Zainab Usman is a young Political economist, Political scientist and Current Affairs enthusiast
Zainab Usman - For a
while now, I’ve had reason to believe that the people of Northern
Nigeria, especially the (in)famous “dominant” group, the Hausa-Fulanis
seem to be in terminal decline. Could this conviction have stemmed out
of the aftermath of the 2011 Nigerian general elections and the rampage
of the Northern youths against the so-called Northern leaders or the
recent spate of Boko Haram attacks in the northern cities of Kano and
Kaduna? Perhaps it is the intensification of the unfair media bias and
the recent vitriolic, virulent and hateful diatribes against the mostly
Muslim Hausa-Fulani Northerners in the mainstream and social media or
the serial decline and retardation of the economy in the north and/or
the region’s growing political irrelevance in the scheme of things in
Nigeria. This conviction is coupled with a growing realization that
little or nothing is being done by us, the victims, of our mostly self
inflicted problems to salvage our future which is in dire jeopardy.
The most obvious problem is the serious
leadership deficit in the North which became magnified before and after
the 2011 general elections. There is almost a general consensus that
Northerners who were at the helms of affairs in the country for several
decades did little to better the life of ordinary people in the region
in terms of provision of healthcare, education and other infrastructure,
direction of useful investments and creation of economic opportunities
for the population. The leaders are seen to have enriched themselves and
their cronies while using an adept mixture of religion and ethnicity to
keep people subjugated in the shackles of illiteracy, ignorance,
poverty, and misery. Few leaders have utilized accumulated wealth
towards establishing profitable enterprises that employ people,
philanthropic organizations that empower others or other productive
ends. Rather accumulated wealth is squandered in consumerist behaviour,
in opulence in the midst of absolute and abject poverty. Interesting
exposés on the leadership deficit have been written by analysts such as Dr. Hakeem Baba Ahmed and the columnist Adamu Adamu amongst several others.
Related: NewsRescue- Towards Economic Development of the North
While the deficit of transformational
leadership is not exclusively a Northern phenomenon, it is more
magnified in the North. It is these leaders who are perceived by many to
have “sold out” the north during the 2011 elections hence the rampage of the youths against various emirs,
a former speaker of the House of Representatives amongst others.
Consequently traditional, religious and political leaders who used to
command tremendous respect from people have lost their credibility, and
to an extent legitimacy to speak on behalf of the people. Certain
enigmatic “geniuses” have been de-robed of their toga of mystique. The
people in turn are plagued by frustration, helplessness and hopelessness
in the wake of un-inspiring leadership. The newbreeds like Nuhu Ribadu
and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor Sanusi Lamido Sanusi who
are viewed with suspicion or seem more interested in embroiling
themselves in political controversy provide virtually little solace.
Groundnut pyramids of North Nigeria
Closely following the heels of the
leadership deficit is the economic decline and retardation of the
region. This economic decline has been accelerated by the Boko Haram
insurgency, thanks to which the holy grail of foreign investments will
now become ever so elusive. Once the basket of the nation on account of
its agricultural productivity – the legendary, towering groundnut
pyramids of Kano come to mind – and its budding industrial activity, the
north is now plagued by rapid de-industrialization.
Buildings housing hitherto bustling
factories lay derelict and abandoned in ominous gloom in Kano, Kaduna
and Zaria. Poor incentives to farmers, lack of storage facilities and
access to credit has led to a decline in agricultural productivity as
state governments are embroiled in one fertilizer corruption scandal
or the other. With the exception of Kano and to a lesser extent Kaduna,
few businesses, and enterprises especially SMEs are owned and managed
by Northerners. In many state capitals, the bulk of the labour force
engaged in the formal sector are civil servants. The neglect of
agriculture, manufacturing and other economic activity for easy oil
money coming from the federal government by the state governments has
aggravated this situation as the allocation is hardly directed towards
reviving infrastructure, capital projects, empowering the populace or
investment in non-oil sectors of the economy. The CBN governor recently
stated that many states, especially in the North are economically unviable without such allocations.
Instead, monthly allocations which run into billions of naira each
month are expended towards recurrent expenditure and unproductive
ventures such as subsidies on annual Hajj and Umrah pilgrimage trips
mainly to reward cronyism. This dependence on oil revenues which has
done little to benefit the ordinary Northerner has created an impression
of the North as an unproductive region, a “liability” which contributes
virtually nothing to the nation’s kitty but consumes so much because of
its population and its size. Though a cursory look at history deflates
this impression since the proceeds from agricultural produce of the
North virtually sustained the nation before the discovery of oil.
