The North and its withering tide

The consolation and sheer laziness of the mind in bank rolling the idea that it’s a region that is less endowed naturally and hence positioned to be a browbeaten region, is simply an excuse, of course for the lazy mind. The sedimentary, environmental, and physiological resources and gifts of nature that the north is in […]

The consolation and sheer laziness of the mind in bank rolling the idea that it’s a region that is less endowed naturally and hence positioned to be a browbeaten region, is simply an excuse, of course for the lazy mind. The sedimentary, environmental, and physiological resources and gifts of nature that the north is in endowments with are at worst, bewildering and even so, when such potentials are neither fully harnessed, nor fully realised. A followership is like unto its leadership and ultimately a mishap of history has dwindled with our fortunes and has left us without a chartered course. We have been mesmerised by our own folly and have so fallen in united disarray! The nation beholds us as that factor that has held a nation back and stood in the way of their forge with the challenges of an advanced and civilised world order. Yes indeed our fellow Nigerians have not hidden these sentiments, our media are free and fair for that is what freedom of speech portends, you get to assimilate what you bargained and did not bargain for.

The April polls have come and gone and the finest favour the north has had from these polls is the stark revelation that we are the only and most divided segment of this country. Numerous parties cut across the northern states had various victories in the national assembly elections and even the aggressive CPC could not lay claim to a majority in most of the states it had shown strength.

Clearly regional, the presidential elections also showed large encroachment within the ranks of the north with PDP and then eventually, PDP swept the gubernatorial polls in the north. The leaf to be borrowed is how PDP got it well in its jugular from other parties in the south, especially from ACN, APGA, LP, etc. Change was the motto of the 2011 polls and this was imminent and eventually realised in the south, especially south western Nigeria. The spate of violence in the north of course drove home the point that the results were not according to the wishes of the people, but nevertheless, the people need know that they were never united in action, in voting and then in the outcry. The CPC which represents change in the north, was not equipped and ready for the herculean job of what change entails. It was only strengthened by the belief in one man and one man only, Gen. Buhari, and evidently that wasn’t enough.

The north needs to believe in itself and realise its potential. It cannot go on like this as it has gone on for decades without any bearing to designing and developing what it envisions its future to be like. Human and natural resources must be tapped and found and spun to create a new beginning from a once betrayed charter to hope and growth. Self subsistence is almost entirely a survival instinct which means that a being or an entity will survive if its environment necessitates it to. Now before the culprits of misinterpretation jump to nothingness, my main point is that northern Nigeria has a lot to deliver and be reckoned with and gloriously contend with other regions. The prayer that leadership will be held responsible is fast gaining acceptance and soon, followership too will bear even harder burdens of ignorance and oblivion.

Painfully now, the north is marginalised by vehicles of government and its leaders and rulers are devoid of battles with their conscience that they have not stood up not only for their people, but such that history will someday continue to remind us of their greatness and graciousness and that will permanent their abodes with peace, blessings and grace. To count the loss of lives, through these years that have ended for no sense at all is an exercise that will not end in a short time. The persons who have died are the heroes of our democracy and may we one day find ourselves in the promised land to give tribute and gratitude to them for their efforts and sacrifices were not in vain.

Tahir is Talban Bauchi