{"id":1454,"date":"2019-08-18T21:44:33","date_gmt":"2019-08-18T20:44:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/shippingworld-ng.com\/?p=1454"},"modified":"2019-08-18T21:44:35","modified_gmt":"2019-08-18T20:44:35","slug":"digging-up-wealth-in-the-south-burying-them-in-the-north","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shippingworld-ng.com\/index.php\/2019\/08\/18\/digging-up-wealth-in-the-south-burying-them-in-the-north\/","title":{"rendered":"Digging Up Wealth In The South Burying Them In The North"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Dele Sobowale<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

That was how Hamilton, one of the founding fathers of America and a former Treasury Secretary (equivalent to our Minister of Finance) described some of the nations of Europe when they were going through social, political and economic upheavals similar to what we are now experiencing in Nigeria. Invariably, the tensions were heightened by poor leadership and prolonged by lack of compromise on the part of the contending forces for supremacy. When a leader announces that he is by nature combative, he has simply forgotten that nobody has a monopoly on that attribute.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One person\u2019s perpetual aggression invited a similar response from others. Both the thirty years and hundred years wars in Europe started in one day and outlasted most of those who got them started. If war breaks out in Nigeria, it will most likely occur because we lack leaders and advisers with any sense of history. We would have been led to it by people who should not be leading us or who we should no longer follow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nigeria in 2019 can with a great deal of justification be called a wretched nursery of unceasing discord. We have, since the 2011 general elections elevated the winner-takes-all brand of politics, which had been endemic since 1959, to new lows of mutual political hostility. Our language during campaigns and after elections had always aimed to divide the country. We were witnesses to the statements made about making the country ungovernable by the losers. We experienced the riots in some states which supported them. But, fortunately, the disturbances did not get out of hand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There was no cause for alarm in 2015 because the major loser was patriotic enough and statesmanlike as well, as to concede without even going to court to challenge the results. Had the loser, an incumbent President, Commander-In-Chief of the Armed Forces, C-I-C, chosen to fight instead of going peacefully, only God knows how many Nigerians would have been needlessly sacrificed at the altar of one man\u2019s ambition. Billions of naira worth of properties acquired with sweat and hard labour would have gone with the dead. The facts are before us and the difference is clear. Another difference, however unpalatable, is the fact that the President in 2011 is a Southerner; his opponent was a Northerner \u2013 who went to court. Now he is President and he resents anybody challenging his victory. That should tell us something about principles and leadership. It matters a lot what leaders do \u2013 in and out of office.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Four years and three months after his re-election, Nigeria\n qualifies more to be described as a wretched nursery of unceasing \ndiscord and disunity. In 2011, Nigeria had one major security threat \ninherited from the government of President Yar\u2019Adua. That was Boko \nHaram. The problem was of purely Northern origin; no Southerner, not \neven Muslims in the South, had a hand in formenting this discord which \nhad consumed lives, properties, hopes for development as well as funds \nwhich could have been spent to avert Nigeria becoming the poverty \ncapital of the world. Today, in addition to Boko Haram, the nation is \ncontending with terrorists in the form of herdsmen, cattle rustlers, \nbandits and kidnappers \u2013 the last on an unprecedented scale.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nobody needs to be told where cattle rustlers operate and who they are. It is inconceivable that an Ijaw or Oron or Ilaje or Berom will attempt to go to Zamfara to rustle cattle and hope to return alive. Rustlers, if they are Nigerians, are Northerners. Now, the nation\u2019s financial resources are being diverted towards solving another security threat which is absolutely Northern in origin. Bandits constitute another specie of armed robbers who are everywhere in Nigeria. Bandits are the only group of armed robbers who are not only contented to steal properties \u2013 cash, GSM sets, jewellery, food items etc \u2013 they actually seem to take special delight in wiping out communities. The bestiality and viciousness are unmatched by any other group of armed robbers anywhere in Nigeria. The blood-thirstiness is totally unique to the North \u2013 especially the Northwest. That raises three quick questions to which no answer will be provided now. First, what sort of society breeds people like these? Second, what religion do they practice? Third, what conditions exist in Zamfara, Katsina and Kaduna which produced them of all the thirty six states of Nigeria? Today, unknown number of lives and immeasurable billions of naira worth of properties had been lost to these sub-human elements. No other Nigerian government until this one has ever spent a kobo on the problem of rustlers. That is a fact which the habitual dissemblers in Aso Rock cannot dispute.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cA stitch in time saves nine\u201d, according to an old adage \nwe grew up with. A former Chairman of the US Federal Reserve Board, \nBurns, went further. He warned that if governments allow an untenable \nsituation to go for too long, suddenly, they might find there are no \ngood solutions left. Herdsmen palaver is a classic case of a government \nfailing to check a problem before it becomes a serious crisis. Herdsmen \nwere hardly a serious security threat since the creation of Nigeria in \n1914. They were as docile as can be. My first experience with them was \nin 1952 in our small community at Agbowa-Ikosi, in Lagos State. They \nwould come with the cows at harvest time to feed on cast-offs from our \nDaddy\u2019s farm. They never on their own entered the farm; any farm. We \ngave them food because they were transient friends and they occasionally\n brought dried meat for the kids. The relationship was symbiotic until \nrecently. Now everybody in the community is on alert when the first cows\n are sighted. What went wrong and why now? Given space constraint, let \nme summarise how we missed the boat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trampling On The Graves Of Agatu <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When Fulani herdsmen sacked the small Agatu ethnic group \nin Benue State in 2016, the FG was presented with a golden opportunity \nto put a stop to indiscriminate killing of fellow Nigerians by herdsmen.