Tag: Northern Nigeria

For those who may not already be conversant with the article in focus today, which appeared on these pages on 15 September, 2024 let me begin by reproducing its introductory portion. It reads as follows:

“Northern Nigeria situation today – economic, security, climate, name it, is analogous to  the post World War 11 situation in Europe when the U.S, “fearing  that the poverty, unemployment, and dislocation occasioned by the war were aggressively reinforcing the appeal of communist parties to voters in western Europe”, that something just had to be done. That was what finally eventuated in the much celebrated Marshall Plan. 

If the security situation in Northern Nigeria fails to point, unambiguously, to the urgent need for something urgent to be done to rectify the situation, the horrendous consequences of the Alua Dam disaster in Borno state, should.

Enough is now enough. Northern Nigeria urgently needs a Marshall Plan to restore it back to its glorious Sadauna days of no serial bloodletting.

And for the sake of our country’s long-term survival, and for us to live in peace, and  avoid  attracting the attention of the international community the way countries like

Afghanistan, Yemen and Syria – the 3 most insecure countries in the world according to the Global Peace Index (GPI 2024) do, then our restive North must be restored back to its pre-Boko-Haram and banditry days.

This is neither intended to stigmatise the North, nor to suggest that we can easily overlook what horror terrorism and economic deprivation have spurned in the South”.

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The article has since attracted some attention, if not in government circles or amongst Northern leaders, two groups that should, ordinarily, have been very concerned, then certainly among intellectuals, some of who see the suggestion as something outside the remit of the Federal government which I hard sort of indicated should take the lead in what I  considered an urgent desideratum.

Before I come to their argument, however, a new, very agonising issue emerged, no thanks to a WhatsApp post which trended during the past week.

The post, which had a narrator who is of Northern extraction, showed in Kano, a huge collection of very little girls – call them children – clustered together,  begging bowls in hand, some joking and some fighting, with no parents or elderly ones in sight, with the commentator  repeatedly drawing attention to their young ages, their huge numbers and emphasising what a future ticking bomb they represent for a Nigeria already shackled down by insecurity.

No serious government, qua government, state or local, or leaders with any conscience, at all, should be able to turn a blind eye to this macabre phenomenon.

The North must now necessarily turn  attention to what is nothing short of a future consuming fire.

To the main focus of this piece then, that is: reaction to the idea of a Marshall Plan for Northern Nigeria.

I have for company, a distinguished, highly regarded retired Ambassador, and an equally distinguished University Professor, both of whom will remain nameless, but would be quoted verbatim at some length. Both are gentlemen I routinely, send my weekly articles.

It was Prof who  reacted first. He commented as follows: “Uncle, good evening. It’s been a while since we chatted. I guess the situation in the country is making it increasingly difficult to keep one’s sanity.

I just read your very interesting article. Now my questions regarding the situation in the North which  is, of course, creeping down south, are these:

Who will bell the cat? Who will take the responsibility of turning things around in Northern Nigeria?

All these pretty talk from Elders’ forums, Governor’s forums and many other fakes, are just mere talk.

They never seem to care. So, how do we get out of this mess?

After I waded in with a short reply, he riposted: “We should know that banditry and attendant insecurity has become an industry. Some people benefit from it and those beneficiaries are the ones propping it up.

Look at the video you sent to me where someone was asking for a right of way for some fulani terrorists.

The unanswered question is – Who are those Fulani? What is their mission? On whose orders?

President Tinubu is being frustrated all round, even by his own men. So the problem remains fluid and intractable. The hardship is not letting up and Nigerians blame him”.

The Ambassador was direct. He wrote: Who will finance such a Marshall Plan for the North? Foreign agencies or local?  Yes, there is a need for a massive investment in human development in the North. But the challenge is not limited to lack of financial resources  but the existing social and economic structure which makes its people so poor. A Marshall Plan will have to be  complemented by a re-engineering of its social structure to make it more conducive to a rapid transition to a liberal and progressive society . But will Northern leaders, with the huge privileges they currently enjoy, support this transformation?

I doubt it.

To his comments, I replied.

Thank you Sir.

