Most of us know why Nigeria got into the mess it is in now, but we do not understand why the country deserves to be in the unfortunate situation it currently finds itself in.
By Abdu Labaran
This is a very serious issue that requires serious interrogation and answers, not a deluge of lamentations and protestations suggesting it is beyond our collective brainpower to proffer an appropriate solution. Enough lamentations and protestations have been made, but the country continues to move backward since the regime of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu took control of the steering wheel.
Despite the messy condition of the country, some of the people in the corridors of power at the center are busy focusing on returning to power in 2027 instead of working diligently to finish their first term, which currently shows a very poor outlook.
Nigeria is in the quagmire it is now because of the greed of some so-called Northern leaders, who would rather fill their pockets with money—regardless of how and why it came their way—than serve the country diligently and sincerely. Some of these unpatriotic individuals remain with the president, despite the pervasive poverty and hunger that have plagued the country since he assumed power about two years ago. Nigeria has become a nation where multitudes of its poor go to bed without food in their stomachs.
Such Northern leaders were the ones who collected Presidential candidate Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s money, pocketed it, and directed their cronies and drugged and drunken ‘area boys’ to ensure that Tinubu won the election at all costs. Now, it is payback time, and the entire North is paying with disproportionate interest.
Since the extreme man-made hardship appears to have no end in sight, given the president’s insistence that his way is the only way, the solution may remain what some Northern elites do not want: the North going its separate way. Not entirely a bad idea, considering that the president is not leading the whole country equally and squarely. He has his preferences, which he made very clear in his EMILOKAN speech, where he said, “It is my turn, especially my people’s, to rule Nigeria.”
The entire North has not known the benefits of democracy since the advent of the current regime. If anything, the region has only woes to contend with, more noticeable in the constant ‘collapse’ of the National Grid (15 times in 2024), which conveniently affects most parts of the region. Yet, the minister in charge of the sector is retained in the cabinet despite this glaring failure.
There is also the surreptitious manner in which French soldiers were brought to the North, against the backdrop of their dismissal from their former African colonies. This is further compounded by the denial from the Nigerian Minister of Information (a role better described as propaganda).
There was also the revocation of the Abuja-to-Kano road contract awarded by the immediate past civilian administration, while the Lagos-to-Calabar Coastal Highway contract costing a humongous N15.6 trillion was singlehandedly awarded by the president without recourse to the National Assembly (NASS).
Then there’s the tax reform bill presently before the NASS, which the president insists he will not reconsider, despite the widespread opposition due to the lop-sidedness of its eventual implementation across states.
Since many in Southern Nigeria believe the North is a ‘liability’ forced on the country by white colonizers, every side might as well consider going its way amicably. However, some Northern elites, alleged to own most of the oil wells in the country and businesses in the South, may oppose such a move.
No matter how peaceful the separation, if it comes to pass, it would automatically render such Northerners foreign businesspeople, subject to the challenges foreigners face.
Separation would, however, surely suit the purpose of the ethnic-religious bigot, Kemi Badenoch, the Nigerian-born UK Conservative Party leader, who expressed her total disdain for Northern Nigeria and its Muslim population.
