Since the flowering of portmanteau word ‘Niger Area to Nigeria’, by Flora Louise Shaw fondly called Lady Lugard, Northern enclave is a land of striking historicism, economy, scholarship and distinct linguistic background. North is like any other region in the global chronicle with pros and cons that require imperative revivalism.
It’s sad events of six decades of Nigeria’s sovereignty for a realm that produces the good, the bad and the ugly of 10 presidents out of 16 presidents in the history of the most populous black nation on earth. Hitherto, Prime Minister Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, Ahmadu Bello, Sardauna of Sokoto and Samuel Akintola were killed brutally in 1966 military coup by the bigotry army.
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Sardauna’s magnificent edifices cut across the North. Amongst his legacy is the University of Northern Nigeria mutated into Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, to name but a few. However, there is a sarcasm among the northern populace that “If Sardauna resurrects today, he would go to his home directly without a guide”, nothing has changed from the projects he established. Yet, his precedence is not surpassed by political opportunists. They often converge on Kaduna to discuss the achievements of Sir Ahmadu Bello’s indelible past.
The Northern society is conduiting on the verge of disarray, as a result of ingrained hatred between the two Abrahamic faith propagating dogmatic gospel and ethnic chauvinism. It’s transparent in Jos-Plateau autochthonous people [sic] and in Kaduna a slight misunderstanding could easily ignite religious violence. Community leaders and clerics have turned into beneficiaries of conflicts. In addition, religious leaders acquiesce with political demagogue to campaign politics rather than words of God and to tell authority the pleas of a common man. These conceptual decadence entice all kinds of Tom, Dick and Harry to label the region with all sorts of discredited cliché.
Prior to this century, virtually everything is dwindling. Notably, education is neglected in exchange of money betwixt the guardian and teachers. Ancient Kanem-Borno Empire with a slogan of ‘Home of Peace’ is entitled Boko Haram hotbed. In Kano, Kofar Matar Dying Pits, a 500-year industry has become a historic site for tourists. Kaduna Textile Mills is now a garden of shrub and hideout for criminals.
So many young minds dwell in an imaginary life opposite to hard work. Popular culture made a hiatus to the so called ‘leaders of tomorrow’ cherishing way of life that is not ours. A hard drug at this moment is common and it is very rare to find a household without a junkie or hookah addict.
Social media sites foreclose youngsters cognitive acuity. For them it is a tool of spreading nonsensical, trivial and condescending half-baked knowledge on Facebook, Twitter and engaging in intra-religious banter between Izala and Sufis, involving in someone’s affairs, thoughts and standpoint contrary to theirs. If you throw a one million dollar questions, who and who are the 14 lieutenants of Shehu Usman Danfodio? Nok Culture is located where? Or in what year Sultan Muhammadu Attahiru II was killed by British colonists? Hardly you will get the correct answers in the absence of Google. Reading habits have been wiped away in their schedule.
The questionable Hausa movie is a threshold of infusing extraneous civilisation, non-conformity to Northern cultural mores. Boundless of Kannywood motion-picture is a replica and parody of Bollywood. A single person boastfully plays manifold roles as a script writer, actor, marketer and costumes in a technical odd. The selfish acclaimed directors humiliate young ladies in quest of hubris career. Many of emerging actresses fall into pry of misogyny such as sex objects and mistress for sexual gratification.
Women and girls transpose to an endangered spices and scapegoat. Some men display arrogantly, in numerous scenarios, against women’s achievements either in politics, academia, or journalism. A typical view in the North is “no matter the education of women, she ends in the kitchen’’.
Albeit, women that acquired higher education are not excluded from the systemic stigma like Yar Banza meaning wayward or whore. The unlucky ones who lack suitors named Kwantan Boko literally “old stock of western Education.
Notwithstanding, in the 1950s, North with a tiny diligent population was able to build an iconic ‘Groundnut Pyramid’, rearing millions of livestock, excavating exponential mineral resources and market products across the Atlantic. Now, scores of men are itinerant, wallowing from Lagos ghettos to Anambra squalor. Those traits made Nollywood to depict Northerners as ‘Mallam Musa- Mai Guard-the watchman’, ‘Mallam Habu- the cobbler’, Mallam Tanko- the aphrodisiac seller’ or ‘Mallam Bala-cart pusher’, despite the word ‘Mallam’ in Hausa is learned person. Nonetheless, the fertile land is unused throughout the four corners of the North.
The three political regions in the North faced worst history of modern civilisations. North-East ravaged by Boko Haram led thousands of innocent people to flee neighboring countries. Over 200 girls abducted from Government Secondary School, Chibok, and 59 students massacred at the Federal Government College. With such dreadful acts, world leaders, policymakers and celebrities broadened a hash tag on Twitter #BringBackOurGirls. Recently, 43 rice farmers were beheaded in Zabarmari. North-Central is a breeding ground of ethno-religion conflicts.
As a consequence of mentioned retrogression, Northern Nigeria wallows in anarchy. Additionally, people are no longer safe to travel, from Abuja to Kaduna, from Katsina to Sokoto and from Damaturu to Borno, without fear of being captured by the bandits or Boko Haram terrorists.
Give the above outline, Northern population is a curse as long as we allow diabolical conviction to determine our worldview in negative praxis. We have elapsed two decades in this millennium. Time awaits no one, a decisive archer can point an arrow to aim many goals in a single shoot.
Hassan sent this piece from Jos
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