By Ayo DADA
With all the braggadocio, the muscle flexing, the born to rule, Nigeria belongs to us mentality of the northern elites and their politicians, it is becoming clearer by the day why the north is against restructuring of the country Nigeria, they perhaps believe that the north cannot survive without southern Nigeria.
This is more so, given the latest statement from Gombe state’s Commissioner for Finance and Economic Development, Muhammad Magaji, at the opening of the Technical Workshop on the development of the Medium-Term Sector Strategy (MTSS) for the state where he stated that other states, especially those from southern parts of the country, should put sentiment aside and become brothers’ keepers in sharing the VAT generated in their respective states.
He said, “The VAT issue will have adverse effects not only on Gombe state but almost all the states of the federation. I was part of the discussion a few weeks ago by all commissioners of finance across the country.
“The realisation was that only Lagos, Rivers and probably Delta states would be able to pull through without this VAT being administered centrally, and it is our appeal that we all put sentiments behind and work towards a federation that is one, by being our brothers’ keepers and ensuring that what is pulled together at the centre is distributed to be able to balance resources across the country,” Magaji said.
According to him, it would be a very bad development that won’t augur well for the country if every state will ask for control of its resources.
He added, “Don’t forget that the oil-producing states collect only 13 per cent derivation, so if you say every state will take whatever resources it has, that it means we are starting a very dangerous trajectory that will not augur well for the federation called Nigeria.” Is he speaking for the governor of his state or for some powerbrokers behind the scene?
Lest we forget, the Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria (MACBAN) whose patron is president Buhari is still actively involved in the fight and campaign against the anti grazing laws enacted and signed into law by some southern states governors.
The issue of the Hisbah police in the north was never a problem, but the minute the southern governors’ hands were forced into establishing their own security outfits due to the neglect of the federal government in securing the lives and properties of southerners from the hands of Fulani herdsmen and other terrorist organizations from the north, the usual suspects from the region were up in arms against the move.
Their is the issue of quota system in our national institutions, like our educational system whereby the cut off marks for the Joint Admission and Matriculation board (JAMB) of student from the north is significantly lower than that of their southern counterparts. However the minute a step is taken to redress this irregularity as Kaduna state governor, El Rufai suggested on Monday September 7, 2021, that this should be cancelled, one can be rest assured from the antecedents of these northern elites, that, they will blow hot against, and try to reverse such a decision.
El Rufai, urged the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board to stop giving “preferential scores” to students in Northern Nigeria who sit the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination.
He stated this on Monday as a guest on Channels Television’s ‘Sunrise Daily’ breakfast programme monitored by MaTaZ ArIsInG
He said, “The north has always been behind in education, we’ve continuously been the disadvantaged region right from independence even though we’re given preferences, JAMB scores and all that. That has not helped; in fact, it has made our people lazy.
I couldn’t agree more with Gov. El Rufai, however, the laziness is not just in the education sector, but in economic, social and other sectors which have turned the north into leeches if truth be told.
These same elites are the ones who have kept our brothers and sisters up north in perpetual backwardness in almost every aspect by using religion to fight against western education, Christianity, and many developmental programs that would have helped the region to meet up, or at least in line to meet up with their southern counterparts, and with the 21st century world.
THE NORTHERN ELITES SIMPLY REFUSE TO TAKE RESPONSIBILITY FOR FAILING THE NORTH IN ALL ASPECTS.
Instead of the north whining and fighting senseless and lost retrogressive battles against the south, in trying to keep their region in the 18th century, they should see the recent developments in the country, most of which are forced on the north, and especially on the south, as an opportunity to start to think outside the box in economic and social development of the region. They should stop acting like parasites to the rest of the nation. They have the brain, they have what it takes to bring their region to the 21st century. They have been in power for the most part of our nation’s history with nothing to show for it but backwardness.
Many will remember the groundnut pyramids of the 1960s and 70s, which reached their peak as people could find rows and rows of such huge structures, sometimes holding as much as 15,000 full bags at collection fields.
The city of Kano and other areas in the north were then witnessing a boost in economic and commercial activities and locals engaged in various crafts from dyeing, tanning, weaving and embroidery. From the late 1950s, these cities experienced a boom in groundnut production, which eventually became the country’s most valuable single export crop. What are they doing about this, to revive the lost glory and build on it? There are a lot of agro-allied industries in and outside Nigeria that make use of groundnut as raw material.
Their is the opportunity for the north to modernize cattle grazing by establishing 21st century grazing reserves in the north, not just for local consumption, but also for export.
Why would they want to practice sharia law that is against most things western up north and yet want monies accrued from the sales of what is not allowed there, like alcohol?
No amount of nepotism, lopsided federal appointments to “juicy” and security positions will change the socio-economic backwardness of the northern region unless the mindsets of those who promote almajiri, who use religion to keep the populace in perpetual ignorance, who enact self serving and self centered laws in the name of religion are changed.
The Islamization and the Fulanization agenda under the guise of terrorism by their sponsors, that the northern elites are trying to export to the south is one of the reasons the northern region is yet to arrive at the the 21st century; even Saudi Arabia, the birthplace of Islam, has always embraced modernization.
One of the very few good things about Buhari’s government is psychologically reversed, in that it has opened the eyes of everyone in the country to the unworkable amalgamation/forced marriage of the nations that make up the country, the unjust unitary system, the terrible and false Nigerian constitution which in reality is the Northern Islamic Constitution.
The north will do well to restructure Nigeria peacefully because, whether they like it or not, at the least, restructuring will happen, or a referendum, and at worst, a break up.
The truth is that, no matter how much they want the status quo to remain, Nigeria of yesterday is gone. In the ruins that is Nigeria today, shall arise a new and strong Nigeria where Justice, Equity and Fairness to all will be the bane.
Ayo DADA
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