As it catches cold, north wallows in denial

The North is a boiling cauldron of disillusionment, disaffection and discontent. The years of social injustice and neglect in the region have caught up and are now threatening its social fabric. In the northwest, vast swathes of the area have become bandit land with bandits of all descriptions, roaming free killing, kidnapping, rustling and extorting with impunity. In the rural areas where they mostly operate, they are now a law unto themselves establishing their own code of conduct and exacting compliance at the point of the gun from rural inhabitants.

In the northeast, the Boko Haram terrorist insurgency which has defied all efforts to stamp it out comprehensively for over a decade has now been joined by the same scourge of banditry afflicting the northwest.
In the north central where banditry is also prevalent, the most significant element of disaffection here is the incidence of sectarian crises pitting communities, herders and farmers and the razor thin religious and ethnic fault lines that frequently erupt in violence.

Dire as these circumstances in the north are there is unfortunately very little sense of urgency and concerted action by the northern elite to objectively appreciate the dangers that they portend to the north itself and to Nigeria as a whole.

Indeed quite on the contrary from the northern traditional rulers, political elite, religious clerics, security apparatchik, intelligentsia and academia and other stakeholders the issues in the north serves as an avenue for opportunistic self or group advancement.

Over the years when an opportunity presents for a discussion on the desperate situation in the north what is often on display is nauseating exhibitionism by the various parties to the talks. Traditional rulers bedecked in hideously expensive royal attire will drive into the venue in limousines costing tens of millions of naira. Political figures will seek to use the occasion to intimidate their opponents; clerics will interpret and provide spiritual justification for the poverty prevalent in the north, businessmen will try to cut deals, the intelligentsia and academia will present flowery papers on the subject as part of their academic dissertation for advancement in the service or universities they come from. And the security agencies will approach it as criminal enterprises requiring purely enforcement measures only.
Why are the relevant stakeholders living in denial and neglect about the situation in the north? Why don’t they sense the existential danger in this for all of us?

The traditional system in the north is both spiritual and temporal. For years since the times of Usman Dan Fodiyyo jihad and the establishment of his dynasty, his heirs and those of his companions who went on to establish Emirates in the north have claimed that theirs was a religious franchise which granted them absolute rights and privileges to impose, control and determine the religious and other aspects of the lives of those whom they rule over.

For the traditional rulers, religious clerics and political elite, there is a complacent belief that in the fatalistic convictions of the masses of the north that their poverty and class situation is the making of God and not of Man, they are sufficiently insulated from mass revolt. As the religious clerics preach very often whatever situation one finds himself in life is divine ordained but to strive for a better life in the hereafter where those who stuck to this admonition will be recompensed immensely with Gods bounties. It is this fatalistic reasoning that has served as a restraining factor to mass revolt by northern masses over the years against their subjugation and oppression confining them to an underclass.

But here we are in modern times where these beliefs and the social structure spawned by them have come under strain and are being severely questioned. The bandits ravaging the north are in many ways questioning the reason to continue being poor when they see traditional rulers, political elite, religious clerics and the intelligentsia living large in the modern ways that they have been admonished to shun. They also want to enjoy the trappings of modern life and in kidnappings, rural extortion they have found the means to get the resources to do so. They are no longer willing to wait to get to the hereafter in order to enjoy the good life; they want it right here on earth. To them it smacks of hypocrisy seeing traditional rulers, religious clerics and the elite striving to enjoy the trappings of modern life while asking the poor masses to accept their fate as ordained by God. It is not that the masses have been fed on a philosophical diet of Karl Marx; this development is borne out of the existential reality of their everyday

The other significant area of discontent in the north especially in the north central which has to do with the fault lines of religion and ethnicity, pits the numerous minority ethnic groups against the Fulani. The former believe their land and source of livelihood, farming, is being encroached upon by the latter who are herders. The conflict that results between the two inevitably takes on a religious dimension as both belong to different and opposing religious faiths Islam and Christianity.

The banditry is symptomatic of the gradual breakdown of the social order in the rural areas. The bandits are taking advantage of this development to establish their own order, the first stage of which is the kidnappings and extortions we see. And as the rural economy of the north gets disrupted by this, more of the displaced and disposed are likely to join growing army of the discontented in the north.

The ethnic and religious fault lines in the north central too are bound to exacerbate because the grounds for dialogue and common consent between the Fulani and the ethnic minorities has continued to shift with every round of periodic violence between the two.

The north had better smell the coffee. The northern elite who are now looking askance at the situation and living in denial do not do themselves, the north and the nation any good. The rest of Nigeria is watching keenly and learning valuable political lessons. They are learning that the north once a bulwark of unity and solidity is slowly and inexorably haemorrhaging dangerously politically, socially and economically. Invariably the north will find that it is without all the aces it used to deploy to its advantage in national politics exposing it to the mercy of emergent political blocs. These lessons the other political blocs will find useful in the continuing contest for political relevance in Nigeria going forward.

The north will find that the other blocs will not continue to indulge the wilful backwardness which the north has chosen for itself in order to continue to protect and preserve the privileges of an elite given to a dubious sense of entitlement which comes not from merit and ability but from pedigree and social connections. The northern elite in the long run can only hope to preserve and protect those age long privileges if they courageously embrace and promote a new paradigm shift in social relations through, political and social inclusiveness, leadership selection by merit and ability as opposed to privilege and pedigree, providing jobs massively and rebuilding bridges and confidence across the ethnic, religious and cultural divides that form the northern mosaic.

Gadu can be reached via: [email protected]
08035355706(sms only)