By Abdulmutallib Mukhtar
The North, particularly from the last decade, has been unfortunately submerging in the water of misfortunes. Bako Haram has held the region under siege despite the powerful military Nigeria claims to have, which had been seen in the kind of military assistance it gave to other African countries.
Banditry also spreads its ten fingers in the region claiming the lives of thousands of people including infants. It is indeed a great misforture that like tsunami, kidnappers have flooded the region when poverty is already consuming the people. Amidst all this, northerners that eke out a living in another part of the country are ambushed by people claiming ancestral ownership of a place despite the fundamental right to freedom of movement and ownership of movable and immovable property.
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At the risk of being called names, it behoves me to state the truth that the north does not dissipate energy on its priorities, and if it does, then its reaction to those priorities is very much low and slow that a person like me lacks knowledge of such. The truth is, northerners prefer to spend their time on inanities while waiting for other people somewhere else to tell the story of the north, and if the story exposes the problems of the region, the north would then become angry.
Northerners do not have a single voice to tell the world of the kidnapping, the banditry and the Boko Haramism bedevilling them. They lack the unity to sit down and put their issues on the table and decide on how to get out of the woods.
What the north is better at and best known at is discussing trivial issues that adds no flavour to their lives. One Sheikh is seen chilling out abroad with a woman, a Hausa actress dresses indecently, the daughter or son of an influential man is seen dancing at a wedding, a Kannywood actor is seen hugging a woman etc. These are the sort of stories the north prefers to tell the world.
It is highly outrageous how the northerners also keep mute when the region is being ambushed by terrorists because they don’t want the world to know because if the world knows, their tribesman in power or godfather would be condemned harshly for not securing life and property; they would rather pretend that all is well. This greatly gives more morale to northern leaders to continue their customary misrepresentation.
The people are so harshly divided along the religious line. The popular religion there has been classified into different creeds that their adherents celebrate the calamity of one another and block the chances for their progress. This speaks to outsiders of the greatest weakness of the north which is used against them.
When EndSARS protests broke out in the southern part of the country, other southerners living and doing business in the north joined the protests, those in the diaspora also joined. This is the true definition of a united people confronting their problems collectively. And where is SARS today? It is resting in the dustbin of history. Even at this, many northerners condemned the protests which, democratically, was a commendable move and a mechanism of telling the deaf government the grief of the citizens.
With local governments areas still under the control of Boko Haram, with the bloody banditry, with the shocking kidnap of the Kankara boys, the Kagara students and the 300 girls kidnapped in Zamfara two days ago, all in the north, why will the northerners not storm the major roads, storm the streets of social media so that the world will be informed of the plights of notherners? But worse problem of the north is that, once people come out to protest, it would be made to look like PDP or APC sponsors it. Religious leaders milking the cow of the government will make everything contrary to the teaching of the religion. And the followers, with reverence, and without reasoning, will accept everything rawly.
Abdul Mutallib Muktar
abdulmutallib.muktar@gmail.com
