Northern Nigeria Of Self-Destruction?
Thursday (Eke) 02-04-2026.
No Society develops or advances on the strength of violence or insecurity. Of all things cherished by humans, life and safety are topmost. Even indigenes of any place associated with violence or insecurity try, as much as possible, to relocate from their homes. If indigenes of such places could think of deserting their homes, is it a stranger that would wish to settle in such a place?
The North of Nigeria is a region endowed with abundance of both human and material resources. Uranium deposits are found in Adamawa, Taraba, Bauchi, Plateau, Kogi, and Kano. Other States in the North; Zamfara, Kaduna, Kebbi, Niger, and Kwara have Gold in abundance. Kaolin, Limestone and Tin Ore are in commercial quantities in the North of Nigeria. It has been severally alleged that some prominent Northerners are deeply involved in illegal mining of some of these solid minerals. Who is sure billions of money accruing from the extraction of these minerals go to the Federation Account?
The Region has a vast agricultural land mass that can guarantee food security for the whole of Nigeria. Under normal circumstance, the North should be the food basket of Nigeria.
Regrettably, the North has become the centrepoint of all manner of violence, insecurity, brutality and turbulence. News of rampant destruction of lives and properties in the North no longer comes with surprise and shock. Such destructive tendencies have become the way of life in the North. It may not be exaggerative to state that the North has become a region of immense blood letting, devastating its agricultural, economic and social essence.
Violence and insecurity in the North are not new to the region. Sheik Usman dan Fodio, a migrant fulani jihadist, had initiated an Islamist revolution against indigenous Hausa Kings about 1804 and that gave rise to overthrow of Hausa kingdoms, with the massacre of Hausa Kings and their soldiers, and eventual conquest of indigenous Hausa kingdoms, which consequently became ruled by the fulani-established Sokoto Caliphate.
As early as 1945, there was a riot in Jos, on the Plateau. It was orchestrated by Hausa/Fulani traders against Igbo traders. The violence erupted out of competition between the two groups of traders. Human lives were said to have been lost.
In 1953, violence broke out in Kano, during which many Igbo were killed, injured, and their shops and properties looted and vandalized. The cause of the violence was traced to the motion for self rule moved on the floor of the Federal Parliament in Lagos by Chief Anthony Enahoro of Action Group, and supported by Parliamentarians of Southern extraction. It was reported that Sir Ahmadu Bello and other Northern Politicians did not take kindly to that motion. The Igbo, massacred in their numbers, became victims of misdirected transferred aggression by the North.
Starting from 29th July, 1966, following the reprisal coup of 28th July, 1966 by Nigerian Soldiers of Northern extraction, the North witnessed unprecedented violence against Peoples of defunct Eastern Region of Nigeria. It was a genocide by every description. That genocide led to Nigerian Civil War, known as Nigeria/Biafra War.
In 1980, a religious uprising broke out in Kano, championed by Muhammadu Marwa, also known as Maitasitne. He was alleged to be an Islamist fanatic whose bigotry crossed the bounds of religious tolerance, and the crisis that resulted from it was reported to have consumed some lives.
Boko Haram has its root in Borno, and Yobe States, in North-East. They are islamist fanatics that detest anything that has to do with western civilization, including education. It has been severally reported that they collect taxes from indigenes of those States where they operate, killing thousands who contravene their laws.
When it became clear that Boko Haram was a serious threat to national security, President Jonathan, in his capacity as Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, ordered his Chief of Army Staff, Lieutenant-General Azubuike Ihejirika, to handle the insurgency squarely. General Ihejirika, without any waste of time, went into full-fledged military actions against the insurgents. But some Northern leaders from the core moslem North allegedly accused President Jonathan of prosecuting a genocide against the North. In his usual peaceful disposition, President Jonathan gave up the counter insurgency fight. Today, who is the loser, Jonathan or the North?
There was rumour that some prominent Northern moslem Politicians had, in order to intimidate President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan in 2015 election, encouraged an influx of Fulani terrorists from different parts of West Africa, and the Sahel into Nigeria. It is believed that all the killings taking place in Borno, Yobe, Adamawa, Benue, Plateau, Niger, Taraba, Kebbi, Sokoto, Zamfara, and other parts of the North are done separately by Boko Haram insurgents, and the foreign fulani terrorists.
The killings in the North got to a point where Christians there concluded they were overt attempts at genocide. Even the American President, Donald Trump, almost perceived it from that perspective.
The North today has reduced itself to two symbols; violence, and insecurity. Agriculture, for which it was proudly known, has been maximally reduced. Hardly would any investor in a stable and good state of mind contemplate investing in the North, except it is in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.
The major cause of this security disorder, economic disaster, and social decadence in the North, especially the core moslem North, is the Almajiri system. A situation in which a man that has little or no means of livelihood and survival would have four wives, procreating ceaselessly without any intention to give proper upbringing to the numerosity of children given birth to but would rather give each of them, especially the males, at approximately the age of four, a plate and ask him to go into any city where a willing lorry driver would convey him to, just to start living by begging, is the cause of the disaster in the North. These street beggars turn to street urchins. It is from their pool that Boko Haram and all the fulani terrorist gangs recruit their followers.
Knowing that the Almajiri system was a time bump only wating to explode, President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan tried to address it. He built many schools in the North to absorb and rehabilitate the unfortunate children but the Northern hierarchy was believed not to have seen that initiative as their priority. Today, the children are still in the streets.
The North should not blame any person or group of persons outside the North for her calamity. Its terrible condition is self-inflicted.
It should, rather, create a drawing board for itself, ask and sincerely answer fundamental questions about its past and present, and, thereafter, reorganize its priorities. The North can still pull itself out of the woods.
Sir Don Ubani is a former Commissioner for Information and Strategy in Abia State, and Publisher of Equity Global Reporters Ltd.