\n Agatu and Nebo in Enugu State occurred within weeks of each other. \nNobody is certain how many people died in Agatu. But, I was there and \ntook some pictures which were published in May that year. Even if only a\n hundred people were killed, the FG should have demonstrated more \nconcern for the security of its citizens. They should also have known \nthat doing nothing would foster impunity and more killings. A former \nPresident of France mobilised the security forces to track down and \neliminate killers of only six citizens. The terrorists quickly got the \nmessage. If the FG, instead of offering excuses for the herdsmen, had \ndemonstrated more statesmanship, instead of partisanship, after Agatu, \nwe would have been saved the losses of lives and properties and \nprospects which we now suffer. Now, we have N2 billion RUGA money going \nbegging and no Middle Belt or Southern State wants to participate. Great\n opportunity is being lost on account of mis-management of the \nherdsmen-farmers-communities conflicts. We are now close to the brink of\n costly war.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Other problems exist, which are totally Northern in \norigin. But, only one deserves attention now \u2013 Nomadic Education. As \nconceptualised, the Nomadic Education programme was designed to provide \nthe opportunity for children of herdsmen\/women to acquire some \neducation. The burden was expected to be shared between the Federal, \nStates and Local Governments. That has not happened. It is now \ncompletely FG-funded. It is also in shambles. Nobody can account for how\n the money is spent and the results achieved. It has become a scam. We \nall know who attends Nomadic schools on which funds generated largely \nfrom the South is now being wasted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just as we thought everything had been released from the national nursery of discord, Shiitism cropped up. Every Nigerian Head of State, military, civilian, Muslim or Christian, had managed that delicate situation until now. In 2019, it had become another divisive issue. Were Balewa, Ironsi, Gowon, Mohammed, Obasanjo, Shagari, Babangida, Abacha, Abubakar, Yar\u2019Adua and Jonathan don\u2019t know about Shiites that is now known? What is it? We have now added captured Shiites to the growing list of people who must be housed and fed at government expense. How on earth can we ever have the funds to build schools for kids when more of the little we now have is going to the Prisons?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sorry, it took so long to get to the heart of the matter. \nNigerians have become \u201cthe miserable objects of universal pity or \ncontempt\u201d largely because since 2009, we have evolved a queer sort of \nfederal structure in which eighty to eighty-five per cent of the \nFederally collected revenue is generated by the Southern States while \nthe generally self- imposed problems, now consuming our resources \n(funds, manpower and time) have their origins solidly in the North. \nStrictly speaking, our present federal structure is even worse than \n\u201cmonkey-work-baboon chop\u201d. It has become \u201cmonkey-work-baboon-chop and \nthrow more away\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2015, we were not the poorest nation on earth; although\n we were already the \u201cmiserable objects of universal pity or contempt\u201d. \nNo nation in the world welcomes Nigerians \u2013 not even African nations; \nwhose leader we are supposed to be. Under Buhari in the 1980s, Nigeria \nexpelled Ghanaians \u2013 giving rise to the Ghana-Must-Go epithet. Now, as \nfate would have it Nigerians are now being hounded out of Ghana. They \nhave Buhari to thank for that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Elsewhere in the more advanced nations, we are treated \nwith the pity and contempt we richly deserve. Countries living within \nhazardous boat rides of Libya can have nothing but contempt for those \nrisking their lives on those rickety contraptions and their country of \norigin. Nigeria tops the list because most of the revenue allocated to \nthe region is thrown down the drain with very little hope of earning a \nreturn on investment. In 1960, there was a symbiotic relationship among \nthe three regions. Now, the relationship is purely parasitic \u2013 one \nregion is sucking the two other regions dry and, unfortunately it is not\n getting better itself. It is becoming more malnourished everyday. More \ndisturbing still is the fact that there is no discernible plan to get \nthe North out of its self-induced tragedies which have made economic and\n social development missions impossible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even for a country and for a race that cannot be \ndisillusioned anymore, there are now reasons to ask seriously if we can \ncontinue like this. For how long can our Northern citizens and their \nSouthern political associates expect to stand around and look while the \nrevenue for which they toiled is sent for burial in Lake Chad or \nMalunfashi?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Metric For Judging Leaders. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Years ago, I developed a simple metric for judging \npolitical leaders. It calls for waiting two years into their tenure; \nthen make a survey of newspaper headlines. If more negative or positive \nnews make the front page, then you know how things stand. For the last \none week, in America and in Nigeria, discord and disunity; murders and \nkidnappings have dominated the news. In 2015, when Obama and Jonathan \nwere Presidents, there was disagreement, but, it was about how to \nimprove the economy. The difference is clear.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

That was how Hamilton, one of the founding fathers of America and a former Treasury Secretary (equivalent to our Minister of Finance) described some of the nations of Europe when they were going through social, political and economic upheavals similar to what we are now experiencing in Nigeria. Invariably, the tensions were heightened by poor leadership and prolonged by lack of compromise on the part of the contending forces for supremacy. When a leader announces that he is by nature combative, he has simply forgotten that nobody has a monopoly on that attribute.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1455,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,58],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1454","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-breaking-news","category-opinion"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shippingworld-ng.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1454","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shippingworld-ng.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shippingworld-ng.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shippingworld-ng.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shippingworld-ng.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1454"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/shippingworld-ng.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1454\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1456,"href":"https:\/\/shippingworld-ng.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1454\/revisions\/1456"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shippingworld-ng.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1455"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shippingworld-ng.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1454"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shippingworld-ng.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1454"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shippingworld-ng.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1454"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}