By Jude Opara
A chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Prof. Rufa’i Ahmed Alkali, has frowned at the alleged characterization of Northern Nigeria and the Fulani ethnic group in particular as being responsible for the incessant banditry and kidnappings rocking parts of the country.
Alkali who was reacting to an article by veteran columnist, Lasisi Olagunju widely published on theshieldonlineng.com, described it as unfair, provocative and dangerous to national unity.
It could be recalled that in the article, Olagunju argued that Northern Nigeria’s persistent security, educational and developmental challenges pose a grave threat to Nigeria’s future.
The columnist while lamenting the worsening insecurity across the country and the death of retired military officer, General Rabe Abubakar in the hands of his kidnappers, likened the region to the Kalahari Desert and stated that Nigeria needed a courageous leadership bold enough to confront what he described as the North’s role in the nation’s problems.
But in a swift reaction, Alkali said the article amounted to a sweeping indictment of millions of innocent Nigerians and failed to appreciate the complexity of the country’s challenges.
The Professor of Political Science said Olagunju chose a moment of national grief, when many families across the country were mourning victims of terrorism, banditry, insurgency and kidnapping, to apportion blame to an entire region instead of promoting national reflection and unity.
“By the time one finishes reading the essay, one is left with the unmistakable impression that Northern Nigeria is not merely a region facing profound challenges but a geographical curse upon Nigeria. That conclusion is not only incorrect and unfair, it is also dangerous and provocative,” Alkali said.
While acknowledging that the Northern Nigeria faces serious security, educational and developmental challenges, Alkali nevertheless insisted that recognising those realities should not translate into classifying the region as “Nigeria’s enemy.”
He equally argued that some of the strongest voices calling for reforms and change have emerged from the North itself, including traditional rulers, scholars, religious leaders and civil society groups.
Alkali also claimed that the first and biggest victims of insurgency, banditry and terrorism have been Northern communities, insisting that thousands of deaths, displacement and destruction of livelihoods across states such as Borno, Yobe, Adamawa, Zamfara, Katsina, Sokoto, Kebbi and Kaduna have continued over the years.
“To suggest that Northern Nigeria is somehow collectively responsible for the crimes committed against Northern Nigeria itself is both illogical and unjust,” he stated.
On Olagunju’s repeated use of the Kalahari Desert metaphor, Alkali argued that Northern Nigeria is home to some of Africa’s oldest civilisations and has produced generations of scholars, diplomats, military officers, public servants and entrepreneurs who have contributed significantly to the development of Nigeria.
However, while accepting that Northern leaders and institutions could legitimately be criticised for policy failures, poor governance and educational neglect, insisted that no fair assessment should reduce an entire civilisation to a symbol of barrenness.
The APC chieftain added that insecurity and underdevelopment are national challenges that manifest differently across the country’s regions, pointing to separatist agitations in the South-East, militancy and oil theft in the South-South, and increasing incidents of kidnapping and organised crime in the South-West.
“These are Nigerian problems requiring Nigerian solutions. To isolate one region as the embodiment of national failure is to misunderstand the complexity of our challenges,” he said.
The former Special Adviser on Political Affairs to former President Goodluck Jonathan attributed Nigeria’s current difficulties to a combination of misgovernance, corruption, youth unemployment, educational deficits, weak institutions and decades of policy failures.
“The danger facing Nigeria today is not Northern Nigeria. The danger is the growing temptation to replace objective analysis with stereotypes, citizenship with regional identity and national solidarity with mutual exclusion and suspicion,” he concluded.
