News Editor
In some material respects, I agree with Kio Amachree, but on certain points, I disagree strongly, particularly with his assertion that the Northern region bears sole responsibility for Nigeria’s decline. I daresay the North is not alone in this, contrary to the narrative often advanced by sections of the educated elite of Southern origin.
Yes, the North has its challenges, just as every other region of Nigeria does. But the current state of the nation is the product of multiple forces: the legal and administrative structures bequeathed by British colonial rule, post-independence leadership failures, and the extravagant lifestyles of some elites of Southern extraction. These individuals laid a firm foundation of national dysfunction through a combination of arrogance over competence, compounded by a latent ignorance of what meaningful governance requires.
Compounding this was the emergence of a culture where anyone could assume any role without mentorship, training, or a grounding in the art and craft of statecraft. In this vacuum, ignorant mediocrity became normalized, elevated, in time, to something of a national creed and an abiding principle of state policy.
In the economic sphere, the unbridled importation of virtually all consumables by Southern merchants in the years following the civil war dealt a severe blow to domestic industrial production. Nigeria gradually transformed from a nation with industrial aspirations to one dependent on imports for nearly every need, relying solely on crude oil as its primary export. Industrialisation gave way to consumption.
Notably, the only administration that sought to address these structural defects, particularly the economic imbalances, was that of General Ibrahim Babangida. Yet that government continues to be vilified, especially by some in the South-West, for introducing policies aimed at curbing the debilitating effects of a culture fixated on importation and conspicuous consumption. The tinsel of Owambe, champagne, cigars, gold chains stretching several metres, and an unbridled penchant for showmanship masked a deeper economic fragility. It is regrettable that the damage inflicted on the nation by these patterns of behaviour is often lost in the public discourse, as many prefer to point fingers elsewhere while remaining ignorant of their own role in bringing Nigeria to its current nadir.
The North’s contributions, which are considerable are often unacknowledged and are mostly disparaged. The region has been central to agricultural production, food and livestock, and has supplied much of the country’s backbone of hard, unrelenting manual labour: digging, hauling, pushing wheelbarrows, collecting waste, and performing the essential tasks that keep the nation moving. Yet some snobbish Southern elites refuse to acknowledge this, preferring instead to pour scorn on the North and cast the region as parasitic. Ironically, it is often the same voices who sit all day trading imported goods, adding no value, producing nothing, while their commerce quietly undermines the Nigerian economy.
It is time to move from these unwholesome acts of finger-pointing to solid handshakes of partnerships and joining heads , hands and backs to the work of upliftment of Nigeria for the greater good of All.
BABA ISIMI FNIA writes from Abuja
