Al-Makura, you too?
I’ve never met Mr. Al-Makura in person, but by reputation he is the kind of politician that you cannot help but admire and respect. He does seem to have a charisma that projects itself even from a two-dimensional picture in both print media and television. But more impressive is his political achievements in the last […]
I’ve never met Mr. Al-Makura in person, but by reputation he is the kind of politician that you cannot help but admire and respect. He does seem to have a charisma that projects itself even from a two-dimensional picture in both print media and television. But more impressive is his political achievements in the last general elections. He is the only contestant among the candidates of the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) for governorship that was able to defeat the Peoples Democratic Party’s ruthless rigging machinery to emerge as governor of Nasarawa state, making him the most important political office holder in the party which, courtesy of it’s wildly popular presidential candidate General Muhammadu Buhari, is the most popular grass root political party in the country north of the River Niger. Al-Makura’s demonstrated political strength can only be compared to that of Olusegun Mimiko, who dared two very powerful political heavy weights in his South West region in the persons of former President and former PDP Board of Trustees Chairman, Olusegun Obasanjo and Action Congress of Nigeria leader Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, to emerge as governor of Ondo state under the banner of the Labour Party. Thus a man with such obvious determination as Al-Makura cannot be dismissed as an idiot or stupid.
And yet to accede to the argument that the problem of the North is because it does not receive enough revenue from the federation account is defeatist, untenable and, excuse me, altogether a very stupid argument. Especially coming from Al-Makura, who presides over a state with the highest mineral deposits in the country. According to information from specialized authorities such as the ministry of mines and steel development, and the Department of Geological Survey, Nasarawa, Zamfara and Katsina states are among the most endowed states in terms of solid minerals such as gold, iron ore rare earth etc.
The agricultural potential of the entire northern states is equally unrivaled by any other region in the country. Experts have since confirmed that from livestock to cropping there is virtually no agricultural endeavor that cannot thrive in the North. Statistically, agriculture contributes more than 70 per cent of Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP), and 70 per cent of Nigeria’s agricultural activities are conducted in the North from where food stuff are transported at very low prices and under unfair bargaining conditions to the South.
With so much untapped potential therefore, it is always depressing to hear governors of the northern states struggling to explain away the poverty and general backwardness of the region to the disparity in revenue allocation. Of course there is disparity, but in all honesty can the successive governors in the region convincingly explain how judiciously and prudently they have utilized the “little” they have been receiving over the years, especially in the last one and a half decades? Besides when did this disparity become so glaring and how did it come about?
Thirteen per cent derivation given to oil producing states started in 2003 and was given away by the House of Representatives at the time, under the leadership of the Speaker Ghali Umar Na’abba, without negotiating for anything in return; while the ministry of Niger Delta affairs, through which more monies are allocated to the Niger Delta, was created by the regime of late Umaru Musa Yar’Adua. I felt similar disspointment when the CBN Governor Sanusi Lamido was reported to have linked the insecurity problem in the region to “lopsided” revenue formula.
Of course there is a huge disparity, but how much does the South East and most of the states of the South West receive? On average the North receives about the same subvention as most of the states in both regions. Why are they by far ahead of the North in terms of the vital indices of development? Similarly the relative progress of the South West and South East is not a product of recent development, it emerged as a result of years of careful investment in education, commerce, selfless mentoring and international exposure to opportunities beyond our borders; by the same principle the backwardness of the North is a result of years of visionless and incompetent governance, greed and selfishness, made worse by a primordial attachment to feudal institutions whose time has since expired.
The North looks up to strong individual achievers like Al-Makura to help shape its future and give it direction; to hear such people collapse and begin to sound like defeated warriors is more than horrifying. If northern governors want more money from the federation account, they have to show that they deserve it and create politically unassailable arguments and ways of achieving their objectives. But a situation where governors retreat into their shells every time the federal government growls, cannot win the region any respect, or any additional revenue. By the way does Governor Al-Makura realize that his state’s proximity to Abuja alone can earn him nearly as much money as he receives from the federation account?