FRIDAY Column by Engr. Abubakar A. Fari
mofari@hotmail.com
When the northern youth umbrella gave an ultimatum to Ibos to pack and go, there were crocodile tears and noises against that. Whenever the Ibos or any southern group like NADECO come with treasonable positions, they behave as if Nigeria is a banana republic – lawless, especially whenever a Muslim is the President, and more so when they are looking for a plum job. Whenever the militia in Taraba and Benue commit genocide against Fulani and the Muslims, say in Mambilla for instance, the matter is considered an “act of God”. But when the reverse is the case, the narrative is usually twisted.
When Orka excised the core northern Muslim states out of Nigeria “until some conditions are met” and on behalf of the “good people of the middle belt and southern part of Nigeria” in 1992, these treasonable acts were seen as heroic acts by “the good people of middle belt and the southern states”. Recall that a southern President, Obasanjo, sold government houses in Abuja to boost the ownership of property by the Yoruba who opposed, blindly and mischievously, the movement of the capital out of Lagos to Abuja considered not the land of Oduduwa, with El-Rufai as the grand facilitator. Even then, the cash proceeds of the sale of the houses were not accounted for.
When a section of the southern media were insulting the northerners before independence and calling them “Mallams are coming” in the 50’s, under Sardauna, the morally and intellectually sophisticated northern leadership dealt squarely with the issues. First they threatened to pull out of Nigeria. Second, they shifted the independence date to allow them prepare their people to come to terms with the reality. Sardauna made sure the interests of his people including the minorities in the middle belt were paramount.
For the middle belt, if not for the strong will of Sardauna who checkmated the southerners then, where would have the so-called minority middle belt been? Unfortunately, the missionaries did not teach them to free themselves from the diabolical ways of ancestral idol worship when they converted them to Christianity, so many of them hardly treat those not from their tribes fairly.
When GEJ was in power, his Information Minister, Labaran Maku was blindly supporting him. When Maku was asked what list of projects did Jonathan promote in his so-called middle belt and the north, Maku could not answer. One can also recall how under GEJ and PDP administration, the sadistic anti-north government posture by a GEJ and his south-south/east kitchen cabinet chiefs, mounted road blocks all over the north and the deliberate schemes to cause hardship and distress. That our people forget so soon the diabolical and sadistic schemes against them which in similar situation they will not accept makes me wonder, what kind of mind set we have.
When the east was in power, the empty pride out of the evil mindset was such as to attempt to impose a policy that northerners must register in their enclaves portraying us as Boko-Haram. On the other hand, southerners had the liberty to walk free in any part of Nigeria as “Nigerian citizens”. They are landless generally, while we up north are rich with abundant land. So we have higher bargaining power. The former Chief of Army Staff General Ihejirika had made veiled statements vilifying the Muslims which clearly showed he was on an anti-Biafran revenge mission against the north.
With the benefit of the hind sight Ihejirika had cases to answer with the anti-graft agencies. Helmesmen during his time were making hay when the sun was shining collecting billions per month for phantom Boko-Haram security bogey expenditure on the blood of the people of the north-east and purchasing choice mansions for their children in Abuja. While those dirty deals were going on, the grandstanding southern media saw nothing wrong in that.
When President Yar’adua came to power, there was an Amnesty Programme in 2010 for the south-south militants. No media from the south were labeling them as “killers” despite the razing down of police stations and killing law enforcement agents and the economic sabotage of blowing pipelines. Osinbajo is talking of empowering 200,000 Niger Delta youth, the “chosen” Nigerians. Yet, these treacherous elements are saying the programme to empower herders must not be by Buhari, a Fulani. The herders who have been paying with their sweats and earning their income legitimately, as opposed to looters and fake degree holders, deserve to remain as slaves to others.
When the Amnesty first came in 2010, about N106 billion was doled out to the militants. Thereafter, about N100 billion per fiscal year gets paid by the magnanimity and sense of justice of a Muslim President Yar’adua. And up till now in 2018, unexplained expenditures are being made from the Federal budget for the amnesty purpose. When again Nigerians outside south-south voted for the controversial 13% derivation thoughtlessly, the south-south thought, albeit erroneously, that they could hold the country to ransom. Add the Ministry of Niger Delta, and the conduit pipe to siphon public funds called Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, or the OMPADEC that are being abused and misused by the south-south appointed officials. So Buhari is only holding the horns of the cow and some predators are milking it. They are in a delusion that he cannot get herders their rights as Nigerians to develop livestock production in the same manner as for farmers.
It is only when the northern Muslim ruling elite wakes up to its responsibilities that Nigeria will be better. Obviously silence is not golden under the circumstances. We must not allow ourselves to be seen as passengers even though we are on the driver’s seat.
