N5000 Note: Don’t Disgrace Me, Jonathan Begs Mark, Tambuwal

By SaharaReporters, New York

At a meeting Tuesday night, President Goodluck Jonathan begged Senate President, David Mark, and Speaker of the House of Representatives, Aminu Tambuwal, not to disgrace him over the controversial plan to introduce a denomination of 5000 naira.
A source in the Presidency and other sources close to Mr. Mark and Mr. Tambuwal told SaharaReporters that the president made the plea during a meeting with the legislative duo shortly after the two chambers of the legislature passed resolutions demanding that Mr. Jonathan rescind the authorization he gave to Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, the Governor of Central Bank, to print N5,000 note.
The president reportedly granted the approval five months ago without the knowledge of lawmakers.
One of our sources said that the president felt that, should he retreat now, he would be perceived as weak and easily intimidated by members of the National Assembly and Nigerians opposed to the introduction of the naira denomination. The policy has been roundly criticized by many Nigerian groups, including labor activists, church leaders, and economists.
A source familiar with the meeting told SaharaReporters that Mr. Jonathan cajoled Mr. Mark and Mr. Tambuwal. “He kept saying to the Senate President and Speaker that he felt he was being dictated to. He kept saying that the National Assembly and some Nigerians were out to intimidate him. Then he looked at them [Mr. Mark and Mr. Tambuwal] and said, ‘Please, please, don’t disgrace me.’”
Mr. Jonathan specifically asked the legislative officials to ensure that the two chambers withdraw their motions on the issue.
A source close to Mr. Mark told SaharaReporters that the two legislators showed little sympathy to the president’s pleas. “They [Senate President and the Speaker] told President Jonathan that they were in a better position to tell him about the feelings of Nigerians towards the policy,” said the source.
He added that the legislators counseled Mr. Jonathan to abandon his support for the proposed currency denomination so as not to risk more battering to his image. “They told Mr. President to act without delay in putting a halt to the plan,” the source said.
 

Nigeria Shiite Muslims to protest anti-Islam video despite police order

The sect’s leader said the protests would go on despite police warnings. Defying a police order on marches against the recent anti-Islam video that sparked violent protests in many Islamic countries, members of the Nigerian Shiite sect, and the Islamic Mission of Nigeria, IMN, say they have concluded plans to hold a major but “peaceful protest,” very reliable Shiite sources told PREMIUM TIMES Wednesday in Zaria and Abuja.
The peaceful protest, according to the sources, is expected to start by 9 a.m. on Thursday from the Gellesuwa residence of the Sect leader, who doubles as the president of the Islamic Mission of Nigeria, IMN, Ibraheem El-Zakzaky.
He will also lead the protest himself across all the streets of Zaria, which is the national headquarters of the sect.
Mr. El-Zakzaky, commenting Wednesday on the website of the IMN, said “our message to the stooges of America is that our protest shall surely take place. So, the blood thirsty stooges who serve American interest shall have the chance to kill. We are ready to die for the Prophet, and we want you to show that you are enemies of Prophet (SAWA) by killing his lovers.
“Our common slogan is Labbayka Rasulallah. This is the symbol of unity, so all Muslims shall express their concern with us. One is either with the Prophet or with the enemies,” he said.
He urged Muslims not to watch the movie which “production and dissemination … was another strategy to institutionalize and commemorate September 11 as a global phenomenon, and portray Islam as a religion of terrorists,” adding that the “clip mocks, insults, ridicules and portrays the Prophet, his wives, Muslims and religion of Islam negatively.”
It is unclear if other cities of the country will also host the protest, but Police Public Relations Officer, Frank Mbah, demurred from commenting, merely saying the matter has a peculiar security implication.
Mr. Mbah, however, suggested there was no permit for the march, insisting that the Inspector General of Police has “ordered a red alert against any violent protest.”
Mr. El-Zakzaky took time, in his web commentary, to berate the Jonathan administration which it describes as “an American stooge,” saying popular expectations in the country that Nigerian Muslims would have demonstrated last Friday were baseless because there was nothing mandatory about a Friday protest as was the case in many other Islamic countries.
“People thought that we would also come out to protest on Friday, but we did not. This is because we are in country led by American stooges who promotes its agenda, and even work for it” Mr. Zakzaky said.
In the wake of the violent protests against the film in many countries, the Inspector-General of Police, Mohammed Dahiru Abubakar, placed all police formations in the country on red alert, and directed all his zonal assistants [AIGs] and commands to ensure a “24-hour water-tight security in and around all embassies and foreign missions in Nigeria as well as other vulnerable targets.”
Mr. Abubakar also charged the police Intelligence; the Counter Terrorism Unit (CTU), Police Mobile Force (PMF) and Special Protection Unit (SPU) to ensure that their personnel are “strategically deployed to prevent and nib all potential crisis in the bud.”
PREMIUM TIMES sources insisted on Wednesday afternoon that the sect planned to continue its protest.
“We have concluded plans to hold the protest that will be led by Mallam Zakzaky along all major roads with thousands of Muslims including women and children to join other Muslim brothers all over the world to condemn in strong terms the recent anti-Islam film produced in America,” the source said.
This appears to challenge the IGP message that had warned “potential trouble makers to stay off the streets of Nigeria” because the nation’s “security agencies will bring to bear the full weight of the law on all law breakers.”
The Nigerian Shiite community, believed to have as many as 10 million members, according to Wikipedia, was a very vocal opposition during the military era which led it to frequent serious and bruising confrontations with the government of late General Sani Abacha who orchestrated a massive crackdown on its membership.
Its leader, Mr. El-Zakzaky, a 59-year old cleric and father of six, resides in Zaria where he was educated at the Ahmadu Bello University and earned a first class degree in economics in 1979.
DailyPost
 

