As the North prepares for the 2015 general elections, several groups of elders are laying claims to the leadership of the region or segments of it. Associate Editor, Sam Egburonu, Assistant Editors, Dare Odufowokan and Remi Adelowo; Tony Akowe in Kaduna and Kolade Adeyemi in Kano, report that besides questions on the motive behind the sharp disagreements in the region, the development is raising questions about the fate of one north philosophy.
For the northern part of Nigeria, which was reportedly more united than any other part of the country from the First Republic up till the end of the military era, these are difficult days. Though many of the notable leaders today have voiced the region’s political interest of producing the country’s next president in 2015, there are evidence that a multiple-edged knife has indeed pierced through the centre, which used to hold the region together and so, things have indeed fallen apart there.
At the last count, more than three major northern groups have come out to campaign positions that clearly contradict that of the Arewa Consultative Forum, which used to be generally acknowledged as the apex socio- cultural organisation of the entire north, thus raising questions as to who now speaks for the north today?
The Nation’s investigation shows that the factors that may have combined to fan this ember of disunity in the once united region include political interests, religion, social differences and security challenges.
But most pronounced is the 2015 presidential election. Some few Northern leaders, who have dared to promote views that suggest they may be supporting President Goodluck Jonathan’s re-election bid have become subjects of scathing criticism. One such leaders is the leader of the Northern Elders Council and Second Republic Presidential Adviser, Alhaji Tanko Yakasai.
Dismissing Yakasai’s group as fake during the week, Dr Junai Mohammed in a telephone chat with The Nation said, “How these people came up to say they have formed the Northern Elders Council is what I don’t understand. But ACF cannot complain themselves because they have allowed some of their members to associate with Maitama Sule. What makes Yakasai’s own different is that he has gone out of his way to provoke the anger of northerners and if he continues like this, there may be some dire consequencies on him.
Yakassai, stirred the hornet nest recently when he announced the formation of the Northern Elders Council (NEC).
Justifying the rationale for setting up the group which not a few Nigerians view as the Presidency’s counter-force to the influence of the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) in the North, Yakassai in a communiqué signed by Ambassador Mamman Yusuf said, “Northern Elders Council commends and fully supports the visionary and transformational policies of President Jonathan and acknowledge the socio-economic strides of the administration in all sectors. The Council pledges its full support and commitment to work for the success of President Goodluck Jonathan and Vice President Namadi Sambo.
“We will work alongside all Nigerians who wish to ensure that machinations of anti-democratic forces in this country are frustrated. We reject intimidation, threat and violence. Leaders and elders must lead by example. It’s unacceptable for elders to make inciting and inflammatory statement capable of breaching the peace. We say no to war-like and belligerent posture.”
In a recent newspaper interview, Yakassai further infuriated many Northern elites when he declared that it was too late in the day to clamour for the return of power to the North in 2015.
Describing Jonathan’s opponents in the North as mere noisemakers, Yakassai said, “I would say these people are mere noisemakers because they ran away when the opportunity presented itself for them to work for the retention of the Presidency when the former President (Umaru Yar’Adua) died. They simply ran away leaving me alone. If they had joined me in the fight, we would have succeeded.
“Go and check the records; I am the one who wrote to the Senate President, David Mark, to condemn the ‘invention’ of the Doctrine of Necessity, which has no place in the Nigerian Constitution, but not many of those who are making noise today assisted me in any way.I challenge them to come and explain where they were when I started the campaign for a orthern president. Where were they when I started the fight? The noisemakers do not wish Nigeria well.”
This unexpected development has already kick-started a political cold war involving members of the Arewa Consultative Forum and Northern Elders Forum who view Yakasai’s moves as anti-North, alleging that the NEC is the creation of the Presidency ahead the 2015 general elections.
A prominent Northern politician told The Nation on condition of anonymity that many of them were surprised when Yakasai recently announced the formation of his group and his subsequent romance with the Presidency. The source added that Yakassai’s volte-face was baffling since he had been committed to the realisation of Northern Presidency in 2015.
