Tag: el-rufai

By Mideno Bayagbon

Today i want to take up a topic the former Emir of Kano, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi and his friend, Governor Nasir El Rufai, broached a few months back, which is that the north must change its attitude and stop being a clog in the wheel of Nigeria’s development. Like them, i want to tackle northern leaders and the elites who have allowed the north to be the stumbling block to themselves and indeed to the rest of Nigeria. Lets not get it twisted though: Nigeria’s problem is not caused solely by the leaders and elites in the north. They are only worse than their southern counterparts in that regards.

The cheery news from the north, recently, has been the disclosure by Governor Nasir El Rufai that northern governors have finally resolved to man up, to end the disgraceful almajiri scourge. By United Nations Children Education Fund, (UNICEF), figures, as at 2015, there were as many as nine million children, fathered by irresponsible men; neglected by the governments and elites, in the core north, roaming the streets; out of school.

El Rufai’s disclosure, came at a time the global pandemic, Coronavirus, had started having a death grip on, and spreading its tentacles in the north. El Rufai it was, who confirmed, too, that the mass deportation of the almajiris to their home states, which followed was an agreed decision by the governors. Kaduna alone, he confessed, deported over 30,000 almajiris to other states of the north, where they originated from. What he didn’t, however speak on, was the trailer loads of northern youths who were sent to the southern parts of the country, during the lockdown. He also didn’t speak on the timing of the mass deportations. Unfortunately, that was the major instrument through which the pandemic was spread fast across the northern states. It was like deliberately setting fire to a keg of gunpowder. A fatal mistake. The explosion in the number of figures across the north bears a gruesome testament to a poorly thought through resolution. But we digress.

For too long, the northern elites and leaders, including President Muhammadu Buhari, have paid scant attention to these large number of children and youths roaming and begging in the streets without hope, and, or an assured future. They have no home or a place to lay their heads. No parental care. No government. Born to parents who have no business producing more children than they can carter for. They are dumped on supposed Islamic schools which have no means or ability to fend for, or train them. They easily become children of the streets: hopeless, abandoned, deluded; fit only for under-aged election voting purposes.

No one has put the almajiri problem more succinctly than the deposed Kano Emir, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi. In a speech, most suspect is part of the reason he was casually deposed by the governor of Kano, Alhaji Sanusi said: “these children that we see as almajiri and we laugh at them and treat them as victims…these children are not criminals, they are victims. What part of the Islamic law, what part of the Quran allows a father to give birth to a child and leave the child to go and fend for himself?” Sanusi is of the opinion that bad economic policies and wrong priorities by the leadership in the north is to blame. And l agree. Think about it for a moment. President Goodluck Jonathan’s government attempted to tackle the problem and built over 165 Tsangaya (Almajiri) Model Schools across some states in the north. Till date, President Muhammadu Buhari who before he became President professed so much love for the poor in the north; and successive state governments in the north, have simply ignored the schools, did nothing about the Almajiri children.

Yet, it was not always so. It is on record that before colonialism, there were islamic recital schools fully funded by the governing authorities, then represented by the emirs. Parents who wanted their children to be well versed in islamic studies sent their wards to these schools to study but took part in their upkeep. But that was before infantile greed, political stupidity, and self-centredness of uncommon proportion, took over.

That we are talking of a large swat of young Nigerians who are on the streets begging instead of being in schools in the 21st century is a ready evidence of the disgrace that northern leaders and elites have brought upon the memory of the late Sarduana, Sir Ahmadu Bello. He, it was, who strove to build a modern competitive northern Nigeria in his life time. As it has turned out, the greatest benefactors of the legacies of Sir Ahmadu Bello are his greatest betrayers.

