The multifaceted challenges bedevilling northern Nigeria are well-known and widely discussed. However, solutions to these problems seem adamantly evasive, thanks to the theoretical, elitist and kinetic approaches to the issues at hand. Given the nature and diverse factors involved in these crises, I believe that only a dialogue-based approach can resolve the myriad of these ever-evolving challenges in the region.
The clock is ticking
The danger of the threats against the corporate existence of northern Nigeria and the emergency of the situation are highly underrated. From Niger, Chad to Cameroon border, it is perhaps not an exaggeration to say that northern Nigeria is literally on fire. For, within its 660,000 km2 land mass, there is today, hardly a 200 km2 space that is completely peaceful and conducive for life, devoid of one crisis or another.
Indeed, every section of this country has its own peculiar existential threats, but we do not need a rocket scientist to tell us that the current situation of northern Nigeria is incomparable to that of other regions of this country – not even to any moment in the history of the region.
The question, however, is: Beyond lamentations and the so-called individual efforts, is there a solid, collective attempt towards resolving these issues from the quarters that matter?
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Just last month, while the world celebrated Christmas, terrorists attacked innocent Christians in Bokkos and Barkin-Ladi in Plateau State, killing about 200 people. The gory images that came out of that scene must take our minds back in history to the despicable scenes of German and Rwandan genocides.
There was the Zangon Kataf crisis that began in the 1980’s which has spilled overtime to become the endless, bloody Southern Kaduna crises, from which we have lost thousands of lives.
More recently, there was Agatu in Benue State, where in 2017, arsonists wiped away a whole community, killing hundreds and leaving thousands of people homeless. Sadly, the narrative that characterises this crisis is the false minority Christian ethnic groups being killed by the majority Hausa-Fulani Muslims.
But, in August 2011, terrorists attacked Muslim worshippers on an Eid ground in the same Plateau State, killing dozens and destroying millions worth of property. This was only one of such instances where Mosques are being torched, worshippers killed and properties destroyed in this part of the country.
In 2017, a vehicle filled with citizens perceived to belong to a particular ethnic group was burnt to ashes in broad daylight at Makurdi Motor Park, burning all occupants alive. Gruesome!
In Numan LGA of Adamawa State, nearly a hundred women and children were slaughtered in 2018, prior to which in 2017, over one thousand people were butchered in cold blood across the Mambilla Plateau by ethnic militias.
There was also a pond of death at Dura-Du area of Plateau State where the remains of Gen. Idris Alkali (rtd) and hundreds of others were found decomposing. In August 2021, more than 30 Muslims were dragged off their vehicles and killed at Gada-Biyu village. Sadly, again, the binary, Muslim Hausa/Fulani are being killed by other Christian ethnic groups. False.
Right now, the country is on a fundraiser for hundreds of millions to secure the release of the family abducted by kidnappers in the nation’s capital. Abuja, the FCT has become a free field for daylight kidnapping and armed robbery. Where else is safe?
Socially, the North is literally failing. Just a few days ago, the latest NBS annual statistics showed that more than 60 per cent of poor Nigerians live in the North, 75 per cent of the illiterate, more than 60 per cent of the unemployed, close to 70 per cent of the out-of-school-children are northerners.
In a few years, the so-called out-of-school children are going to be illiterate, jobless and poor adults on the streets, bearing multiple wives and dozens of children with no formal education or modern skills to get by.
The fertility rate for women in the north is 8:1 – women, who form 50 per cent of the population are married off without basic education and are, therefore, effectively locked out of the productivity circle, save for house chores.
While all these are going on, religious fundamentalism, hate-mongering and intra-communal tensions are being consciously and subconsciously triggered, enabled, fanned and sustained.
At the political front where numbers matter, the North is in disarray without a plan or program, cohesive agenda or a rallying point. Economically, the future of the region is gloomy, as agriculture, the main economic mainstay, has been dissipated due to incessant insecurity, climate change and zero investments in the sector.
As major water bodies, such as Lake Chad, and major rivers that traverse the region dry off due to climate change, environmental degradation and desert encroachment vis-à-vis population explosion, natural resource scarcity is assured, which brings about resource control crises across communities.
This is an overwhelming, but never exhaustive list of challenges facing the North. The subsequent parts of the essay would delve into the proposed solutions.
If securing the lives and properties of citizens are the only function of government, it is now crystal clear that the kinetic approach to these communal challenges has not only failed, but has also compounded the problem, all together.
For instance, just last month, the Nigerian military confessed to bombing a gathering of innocent Muslim worshippers at Tudun Biri, Kaduna State, killing and wounding hundreds of people.
A year earlier in January 2023, the same military bombed several communities in Nasarawa State with devastating numbers of casualties. The stories of extrajudicial killings across the north are commonplace and seemingly unabating.
The fact that the government has not and may not be able to resolve these social crises is an obvious fact. This tells the North, therefore, that the people of northern Nigeria have to take their future into their own hands and devise new, practical approaches to resolving these issues.
Historically and indeed practically, the most, if not the only possible approach to resolving social crises is dialogue. The various sections, stakeholders and groups that make up northern Nigeria must start talking, now!
This dialogue must first and foremost, be ignited by the traditional, religious, political and economic leaders of the region. As against the previous attempt, this resolution must be and must be seen to be fair, balanced and without prejudice to any section involved.
Thus, the Sultan and other emirs, governors, legislators and political leaders at all levels must start engaging the society. Just as the clock ticks towards explosion, let our leaders of this region inch towards a cohesive, comprehensive and viable diffusion of this situation.
A stitch in time saves nine!
Ahmadu Shehu is an Associate Professor at Kaduna State University, Kaduna. He can be reached via: [email protected]