Until now, there appeared to be a consensus among leading stakeholders in the region under the aegis of the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) including some governors, who have openly voiced their opposition to the President’s re-election in 2015, citing a one-term pact Jonathan allegedly signed with some Northern governors as a pre-condition to enlist their support for his election in 2011.
But while quite a number of Northern elites have no qualms drawing up support for the President’s alleged second term bid, Presidency strategists are not taking anything for granted. In the last few months, several options have been considered to weaken the opposition against the President, one of which is said to be the formation of a splinter group to act as the support base for the President’s much speculated second term ambition among the ruling elite.
Yakassai’s action is not the first under this democratic dispensation. During the Olusegun Obasanjo-led government, former Senate Leader, late Dr. Olusola Saraki, spearheaded the establishment of the Northern Union (NU).
Though still in existence, the NU even while Saraki was alive failed to rally the entire North behind a common agenda.
In his reaction to the criticisms against him, Yakasai told The Nation that the North remains one and indivisible region despite the politicking over President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan’s 2015 agenda which is threatening the region’s quest for power-shift.
Though different groups are springing up in the North, campaigning against Jonathan’s 2015 re-election bid, Yakasai, who has been viewed by many as projecting Goodluck/Sambo 2015 presidential ticket told The Nation that it was too early to begin to argue that some people from the North are supporting President Goodluck Jonathan, given the fact that campaign for the 2015 elections has not commenced.
The elder statesman categorically stated that the Northern Elders Forum did not say they are in support of Jonathan’s re-election bid in 2015, adding: “Let me put the record straight, what we said in the communiqué we issued after the Forum’s meeting was that we support all elected National Assembly members, Goodluck/Sambo ticket for what they have done for this country and the North since they assumed office. Let me say it loud and clear that Goodluck Jonathan and Namadi Sambo ticket has produced good governance in the country, so, we are misquoted and I will like you journalists to read our statement in the communique before you make any judgment.”
According to him, Jonathan has not come out publicly to declare his intention of contesting the 2015 presidential race, more so, no political party has rolled out its programme in respect of this, “so, it is rather unfortunate that some people have come out to declare that the Forum is supporting Jonathan’s 2015 ambition, which is yet to be declared by him.”
Speaking on the formation of Yakassai’s group and what it portends for the North, former Governor of Kaduna State in the Second Republic, Alhaji Balarabe Musa in a telephone interview with The Nation said, “There is no principle behind the so-called division in the Arewa Consultative Forum and the formation of Northern Elders Council. What has happened is simply a personality interest to get something.
Giving a historical background of division among Northern groups, Alhaji Musa told The Nation, “The Northern group became divided many years ago. It was later the members reconciled and set up ACF. Now, it appears that they have gone back to their division. Now there are four groups. Surprisingly at the last meeting of ACF, leaders of these groups were there like Maitama Sule, Ango Abdullahi and the rest.”
Responding to another question, Musa said the formation of regional groups is no longer relevant in the socio-economic and political development of the country, adding, “These groups consider the region first and Nigeria second. My take is that every Nigerian should consider the country first and their region second.”
The Nation recalls that recently, the Northern Elders Forum, after a crucial meeting in Kaduna, issued a communique which partly reads: “Northern Elders Council commends and fully supports the visionary and transformational policies of President Jonathan and acknowledges the socio-economic strides of the administration in all sectors. The Council pledges its full support and commitment to work for the success of President Goodluck Jonathan and Vice President Namadi Sambo.”
Crack in ACF?
It was the concern about too many elders’ group claiming to speak for the north that gave birth to the Arewa Consultative Forum in the year 2000. The bloody sharia riot in Kaduna, which spread to other parts of the country, exposed the need to have a common front to articulate the problems of the north. At a meeting of northern Emirs and leaders of thought at the Arewa House on 7th March, 2000, the traditional rulers raised pertinent questions about the unity of the north and what is to be done to address it.