Support for Jonathan, Sambo

President Goodluck Jonathan

A non-governmental organisation known as Re-build Nigeria Initiative has endorsed the candidature of President Goodluck Jonathan and his Vice, Namadi Sambo,  for the 2015 presidential elections, saying it is their constitutional right to go for second term.

The group noted that “Nigeria under the present administration had achieved peace and stability irrespective of efforts of those whose intentions were to destabilise the country.”

National Coordinator of the organisation, Hope Rex-Lawson, said: “For the peace of Nigeria and for our children, we must ensure that Jonathan continues in office in 2015 because he is a man  of great achievement.”

ThisDay

Nigerian invents power-generating machine, makes Africa’s first local car

By Ebele Orakpo
Perhaps, Nigeria would have joined the likes of Germany, Japan, India and Malaysia as an automobile manufacturer as far back as 1997 when Dr. Ezekiel Izuogu, an electrical/electronics engineer, a doctor of science and lecturer of communications and electronics engineering at the Federal Polytechnic, Owerri, made a prototype of his first ever all-African car which he named Z-600.
The car which BBC’s Hilary Andersson described as the all-African dream machine, was made for the family market with a top speed of 140km (86m) per hour.
Ninety per cent of its parts were sourced locally. For instance, the horn was a doorbell and it would have been the cheapest car on the planet as it would have cost just $2,000 to own one.
According to Izuogu who had demonstrated a great flair for inventive and creative knowledge from early childhood, he was working on adapting the engine to allow the Z-600 to double up as a lawnmower or an electricity generator.
With the usual Nigerian lackadaisical attitude when it comes to things that will help project the country’s image to the world positively, the authorities were not ready to invest money in the project and so in 2005, the South African Government invited him to build the car there. And since he who pays the piper dictates the tune, South Africa would have been the proud manufacturers of the Z-600 were it not for the incidence of March 11, 2006.

Made by Izuogo

Unfortunately, this dream was not to see the light of day. According to Dr. Izuogu, some armed men numbering about 12 broke into the Izuogu Motors factory on Saturday, March 11, between 1.00 and 2.00 a.m. and carted away various machines and tools including the design history notebook of Z-600, the design file Z-MASS, containing the design history for mass production of Z-600 car, and the moulds for various parts of the car.
Said Izuogu; “It seems that the target of this robbery is to stop the efforts we are making to mass-produce the first ever locally made car in Africa. Other items stolen included locally produced timing wheel, locally produced camshaft, locally produced crankshaft, locally produced engine tappets, all 20 pieces each.