A socio-cultural aspect of our numerous
problems and which lies at the heart of it is our mind set as a people,
especially amongst the Hausa-Fulanis . We have developed a mind-set that
paradoxically makes us feel culturally superior when infact we are
progressively retrogressing in many aspects. We look down on fellow
Northerners of a different religion and ethnicity, we feel our own brand
of Islam is better than the Islam practiced by a Yoruba man, an Igala
or a Tiv such that you’d forgive anyone for thinking the Holy Qur’an was
revealed to Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) in Hausa language somewhere in
Kano. We feel many career choices especially those which involve working
our way to the top are demeaning; our educated youths have been brought
up with the mind set to only aim for the ultimate “secure government
job” or bust, and as a result many an enterprising and creative youth’s
dreams have died at stillbirth by the patriarch’s final fiat.
Related: NewsRescue- Democracy Fails Africa
This paradoxical superiority complex has
pitched us against other “minority” groups in the north who used to be
our brothers but now regard us with contempt and derision and has been
played upon by mischievous people to ferment ethno-religious tensions.
Many are quick to blame Islam or the mixture of religion and politics,
but a comparison of predominantly Muslim societies who are doing
relatively well-off such as the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Malaysia and
Indonesia for instance shows Islam is not the problem, rather a crude
cocktail of ignorance, and the perversion of religious teachings and
cultural prescriptions. While in Iran, women outnumber men in Universities
as many are highly educated and articulate, female literacy in Northern
Nigeria by contrast remains abysmally low, one of the lowest in the
world and ditto women empowerment though attitudes are positively
changing at snail pace. The problem appears as a friend once stated that
we haven’t found the right interface between culture and religion in
the North.
Lastly is the all-out media war and
propaganda against the North. From the mainstream media to social
networks, online forums to blogs, it is hunting season for anything
Northern (in this context, synonymous with the Northerner of
Hausa-Fulani extraction but also any of the predominantly Muslim ethnic
groups in the north: Kanuri, Nupe etc). At most you need an advertorial
on the pages of the numerous dailies, at the very least, you need an
internet connected mobile phone and you are set to begin unleashing your
full arsenal against “Northerners”. The activities of Boko Haram which
have claimed more Muslim lives, wreaked more havoc to Northern cities
than anywhere else are attributed to desperate Northern politicians who
lost out in the political chess game, a view peddled around even by
erstwhile respected intellectuals; sectarian crises and conflict which
abound in every part of the country, but more frequently in the North
are mostly attributed to the Hausa-Fulani Muslims who are seen to be the
culprits even in situations where they are victims; even the lacklustre
performance of the Jonathan administration is attributed to the “evil
Northerners”. The problems highlighted above: leadership, economic
decline and socio-cultural challenges have rendered us a voiceless
people in this media war and propaganda, we are unable to tell our
stories strongly from our own perspective while others do it for us, and
they paint their version of the truth in whatever colour hue they deem
fit.
Alleged Boko Haram terrorists, 2009
We are a people bedevilled by so many
challenges which of course, this writer has barely scratched the surface
of. The leadership deficit has aggravated our economic decline and
retardation, and threatens not only our social cohesion but our very
identity as a people. In times like these, a strong and transformational
leadership is what is required to mobilize our abundant human and
natural resources for us to realize our full potentials, but this
deficit forms the bane of our problems. Paradoxically, while we
acknowledge the failure of leadership, and the incapacity or inability
of the present crop of leaders to do much to salvage our pathetic
situation, we are still waiting on them. Obviously our leaders cannot do
much because they are constrained, because they are not interested or
because it is a Frankestein’s monster has turned on Dr. Frankestein
situation. While we “wait”, Boko Haram seems to be the only force
filling this leadership vacuum in a very destructive and warped sense by
co-opting the vast number of idle, unemployed and frustrated youths as
willing recruits to its campaign of death and terror. Gradually, Boko
Haram could become the only thing that defines us as a people, if this
leadership vacuum persists and by then we WOULD BE DOOMED!
Abubakar Shekau on Youtube
To further buttress my point, when I
googled “Northern Nigeria” and “Arewa Nigeria”, at least 50% of the
images that came up in the search results were of Boko Haram, scenes of
its attacks or images of its victims. That speaks volumes.
Whatever the case, it is our generation
which will suffer most because the present crop of leaders have little
to lose; we will live with the consequences of their actions while our
children’s future becomes increasingly uncertain. Perhaps the tone here
is a tad too pessimistic when this writer concludes that the numerous
problems we face in the North crowned no less by Boko Haram’s deadly
insurgency gives a gloomy premonition of a bleak future . We are in a
terminal decline, the question is are we doing enough to address this?
What can we or should we do to reverse this certain reality?
Read more: http://www.newsrescue.com/2012/02/northern-nigeria-a-people-in-terminal-decline-by-zainab-usman/#ixzz1z2XoZWzZ
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