North- West Poverty: Who’s Culpable?

New Telegraph of Thursday Back Page of November 28, 2024 by Ike Abonyi 

North-

“ *_Leadership is not about titles, positions, or flowcharts. It's about one life influencing another*_ ”-John.C. Maxwell.

Politically speaking, the North West geopolitical zone of Nigeria is undoubtedly the leader of all the zones in the country. It's the only zone with seven states that has the highest number of local government areas, the highest number of council chairmen and councilors, the highest number of Governors, Senators, and House of Representatives members, and the highest number of state Assembly members.  Members of the House of Representatives from the two states of Kano and Jigawa states alone outnumber the ones from the entire South East region. In statutory political appointments, it has the highest number. In voting population, it has the highest record of over 22m of the 93 voters in the country. The zone has everything going for it in terms of resources and the influence it exerts in national politics. It also has the highest number of former Presidents/heads of state and Vice.  Roll call, Alhaji Shehu Shagari, (Sokoto,); General  Murtala Mohammad, (Kano), General Muhammedu Buhari, (Katsina,) Malam Umar Yar Adua, (Katsina,) Mallam Muhammedu Buhari (Katsina) and at number two position, Gen Musa Yar Adua, (Katsina) and Namadi Sambo, (Kaduna) Ditto the Defence Ministers, the top most in the cabinet going by budgetary allocations.  Between 1999 and to date we recorded 12 Ministers of defense, nine of them from the North with the North-West producing five of them, Musa Rabiu Kwakwaso, (Kano); Mohammad Badaru, (Jigawa) current, Bashir Salihu Magashi, (Kano); Mansur Muhammed Dan Ali, (Zamfara);  Muhammed Gusau, (Zamfara)and Halilu Mohammad Bello, (Kebbi). In the office of the National Security Adviser with an uncontrollable budget, out of the seven, the North had five, and the poverty region North West had three of them, General Aliyu Gusau (Zamfara); General Abdullahi Sariki Murktari (Kano) and Col Sambo Dasuki (Sokoto). But strangely, in sharp contrast, the region is also the poverty capital of Nigeria and, indeed, the World. Should such a zone be breeding poverty if the position and accruing resources are to be used as a development index? If not, why should Northern leaders be fixated on having power to the extent of talking about 2027  instead of digging deep to root out the reason why its numerous political figures have failed to impact the lives of the people?

Two news items from the North provoked this week’s discourse. One was Nigeria’s Senate reaction to the motion tabled by Senators from Kebbi state on the invasion of the North West by a new terrorist group, the Lukarawas group said to have originated from neighboring countries of Mali and Burkina Faso, and terrorizing Kebbi, Sokoto and Zamfara states in addition to the banditry long ravaging the region. The second news item was the recent communique by the Arewa Consultative Forum after their meeting in Kaduna last week indicating that it was declaring its support for northerners vying for the presidency in the 2027 general elections, citing the need to rescue the region and the country from the adverse effects of current socio-economic policies.

In a communique signed by its National Publicity Secretary, Professor Tukur Muhammad-Baba, after its NEC meeting, the forum expressed grave concerns over the deteriorating economic situation in the North under President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. It also criticized the Federal Government’s approach to leadership selection, accusing it of elevating individuals without the requisite competence or experience to positions of power. The slant of the Communique, ‘to rescue the region and the country from the adverse effects of current socio-economic policies,’ means that the problem of the region is being premised on the fact that a northerner is not on the throne. As bad as Tinubu’s era might be, utterances like this will win him unmerited support from rational minds.

What came out vividly from that communique and the Senate is that Northern leaders, as represented by this ACF and the Senators that moved the motion are far removed from understanding the problem of the region and, indeed, Nigeria. The Senate's reaction of ordering the military to flush out the terrorists without looking at the root cause sounds simplistic. Forgetting that since 2009 military has been flushing out Boko haram with its raging havoc.

It's nauseating and disheartening that northern leaders are still hanging on the old template that kept the country down. Even after the revelations of the past that manifested clearly under Muhammad Buhari and are currently underscored by the Tinubu regime, that who holds the Presidency is not the solution to the country but the capacity and competence of the holder of the office. Sadly, after all the empirical evidence, leaders still reason parochially. What that communique established is that there is nothing wrong in Emilekon since they now feel they should support their own in 2027.