Three areas where this betrayal is very visible are in education, leadership recruitment and a shared vision for the north and Nigeria.
It is on record that the late Sarduana traversed the entire northern landscape to fish out the best and brightest young northerners. He sent them to schools locally and abroad. He recruited others into the many arms of the Nigerian armed forces. There was a deliberate attempt to create a leadership cadre that is brilliant and able to compete with the best, not just in southern Nigeria, but globally. The core of the then Kaduna mafia were beneficiaries of the large heartedness and vision of this great northern leader. There has been none like him since then. Rather a selfish feudal class of parasites has evolved. Sad.

Evidences abound. Unlike most of the current elites and leaders who people the north, the Sarduana did not discriminate between Christians and Moslems and animists in his vision for the north. He didn’t also go for only the children of the nobles, the rich or highly connected. He simply went for the best. Can we truly say that today that that is still the trend followed by the elites and leaders in the north? Objectively, the answer is no. Instead a bunch of power crazy, self centred, self and family promoting wealth mongers and special caste gang rule the north. And in their quest, they have succeeded in not only holding down the development of the north, they, with their southern collaborators, have held the nation down. They have impoverished it, and made it a laughing stock globally. Their born to rule, post civil war conquerors mentality, first targeting the south has now dovetailed into a special class system where only their children and relatives are favoured.

Today, bright, young educated northerners, who do not have the fortune of their parents and relatives being in the the exclusive class of their oppressors leaders, have no kind words for them. For example, if you go to any of the well heeled national establishments like the NNPC, CBN, NBC, and so on, all the secret and open employments going on, are channeled to the children of those who now see themselves as having conquered the rest of Nigeria, who pillage it as they will, without consequences. Take for a concrete example, one of the establishments, under this regime got a secret approval to employ 70 persons but ended up with close to 250, all children and relations of the conquering powers that be. Of these of course 90 percent came from the north in utter disregard to the constitutional requirements of geographical spread. Even the names of those employed from the south had only well heeled political insiders children. I have seen the list. It truly turns the stomach. It fuels anger. It is the height of impunity that rubbishes the claimed integrity of President Buhari.

Unlike the late Sarduana, this class of northern leaders and elites do not have the interest of the commoners and poor at heart, except that they use them as bargaining chips to corner the goodies of the land for themselves and their families. The sheer bigotry. The Almajiri and the poor of the north who thought they had seen a saviour in President Buhari are today disappointed and embittered.

The chickens are now coming home to roost. Sanusi and El Rufai saw it and started shouting for a northern rethink. For truth be told, there is hardly any top northerner who can easily go home to his state or village anymore. Abuja, for those who do not have their mansions in Lebanon, UAE, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, London, etc., has become the safe haven. But for the truly “big men northerners”, their families are all relocated out of the country. Their wives and children are ensconced in the developed cities of Europe and in the Arab enclave.
Gone are the days when Abuja used to be empty on weekends. Today, the roads are flooded with traffic more than ever before. If you ask most of them, you get told that they dared not go to Kaduna or Kano or any of the major cities by road. Its just damn too dangerous. The alternative is to go by air.

Take the issue of Fulani herdsmen when they were solely ravaging Jos, Benue and the southern states. How did the average elite northerner react? There was a silence of acquiescence, a nonchalance, a “serve them right” attitude that hung truth upside down in the air. Not a single northern elite was bothered that the herdsmen were mostly non-Nigerians, possibly criminals from Libya, Niger and Chad. Not until they graduated into kidnapping and cattle rustling took a devastating, deadly new turn, did they belatedly realise the war has gotten to their doorsteps. But by then it had become too late.
Apart from President Buhari being the life patron of Miyetti Allah, it was clear that their silence can be attributed to the fact that the herdsmen were employees of some of them. Some of them are like President Buhari, who are into animal husbandry. We all know the cattle do not belong to the poor herdsmen; we all know that the AK 47 they are using to commit havoc are not bought by them.

Thank God the oil wells are no longer going to be the goldmine after Coronavirus pandemic. Easy money on the streets is gone and gone, perhaps forever. It has come to abbreviate what electric cars, 5G and other technological advances were already threatening. It is interesting the scenario that will unfold in the north when the elite turn on themselves as the booty can’t go round anymore.