Made by Izuogu

Also stolen were ten pieces of locally produced Z-600 engine blocks, ten pieces of locally produced pistons, four pieces of engine block mounds, four pieces of top engine block moulds, ten pieces of engine fly wheel and two pieces each of rear car and front mudguard moulds.”
The inventor regretted that not only did they lose over one N1 billion in monetary terms, but also time (about 10 years) and the energy it took to design and produce the moulds. “To worsen the matter, our design notebook was also stolen,” he stated.
He regarded the incident as a national economic disaster because  the nation had lost a technological and intellectual property.
Izuogu machine:
Before the Z-600 car, Dr. Izuogu had been working on ways to provide the nation and the world with clean, cheap and environment-friendly energy source. So, after 33 years of intense research, he came up with a new branch of physics known as Emagnetodynamics, the branch of physics that studies the conversion of the energy of static magnetic fields into work. Before now, “the conventional electric motor was built on the principle/law of Michael Faraday which states that Force is exerted on a current-carrying conductor in a magnetic field.”
The two laws of Emagnetodynamics state as follows: Force is exerted on a composite magnetic pole in the vicinity of an array of like poles; and this force is in the direction of the composite polarity similar to the array.
Based on these two laws, he invented the Izuogu machine, also called the self-sustaining Emagnetodynamics machine, a kind of electric motor that draws atomic energy from the nuclei of permanent magnets and therefore requires no input power to operate.

Dr. Izuogu

According to Izuogu, there are two versions of the Emagnetodynamics machine – the non-self-sustaining and the self-sustaining machine which can run for upwards of 30 to 40 years. He added that soft iron machine or the hard iron machine could be built from each of them.
He noted that the machines named M-1000 and M-6000, respectively, could drive 100 KVA and 5 Mega watt electric power generators with no noise, no pollution, and zero energy input.
“The M-60 prototype machine has been built and demonstrated, while the M-1000 and M-6000 have been designed waiting to be built,” he said.
Scientists have experimented with nuclear reactors in their bid to seek energy source that is clean, cheap and environment-friendly. However, this could not work as the dangers inherent in that are enormous.
For instance, reports say that more than 20,000 people developed thyroid cancer and had to have their thyroids removed as a result of April 26, 1986 Chernobyl disaster. Till date, there is about 1,660 square-mile Exclusion Zone around the site of the Chernobyl disaster, 26 years after the accident.
Unlike nuclear reactors, the Izuogu machine draws atomic energy without the dangers and complications of nuclear reactors. Izuogu said that besides generating electricity, the machine can also power big luxury buses and trams.
Vanguard

“Stop chasing shadows, our nation is in decline” – David Mark tells Okonjo-Iweala

David Mark

Senate President, David Mark, had yesterday blasted the presidency for compounding the problems of Nigerians by creating untold hardship for the people due to poor budget implementation.
Senator Mark made this statement  during his opening remarks after the senate returned from its 8 weeks recess. He had stated that President Jonathan and his economic team should go for robust economic policies that will take Nigeria out of the current economic crisis instead of just chasing after shadows and coursing more problems for the nation.

He said: “Those who manage the nation’s economy cannot afford to chase shadows while the economy is in the doldrums. What Nigerians expect, and deserve, is the introduction of fiscal and monetary policies that will create jobs, fix healthcare and infrastructure, and stimulate the economy.”

Expressing his concern over poor the implementation of budget, Senator Mark had cautioned the president and his team to submit the 2013 budget to National Assembly on time to allow early deliberation and passage as has been the problem all these years.
He further affirmed that poverty had taken over the land because the executive arm had treated the issue of budget with all axity. He had assured his fellow senators that henceforth, the senate would treat budget matters with every sense of commitment.

