Since independence from colonial rule in 1960,the Northern political ruling class have always used one political card or the other to checkmate and control the South whenever any of its leaders got to power in Nigeria .
They’ve maintained their hold on power through the military which they’ve been using to rule the rest of the country because of their numbers in the command positions in the military or using the dubious claim of bigger population which the British colonial masters foisted on Nigeria during the first head count in 1953.
To the Norths ruling class, it is either they are in power or have any of their surrogate foisted on the rest of the country from the South or nothing at all .
It is clear that the North political ruling class which has perpetuated mass poverty of its citizenry have always been in charge for purely selfish hegemonic reasons and not to provide better leadership to justify its claims for ‘born to rule’ mentality and it’s perpetuity.
Hence,the claim penultimate week by Ango Abdullahi, the controversial retired Ahmadu Bello University,ABU, Vice Chancellor who later became the self- appointed spokesman of the Arewa Consultative Forum that Nigeria has expired since 2014 did not come as a surprise.
At any point in time the North ruling political elite failed to control the federal government,they always play the ethnic and born to rule attitude to either beat the ruling leader into line or cause of trigger disruptive affliction of instability of government..
Today,as the political elite did to Olusegun Obasanjo who they helped into power in 1999 when Abdullahi Yerima,the Sokoto state governor introduced Sharia law in his state followed later by others,Abdullahi has reopened question of Nigeria’s sovereignty and its expiration as an entity as another card to beat President Ahmed Tinubu into line.
This they did not only do to make him uncomfortable in government but obviously to dissuade him from seeking a second term in office.
Not surprisingly though they’ve found an ally in Obasanjo who had always been their Southern surrogate all the period he was in control.
Abdullahis clarion call for renegotiation of Nigeria is coming barely three weeks after the nineteen Northern Governors backed by the traditional rulers asked their Representatives in the National Assembly to throw out the new Tax Reform Bill which seeks to adopt derivation as a basis for sharing the Value Added Tax,VAT.
This position once again portrayed and confirmed Northern hypocrisy.
The region found it convenient to reap from proceeds of VAT on alcoholic drinks forbidden by their ‘religion’ as they saw nothing wrong in reaping where they failed to sow.
The attitude of the Northern political and traditional establishment in calling for Nigeria’s renegotiation at a time they are not in power also proves conclusively that the region has never changed its appetite for Power as the only means of survival.
Power that has never been used to further the regions development beyond what it’s leader, the late Sir Ahmadu Bello did for it during the six years he was Premier of the North.
Power that has been used over the years to promote crude culture of stone -age slave mentality which has berthed Almajirism and limited education for the Talakawas in the region.
The neglect of education by successive leaders from the North has bequated Boko Haram,banditry and now the twin sister of BH,Lakurawa which also brought it its wake destruction of the region infrastructure, compounded insecurity and presents a present danger to security Nationwide by mass exodus of the vulnerable poor to the south.
The glaring fact that failure of Northern leadership over the years has spread the products of state failure to the Southern states such that hordes of Almajiris and other able bodied young men has migrated running away from increased insecurity to lives and property to find succour in the South with its dire consequences.
This is rather unfortunate.
President Muhammadu Buhari at the early period of his eight year tenure advised the United Children Education Fund,UNICEF,to concentrate it’s attention in the Northern part of Nigeria to helpdolve it’s multi various problems developmental problem chief amongis grinding poverty berthed by ignorance.
Today,in spite of UNICEF increased presence,life has deteriorated in the region.
Buhari never realized that hard as the UN bodies may try,lack of human resources in the region has hindered realization of its agenda to develop it and make the region compete with others.
It was also in the North that in 2021,Zamfara state government choose to purchase 19 Cadillac Limousines for its Emirs while the state defaulted in paying WAEC and NECO fees of its final year secondary school students for two years. This is a clear demonstration of its priority.
Yet the North believes it can continue to give leadership to the rest of the country that has left it behind in modernity.
Two weeks ago,the ACF also boasted it’s resolve to replace the current national leadership by selecting and enthroning a President of Northern extraction on the rest of the country.
The Norths ruling elite never bothered to accept the fact that it cannot give to the country what it never had.
That the North is calling for Nigeria’s renegotiation at a time Minning of and proceeds from Solid minerals has stopped flowing into the pocket of its rich as the practise over the years is ridiculous.
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Since the North ruling political elite have seen pursuit of national power as a means of self development,it is all evident why the region has remained poverty capital of the World even after been in power for 46 out of 64 years of the country’s flag independence.
Where was Abdullahi and other ACF egg heads during the eight years their son Muhammadu Buhari was in power?
If their real interest for power is for the people,why not lead such campaign when Buhari was in power?.
At least restructuring Nigeria would have been done to draw advantage for them since their son is in power .
Would it not have been easier for them using their sons leadership to skew the emergent new federal structure for them,had such calls and pressure been made when he was in power .
Asking the Tinubu led government to start the process of renegotiating Nigeria is a plot to cause enough distraction for him and the ruling government and plot to cause instability in the system considering the emotion the process of reinventing Nigeria would involve.
In as much as all lovers of Federalism wish for equitable and fair rearrangement of the country using fiscal federalism, Northern elite who never believe in fairness could not logically be seen to support reducing the powers at the centre since it’s reason deter is to possess power for selfish and hegemonic interest.
The recent report by the Federal Inland Revenue Service,FIRS that the VAT generated by the seventeen southern states stood at N387.06 billion as against the nineteen Northern states which only generated a miserly N13.69 billion but received a princely N59.17 billion while the Southern States which generated the biggest received only N149.09 billion in VAT allocation .
In another breadth, Zamfara, a Sharia Northern state which contributed only N432.80 million but received N5.65billion while Lagos state which contributed a staggering N249.77billion but received just N40.22 billion in return portrays the inequity and Justice in the system.
What a country,what a system !
Nigeria obviously is likened to
‘baboon dey work, monkey dey chop scenario.’
It shows clearly the Northern ruling class prefers the doctrine of all work and no pay for the South while the North will continue to reap from where they did not sow.
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The late Moshood Kashimawo Abiola once described Nigeria’s economic structure as that of a situation where a region will continue to hold the cow by the horn while the other one will be in a permanent position of milking the Cow.
Now over three decades after that the declaration,the North,Nigeria’s privilleged ruling region wants above status quo to remain.
Since,Change is the only permanent thing in the world,the North either now or in the not too distant and uncomfortable future will have to adapt to Change which defines human existence.
Though President Tinubu declared his prefence last August to fix the economy before Restructuring,recent developments after that statement has presented to him the fact that economic restructuring could not come about without political restructuring on which pedestal an enduring economic strategy could be built upon.
The better President Tinubus accepted the change agent role posterity has bequated on him by kick starting the Restructuring process now for his economic recovery efforts will stand on nothing the more the parasitic structure remains unchanged.
His courage to hold the bull by the horn in repositioning the economy on the path of realistic development and growth could only endure if the country is restructured on equity and fayr play but not at the behest of a parasitic ruling class.
The time for real change for sustainable Hope is Now.