One had thought that an elite body like ACF should take a profound look at the problem of the North and the country and proffer a radical solution instead of rushing into who to support in 2027. ACF is not even imagining how many Northerners would die between now and 2027 under the prevailing hardship in the country. As far as the Northern umbrella body was concerned, the problem of the North rests on which region is holding power.

We recall that before Tinubu came to power, the ACF had one noisy spokesman, Hakeem Baba-Ahmad, who was loud everywhere as a northern irredentist but ended up as Adviser in the Vice President’s office under the worst regime as far as his North is concerned. He has fizzled out and is even ashamed of defending the government he is part of.

I had thought that Northern elites should have considered looking inwards, and feel humbled by the situation in the region instead of an escapist attitude of blaming others for their failures. The North West, in particular, has been so arrogant with their number and throws it annoyingly every election year. They pride themselves as the region that determines who becomes the President of this country. They rightly determined that Buhari emerged as President in 2015 and 2019 and greatly influenced the coming of Tinubu. They have already started working to determine who becomes what in 2027 but are annoyingly impotent about the endemic poverty in the region.

They have stayed immodest and unembarrassed that the region remains the poverty headquarters of Nigeria and, indeed, the World. As far as the development index is concerned, the North West remains the gold of poverty. The top States with High Poverty Rates are as follows: Sokoto (87.3%), Kebbi (86.3%), Zamfara (85.2%), Jigawa (84.4%), Katsina (83.4%); the same rates for Malnourished areas in the country. The Poverty in this region is deeply rooted, with indicators showing that 63% of persons living in Nigeria are multi-dimensionally poor, and the North West region accounts for 65% of the poor population. It's sickening that some northern intellectuals, instead of finding poverty, ineffective governance, and policy issues in the region concerning, are joining the politicians in shadow-boxing.

According to the ACF's myopic understanding, the only way out is to have a Northerner as President of Nigeria. Notwithstanding that in the recent nine years of plundering of Nigeria, a North West son was in charge for eight years and laid the foundation for today's disaster being manured by Tinubu’s era. Even going by his electoral promises, Tinubu has not disappointed the North; in all his rallies, he danced about promising nothing to the region except that he would continue the good work Buhari was doing. If Buhari _Fulanized_ his government and Tinubu decides to __Yorubanized_ his own what wrong has he done if Buhari sold crude oil in advance to get money to satisfy his appetite and Tinubu decides to remove the subsidy to get more cash for politics and to quench his greed, where was ACF in Buhari’s eight years and was Tinubu that they voted into office the best candidate? Is there anything new in Tinubu today that was not there before 2023 when they rejected the Northern candidates they now want to support? One expects the Northern leaders who took Tinubu’s largesse and sacrificed their people to apologize to the people instead of provokingly talking about 2027. Against this backdrop, therefore, what one expects both the Senate and ACF to be looking at is how to address the challenges from the root for a lasting solution instead of making wild, senseless, and inconsequential statements that do not in any way address the issues on the ground. The ACF needs to know from the empirical facts established above that the problem of the North is not about holding a position, and they should dig into what the real problems are and avoid needless politics.

What should be particularly concerning to these leaders is the unassailable fact that the region has the highest poverty rate in the country, with some states recording poverty levels as much as 40% higher than the national average. The Senate of the republic should utilize its enormous research budget well and dig into why Nigeria, especially North East and North West, is vulnerable to terrorism and banditry. If they do and are sincere about their findings, they will discover that it has nothing to do with who is holding the Presidency of the country but more with the enormity of the poverty in the area. It's laughable, therefore, that a Senate of a country that is turning millions of their youths into multi-dimensional poverty in droves, with unprecedented inflation rise and its attendant hardships, is shocked about the existence of crimes of any shape and size, whether terror, banditry, or kidnapping. When the North West gets it right, Nigeria will get it right; Northern leaders, instead of thinking of 2027 and having a Northern President, should be tinkering on how to end out-of-school children and how to eliminate drug issues among the youths in the region. The relationship between political office and poverty, particularly in Nigeria's North West region, is complex and multifaceted.  Political leaders in the North should be emotive about the plight of the poor in their midst not just to find them handy only during elections. They should also note Rick Beneteau’s words that ‘bad leaders seek power, while great leaders empower’ God help us.