He said: “We return to plenary session to commence a scrupulous consideration of the 2013 budget estimates, once it is presented. It is, therefore, important that the Executive presents the budget early to afford us sufficient time to consider and debate it exhaustively before we can pass it.“And our goal would be to pass it before the end of the year. When passed and signed into law, we will insist on full implementation. Over the years, our national budgets have raised hopes for a better life. Such hopes have remained largely unrealized.“The Senate will activate and deploy its weapon of oversight to meticulously monitor the implementation of the budget. We have felt the pulse of the people, and the condition under which they live has rekindled our resolve to ensure that their living conditions are substantially improved as a reward for their faith in democracy.“The war against poverty must therefore be an unrelenting one. Its ultimate objective should be total eradication of poverty, and not just poverty reduction. A nation as blessed as ours has no business with poverty.”On insecurity and poverty, the Idoma-born politician said: According to him, “We return from our recess to meet a nation sorely in need of healing, a nation previously free from strife and anomie, but now convulsing from a genre of violence that we all thought was alien to our shores. “A new but formidable evil has now combined with old and familiar perils to present our nation with perhaps the greatest challenge to its corporate existence since the civil war.
“I urge you all, therefore, to prepare to take on the unprecedented challenges facing our nation. The times call for sacrifice and statesmanship, and for everyone to rise above narrow and parochial interests”.
While Mark blamed the poor outing of Nigeria’s athletes at the just concluded 2012 London Olympics and the general dwindling fortunes in sports blamed on corruption, he advocated mass sacking of sports administrators.
Mark said, “one issue that worries me deeply is the decline of our nation even in areas in which we once excelled. The reasons for this decline are not far-fetched. Corruption, sloppiness and tardiness in preparations, mismanagement, degradation and lack of maintenance and vandalization of national assets, absence of rigour and thoroughness in planning – these, and more, are the reasons for the rot.
“Perhaps, no singular event reflects our current attitude to things, and exemplifies our decline, as the fiasco of Nigeria’s participation at the recently concluded 2012 London Summer Olympics. You will recall that our contingent failed to win a single medal in the games. Our fortunes are even more dismal in football, which is a national pastime, and a great unifying factor.
“This should not surprise you, after all, the National Stadium, Abuja, our supposed symbol of sporting excellence, was recently discovered to be decrepit, overtaken by weeds and reptiles”.
“What is surprising, and very worrisome, is that our psyche is beginning to accept this malady as normal. Ordinarily, such an appalling state of affairs ought to have been followed by voluntary resignations, or mass purges. But nobody has resigned, and nobody has been fired! Distinguished colleagues, there is no doubt that a drastic overhaul of our sports administration is long overdue.” He added
DailyPost

The North Is Not Poor (3&4)

 By Aliyu Aliyu
Sports:In which aspect of sports do we excel? Is it football, basketball, track and field events, gymnastics, combat sports? Oh! I forgot Polo – the sport of the princes and royalties of the north. While they play polo with aristocratic gusto, shouldn’t we wonder how many names it has put on the world‘s sporting map and how many jobs it has created? How many of our potentials are playing the world’s greatest game in England, Italy, Spain and others either in professional leagues or junior /feeder teams awaiting discovery and making money along the way? Need we ask how many lives the western union transfers of Mikel Obi touches or those of Osaze Odemwingie? Or the impact of   Kanu‘s Heart foundation on kids who would have long died unsung? Recall names  like Hakeem Olajuwon, Michael OlowoKandi, Mary Onyali, Falilat Ogunkoya, Segun Toriola, Bash Ali, Uche Chukwumerije etc ? Do they sound northern?

Literature, Arts, and Music: Wole Soyinka and Chinua Achebe exist in a class of their own  In tota fine erga omnes et omnia. (for all purposes, in regards to all and everything). Whether loathed, genuinely or enviously admired, the duo have occupied their places on the throne of Nigeria’s literary scene and the global honours list. With them as pioneers, there can be no other firsts. Other torch bearers include, without diminishing the status of those unmentioned here, Cyprian Ekwensi, Ola Rotimi, Niyi Osundare (whose poem) is going to be read at the London Olympics. Of the latter generation, who else would have won the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize and Orange Prize for fiction other than Chimamanda Adichie ? Who else would have won the Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg poetry prize (2008) and the Arts & Culture Award [CNN African Journalist of the Year Awards (2009)] other than Tolu Ogunlesi? Who else would have won the Young Global Leader (YGL) 2012 other than Simon Kolawole? Nigerian writer and blogger, Teju Cole, has recently won this year’s Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award for a ‘distinguished’ first book of fiction in far away London and the list goes on and on. Who wins the NLNG prize for science and literature yearly? When these awards take place, where are the northerners?

