Memo to Arewa, By Wole Olaoye

How does a Nigerian from the south of the country convince his northern compatriot that he means well when he analyses the problems in the North and their implications for the country?

I honestly don’t know. But having spent the last 25 years in the geographical north of Nigeria, and having had the privilege of travelling round the states that make up the former Northern Region in the company of some of my most trusted friends who happen to be northerners, I believe that I am well positioned to write this friendly memo to my brothers and sisters in Northern Nigeria.

Children Bearing Children 

The spectacle that confronts a first time visitor to many of the major cities in the North in terms of how underaged children are treated is scandalous. Hiding under contrived religious injunctions, the society accepts  what an outsider would consider as marriage between children. Or how else would you describe marital union between a 16-year-old boy and a ten-year-old girl? 

In many cases, the boy grew up on the streets, having been sent to an Islamic teacher from an early age as an almajiri. Some of the almajiris are as young as five years old. The mallam himself needs material succour and he uses the children under his care as street beggars. There are millions of such children all over the major towns looking unkempt, undernourished and desperate. It is from their ranks that politicians recruit underage voters during elections and ‘protesters’ for various causes.

The girl child who is married off at the age of ten or twelve always holds the short end of the stick because, more often than not, she ends up having Vesicovaginal fistula (VVF). The elite who are in a position to legislate against it are firmly opposed to such a move.  So, babies continue to beget babies. Poverty is compounded by destitution and incontinence. 

This wasn’t how the North was administered during the time of Sir Ahmadu Bello, the legendary Premier of the Northern Region in the First Republic. Ahmadu Bello prioritised education and ensured that there was a balance between religious activities and educational pursuits. The Northern region became famous for groundnut pyramids, cotton, tin mining and massive production of staple food items. The late premier instituted scholarships for children of the North without ethnic or religious discrimination.

The ever prescient Premier of the West whose greatest legacy was the provision of free and compulsory education in his region, looked ahead and warned his fellow politicians who felt that he was wasting too much money on education that it was in their interest to do so because, “The children of the poor you refuse to train (Educate) will never let your children have peace.” His prediction is played out at the #EndBadGovernance protests as gangs of youthful vandals went from street to street smashing cars and frightening the daylight out of the children of the elite.

The sense of entitlement which the Northern elite have had over the years has made them believe that the federal government ought to pick the bills of parenting the almajiris while the elites continue their life of luxury. No other part of the country is breeding children and calling on the federal government to come and raise them. It is a simple case of irresponsible parenting. 

Beggars Everywhere

The present system of bundling the beggars to the South in droves has not had a dramatic effect as expected. How many more thousand beggars can southern cities accommodate before they start screaming? And with the present economic crunch, are the alms givers of the South themselves not in need of help now?

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has expressed concern that Nigeria has the largest number of out-of-school children globally, with only 63 percent of primary school children regularly attending school. It lamented that a staggering 10.2 million primary school-age children and an additional 8.1 million at the junior secondary level are out of school in Nigeria.

Assessing the situation in an article on Newsdiary Online, Rashidat Yusuf writes: “The shocking revelation to some of  us who hardly go far north is the level at which the almajiris (children) have grown up to adolescents and yet are left to wander on their own aimlessly… Little wonder there is so much kidnapping and banditry in this part of the North.” 

It is gratifying that some of the northern elite, notable among whom is Prof Usman Yusuf, have risen up to the challenge of campaigning for the rights of the underprivileged, especially the almajiris, and have put the problem squarely at the doorsteps of the state governors and local government chairmen who are best positioned, together with the religious authorities, to mount a region-wide advocacy for responsible parenthood and carry out a skill acquisition programme to give the almajiris a future.

Prof Yusuf also wants northerners to realise that they have to share power if Nigeria is to survive. He drew attention to the cabinet positions which northerners currently hold in the Tinubu administration and thinks the spread is fair: 

Northern Ministers 

Minister of State, Housing and Urban Development; Minister of Budget and Economic Planning; Minister of State, FCT; Minister of State, Water Resources and Sanitation; Minister of Agriculture; Minister of Education; Minister of Police Affairs; Minister of Foreign Affairs; Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare; Minister of State, Steel and Development; Minister of Steel and Development; Minister of Information and National Orientation; Minister of State, Police Affairs; Minister of Special Duties; Minister of Water Resources and Sanitation; Minister of State, Agriculture and Food Security; Minister of Arts, Culture and Creative Economy; Minister of Defence; Minister of State for Defence; Minister of State, Education; Minister of Housing and Urban Development.

The North also has the Vice-President, the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, the National Security Adviser, the Chief of Defence Staff, the Chief of Air Staff and highly coveted positions in the oil industry and important federal parastatals. 

Protests Sponsored?

Last week, Senator Shehu Sani revealed that most of the protesters in Kaduna were sponsored by disgruntled Northern politicians against Tinubu. 

“If anyone tells you that those protesters in the North brandishing flags were out because of hunger, it’s a lie. I can say it boldly and credibly that those boys were offered money and flags to stage a revolt against government to instigate a coup. Take it from me, there is a deliberate attempt to overthrow the Tinubu’s government by some folks in the north here, who hid under the hunger protest to do what they plotted with flying of Russian flags in Kaduna Kano, Katsina and Jigawa states”

According to ancient tradition, a wind from the South means a good harvest, while one from the East means a good year for fruit, but a wind from the North foretells a year of storms.

If the Tinubu administration comes to grief through undemocratic means, (tufiakwa 10 times) those who think they’re pursuing a northern agenda today may find that they have played into the hands of separatists and unwittingly proclaimed new nations into existence — goodbye Nigeria!

My humble advice to my brothers and sisters in the North: bend down and do the hard work that will make the North great again!

Wole Olaoye is a Public Relations consultant and veteran journalist. He can be reached on wole.olaoye@gmail.com, Twitter: @wole_olaoye; Instagram: woleola2021.