Some of the questions include how the north can unite again and its people live peacefully with each other as before? How they can, in the midst of political and religious differences, evolve an acceptable strategy for developing the north? How the north can confront and solve the problem of the acute scarcity of resources among others.
The meeting took cognisance of the fact that the legendary Sir Ahmadu Bello remains the rallying point of every northerner and resolved that based on his principles of unity, as enunciated in his words that “if we remain united, there is nothing this vast region cannot accomplish” that the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) was born out of the existing groups that were claiming to speak for the north.
Before the emergence of the ACF, especially during the military era, there were three different elders groups speaking for the north. They were the Turaki Committee founded by former President Shehu Shagari and his associates; the Northern Elders Forum, led by late Abdulrahaman Okene and the Unity and Development Foundation, led by Alhaji Sule Katagun.
Although the three groups were speaking from Kaduna, there was no cohesion in their activities and many northerners looked at them as arms of government. It was the fusion of the three groups, whose responsibility was placed on the Emir of Ilorin, Alhaji Ibrahim Sulu Gambari, that gave rise to ACF.
The body was to bring together all northerners irrespective of tribe, religion and political affiliation. In their book, entitled “Talkshops, not Gunshots: a brief history of the Arewa Consultative”, the Emir of Ilorin, who became the first Chairman of the forum, was quoted as saying that the north needed to “have a platform of talking among ourselves. Something like a civil society parliament for the north. But at the time, we had several civil society groups and organisations set up by notable elders and northern leaders. We had the Turaki Committee (Shehu Shagari), Northern Elders Forum (Abdulrahaman Okene) and Unity and Development Foundation (Sule Katagun). The existence of all these groups meant that we would continue to have multiple platforms, different personalities to address the problems of the north. If there was no coordination, there could be no cohesion. So, we said there must be one organisation”.
He said further that “the creation of ACF was without doubt an act of bravery. We wished to confront headlong, the problems that have blighted the region. We wanted to bring together all the people of the north at an avenue where they can talk and talk even more… So, even if talking is all we can do with ACF, it is still a major achievement. But we can and have been ableto do great deal more. Northerners, who have volunteered to be members of ACF, as leaders and as members have one goal in mind: ensure that the Arewa Mantra: ‘One North, One People, One Destiny does not ever become an empty slogan. ACF was created to stop our drift to chaos; to restore peace, brotherhood and harmony in the north”
But emerging trends today tends to have betrayed the reasons for the establishment of the forum as the north is gradually drifting back to the pre-2000 era when several groups were speaking for the region. As at the last count, there were four other groups speaking for the north and northern interest. They include the Northern Union that was founded by late Olusola Saraki, the Northern Elders Forum, led by Danmasanin Kano, Alhaji Yusuf Maitama Sule and Prof Ango Abdullahi, the Middle Belt Forum, led by former Minister of Information, Prof. Jerry Gana and recently, the Northern Elders Council.
The emergence of these groups outside the ACF may no doubt affect the fortunes of the forum and possibly the north in the run off to the 2015 elections. It may also further throw a spanner into the wheel of unity of progress of the north. This may be so in view of the fact that the principal objective of the forum, when it was established, was to, among others “to foster and strengthen the foundation of northern unity in the context of one Nigeria; to coordinate efforts to build bridges, confidence and strengthen relationships among all the people of the north and of Nigeria as a whole; to establish linkages and contacts with political and community leaders in order to harmonise approaches towards finding solutions to peculiar problems facing the northern states and the country as a whole and to examine and deliberate on any matter that can promote peaceful co-existence in the north in particular and in Nigeria in general”.
In recent times, the weakness of the pillars of unity and political strength in the north has become more obvious. The binding string tends to have been over stretched by those who are supposed to ensure that it remained strong. Personal interest has taken over the empire that was built by the founding fathers of the north. One thing that has remained clear is the fact that the north, which was once described as the most united bloc in the political cycles, has lost the needed steam.