There are ‘zillions’ of billionaires and millionaires in the North, mostly the result of thefts from the poor over many decades, if not a century. If Nigerians have to blackmail them, then they will.

Indeed, if the President gets seriously involved, as I guess he would, a percentage of Nigeria’s annual revenue, over say a period of 10 years, or thereabout, can be factored into contributing to it, by an act of Parliament. This is because  North’s failure will occasion horrendous consequences for the country, if only because our Northern border is so huge, and porous, that insecurity in Nigeria could become absolutely unimaginable.

To this the Ambassador replied: “Are you seriously suggesting that the North should be given a special treatment, or privilege, by giving it a financial subsidy from the national revenue?”

Personally, I saw nothing wrong in that. So I responded: “Sir, this is the way these things work. We started with NDDC, today almost every region has got a development commission. If we have to start from the North because of the insecurity which I already expatiated on, we would only first be priotising the North for such an intervention.

Varieties of that could then be started later in other parts of the country.

The Ambassador, a  highly principled diplomat, who served  in many grade A embassies during his checkered service to the country countered:

“Such a plan should be a national, not a regional intervention. For far too long the North has received all kinds of privileges and preferences without any significant progress due to its rigid social structure and leadership deficit”.

Short and sharp.

I then replied: “Very rational argument Sir. But do all parts of Nigeria constitute the same level of risk? With utmost respect, I say not at all. And I can’t see what we would lose. In deed, we will lose much more in these parts, if Nigeria happens to unravel.

And to this he replied: “If you think this will save Nigeria from unraveling then you support it. But I am not sure it will”.

And as is the norm in arguments with elders in Yoruba custom, I humbly replied:

I concur Sir.

Concluding, in deciding one way or the other on the reasonableness, or otherwise, of a Marshall Plan which will help in enhancing security in that part of Nigeria, I think it is important to factor in the recent confession of the Chief of Army Staff (COAS), Lieutenant General Taoreed Lagbaja, at the 2024 Distinguished Personality Lecture, which can safely be interpreted as saying that Nigeria may never have enough resources to adequately protect our extensive Northern border with the highly volatile sahelian countries through only annual budgetary provisions which are, in fact, hardly ever fully released.

According to the COAS, “in a country with over 200 million people, it is unrealistic for security agencies totalling around two million, including an Army of just over 100,000 active personnel, without a reserve force, to secure the entire population”.

Expatiating further, he added that “the significant gap in resources is being exploited by criminal elements and to address the issue, it is crucial to invest in expanding and strengthening security forces, ensuring they have adequate personnel and resources”.

This, in my view, ipso facto, means that a Marshall Plan for the North, to which several entities would generously contribute, cannot be anything else but rational and  reasonable.

The truth of the matter is that Europe’s requirements for the next three or four years of foreign food and other essential products—principally from America—are so much greater than her present ability to pay that she must have substantial additional help or face economic, social, and political deterioration of a very grave character”

  The above are the words of U. S Secretary of State,  George C Marshall, while advancing the idea of a European self-help program to be financed by the United  States in an address he delivered at  Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, U.S.A on June 5, 1947.

 Northern Nigeria situation today – economic, security, climate, name it, is analogous to  the post World War 11 situation in Europe when the U.S, “fearing  that the poverty, unemployment, and dislocation occasioned by the war were aggressively reinforcing the appeal of communist parties to voters in western Europe”, that something just had to be done. That was what eventuated in the much celebrated Marshall Plan. 

If the security situation in Northern Nigeria failed to point, unambiguously, to the urgent need for something to be done  to rectify the situation, the horrendous consequences of the Alua Dam disaster in Konduga, Maiduguri, Borno state, should.

Enough is now enough. Northern Nigeria urgently needs a Marshall Plan to restore it back to its glorious Sadauna days.

And for the sake of Nigeria’s long-term survival, and to be able to live in peace and  avoid  attracting the attention of the international community the way countries like Afghanistan,Yemen and Syria – the 3 most insecure countries in the world, according to the Global Peace Index (GPI 2024) do, then our restive North must be restored back to its pre-Boko -Haram

(Nigeria’s notorious extremist insurgent group sitting atop the Global Terrorism Index) and banditry days.