Which songs do the DJs and Radio presenters across the north play? Seal, Lighthouse family, Dr Alban, Sade Adu; P- square, Whiz Kid, Davido, Wande Coal, T Y Bello, Mo Cheddah, 9ice, Asa, Brymo? When the likes of Femi Anikulapo Kuti set the target of a Grammy for himself where are the northern artistes and performers?

Do names like Bruce Onobrakpeya; Fred Okon Archibong; Muraina Oyelami; Yusuf GrilloYinka, Bridget Nwanze, Chinwe Chukwuogo-Roy; Bisi Fakeye; Yinka Shonibare; (Arts ); Sunmi Smart Cole, George Osodi; Emeka Okereke, Jide Alakija, Yetunde Ayeni-Babaeko (Photography); Chinwetel Ejiofor, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje; Sophie Okonedo , Rick Famuyiwa (Hollywood) ring silent bells in the ears of the north?  Even the popular
Argungu festival, the endless Durbars, the countless investitures are photographed,exhibited and promoted by non- northerners!

Advertising: Who handles the advert portfolios of  the blue chip companies  or better still the “Fortune 100” companies in Nigeria ?Whether through mainstream advertising channels or social media platforms? The advertising moguls are certainly not northerners yet MTN,
Airtel, Glo, Etisalat, Nokia, Samsung, Indomie, Coca-cola, have their products on gigantic bill boards across the length and breadth of Nigeria yet no northerner thinks it is a worthy niche. The billboards are even now going digital and perhaps in no time to touch screens and the north will most certainly not be there.

Who else would have established the Orange Academy (touted as Nigeria’s first and perhaps only school of practical brand advertising) other Kenny Badmus; and of course how many northerners are students of the academy?

Health Care:I am yet to see that world class hospital in every sense of that word world class in northern Nigeria. With common cold or slight back aches, our elite can afford to dash to Egypt, Europe and America , yet no single moneybags has had the initiative or patriotic zeal to build  any kind of world class hospital specialising in at least one area of medicine
whether Ophthalmology; Cardiology, Nephrology, Plastic, Reconstructive and Aesthetic Surgery. It could even be a hospital specially dedicated to women or children attracting the best doctors from all over the world; and over a period of time they would have trained our indigenous doctors on the job. By so doing, they would not have to fly their kids to France to treat common cold.

Why has the Yar’Adua family not established a pericadiatis centre in Katsina, or of such heart related diseases? Why has IBB not established a cancer research centre in Minna or Asaba? Perchance alternative therapy could hold the key to unlocking the cure to the disease
where orthodox medicine has so far not. If our elite and nouveau riche are not
establishing such hospitals, why are they then not sponsoring students and
giving out research grants to crush the frontiers of knowledge ‘beyond the
utmost bound of human thought’?

Motherless Babies Homes/ Hospices/ Special needs schools:I know not a world class motherless babies home, a hospice or special needs school in the north.  How are such children brought up and catered for? Does anybody ask these questions among our elite?
Do they care? Do they, while feasting on their assorted cuisines during Christmas, and Eid (sallah) banquets give a damn about the welfare of these categories of people in the north?

Almajiri as a way of life :The likes of Dr. Aliyu Tilde, Dr Galadanchi and a number of northern intellectuals have done varying degrees of work on the almajiri phenomenon. The blue prints and commentaries are all out there but I cannot help but be amazed at the sustenance and perpetuation of the system in its medieval state. The failure of successive governments of the north to see the existence of the tsangaya system as needful of integrative reforms with mainstream western education as is obtainable in countries like Saudi Arabia,
Kuwait, Qatar etc. is completely incomprehensible. How could they not see the impending disaster?

How could such a system exist till this day that disconnects a child from his parents at such a critical stage of his formative years and expect him to come out whole? Like I pointed out to Dr Galadanchi during one of his visiting lectures in ABU, a child who has not been shown
parental love and nested in the warmth of a home cannot give it. I am a very strong believer in the psycho-emotional and psycho-social workings of human beings as it affects their personality traits and social interactions.

