Open letter to Northern politicians
The living reality in Northern Nigeria is very explosive. If anyone is interested in finding the practical meaning of the Hobbesian description of life being ‘solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short’, just look at what life is in Northern Nigeria. Indices of poverty, unemployment and inequality are beyond description. Conditions of schools and hospitals are, to say the least, depressing. The civil service, in virtually all the 19 states, is only a shadow of itself, with hardly any public service activity taking place. Our illustrious and respected traditional institutions have been devalued and reduced to a state of hopelessness. Most of our religious leaders and centres are far removed from God’s way of life. Few industries exist in the region. And on account of insecurity, agricultural activities, the mainstay of the economy of the region, is highly on the decline.
No need to go into conventional statistical analysis of out-of-school children and, number of people living in Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) camps. Not to talk of problems of drugs and substance abuse. The problems of broken homes and abandoned children are quite alarming.
As it is, the North is an explosive waiting to explode. We have lost virtually all our homes, our families and our children. Every person with human feelings should be saddened with the reality of what the Northern part of Nigeria has become. Sadly, even the one strength the North is known for, which is strongly united political leaders, has been lost.
More than any time in the political history of Nigeria, the North has never been disunited without any semblance of political leadership like we have in today’s Nigeria. Partly, on account of lack of unity, the quality of political leadership in the North is sharply on the decline. Many socalled politicians are Internally Displaced Persons/Politicians (IDPs), especially once they are out of office. Those in office today are potential IDPs. Consequently, the worst among us, with hardly any commitment to resolving the challenges facing the North, find their way to political leadership in the North simply because they can cheaply access elective and appointive offices and control public resources, which is largely mismanaged and privatised.
Perhaps, the opportunity for Northern political leaders to redeem themselves and return the North to rational order with committed leaders capable of responding to the challenges of the region was blown away during the tenure of former President Muhammadu Buhari.
The painful reality was that no leader in the political history of Nigeria gained the kind of national acceptability former President Buhari had at the beginning of his tenure. The closest was Chief M. K. O. Abiola whose election was annulled by the military regime of Gen. Ibrahim Babangida.
More than any Northern political leader, former President Buhari undisputedly won the votes of people from both Northern and Southern Nigeria, which could have been used to produce a new crop of selfless leadership for the country. Selfless leadership is required to put every part of Nigeria on the roadmap to national development.
Golden eight years between 2015 and 2023 was lost. Instead, the country, especially the North became worse off with crisis of insecurity taking over everywhere.
Problems of poverty, unemployment, drugs and substance abuses, etc. become almost peculiar characteristics of the Northern region.
Unfortunately, here we are under President Bola Ahmed Tinubu who got majority of the votes that won him the presidency from the three regions in the North but seems to be only interested in taking advantage of the lack of unity among leaders in the region. Certainly, not his fault and if he is uninterested in challenges facing the region, no one, especially Northern political leaders, should complain.
So far, one year has passed into President Tinubu’s administration. No doubt, northern political leaders are becoming weaker and more disorganised.
Because of self-preservation, already scheming for 2027 has commenced.
As it is, the North is an explosive waiting to explode. We have lost virtually all our homes, our families and our children. Every person with human feelings should be saddened with the reality of what the Northern part of Nigeria has become. Sadly, even the one strength the North is known for, which is strongly united political leaders, has been lost.
Within the presidency, there are indicative Cold War dynamics and positioning.
Virtually all Northern politicians holding offices in this government are absentee public servants who have been reduced to members of a choir group poorly singing ‘On your mandate we stand’ irrespective of the shaky and staggering reality being demonstrated by the mandate holder with reference to poor service delivery and crashing living conditions in the last one year.
Despairingly, opposition political leaders are hardly any better. With hardly any exception, they seem to be only interested in their narrow ambition to contest for office in 2027. The question of uniting political leaders and developing the needed political framework to respond to national challenges is hardly given any consideration.
It is quite worrisome that we have crashed, both as politicians and as a region, beyond rational reasoning. More worrisome is the fact that we imagine that we can continue like this, and perhaps current leaders impose themselves on Nigerians in 2027.
We need to caution political leaders in the country that things are about to get out of hand any moment from now especially in the North. If care is not taken, hungry people who are everywhere in the North will start breaking into homes and looting the properties of innocent citizens.
The other danger is that innocent