Across the north today, there is discontent among the various groups in the region as well as religious bodies. There is disharmony among the people of the region and this seems to be growing by the day. The uprising in Plateau State, the killings by alleged Fulani herdsmen in Benue and Nasarawa, the Boko Haram insurgency in the North-East, as well as the cry of marginalisation by northern Christians has further deepened the crisis in the north.
Many had expected that the coming of the ACF will help cement this crack and bring it back to what the founders of the north had envisaged. The early meetings of the ACF attracted a large gathering of northerners with about 400 top northerners in attendance. That number has diminished over the years.
A further crack is currently tearing the region apart and unless something drastic is done, the region may find itself being consigned to the dustbin of history very soon. The first group to pull out of the ACF as an umbrella body was the Northern Union founded by Olusola Saraki who reportedly felt let down after he was refused speaking at an ACF function at the conference hall of the Kaduna International Trade Fair. That act of forming the Northern Union marked the beginning of the dwindling fortune of the body. Since then, other bodies have emerged, speaking either for the north or a section of the north. For example, the Middle Belt Forum has continued to speak for a section of the region, especially the Christian dominated areas. They have, in most cases stood solidly behind President Goodluck Jonathan while the others kick against his second term bid. Although the Middle Belt Forum has not publicly taken a stand on the Jonathan second term bid, the body language of many of its leaders have tended to suggest their support for his re-election.
On the other hand, while the ACF has continued to insist that the president respect an agreement he allegedly had with PDP governors prior to the 2011 elections that he will not seek a second term, the Northern Elders Forum have continued to insist that the Presidency must return to the north in 2015. Ango Abdullahi, a Professor of Agriculture and former Presidential Adviser on Food Security, who is a spokesman of the Northern Elders Forum, has told those who care to listen that the north has the numerical strength and what it takes to produce the President in 2015. The emergence of the Northern Elders Council, led by elder statesman and Second Republic Presidential Adviser, Tanko Yakasai, a strong member of the ACF, is changing that music. Unlike the ACF and the NEF, the NEC pledges its full support and commitment to work for the success of President Gookluck Jonathan and Vice President Mohammed Namadi Sambo.
But Prof. Abdullahi was quoted by Kaduna-based Liberty Radio as saying that the Yakasai-led group does not speak for the generality of the north, describing the formation of the new group as creating food for the boys. On his part, Vice Chairman of the ACF, Senator Joseph Waku, also said that Yakasai does not represent the interest of the north and therefore cannot be seen as speaking for the north at this point in time.
However, ACF spokesman, Anthony Sani, has a more radical view of the development. He said “surely the proliferation of groups by northern elders who profess to speak for the North is not the preferred option. But ACF is not very worried, precisely because actually the North has never been a united whole unit when it comes to partisan politics. Most of these groups springing up are partisan in intent and purposes. This is because it is unrealistic to expect all northerners to speak with one voice at partisan level. That is not possible and is not desirable either. Even the law does not allow it when it provides that the leader has to be voted by the whole country and not by only a section of the country. So, when we talk of speaking with one voice, it is about the majority, since there is always minority right in any democracy. And that was why Alhaji Shehu Shagari contested with Alhaji Waziri Ibrahim and Mallam Aminu Kano in the North and with Zik and Awo in the South during the Second Republic. So, what I believe is happening is clearly democracy in action”.
In an address he was to deliver to a joint meeting of the various organs of the ACF on November 7, 2007, late Chief Sunday Awoniyi said the formation of the forum became necessary “to have three or more organs speaking independently for the north portrayed the north as lacking in focus and unity and firmness of purpose. It meant that the north was incapable of articulating one central position on any issue which could be said to be the authorised northern stand”, adding that “a disunited north cannot be an asset to the unity and harmony of the federation. The federation is so closely knit that instability in one part affects the whole. A united, peaceful and stable north can only strengthen our federation”.