Of Beggars, the Physically challenged and bequeathing a legacy of poverty: Is the north the only region that has physically challenged people? Obviously not! But how is that it is northerners that are begging their lives away from Sokoto to Lagos; from Maiduguri to Ikom; from Zamfara to Aba etc? Is it any wonder that the almajiri system offers   an elementary apprenticeship in begging for alms? With no formal education or life skills, employability is very limited for this category of people.  Coming out of such a system, a pyramidal structure of the northerners outside the region presents the first-tier level base of the north’s blighted exports who end up in places like Lagos, Port- Harcourt, Aba, Onitsha etc as cobblers (shoe shiners) manicurists and pedicurists, water vendors [(mai ruwa), porters (mai kaya / dan dauko)], in the markets and motor parks, garbage collectors (mai shara); or as hawkers of sugarcane, carrots, tiger nuts (aya) and other such things.

The second tier levels who earn a more decent income than the first are the categories that end up as gatemen (maigadi),unperturbed by the sweeping wave of the private security industry.  Since his occupation is more of a sedentary one, he is more often than not permitted– implicitly or explicitly- to run a makeshift kiosk to sell trifles ranging from tom-tom, cigarettes , sugar , to kolanuts and bitter kolas. Others in this category include suya and kilishi merchants, okada riders, tanker drivers, cattle and sheep barons, tailors and embroiders (I have deliberately avoided the use of the expression “fashion designer” to qualify them which I shall explain later on.)

The third tier levels are the few men and women working in essentially government establishments like Nigerian ports Authority (NPA), Nigerian Maritime and Safety Administration (NIMASA), Military formations, Police and other security establishments, Customs, Immigrations, NDLEA, NTA, EFCC, VON, FAAN, CBN, SEC, NSPMC, NNPC, DPR, ECOWAS, and the like. Then those that work in the blue chip companies like Exxon Mobil, Shell, MTN, Ericsson, Chevron, Saipem, Sahara, Halliburton, Dangote, BUA, MRS and the likes. The informal cadre in this tier captures the bureau the change Alhajis, and the few auto dealers.

I met a physically challenged fellow who came to study law in ABU a couple of years ago. Although wheel chair-bound, he had the heart and spirit of a long distance runner. I taught another in one of the primary schools in Bida and was impressed and encouraged by his determination and dream. But the question is how many northerners who are physically
challenged have not resigned to a life of begging?  As I write this, there is in UNILAG a visually impaired man pursuing a Master’s degree in law (LLM). With two degrees in his kitty (a B.A in English and an LLB) he is a sound lawyer that knows his onions and quite an engaging speaker. Another interesting thing about this lawyer is that he has another friend who is his computer programmer who is equally visually impaired; who installs softwares on his computer and updates programmes.

In 2010, Ayoola Efunkoya, a virtually impaired student graduated as the best student in the Department of Mass Communication, Unilag. Ever heard of Dr Ife Akintunde, J.D Matthew Olaiya? How about Cobhams Asuquo (award-winning musician, producer, and songwriter), Cosmas Okoli, a wheel chair bound motivational speaker? In LASU is a wheel chair bound surgeon. Sheikh Abdullah ibn Abdulazeez ibn baz was blind yet rose to become the first
Vice Chancellor of the Islamic University of Medinah and later Grand Mufti of Saudi Arabia. So how is it that the entire army of persons with disability (and sadly even able bodied men and women) should, as a career, take begging to such obnoxious and incomprehensible levels even when Islam, the religion of the majority of most of them frowns at it?  Where in God’s name are the world class schools in the north to cater for kids with disabilities? Where are the special programmes directed at them?

