By Jude Ndukwe
THE recent barrage of attacks and acerbic criticisms directed the way of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu by a section of northern elites is quite befuddling. Having ruled Nigeria and been in charge of her economy and other critical sectors for a majority of the part of her existence, one would have thought that these northern elites had learnt how not to blame others for their woes but look inward to ask themselves some critical soul-searching questions to know where the rain started beating them so as to know how to retrace their steps and do the right things for both their region and the entire nation.
For a region that just produced the most cryonic, nepotic, clannish and clueless president in Nigeria’s history in the person of General Muhammadu Buhari (rtd) to be the same people attacking Tinubu who is obviously making efforts to correct the imbalances that have held the nation down for so long is not only hypocritical but also self-harming.
The North should look inward and ask themselves why they are the most illiterate, most poverty-stricken, most diseased and most insecure region in the entire country despite the innumerable privileges the rest of the country has afforded them? What have they done with the nation’s vast resources that have been at their disposal for decades? Why does the rest of the country have to continue to bend backwards to them just to have northern children attempt to go to school? A child from the south is required to study hard to score about 150 marks to gain admission into federal government colleges while one from the north is given admission on a platter of gold despite scoring just two!
The nation has for so long sacrificed merit in all her areas of life just to accommodate the seemingly perpetual backwardness of the north by introducing quota system in federal tertiary institutions and the federal civil service. This might sound harsh but the truth is not so kind in some circumstances.
One wonders how a region that is the most illiterate in the entire country seems to have the highest number of workers even at the highest levels in the federal civil service. Many brilliant candidates with impressive performances in both JAMB and WAEC/NECO from the south have been denied admission to federal tertiary institutions over the years just to accommodate candidates from the north with unbelievably ridiculous scores. Yet, every year, what gets priority attention of some governors of the region is a wasteful commitment of billions of naira to organising mass weddings for economically and socially disempowered people all just to boost their population for politics.
It is a big shame to northern elites that their governors embark on such wasteful ventures. And rather than call their governors to order, Tinubu who is just only over a year in power is their focus. Where were these same northerners when Buhari stifled the nation to its knees without anything to show for it whether in the north or south? Trillions upon trillions of our budgetary spending were frittered into thin air without any meaningful impact on the people. Over two years to 2027, the inordinate quest for power suddenly becomes the priority agenda of these northern elites. Little wonder they weaponize population as an instrument of politics by sponsoring mass weddings with billions of naira every year.
Elites without shame, leave their children untrained, roaming the streets of Abuja, Lagos and other places desperately begging for alms. While children of the south are clutching books and running to school, children of the north are clutching bowls and running after people for alms. Yet, it is these same children from the south that would be denied admission into federal government colleges so that the plate-clutching children from the north can be admitted!
This is a gross debasement of northern children who, by the design of their elders, are stripped of their human dignity and made to face life like herds without herdsmen. The northern elites are aware that the moment they commit their resources to important issues like education, healthcare, agriculture, infrastructure, etc, their ability to manipulate their people against others would have been drastically eroded. So, without using the humongous resources available to them from the Nigerian purse for their people, one wonders why they were crying over Tinubu’s tax reform bills. With all the bedlam created over the bills, an uninformed observer would think the cry was about the people, not knowing that it was all about the fear of them losing resources for mundane things while keeping their people in perpetual illiteracy, poverty, disease and insecurity.
With the many imbalances in favour of the north in the polity, a genuine reform agenda to ensure equity, efficiency and a merit-based society would always look like an agenda against the north. When the CBN Governor, Olayemi Cardoso initiated reforms in the Central Bank of Nigeria, wherein some relevant departments were moved to Lagos, it was the north that made a noise about it. When the Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo initiated similar reforms in the aviation sector, it was the north that kicked against it. Up till today, they enjoy a lot of privileges from President Tinubu, but they are still the same ones unleashing all manner of media attacks against him, crying and throwing tantrums like petulant children denied their toys.
As early as April 2024, less than one year into his presidency, some northern elders started heating up the polity by saying they would not vote for Tinubu in 2027. They have been singing the same song since then and it even got louder recently. This is despite the fact that the north has a good number of their people as federal ministers and even dominates both the ministerial and extra-ministerial appointments in our defence sector. This same President created a Ministry of Livestock Development in deference to the north. This is in addition to the regional development commissions, even though that was created for all the other regions as well. The north enjoys federal rail projects that are absent in some other regions. They, like the southwest, enjoy the benefits of gas pipelines running through them even when the north has no gas reserves. The southeast, despite its enormous gas reserves, has no gas pipelines passing through it. A majority of Nigeria’s foremost military training institutions and formations are in the north. A lot of such imbalances. Yet, it is the north that always cries loudest about political power whenever other regions have it.
When one looks back at how the north has frittered away the enormous opportunities the rest of Nigeria has acceded to it over the years, you wonder why the north seems to always want to hold on to power at all costs and at the expense of other regions even when they enjoy better deals under presidents from other regions than the ones from theirs. The question then arises, what does the north really want?
•Jude Ndukwe writes from Abuja and he can be reached at stjudendukwe@gmail.com
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