Iliyasu Gadu
Ilgad2009@gmail.com
08035355706 (Texts only)
In the context of Nigeria’s political development, northern Nigeria which covers the three geo-political regions of Northwest, Northeast and Northcentral occupies a unique place. It occupies the largest geographical Nigeria space of the country at a total land space of about 70 per cent. It has the most diverse ecosystem in ecology, ethnic composition and culture.
But despite all these, since the dawn of Nigeria’s political history northern Nigeria has been enduring a very negative reference in Nigerian political economy beyond the arena of national politics and into the everyday sphere of socio-economic interactions.
Collectively the north and northerners are termed as backward, illiterate and parasitic, perpetually scrounging at the commonwealth of the country without making a commensurate level of contribution to it.
At the social level, all sorts of terms mostly pejorative in context and meaning are referenced on northerners. For instance although the term ‘’Aboki’’ means a friend in its Hausa origin in the popular Nigerian context especially in the southern part of the country, the term is used to profile northerners in the most contemptuous way which goes to justify anything from opprobrium, derision, derogation, hate and very often targeted destruction of their properties, livelihoods and lives in the southern parts of the country.
The chief culprits in the promotion of this vile and toxic actions against northerners are the Lagos-based southern media platforms and the phalanx of southern elites and intelligentsia who have over the years from the dawn of Nigeria as British colony to date over sixty years of independence developed and sustained a narrative relentless northern bashing mostly subjective and devoid of empirical facts and figures.
Thus the northerner regardless of which of the geopolitical zone he comes from and which religious faith he belongs to and no matter his status in education and worldliness has become free game for all kinds of unprovoked insults and referenced which those responsible for this uncultured behaviors expected him to accept because they consider northerners to be the laggards and dregs of Nigeria. Curiously southerners do not expect northerners to challenge such references because in their consideration, northerners bring little or nothing to the Nigerian commonwealth and should therefore accept their deserved reference as the ugly duckling of Nigeria.
Why are northerners so negatively profiled in Nigeria and how did this come about?
Nigeria is a creation of Britain and in doing so they forged hundreds of diverse ethnicities at different levels of political and social development into a country without consultation. The British did not need to due to the fact that by 1903 in the entire geographical area that constituted what came to be Nigeria, all of the entities bar none, had submitted to become subjects under the authority of the British colonial empire.
The conquest of Nigeria presented new problems and challenges to the British. Faced with such a vast and diverse territory that needed to be administered effectively, the British however could not attract enough willing colonial administrators from Britain to come and establish rule.
So, the British were then compelled to consider and adopt the indirect rule method using the existing pre-colonial Emirate system under which the Sokoto caliphate ruled vast areas of northern Nigeria.
By 1914 when the British colonial administration decided to amalgamate the two protectorates of northern and southern Nigeria, this engendered great resentment mainly from the southern protectorate and some parts of northern Nigeria. The leaders of the Lagos colony who had thrived under a special autonomous status governed by the colonial Privy Council in London since 1861, led the charge of resentment against the amalgamation. The Lagos-based newspapers and publications balked at being merged with ‘’backward feudalists with a despicable record of unspeakable barbarities’’ in one of the petitions addressed to colonial authorities in London. Thus, this set the tone for an enduring resentment of everything northern very often in lurid, unflattering terms right up to this day. Over the years this narrative against the north has morphed to become a preoccupation of the Lagos based media which has spread from politics to economic and social issues. The narratives set in this regard, leaves little or no room for objectivity and the need to consider history and other extenuating factors that should shape our understanding of the reality of our shared experiences as a nation.
The trajectory of this narrative had over the years become so fixated that generations of southern Nigerians have come to define the north in those terms even if empirical facts and figures are presented or exist to provide better enlightenment and understanding.
On occasion as a northern Nigerian, I reserve some of my fiercest criticisms on the abysmal state of affairs in the region to its leaders and elite. I point names and make comparative analysis and provide possible solutions.
My point of divergence is that I do my criticism from a perspective of trying to contribute to the search for solutions to the challenges of nation building which is at the core of our inability to actualize our potentials as a nation.
Every country I know and have been to have issues of complexity manifested in regional differences, religion and the like. But these complexities and differences though acknowledged and recognized have been dissolved and sacrificed under an overarching national ethos for the good of all.
The take off point for northern resentment by the southern elite that exists to this day, can be traced to the decision by the British colonial administration to carve out about 70 per cent of the total land territory of Nigeria under the northern region leaving the southern protectorate with the remaining 30 per cent. To the southern political elite and intelligentsia, this ultimately handed the north the ‘’undue’’ advantage in numbers and in geo-political space translating into political capital. The resentment was exacerbated by consideration on the part of southern political elite that they instead of the northern political elite should be accorded the pride of place politically for being more culturally closer to the British in terms of imbibing the way of the colonizers. The southern political elite with their education in elite British and American institutions and their acculturation to the British way of life simply could not fathom why the British would favour the northerners who have resisted the British way of life, over them.
I think to a large extent while political competition in a complex country like Nigeria is inevitable and even necessary in the interest of political equilibrium, we must however be careful at the sort of trajectory we have been taking in this respect. It is noticeable that Nigerians reserve the greatest possible time thinking negatively and finding faults at themselves. Diversity should be a source of strength for progress. While many countries around the world marvel and even our diversity (the third largest in the world) we spend an inordinate time moaning and regretting it and trying to tear the country apart. This proves clearly that our political elite have not and cannot rise to the challenges nation building and national development which leadership bestows and expects of them.
Having come this far in our national trajectory it is time Nigerians with real vision and commitment to unite the country and make it a nation rise to the challenge. The myopic and unhelpful political trajectory of using religion and ethnic differences must give way for the emergence of a united prosperous Nigeria that we deserve for ourselves and future generations.