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.
Saharareporters

The North Is Not Poor (1)

By Aliyu Aliyu

“Some people see things that are, and ask why? But I dream things as they never were, and I ask “Why Not? – George Bernard Shaw
An interesting article titled ‘’ Derivation and Deprivation: Why the North Is Poor’’ by a certain Ross Alabo-George which made the rounds in various newspapers and blogs has generated a cacophony of record breaking on-line responses, reactions and rejoinders. A corollary to the ‘‘disquisition’’, as its author christened it, is the number of articles that have come to life with the theme of the north’s usurpation of the Niger Delta oil. Two dominant categories of responses have emerged on account of the principal theme of Ross’s thesis and both betray the somberness of our fusion or confusion as a nation state.  The elections of 2011 brought to the fore in unprecedented measures the ethnic and religious cleavages evident in our existence. The Boko Haram menace has further compounded our national woes and like old times everything is being viewed through the Muslim/ Christian and / the Hausa, Ibo or Yoruba prism. The torrential reactions / responses from the Lagos-Ibadan axis; and of the south–south, south-east axis see Ross’s piece as a liberating one; a long awaited elixir to damn the north (both its elite and commoners).
To the Kaduna-Abuja press and its fans north of the Niger, the piece simply exposes a man devoid of objectivity, thoroughness and balance; with a premeditated agenda of painting the northern oligarchy as the major if not sole architect of Nigeria’s perdition. The northern oligarchy, in this view, is seen as being deliberately portrayed as villains by Ross as the region benefitting from the oil flowing beneath the soles of the Niger Deltans. This disposition suggests that the few northern barons listed in his article do not of course possess the monopoly of the oil blocs in the Niger Delta and he should have gone the whole nine yards to list the names of south southerners and south easterners who own oil blocs too.  In-between these two camps are those who were boldly objective and a number of those who towed the path of frivolous technicalities. Of the latter are those who spent time debating whether Mai Deribe, Nasiru Ado Bayero, Atiku Abubakar or Rilwanu Lukman are Hausa, Kanuri, Bachama, or Fulani  men; and whether Kano, Borno or Niger  is of the north-east, or north-west or north-central.
The strain of comments suggest that for every Mai Deribe, Nasiru Ado Bayero, T.Y. Danjuma, and co mentioned, a James Ibori, Dipreye Alamieyesiegha, Peter Odili or Lucky Igbinedion, etc exist who have fleeced the Niger Deltans  in unimaginable proportions. The question for me of course is not about whose loot is most mind-boggling or which region parades the bigger or more ruthless thief; or that with 13% derivation and the NDDC, the Niger Delta has not become the Dubai of Africa – no, but that if the north cries “we are poor’’, ‘’we are poor’’, who impoverished us? James Ibori, Dipreye Alamieyesiegha, Peter Odili or Lucky Igbinedion? The northern intelligentsia and its political leadership must deconstruct this hoax of inflicted poverty by others either by the perceived disadvantageous revenue allocation formula or the imagined sabotage of the oil drilling prospects  in the upper north basin  for we held the reins of power more than any other region in this country.
On the contrary the north is in such pitiable and unacceptable state of poverty because of the actions and inactions of our leaders who have helped themselves, members of their immediate families, friends and cronies generously with the public resources put in their trust. While it is true that at no time did the north go it alone – for where a northerner was the number one man, a different region produced the number two man; the Supreme Military Councils and the Armed Forces Ruling Council of the military governments past, the ministers of both military and democratic governments of the past were representative of all of Nigeria with their varied inputs to the development or underdevelopment of Nigeria; but my focus here is on the north.
While I do not in any way hold brief for Ross, I must say that his disquisition is a powerfully engaging and thought-provoking piece which places a giant mirror in front of the north. It would have been better if he had gone ahead to name the oil block barons from other regions, but then the context within which the article was written should be appreciated.
Flashback:
Sanusi Lamido Sanusi (London) :  On January 27, 2012, Sanusi while granting an interview to the Financial Times of London alleged that the revenue allocation  formula skewed in favour of the south-south as it  were is unfavourable to the north, and by extension engenders poverty which in turn is fuelling Boko Haram and sundry violence in the north.