This is neither intended to stigmatise the North nor to suggest that we can so easily overlook the horror that terrorism and economic deprivation have spurned in the South. Rather, it is the received knowledge in my Ekiti part of the country that “ti igi ba wo legi, tori e la ma koko gbe”, meaning that one must necessarily priotise the resolution of his/her challenges. The horrific situation in the North is simply incomparable and must now be frontally confronted.

Happily the Arewa Consultative Forum – Northern Nigeria’s foremost quasi-political, and socio-cultural association – has taken the lead, as epitomised by its  meeting, a week ago  on 4 September, 2024.

Described as “ACF seeks unified action in addressing Northern Nigeria’s challenges”, the Chairman of ACF Board of Trustees, Alhaji Bashir Dalhatu, wasted no time in acknowledging the collective failure of Northern leaders in tackling the region’s crises. He also and underscored the forum’s commitment to revitalizing its role in resolving the region’s escalating crises. He let it be known that the meeting was designed to be special, serious and focused; far beyond the usual routine discussions.

“The meeting”, he said, “is not a platform for political blame, but a sincere effort to confront the collective failure in safeguarding the region”.

Like Nigeria, a part of which it is, the North is completely overwhelmed by a myriad of existential challenges, each of them enough to drag the region back several years.

For him, the most troubling challenges are: insecurity, poverty, environmental degradation, and corruption but with the recent collapse of the  Alua dam and its horrendous consequences, I feel certain that he will have no qualms  adding Climate Change to the list.

Without a scintilla of doubt, there are justifiable  grounds for other parts of the country to claim that what is happening in the North is  comeuppance.

They could even  justifiably say, serve them right, but that will neither profit  anybody nor  take us, anywhere, as a country.

But the reasons for such a claim will simply be indisputable.

For far too long the North was in near total political control of the country and, as I recently wrote on these pages, even during those periods when Nigeria had presidents of Southern extraction, they ruled almost at the behest of the North; with some Northern leaders literally putting the gun to their head.

This reminds me of  some events during the  administration of the seemingly powerful President Olusegun Obasanjo, 1999 – 2007.

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At the Agbajo Yoruba Agbaiye, a budding Pan – Yoruba socio – cultural association under the sterling leadership of Lt. General Alani Akinrinade -one of Yoruba’s, no Nigeria’s very best – we had to set up a 4- man Rapid Response team with Professor Jide Osuntokun as Chairman, Dr Dele Sobowale, MrsTola Adenle and yours truly as members, to put President Obasanjo under constant observation regarding his almost total neglect of the South as he, routinely, awarded multi – million naira irrigation projects to the North at every monthly federal executive Council meeting. Alhaji Muktar  Shagari was his Minister of Water Resources and hardly did a project come to the South.

It was the same  during President Goodluck Jonathan’s tenure. He had, statesmanly, embarked upon the Normadic school programme hoping, thereby, to infuse  western education curriculum into the Islamic education system so as to make the graduates  employable as well as curb insecurity. All the programme harvested was a resounding

failure because those in charge preferred to misapply the huge funds appropriated for the purpose – and that is to put it nicely.

But listen to President Muhammadu Buhari’s Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu, when interviewed on the subject, which no Head of state  of Northern extraction ever considered worthy of any meaningful attention:“I think the conception of Almajiri schools and how to run them were not properly done by the government we inherited. But I know right now they are being incorporated into our schools”.

“As I told you, there are now about six million out-of-school children, probably some of them who are trooping here (Abuja), but certainly there should be government policy to stop the movement of Almajiri or Almajirai, as they’re called in Hausa. A provision should be made for instructing them wherever they are.”

Apart from the racist slur, and as a result of Adamu’s position, Northern state governors soon started uprooting these rootless children- who know neither their father nor  mother – from their then current abode to their presumed states of origin.

Today, not a few of them must have relocated to one forest, or the other, all over the country as either bandits, Boko Haram elements or simply killers.

The above are the reasons the Federal Government must now have a fresh look at the myriad problems confronting our Northern compatriots for whom life has become ugly and absolutely unsafe. They now venture out of their homes – when they are not being plucked from right there – very unsure they would not be brought back in a body bag.

