The north is poor conclsion

Contemporary and Futuristic Engagements:
Who else would have championed the cause of climate
change and desertification if not Newton Jibunoh. Newton
Jibunoh it was who in 1965 at the age of 27 crossed the
world’s largest desert (via the Sahara desert) alone.
He has had expeditions from London to Lagos and Lagos
to London; all by road in a passionate attempt to create
awareness on the issue of desertification. His ‘’Desert
Warriors’’ reality TV was initiated to stimulate youth
participation and bequeath an enduring legacy to fight
desertification. He has carried out sensitization and tree
planting tours in Kano and other places.
These were not established by the region’s cash Alhajis
and retired Generals or even its professionals even when
we are the ones most threatened by the impact of the
raging desertification. It was Newton’s idea; solely his. In
furtherance of this paradox, the 2010 third edition of the
conference on climate change in Lagos had desertification
as one of its themes. It did not hold in Yobe, Borno or
Sokoto, it held in Lagos and the last time I checked, Lagos
was not in remote or immediate threat of desertification
yet she attracted professionals and experts from all over
the world to come and brainstorm on the issue. How
many northern Governors were there? Where are the SL
Edus of the north, the Nnimmo Basseys, the Desmond
Majekodunmis, and the Tunde Akingbades?
In other parts of the country, all sorts of groups are
formed to draw government and even international
attention to the groups interest, hence it is not unusual to
hear of Albino groups coming together to protest against
discrimination (and their agitation has recently made
JAMB consider giving them extra time during its exams),
market women associations, landlords’ associations, etc
where issues of common interest can be discussed and
which in real terms is able to draw significant attention
than they would as individuals. These associations are also
political rallying blocs. Who says the Iyalajes in Lagos
don’t have a say in the ACN government?
Despite the age long dominance of northerners in the
cattle business, no animal rights’ activist has come out of
the region to fight for the rights of animals that are most
often than not cruelly transported throughout the length
and breadth of this country; and tormented before their
eventual slaughter in the most furred and undignified
abattoirs our local governments parade everywhere.
The Diasporan Alliance
All sorts of Nigerians in the Diaspora associations exist all
over the world; from U.S. to Britain to Germany etc.
Some of them have even established NGOs in London like
Shola Lana of Nexgen. Northerners are neither the brains
behind the formation of such groups nor the forces that
propel them. Why bother?
Miscellaneous
Who are the dealers of electronics, phones, computers,
milling machines, generators, and boutiques even in the
heart of Kaduna, Sokoto and Kano? Who are the imports
and exports barons, spare part dealers, building materials
merchants, pharmacists and drug merchants? Who are
those that dominate the printing industry from Kaduna to
Zaria thorough Sokoto to Bauchi, Zamfara etc?
Do northerners parade the best of machinists, technicians,
radio and TV technicians, auto mechanics, master welders,
carpenters and exquisite furniture makers? Is dry-
cleaning, fumigation, industrial / large scale cleaning our
turf? In the fashion arena, the most innovations, the
daring designs, the creative and contemporary designs in
the fashion industry are not from the north. How on earth
could they be? Our tailors and dressmakers have
remained tailors, nothing more. Not a single one of them
has taken his / her expertise to the next redefining level
and become fashion designers with brand identities both
at home and abroad. Not like those of Dakova; Frank
Oshodi; Tiffany Amber; Deola Sagoe ; Tsemaye Binitie;
Mike Asikolaye, Mudi (Fashion Design) Adebayo Jones, etc
and hence my initial avoidance of the usage of the term.
Not even our famous Bukar zanna / Kube caps nor the
Muhadu a banki or Marufiya versions can be pinned to a
designer north of the Niger.
Are our caterers and event managers in the north the
pace setters in the field? Are we the most sought after
chefs in Sheraton, Transcorp, Le Meridian, Oriental or
Protea hotels? Do we run the most successful hotels in
any part of the country?
On a tragic note you may remember the heart-rending
story of little Pwashikai Nideno, the five-year old miracle
baby whose vagina and rectum were mutilated and left to
die in a pool of her blood in Dong Village, Adamawa State.
Hospitalised at the Yola Specialist Hospital, all she needed
was five million naira for a vaginoplasty operation in Egypt
– a procedure to reconstruct her private part and rectum.
Pwashikai’s case put Adamawa State government to
shame; put the entirety of its political gods to shame; its
women folk without exception and by the same stretch of
culpability the entire northern region. But the gold medal
should go to the first ladies of Adamawa State (all four of
them) and the deputy governor’s wife. In this regard, the
newspapers reported: ‘’ …the wife of the Adamawa State
governor, Binta Nyako, was one of the contributors. She
donated the sum of N50, 000 when she visited Pwashikai
at the hospital… in company of the association of
international female lawyers. The wife of the Adamawa
State deputy governor, Bala Ngillari, also made a cash
donation of N50, 000 when she went to see the little girl.
“If Pwashika was the biological daughter of the first and
second ladies of Adamawa State would a paltry N50,000
(which does not even equate the worth of their jewelry)
be the best they would do for her? If they could not go
the whole hog to give N5, 000,000 to a dying baby, could
they not use their clout and ’’political goodwill’’ to marshal
the millionaires’ wives of Adamawa and women of
goodwill there to save a life? Was it not a motherly call?
Ironically, the largest donation came from an individual in
Lagos who insisted on remaining anonymous!
Recognitions and Awards:
Since its inception in 2005, the future awards have drawn
the world’s attention to a crop of emerging youngsters in
Nigeria but then how many northerners make the cut?
How many of our people make the cut at the Thisday
awards, Silverbird, The Sun, Media Trust, Leadership etc?
In Conclusion
Viewed from this prism, would it not be safe to conclude
that poor may after all be a euphemism to describe the
parlous state of our calamity? Is this how Allah destined
it? Or to my Christian brethren north of the Niger, is this
how Jehovah, Elohim, or Yesu Almasihu decreed it?
Between 1931 and 1945, Japan occupied China and
humbled them as a result. In 1945, Japan was brought to
its knees by the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki; yet
from these ominous recesses these countries rose to
become global powers today. Were countries like
Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia and the likes not written
off as having the remotest prospects of gargantuan rise as
evident today? Despite all of the bleak and gloomy
prophecies, they rose to become great nations the world
admires and doffs its hat for today.
The north and indeed Nigeria can learn a lesson or two
therefrom. I am not a self loathing individual; and my
disquisition doesn’t in any way attempt to promote
sectionalism nor regionalism, far from it, I only wish to
draw the attention of a slumbering people to the “very
minute” details that actually make the whole worth calling
whole after all.
What is it exactly that drives the peoples of the South-
East, and South-West to dare and to achieve? Are they
wired differently? So why do we settle for less? Shall we
turn to science, eugenics, religion or even superstition for
answers? But while we are at it, the fundamental
questions still stare us in the face: Who made the north
poor? James Ibori, Peter Odili, Dipreye Alameyesiagha,or
Lucky Igbinedion? What strategies are being put in place
to get the north out of this poverty trap both at the level
of governance and at the individual/group intervention
levels?
We can choose to remain in the back seat or choose to
move ourselves by the bootstraps. We can begin the
redemption now or wait till some distant future to earn
for ourselves a place of respect – a place where we are
not viewed as savages and with this much disdain – a
place where we can compete and contribute to the
sustenance, peaceful co-existence and prosperity of the
one and only country we have and truly love – Nigeria.
• Concluded.

• Aliyu is a Masters student of Public and International
Affairs, University of Lagos.

#CONSENSUS 2015