Mu’azu Babangida Aliyu (Minna): Taking a cue from the Central Bank Governor, the Chief Talker of Niger State (a title I think fits him much more than his current one) and chairman of the northern governors’ forum, Muazu Babangida Aliyu called for the re- evaluation of the revenue allocation formula that gives a ‘’whopping’’ 13% to the south south and creates two Nigerias: a prosperous south and an impoverished north. But aside his loquaciousness, how has he changed the lives of Niger people  with the ‘’little’’ he gets from Abuja every month?
Sanusi Lamido Sanusi (Kano): On January 10, Sanusi  Lamido Sanusi made a most morally ambiguous, and professionally controversial donation of  N100 million to victims of Kano State’s  Boko Haram bomb blast. Kano is Sanusi’s home state of which he is a prince and nurses an open ambition of becoming its emir.
Let it be stated that throughout the length and breadth of Nigeria, the political class has been a disappointment having failed to chart a course of foresighted prosperity and to guarantee the people a decent life. The power they wielded and still do never bore and still does not bear the flames of altruism, patriotism and love. It was and still remains power merely for power’s sake. They succeeded and are still enriching themselves beyond comprehension and accountability – at least here on earth – and entrenching corruption along the way a la carte.
Beyond all of this however, we the people of the north must re- examine our socio-economic, socio-political and socio-cultural fundamentals with a view to understanding why we are where we are as the dregs of Nigeria’s socio-economic disaster. We must, in all honesty, equally re-visit the misinterpretation or misapplication of our religious fundamentals – be it Christianity or Islam. Isn’t there something fundamentally wrong with a system that perpetuates and nearly glorifies and encourages endemic poverty?
Away from the political leadership and its statutory obligation to the people lies the question of individual/private and group intervention in the north and that shall be the thrust of my own disquisition; approaching it from neither of two major paradigms of criticisms mentioned above. Why are the billionaires in the north not the type that give back to society? Why are the northern billionaires not getting busy in touching lives? Does it not shame us and challenge them that the Bill and Mellinda Gates Foundation is so passionate about combating the malaria and polio blight in our country? I cannot help but ask myself what goes on in the minds of our wealthy Alhajis and retired Generals. How about the Mac Arthur Foundation, Carnegie, Rockefeller, etc and their interventions all around us?   Would building a dozen world class primary and secondary schools in Dangote’s ward or local government with the best of teachers and facilities be such a reprehensible act? Ironically it had to take Rochas Okorocha miles away, in Imo State, to build a befitting school in Kano and another one in Jos (which by the way is tuition free in addition to free lunch given to the students). How many Kanawa has Dangote sponsored to Harvard to go and study contemporary entrepreneurship or to Princeton; George Washington?
The same applies to Alhaji Dantata the construction mogul (now of blessed memory). How many people from his local government did he sponsor to go and study civil engineering in Paris, Germany or Italy? How many people did Rilwanu Lukman sponsor to go and study petroleum engineering or renewable / alternative/ clean energy having been in the petroleum industry both on the national and international scenes for ages? How many young men and women do these people mentor to follow in their footsteps? Who for the love of God inspires and influences their thought processes? How about the Abachas, the IBBs the Abdusalamis, the Atikus, the TY Danjumas, the  David Marks, the Bamanga Tukurs etc.
Is it not only logical and self-evident that a mass literacy revolution was and is still the way to go? Is the South West today not reaping the massive literacy investment of Awolowo? What then exactly do our leaders discuss at their ACF meetings?  What exactly do the 19 northern governors discuss when they meet – political power? to zone or not to zone? the perpetuation of PDP till eternity? the turbaning of dubious individuals and those of questionable characters with traditional titles (ably rubber-stamped by colluding emirs)? the marriage of Generals’ daughters to Ministers’ sons? The continued oppression, deprivation and neglect is sadly responsible for the menace of Boko Haram and as it were, it shows no signs of abating.
The thinking that the elite could amass wealth and unabashedly live in opulence next door to life snatching penury; send only their kids off to London, France and Dubai to come back as the new breed of oppressors to continue from where their parents stopped oppressing our parents and live in privileged exclusivity is being threatened.    Now that we all cannot sleep with our eyes closed because we don’t know where the next bombs will go off, the north should as a matter of sincere urgency go back to the drawing board and seek redemption from itself. Time is not on our side.
As the north battles with its grip on political power, it would be great to take a close look at every other aspect of the Nigerian project where it trails behind the south and east. The following are my observations.
Saharareporters