And that on a daily basis.

 All these are already gravely impacting Nigeria as a whole as you would now hardly find investors really eager to come here to invest at a time the country is in dire need of Foreign Direct Investment.

The North has so, unfortunately, socialised insecurity, especially by failing, like forever, to educate its youth. Many of the uneducated youth are, today, populating

those places Dr  Akinwumi Adesina, President, African Development Bank, once described as the supermarket from where budding terrorists are now being routinely recruited.

The collapse of the Alua Dam in Borno state has now added climate change to the challenges Nigeria must now seriously address in the North.

Built in 1986 to help farmers in Maiduguri with irrigation, the dam also helps control flooding from the Ngadda River, which on occasion gets higher-than-normal inflows from water sources that trace back to Lake Chad.

With the constant warnings from NIMET  – the  Nigerian Meteorological Agency – it   is unbelievable that many state governments still wait on their  laps until disaster  rears its ugly head, even though, being mostly natural occurencies, many are simply unpreventable. However,  as it is done elsewhere around the world, state governments must ensure, without fail, that people at risk are moved out well in advance of disaster.

The current floods hit Borno State this past week after  the dam broke its bank as a result of heavy surge of water which buried half the state capital, Maiduguri, damaging buildings and infrastructure. Authorities say about one million people are affected, and that about 30 deaths have, unfortunately been recorded.

To fix all these problems will require huge amounts of money far beyond the Ken of the Federal government, at least for now.

Therefore, from my limited perspective, I think the real Marshall Plan which the North needs today should be targeted at funding.

To resolve the multi-faceted security challenges alone will require a huge amount of money. Nigerian soldiers are reputedly well trained but the time has come for a massive infusion of modern technology into its fighting arsenal. This will require tonnes of money. With money in place, the very first thing to do will be the injection of massive technology into the fighting arsenal of each arm of the Nigerian military as technology is guaranteed to be the change factor in this over a decade and a half old war on insecurity.

The problems in the North revolve around its multi – pronged insecurity. Solve that therefore, and you have broken the backbone of the challenges.

A massive social re-engineering could then begin, aimed largely at reducing the region -wide illiteracy which could see over 10M- out – of – school children enrolled all over the region.

With insecurity thus greatly reduced, agriculture, especially modern agriculture, will thrive, accompanied by several medium-sized manufacturing concerns within the entire agricultural value – chain but with particular emphasis on animal husbandry and meat processing.

Nigeria, especially Northern Nigeria, is not short of people with the means to facilitate the quantum of money being envisaged nor are such individuals absent in the South who could also, patriotically, throw in millions of their hard earned money into such a laudable Plan.

A plan of this gargantuan dimension must naturally have the buy-in of the President, and Commander -in – Chief for whom its success must be of the highest priority. He must ensure that the Plan is put on military footing to guarantee its success such that within a space of 20 years, or thereabout, the North, no the entire country, would have opened a new chapter of progress and development which will signpost its future.

Nigerians, especially her leaders, in every strata, must realise that North’s failure could very well sound the death knell of the country, Nigeria.

It is time, therefore, every terrorist, every bandit and bandit kingpin, operating anywhere in Nigeria, is made to flee, surrender or get neutralised.

The way things are going in the North, with no end to widespread kidnappings and killings, with IDP camps like permanently receiving new intakes and with some governors allegedly ruminating over whether to buy out bandit kingpins – at least for a season – it is time President Bola Tinubu takes the bull by the horns, buys into a Marshall Plan for Northern Nigeria, so as to bring peace and progress to our torridly restive North, nay Nigeria.

This is not beyond the scope of Nigeria, the largest agglomeration of the Black race on the surface of the earth.

“I am old enough to clearly remember thirteen Administrations from that of General Yakubu Gowon (1966-1975) to the current one of President Muhammadu Buhari (2015- to date). It is safe to say that none of these administrations came to power with so much hope, expectations and goodwill of citizens and the international community like President Buhari’s.

