At the weekly Federal Executive Council meeting chaired by President Umar Musa Yar’adua last Wednesday, seven new private universities were approved. This brings to 41 the number of private universities in the country. Forty of them are sited in the southern part of the country.About three months ago the Lagos State government bundled out beggars from its streets and sent them back to their states of origin in the northern part of the country. Having enacted a law against begging, the state was acting within its laws; and from time to time its security agencies raid beggars colonies and cart them off either to rehabilitation centres, or repatriate them back to where they came from, which is usually somewhere in the North.
Last week this newspaper reported that cases of ritual murders in many parts of the North have reached very alarming proportions (in any decent society, even one ritual murder should be alarming). The report cited general and specific instances of persons who have had very close shave with such near-brutal ends; and those that have disappeared without a trace. At a mosque in Abuja last week, a worshipper stood up to advise on how to avoid been kidnapped by ritual kidnappers; he said the danger has now gone beyond taxies and unpainted cabs. According to the man, if you want to take a ride on a commercial motor cycle, popularly called Achaba, and the operator brings out a handkerchief and wiped the seat of the bike for you, then run for your life, for he is likely to be an agent of ritual murderers, searching for victim.
And then only a few weeks ago, it emerged that out of the 190 members of the House of Representatives from the North, only 25 (13 per cent) sponsored a Bill in the House. By contrast a Bill offering 10 per cent equity of Niger Delta resources to the host communities is about to be sent to the National Assembly. This was reported by credible media including the Financial Times of London and Reuters.
Last week Saturday, those who are entrusted with piloting the affairs of the people of this troubled part of Nigeria, came together to collect money for what they called a Foundation for a gentleman that has been dead now for 43 years. The gentleman in question was Sir. Ahmadu Bello. At the time of his death from the bullets of coup plotters in 1966, Sardauna, as he was popularly known, was the Premier of the Northern Region. If he were still alive, he would have been 100 years old this year. The idea of the Foundation was probably planned to coincide with this centenary of the birth of the late Premier.
Up to this point one cannot but appreciate the moral correctness of giving honour to who deserves it, whether living or dead. Former Governor of Abia State, a successful publisher and a presidential candidate in2007, who was not in Kaduna for the launch but whose opinion I sought, summed up the popular attitude towards the Sardauna, both in the North and elsewhere. He said, with very strong emphasis, “For me who is a creation of the Sardauna, no honour done to that great man is too much”.
That is true; but why are people so visibly and loudly unimpressed by what happened in Kaduna’s Murtala Square last weekend? The lacerating criticisms that followed the launch were beyond politics; they came from diverse groups and individuals; from the little guy in the street to integrity giants such as Alhaji Balarabe Musa. Even a normally nebulous organization that would have jumped at a chance to cash-in on the event, the Gamji Members Association (GAMA), had nothing but flak for the event and its promoters, the Northern Governors Forum. GAMA is claiming that the very idea of a foundation for Sardauna was stolen from them; and that they suspect the proceeds would be embezzled.
That is one sour aspect of the event. The other perspective from which the event strikes the public is just as ugly, and perhaps even more depressing. Although it is sometimes exaggerated, it is generally accepted that the late Sardauna remains the most influential political figure to have traversed the North, after independence. The contributions of his contemporaries, such as the late Malam Aminu Kano which were no less strategic in shaping the politics and intellectual development and direction of the North were routinely overlooked. As a result Sardauna is usually compared not with any political figure in the North, but with his other regional counterparts, namely the late Dr. Nnamdi Azikwe from the South East; and the late Chief Obafemi Awolowo, political icon of the South West.
In his lifetime, Sardauna matched—one can argue even outclassed—those other two in terms of his vision and political savvy. He realized very early in the day that what separated the North and the South was the level of western education and the amount of exposure to modernity. Along with military strength, he also calculated, correctly, that these were the parameters that would continue to define level of development and political dominance within the context of the new Republic called Nigeria.
The Sardauna went about bridging these gaps with a single-minded determination which saw the region emerging as the most economically and politically viable of the three regions at the time. On his part he equally emerged as the most powerful individual politician in the country. By the time of his tragic death in 1966, Northern Nigeria was stronger, richer and more viable than many smaller African nations of that era. He had established research institutes, universities, industries, brought federal military formations, built human capacity virtually out of nothing; and had the entire population of the region bursting with enthusiasm and confidence. He was so successful in his mission within a very short period that even those members of a generation that were born one or two decades after his death were inspired by his achievements.
This was the North that the Sardauna left behind; and this was the North that his successors, military and civilian, inherited. Forty-three years later, the only thing left are the ruins of his investments and the nostalgia of his era. And of course his name, which is being exploited at every opportunity by every scoundrel under the sun. This is the other perspective from which some honest critics of the Sardauna Foundation are looking at the event that took place in Kaduna last week. As the latest successors to the Sardauna (who controlled the entire region that 19 of them are now controlling), many people feel the governors should have been more original and more sincere in the way they tried to honour the Sardauna.
Our governors have 101 crushing problems begging for attention; was launching a N20bn Foundation the best they could do? What can N20bn do in the face of the daunting challenges that confront the region? In any case they could only manage to collect only a little over a quarter of that amount, with some naughty critics pointing out that only nine governors were in attendance; as against 19 that attended the wedding of President Yar’Adua’s daughter in Katsina earlier in the year! If the governors had called together an all-encompassing summit and honestly and bravely admit their lapses, that would have been more honourable.
Or better still, perhaps they could have held a quiet meeting and then resolve, publicly or privately, that each chief executive would eradicate the menace of begging in his state before or by May 29, 2011. The Sardauna, if he was truly what those who knew him said he was, would have appreciated that more than if they put together a hundred trillion naira in his honour. Nice try your Excellencies; but we are neither impressed, nor amused.
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