What a crying irony that some failed Northern politiciansare blaming Tinubu for insecurity in the region
Do some Northern politicians, even very consequential ones, ever look themselves up in the mirror regardiing what has become of Northern Nigeria under their watch? If they do, what do
Do some Northern politicians, even very consequential ones, ever look themselves up in the mirror regardiing what has become of Northern Nigeria under their watch?
If they do, what do they see, or think? Were the Sadauna to suddenly wake up today what would they tell him?
What would they say happened that the region he spent his entire life nurturing has become so decrepit, and life become so cheap it is two for a penny; and with more than 3 million of the citizens now permanently living in internally displaced persons' camps (IDPs) as a result of insecurity - the North-East - Borno, Adamawa, Yobe - hosting over 2.2 million while the North-Central and North-West - Zamfara, Katsina, and Benue - account for over 1million?
In my essay captioned 'How The North Made Peace Kiss Nigeria Bye' of 31 March 2024, I quoted the highly regarded elder statesman, Ahmed Joda, now of blessed memory, as saying the following in his article: 'Attitudes North Must Change to Develop:
"Northern Nigeria is not developing its human capital. It also does not have the time to do so anymore. Therefore, it is now ill-equipped to fit into either the knowledge-driven world of today or the new world of tomorrow. It needs at least 20 years to become significant in any way. But, rather than wake up to this benumbing fact, there is the pursuit of the illusion of dominance". "Meanwhile the people of the region lack the skills for tomorrow, as majority of its youth lack everything that could make them part of a 21st century world. I think we are not doing ourselves much good by the way we are living, and by refusing to educate our children. We rather produce and send them to the streets to beg for what they will eat, neglecting their character and learning."
How in all honesty then can these failed, and failing politicians, many years after that, turn round, in the year of our Lord, 2026 to, as much as attempt to be so trenchantly blaming President Bola Tinubu, who became President less than 3 years ago for problems that go back decades - illiteracy, poverty, economic backwardness, and now, a self - inflicted multi - dimensional
insecurity?
Honestly, were these happening in my part of the country, our leaders - in every capacity - royalty, academia, business the professions, as well as religious leaders, even our youths - would have since risen, like one man, starting from seeking the face of God, to solve the problems, once and for all.
Rather, what we see, instead, is the Fulani Nationality Movement(FUNAM), which claims to own Nigeria - even though they are the last emigres into Nigeria - writing letters to far more genuine owners of the land, who were never anybody's tenants, informing them of a coming FULANI WAR of conquest directly after the last Sallah. Meanwhile, Nigerian security forces pretended, as usual, like they didn't hear a word of it.
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Some of these politicians have, in fact, taken these accusations a notch higher. For instance,
going by the postulates on Channels TV, of a high ranking member of the ADC, an Atiku right handman, Nigerians now know that the opposition party is now trying to deploy "a so- called Northern angst" against Tinubu, as the magic wand for selecting their party's Presidential candidate. Nigerians will sure remember that the other day, when these idle Northern politicians desperately wanted to remove President Goodluck Jonathan from office, their first recourse was to go and recruit Fulani terrorists from all over West Africa and beyond. On their arrival in Nigeria, these non state actors were allegedly welcomed, feted and addressed by all manner of Fulani leaders - the reason insecurity in Nigeria has since become intractable.
A word should, therefore, be enough for the Nigerian security forces, ahead the 2027 elections.
The irony of these accusations should not be lost on anyone who has observed Northern Nigerian politics for some time, seeing leaders from a particular region dominate federal power for much of the past two decades, now lining up to accuse President Bola Tinubu—a Southerner, in only his third year in office—of failing to stop banditry, kidnapping and insurgency in the North.
Even if the charge sounds plausible, Tinubu being the President whose primary duty is the security of life and property, the truth is that history makes it ring hollow.
Which is why the Kaduna state Governor, Uba Sani rebuked them last July, telling Northern politicians that things like insecurity, decline in education and poverty have festered for more than twenty years in the North while all they did was “kept mute,” only to now rediscover their voices when Tinubu came.
He described their actions as hypocrisy taken too far, recalling how the Abuja-Kaduna highway was “almost overrun” long before 2023.
His “Kaduna Peace Model” — mixing military ops, vigilantes and dialogue — has begun to reopen rural markets, but he insists correctly, that Abuja cannot fix everything without the buy-in of the local hegemons.
The equally forthright Senator Shehu Sani made the same point when he listed Northern Heads of state who presided over the abandonment of KadunaTextile Mills Ltd, Arewa Textiles etc and reminded them of the beginnings of Boko Haram, before he asked how logical it is to now blame Tinubu?
For him, the accusations are deceitful and a cheap way for the failed Northern elite to dodge accountability.
Ditto Hon. Abdulmumin Jibrin, an NNPP lawmaker, who also described the accusation as false.
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But not even these facts have mollified the nay sayers, the likes of the Northern Ethnic National Forum, which outrightly demanded that the President retire all service chiefs and have a cabinet reshuffle, while the Northern Elders Forum, NEF, insisted he declared a state of emergency because, according to them, his Renewed Hope Agenda is hollow without security.
These are so - called Northern Elders who cannot point to any tangible thing they have done for these "their people", beyond living off them, seeing such as entitlement.
The North held federal power for 12 of the last 20 years under Presidents Umar Yar' Adua and Muhammadu Buhari with Northerners having a literal strangle-hold on everything, including a complete domination of the country's entire security apparatti.
Yet banditry metastasised under their watch just as all manner of Islamic terrorists carved out territories in their part of the country.
Now they want Tinubu to 'take responsibility' for their failures in ways they never demanded of the Presidents of Northern extraction.
Happily, the Kaduna State Governor has told them the plain truth, namely, "that the North must rise and take charge of its own destiny”.
They should understand that for Tinubu insecurity was inherited, ranging from security compromises, to historical injustices and institutional frailty.
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In spite of all that, President Tinubu will and, is doing his best.
Non- politically motivated Northerners know, and appreciate this, even as a lot still needs to be done.
For instance, he got redeployed, 30,000 policemen from VIP protection to frontline duties, ordered assaults on bandit enclaves in the North. He is going all over the world seeking assistance to rein in insecurity. That in addition to approving additional enrolment into both the Army and the Police. He is aggressively pursuing the establishment of state police for which he has already got the buy-in of both the legislature and the 36 state governors. He regularly approves large deployment of troops to various parts of the North even where it is mostly Northerners killing Northerners.
These frustrated Northern politicians should, in light of the above, mitigate their vicious attacks on the President for their own errors of commission and omission.
The irony of all these is this: Northern leaders rightly demand safety for their constituents but, many of those making the loudest noise are the same characters who presided over the decay in the first instance. They cannot claim that Tinubu created the problems - because he did not,) while exculpating their state governors, elite and the traditional institutions which must, willy nilly, bear the burden of guilt.
North's crisis is, no doubt, genuine, but the sanctimony, by most of their politicians, is not.