Unfortunately, all this goodwill has been squandered by this government due to a messiah complex, intellectual laziness, bad governance, endemic corruption, incompetence, mediocrity, nepotism, arrogance of power, sense of entitlement, stubbornness, aversion to constructive criticisms, delegation of responsibility without supervision or holding anyone accountable, indifference, distance and disconnection from and insensitivity to the sufferings of our people” – Prof Usman Yusuf, a Professor of haematology-oncology and bone marrow transplantation, and former  Executive Secretary of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), January, 2022.

As if just waking up from a  bad dream, Northern state governors, under the aegis of the Northern States Governors’ Forum, met in Kaduna State on Tuesday, 30 April, 2024 to deliberate on the security situation and other issues in the region.

The meeting, truth be told, was not the first time a group of Northern leaders would be meeting but, given the seriousness and the wide canvass covered at the meeting, one feels convinced that, at a point in the past, Northern leaders probably decided to treat Professor Usman Yusuf’s heartfelt outcries with benign neglect, regarding his stinging clarion calls as unworthy of serious consideration.

Not any more.

The North has become a literal inferno and given the overwhelming parlous state of affairs in the region they can, no longer, afford to  neglect him.

What makes the situation  worse is the fact that, like forever, especially during the immediate past  administration of President Muhammadu Buhari, the North literally had a complete lock down of  all the country’s  consequential appointments.

In some of his stirring ‘sermons’, Professor Yusuf listed some of such  positions, even in the current Tinubu administration where the North holds the following offices:the Vice President, Speaker of the House of Representatives,  Secretary to the Government of the Federation, the National Security Adviser, Chief of Army staff, both Ministers of Defence, as well as the Minister of Police Affairs. 

Yet, he went on, Northern leadership has  completely failed  the people, choosing instead,  to look elsewhere, and blame  others.

He concluded by saying  that the time has come for the entire Northern leadership, whether in government or not, to look at themselves in the face and agree that they have failed the people, promising do better.

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The military, he went on, cannot bring peace to the North. Rather, everybody must  get involved, and put a stop to the  lingering insecurity that has completely overwhelmed the region.

Happily, his words are  beginning to resonate in  the right quarters as we saw in the Northern governors’ meeting referenced above. Unlike past meetings of any group of Northern elders, which were more of photo-ops, the Chairman of the forum, and current

Governor of Gombe State, Muhammad Inuwa Yahaya,  emphasised the need for the North to now frontally confront  insecurity which has made a complete mess of every part of  the region, if not  the whole country, but with the North as the epicentre.

He stressed the need for the economic revival of the North, if they were ever going to banish poverty and underdevelopment.

According to him, “We consider economic development as the long-term solution to our security challenges. 

Continuing, he said:

“We must explore innovative ways to invest in critical infrastructure capable of unlocking the huge industrial and economic potential of  Northern region”, and described as unacceptable, the huge number of out-of-school children in the region. 

“It is, he said, 

troubling,  that Northern Nigeria currently bears the odious burden of having the highest number of out-of-school children in   the entire world. This is an unacceptable reality that we must urgently address”.

Alongside other issues, it is fascinating that the meeting also discussed the touchy question of unreflecting, unrestrained and totally unplanned, childbirth, issues that combine to make the North contribute, astronomically, to Nigeria’s many existential problems, be it the poverty index, insecurity or the budgeoning population that will make Nigeria

the world’s third most populous country by  2050, according to the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs, overtaking the U. S.

The Professor  has been such a consciencious objector to the North’s equanimity to these ills that he was once quoted as saying that:

“The deafening silence in the North to our people’s suffering is not only morally wrong but  nourishes, validates and perpetuates the failings of this government. The region has now literally become an orphan…”

It is gratifying that Northern leaders now believe that  “every child deserves access to quality education as well as the opportunity to develop the skills necessary to succeed in today’s rapidly changing global economic landscape”.

More gratifying is their acceptance

 that, “as  leaders, they have a moral obligation to invest massively in education and skills development, healthcare, and social services in order to unlock the full potential of their youth and empower future generations.”

Professor Yusuf deserves our thanks for the observable sea change in the North.

It will augur well for Nigeria.