While the meeting never held and the address, which is published in a book titled, Brief History of the ACF, the region has drifted back to the pre-ACF era and the issues raised by him are more germane now, than ever before. Awoniyi had said that in giving birth to the ACF, “the urgent need for the unity of the people of the north to live peacefully together and to defend the north against abuse and calumny was recognised. The need for the north to play its part to strengthen the unity of oneness of Nigeria was emphasised. Therefore existing areas of accord must be preserved and strengthened and new ones built wherever possible… All northerners must be made aware of the need for action to find effective ways of harnessing the human and natural resources of the north for the development and benefit of its people. It was essential also to rekindle in its leaders and the led alike the old value of integrity, fair play, justice and the accommodation of ourselves and other people which had made it possible for the north to take the giant stride of the 1950s and early 1960s”.
The question that is agitating the minds of followers of the events playing out currently in the run off to the 2015 elections is the chances of the north in the face of emerging groups claiming to speak for the region, especially when one considers the fact that those behind some of these groups were among the founding fathers of the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF), which brought together the three groups that existed before the advent of the Obasanjo regime. There are those who believe that the emerging groups are only meant to strategies for the 2015 Presidential Election while masquerading as groups willing and interested in helping to solve the multitude of problems confronting the north, such as social and economic underdevelopment, educational backwardness and the rising cases of insecurity and disunity within the region.
Mohammed Abdulrahaman, a former Secretary of the Political Committee of the ACF once told The Nation that “it is unfortunate that in spite of its shared history, cultural and social integration, the North is still far from being united, contrary to what it pretends to be. Divisive factors of religion, ethnicity and now political party affiliations are used by self-serving politicians and derailed elite as instruments for the manipulation of the common people. Thus, the more the North is divided along these lines, the more the region is manipulated by this elitist group. This group of exploiters may not be at ease with any decisive and practical approach to the reincarnation of ‘One North, One People, and One Destiny’ as advocated then – and will continue to feel that way”.
Some people believe that the absence of a purposeful visionary leadership has rendered the North, vulnerable to ridicule from all sections of the country.
Boko Haram and a divided north
One major factor that has contributed drastically to the decline in the unity of northern Nigeria is the many disagreements amongst the elites of the region over how best to deal with Boko Haram menace. Since the mergence of the militant Islamic sect on the northern political scene, the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) and several splinter socio-political organisations in the region have been unable to present a common front on how to curb the activities of the rampaging fighters.
Given that the north is the centre of bombings and shootings by Boko Haram, there is an almost universal demand for dialogue. Several of such dialogue have been held but not much came out of it all as the discussants couldn’t bring themselves to agree of certain salient issues.
While the large chunk of leaders from the core part of the region want the government to negotiate with the group with a view to convincing it to dump its military aggression against the country, among northern elites from the middle belt and elites from predominantly Christian areas of the region, the prevailing attitude is that there can be no negotiation with “terrorists” until they end the insurrection that has killed more than 1,000 people, largely Christians and minority northerners, since 2010.
While respected ACF leaders and the Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Saad Abubakar, had initiated the amnesty bid with calls on the Federal Government to grant total amnesty to the Islamic sect, groups like the Northern Christians Forum (NCF) opposed the idea and accused the ACF of being insensitive to the plight of Christian northerners.
The NCF Chairman, Evangelist Matthew Owojaiye, while explaining the Forum’s opposition to some of the positions and activities of the ACF in recent times, described the amnesty offer for the Boko Haram sect as ‘wickedness.”
“The Northern Christians have been marginalised, deliberately underdeveloped, treated like vassals, seriously brutalized and slaughtered under the watchful eyes of this regime more than in any other regime before. “Government spent billions of naira on nomadic education, N5 billion on almajiri schools, which is specifically for Muslims, while Christian schools and hospitals taken over by the government without compensations are still held tight by government.
“Boko Haram has tried to annihilate us and our Igbo Christian brothers and now the government is talking about granting them amnesty without saying a word about the people they bombed, slaughtered and traumatized. “Who underdeveloped the Muslim North? It is definitely not the Jonathan government, and neither is it the Christians in the North! It is the Northern Muslim elite that impoverished the Northern Muslim youth.
