Re An open letter to Northern leaders (1)

Aliyu Musa

Last Tuesday what would have been a tragedy of monumental proportions was averted. The former governor of Kano State, Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso had scheduled a political rally to herald his visit to the city of Kano, the hub of his mammoth support. But things have been very sour between him and the current governor, Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, who was also his deputy when he was governor. The rivalry hit a new low when Governor Ganduje also planned his own political rally for the same day and in the same venue. The stage was, thus, set for an all-out war between the two ruling APC factions.

Each side remained adamant, until Senator Kwankwaso listened to the voices of reason, albeit grudgingly, and put off his plan. Peace is back, at least for now. But there’s a looming danger. Kano is not far from the verge, given the pictures that emerged from the state after the governor’s rally. Young men and women, wielding dangerous weapons, were in the pictures. In one of the pictures a legislator was seen posing with armed hoodlums, known as ‘yan daba.

Anyone who remembers the menace of ‘yan daba, some years back, would weep for Kano, seeing them reemerging and returning to prominence in the political sphere of the state. The situation becomes even more frightful if we recall that the state is presently in the news as a nucleus of drug addiction. Young men and women’s lives are ruined because politicians who benefit immensely from the drift are very pleased to fund the habit and arm the addicts.

Kano is not the only part of northern Nigeria where priorities are progressively missed, giving politicians the leeway to do as they please. In other states governors who are unwilling to pay workers’ wages despite repeatedly receiving bailouts from the Federal Government smartly invent diversions or take full advantage of those others create. And by means of relentless amplifications everyone embraces the diversions and such governors begin to recruit, train and arm militias; militias that would soon become everyone’s peril.

The danger is, before long, the entire country would be saturated with and overwhelmed by these thugs. And we could be on our way to ruination, the scale of which only those in the north-east can understand, from their experience with Boko Haram. The Boko Haram insanity began in the same fashion, when Governor Ali Modu Sheriff armed and incorporated the then relatively unknown ‘ECOMOG’ into his government. But by the time he realised he could not rein in the group it was too late and we ended up with an ogre.

In October 2013, when the Boko Haram violence was spiralling out of control amidst growing accusations that the Goodluck Jonathan government had abdicated its responsibility of securing lives and property in the region, I wrote a three-part open letter to northern leaders reminding them that it was time to pick up the gauntlet and reverse the decline. The situation has still not transformed, which is why I am reproducing the letter, with a bit of editing. Enjoy reading:

Dear Sirs,

I am writing in the sincere hope that you will act with utmost urgency to stop the drift in a region where life has effectively lost value and man is brutishly subjecting fellow man to scandalous cruelty. In this respect I am referring to the violence that has engulfed the north since the July 2009 ‘suppression’ of the first phase of the Boko Haram violence.

You will find that I have directed this message to Northern leaders. By leaders I mean everyone that is, was or is thought to be in any position of leadership or authority and can speak for or influence thoughts in the north. Therefore, it is a missive to past and present leaders in politics and civil service, serving and retired military and paramilitary officers, Muslim and Christian clerics, business leaders, teachers at all levels, journalists, trade unionists and Rights activists, students and every professional from or sympathetic to or with a stake in the region.

A friend and I were once taking stock of developments in the region since the death of Sir Ahmadu Bello, the Sardauna of Sokoto, a man whose generosity doubtlessly impacted our lives immensely. It was with a great shock that we realised that those who benefitted most from his vision and selflessness and were hoped to continue this act of altruism have done almost nothing for the region and people.

Gamji’s days were full of intense but healthy competitions among the regions that constituted Nigeria. For example, while the southwest under the leadership of the late Chief Obafemi Awolowo’s Action Group was actively investing in people from the grassroots Sardauna, I was told, travelled from village to village and house-to-house to personally recruit many of you into the strategic professions that prepared you for essential roles in the hope that you will replicate the gesture to successive generations of northerners.

It was through this effort many of you became leaders in politics, military, judiciary, civil service, academia and so on. You did not have to pay fees for training locally or abroad. Irrespective of tribe, religion or social status, I heard, you were awarded scholarships. And because you were pioneers from the region in all the fields you found yourselves your rise was almost effortless.

Sirs, pardon my vulgarity, but if you contrast your situations then to those that confront many of us today you will appreciate that you have not done much to reciprocate Gamji’s action. Only, maybe, a handful of you actively offer support to people outside of your own family and cohorts, despite being in positions to successfully champion Gamji’s dream.

So, because you either have no dreams for the region or don’t know how to translate those dreams to reality you allowed Sardauna’s vision to practically collapse. Now, we are left with groups like Boko Haram, claiming to speak for the region and people but ironically decimating its population more than any plague did in the region’s entire history.

But we all know Boko Haram is a franchise, conveniently deployed to achieve a certain agenda to which you may or may not be privy. But everyone’s frustration with you is that you seem almost completely mute in the face of all this in spite of your enormous influence and power.

(To be continued)

This article is also published in the Blueprint newspaper of Saturday, January 3, 2018.