coffers derived from this “goddamn oil” from the delta region and painfully, not from the north – not even a drop! Local industries were neglected in the north and subsequently in the south as well. Hardly any government has ruled Nigeria since independence without the rulers being northerners and the two occasions of westerners not having been masterminded by northerners. None of these rulers are poor. In fact, they are disproportionately wealthy and far beyond the capacity their salaries could have offered. And they are mostly Northerners. The eight years preceding the current government saw one of the two westerners of our recent history being installed in the seat of power in the grandstanding of benevolent compensation to make up for the Abiola debacle but without losing the overall northern grip. Unfortunately for the perpetrators, Olusegun Obasanjo bit the fingers that fed him and sought to reshuffle the system altogether and make the regional distribution of political power more equitable and reflective of a federal character. Truly and unfortunately however, he had no instrument of irreversibility at his disposal. The frantic strategy of creating a new awareness in the psychological invention of new vocabularies did not help either. South-South, Middle-belt, Central belt, and Bottom-belt are now all vocabularies temporarily relegated to the history books by the current administration. The central trait of today’s politics by the dominant elite is increasingly smacking of desperation and frustration. Angry as the folks are (the intellectual folks across the board) at the high-handedness and self-centered, hero-worshipping mentality of Olusegun Obasanjo, many are aware (and may not say so openly) that the federal character was visible in his administration. Policy reversals and the launching of probes in areas that are popular with people that vehemently disagreed with the travails of Olusegun Obasanjo (and there are many of them too) usually goes down well. But the southern elites are now suspicious more than ever before, of the clandestine northern agenda of a perpetual stranglehold on power. With a little candy here and a little candy there in the form of policy reversals and probes, etc. the current administration had hoped that the filling of strategic positions with Northerners would go unnoticed. It had hoped that inactivity and lack of vision in governance would go unnoticed. But what people see is the rapid drive to shift the power base back to the north. Again, with no instrument of irreversibility. Militancy in the Niger Delta that was largely used by combined forces in the north and south to destabilize the previous government has now grown a unique dynamic. It is here to stay for the foreseeable future. Niger Delta militancy has not only uncovered a glaring military weakness while we parade Liberia, Sierra Leone and Darfur, it has also served to define the dangerous future Nigeria faces. Today the elimination of the geographical zone vocabularies to quell the drives of the former administration has now seen all other regions outside the north teaming up as one “south” in accusing the north of being a parasite. And indeed, a parasite, the north has been! So are many southern states too. But while the pressure mounts on the north to cede its stranglehold on power, it is easy to see that the days of this dominance are counted. All the actions of the present government ranging from actively combating the fight against corruption at high places to the helpless northernization of political life bear the hallmarks of a quiet but desperate effort to keep the hopes of a drowning elite alive. Unfortunately however, the combination of armed militancy and superior southern intellectual population does not offer much hope for this desperate drive of an increasingly frustrated northern elite. Indeed, the battle will be long-drawn. It started with the spate of Sharia declarations to undermine the central government led by a westerner. It was to stop at nothing. The western President did not dare to pick on a more worthy successor than Umaru Musa Yar’Adua for fears of the unknown. The wolves of the north had been waiting to see the mistake of handing over power to a southerner. They would have stopped at nothing. They would have mobilized the general sentiments of hate and wreaked havoc with the unsuspecting support of southern voices. Umaru Musa Yar’Adua was to be a moderating voice that has obviously been hijacked by regional sentiments and power brokers as the dangerous price he has to pay for letting him in power. But the battle line is drawn. Two presently incorrigible mistakes that have been made by Umaru Musa Yar’Adua will characterize the defining moments of his place in history. He has dumped the federal character to the waste bin in filling policy-shaping positions. He has dropped the vehement (even though selective) and credible anti-corruption campaign of his predecessor in the filthy ocean that never flows back. No one indicted by Nuhu Ribadu was innocent no matter how selective. Indeed, the north will ultimately not need the delta oil when the final equation is drawn. And when the north is finally ditched, the battle line will be re-drawn amongst the southerners to demarcate between the south and the Niger Delta. But if Nigeria survives the medium term with an arrangement of sort, mark my words: “Nuhu Ribadu” in person or in succession will be a major player and a name to clean the future. His pains today are pains he should endure. In the present days of global apologies for the persecution of Jews and American apology for the slavery imposed on blacks, a northern apology to all of Nigeria for all the evils of underdevelopment and wanton exploitation may be a crucial starting point.   Enter your search terms Submit search form   Web www.nigeriannews.com Watch the latest videos on YouTube.com

Unique visitors: 539