“The Northern Muslim elite pocketed the largesse that came to the North. Only they and their families benefitted. They turned the attention of Boko Haram to the innocent Christians in the North. It is even more annoying that instead of the Northern Muslim elite releasing 50 percent of their wealth to solve the poverty problem of the Muslim North, they are crying and putting pressures and intimidating the Federal Government to set up a Boko Haram Commission.
It is wickedness. Since the post election violence, thousands of Christians have been killed or maimed. Thousands of Christian businesses have been ruined, and hundreds of churches destroyed or closed down for supporting the Jonathan administration. “Contemplating granting amnesty to the people who have wrought wanton destruction of lives and property in this nation is a call to other interest groups to rise up in arms against their fatherland in order to be blessed, when such an action should be treated as treason!
“Till date, the killing continues! Intimidating the Federal Government to grant amnesty is the highest display of hypocrisy and unpatriotism. Are such people not indirectly admitting that they are the shadows or ghosts behind the Boko Haram? We totally object to even discussing amnesty when nothing has been done for the victims of the Boko Haram.
“Let all who collude or sponsor Boko Haram or refuse to come to the help of Christians for political or economical reasons know that heaven is watching and nobody will go free! The blood of the Christian martyrs is crying to heaven for justice. We totally object to Paul Unongo and his friends speaking on behalf of the Christians challenging the authority of CAN President.
The Christians in Nigeria know their leaders. Definitely their teams are not among our leaders. Northern Minorities Commission is overdue. Do we need to take up arms before our plight comes before government?”
The NCF further demanded,”The return of all schools and hospitals taken from the Christians and compensation paid for ruining them, release of N5 billion for Christian schools as done to Muslims and henceforth equal amount given us as given them yearly. The setting up of northern minorities commission and a minister to be in charge,” he said.
Similarly, while the Christian community welcomes the Joint Task Force (JTF) as a form of military protection against the rampaging Islamists group, the same cannot be said of predominant Muslim communities in states like Bornu, Adamawa, Yobe, Kaduna, Plateau etc. Among the Muslims, the common opinion is that the security services are colluding with Christians to persecute Muslims.
The declaration of state of emergency in the Northern States of Yobe, Borno and Yobe last year brought to fore the sharp divide amongst political elites of the north over the Boko Haram menace as it attracted divergent views that saw northern Governors differing with some elite leaders from the core region of the zone.
A notable northern Elder and statesman of repute, Balarabe Musa, while reacting to President Jonathan’s emergency rule declaration was of the view that “the insecurity in the northern states does not validate a state of emergency declaration”. According to the elder statesman, “President Jonathan does not have moral legitimacy because he came to power through the abuse of incumbency.”
Balarabe Musa’s position contrasts sharply in vast proportions to the endorsement of the Northern States Governors Forum, NSGF, who believed and welcomed the development as solution to the rising security problems of the region. The forum said the imposition of emergency rule will complement the offer of amnesty made to the members of Boko Haram sect to restore peace to the affected states.
That was just as the Middle Belt Dialogue (MBD) has accused the northern elders of protecting Boko Haram, stating that the only concern of the Forum is how to grab power in 2015. Speaking through its spokesperson, Rima Shawulu Kwewum, MBD criticized the NEF for faulting the State of Emergency declared by Jonathan in Borno, Yobe and Adamawa states, adding that NEF speaks not for them but for Muslims and their political interests.
“Erstwhile Vice Chancellor of the Ahmadu Bello University, Dr. Ango Abdullahi, who has transmuted into the spokesman of the Northern Elders Forum (NEF) has been in the news of late, castigating Jonathan, declaring war and presumptuously speaking for the “North.” The statement said. “We are in a new world, where presumably the rights of people, including the right to speak, however untruthfully, are respected. However, the freedom to speak precludes speaking for people who have not mandated you to speak for them. We, in the Middle Belt, the primary victims of the ethnic and religious cleansing embarked upon by Boko Haram and associated groups, have not mandated Ango Abdullahi to speak for us.”
The group said it was not surprised that the NEF is concerned about protecting Boko Haram but is not bothered about the Christian victims of the Boko Haram insurgency and the ethnic groups of Northern Nigeria, asserting that the militants are only acting out a script Northern leaders wrote for them.
“For sometime now, in central and northern Borno State, commercial vehicles are stopped, Christians separated from Muslims and summarily executed; churches are primarily targeted for destruction and attack. Boko Haram members we are told, [have] a camp where they keep kidnapped Christian women and children and at such camps, they execute Christians who refuse to renounce their faith.”
Drawing attention to the atrocities committed so far by Boko Haram, MBD expressed regret that Abdullahi and his wayfarers have seen nothing wrong with its ethnic and religious cleansing programme, and have neither condemned the killers nor sympathized with the victims.
An independent Middle Belt?
The Boko Haram menace and the political build up to the 2015 presidential election, amongst other issues, have led to a situation where some non-Muslims, non-Hausa/Fulani in the states of northern Nigeria, are now challenging the concept of “one monolithic, indivisible North”. According to this school of thought, there is a Middle Belt in the northern region, peopled by non- Muslims and non Hausa Fulanis who should be allowed to exercise their freedom of association freely in deciding whether to be part of the northern geo-political zone or not.
The Middle Belt people say they have been unfairly treated by the Hausa/Fulani core north over the years. They argued that they’ve severally been used and dumped as second rate citizens whenever it comes to matters of national security, welfare, politics and economics.
They also sees the unprecedented killings of non-Muslims in places of worship by Islamists in the North, and incessant raids on their communities by alleged Fulani herdsmen as some kind of retaliation against them for voting, almost in one bloc, for President Jonathan Goodluck, in 2011.
The Middle Belt points to the lopsidedness in the number of political appointments, jobs at the state and federal levels, in favour of Hausa-Fulani, despite what they described as their bigger contributions to the development of the region.
For example, the Middle Belt Dialogue (MBD), made up of young academics, technocrats, politicians, business men and women drawn from the 19 northern states, recently, lampooned President Goodluck Jonathan for marginalising the Middle Belt in his appointments, despite the graphic details it gave to show that the area won the election for him in the North in 2011.
Also, the Middle Belt Forum rejected the idea of “one North”, saying it was a ruse used by the Hausa /Fulani to appropriate power and resources to itself, accommodating a few of its apologists from the Middle Belt.
A leader of the ACF and former military administrator of Plateau and Katsina states, General Lawrence Onoja, portrayed the thinking among elites of the Middle Belt zone when he said the geo-political zone is now a geographical reality that must be taken into cognizance by all and sundry.
Onoja, who is also a leader of the Middle Belt Forum, said the core north can no longer dictate to the Middle Belt as the area is ready to take its own political destiny in its own hands by taking decisions that will impact positively on its people irrespective of what the position of the north is.
“There is a misconception. The North of the 60s, when the Sarduana of Sokoto, Sir Ahmadu Bello, was alive, is no long the same North today. Let me correct that misconception, I am from the Middle Belt which is a geographical reality today. I am an active member of the Congress for Equality and Change, which is a non-political association. I am also a member of the Middle Belt Forum. So, if you say I am from the North, and you are referring to the old North yes, I am from the North, but now, the Middle Belt is a geographical reality and I am from the area. I am not from the core North.
The demarcation has been there all along. It is just that the leaders that we had before, had the responsibility of making sure that we worked together as the same North. But yesterday is not the same as today. People have been educated, exposed, so if yesterday, some group of persons were dictating to us, today, people will not accept the dictation of anybody again. We, in the Middle Belt are strong enough to go on our own in any situation,” Onoja said.
As the crossfire continues, common northerners and other concerned Nigerians are wondering if this is indeed the demise of the once celebrated one north philosophy and what that prospect holds for Nigeria’s future?
