allAfrica.com: Nigeria: The Renewal of Hope (Page 1 of 1)

The late Sardauna was one of a kind - a robust politician who put every ounce of his energy into the fight that confronted him; and deployed the same vigour, determination and zeal in delivering every goal he pursued.

He spared nothing of himself, and forsook all the commonplace splendours and sumptuary delights and trappings of the elevated person, putting first and foremost, concern for the welfare and well-being of the people in the material as well as spiritual dimensions; subordinating everything else about himself and his personality; allowing all these to be consumed by his devotion to fulfil the burdens imposed upon him as servant and leader.

Sir Ahmadu Bello was never intimidated by the odds against him; giving no one any reason whatsoever to doubt that he feared to take any risk in the pursuit of the causes imposed upon him by history as leader and servant of the North and of Nigeria.

He was completely devoid of jealousy of colleagues and subordinates who showed excellence, but selflessly encouraged and groomed them for higher achievements. In the sharpest of sharp and obnoxious contrast to most of the so-called leaders of our time, Bello, like his soul mate Balewa, lived in slender means and left the treasury well alone and eschewed even the conventional kick-back. Need I say, like Balewa, Bello left no property except one derisory house in Sokoto.

Balewa's mud house had to be refurbished and remodelled years after his death, to save his family the embarrassment of living in full public view.

Dr. Mu'azu Babangida Aliyu, by choice, you rejected the title of Governor of Niger State, insisting on enforcing upon all your preferred terminology of Chief Servant of Niger State. These and many more lie behind the decision of the Gamji Members Association to bring us here and do you honour. You as Chairman of the Northern Governors Forum, along with your colleagues have championed the establishment of the Ahmadu Bello Foundation.

Dr. Mu'azu Babangida Aliyu, by being a spearhead of Northern revival, I recommend to you and your colleagues a re-reading of Franz Fanon who left us with a memorable quotation "Each generation has a mission conferred on it by history; it either fulfils or betrays it".

I disagree with T.Y Danjuma that his generation failed the North or Nigeria for that matter. I consider the entrenching of Nigerian nationhood through victory in the civil war and the creation of states not a failure but an epochal success. It is the subsequent generations who took over that set in motion events which culminated in the last eight years that waged a blitzkrieg against the North in almost every sphere of life. The lesson of the last eight years is that if you want to fulfil the mission of your group of leaders in the country as a whole, you should read Walter Rodney's book - "How Europe Underdeveloped Africa" and you will appreciate what I mean in referring to a blitzkrieg being waged against the North and its economy. It matters little that some inexperienced, callous, immoral, corrupt and odious young Northerners were roped into the scheme and they played their part in a most noxious manner.

Examine the policy packages of the eight years of the Obasanjo regime; and go through the allocation of resources sector by sector; supplement this with a close study of the mode of implementation of the economic empowerment schemes instituted in those years as crafted by Soludo and co., and you will understand what I am saying. His group single-handedly crafted the NEEDS programme which the Obasanjo regime has imposed on the nation.

Examine the NEEDS properly and all other programmes, and the manner they allocated resources, then you can understand why Soludo can stand up and say poverty is a Northern phenomenon. Today, Soludo is celebrating what he calls "Northern Poverty" by the deployment of statistics of one sort or the other. Before we go very far, please remember the book "How to Lie With Statistics". When you read it, you understand that facts and figures as deployed mean nothing unless they are related to other facts of the economy. For example, are these figures given in the context of a market economy or triple mixed economy, etc? In comparative terms, lying with statistics is more evident in terms of different parts of Nigeria. I have always held the view that apart from a very tiny fraction, most Nigerians are poor and live a very poor life! So poverty is truly national and I am sure all those groaning under its crushing burden, North and South are not amused by its arbitrary regionalization.

I knew Soludo when he was a student leader. I see now that he is rubbing insult to injury by telling the Northern Governors that they should now adopt micro-financial institutions which were of course designed by Soludo and his faceless cohorts as a means to resolve poverty among Northern masses. It is the same Soludo who has so far refused to implement the amendment to the Central Bank Act passed by the Legislature in the last days of Obasanjo's tenure. That Act was to bring Nigeria as a democratic society practicing economic democracy and free enterprise in line with all countries in the world. There is no nation or region of the world - be it America, Europe, the far East, or even the old Soviet Russia - which imposed on its economy only one size of bank. In the US and Britain which Nigerians like to copy there exist all manner of banks. Some are designed for very limited purposes. What Soludo with Obasanjo as his mentor has imposed on the country is a banking system that has no parallel any where in the world; and it is undemocratic, and negates the principle of free enterprise..

Now, what am I saying by all these? I am saying that the Northern Governors should turn deaf ears to any proposal from Soludo on how to combat poverty. Soludo is a hatchet man of some faceless group. And I challenge you to find out who are responsible for and are the brains behind TRANSCORP.

The spirit so far shown, with respect to education, agriculture, water, afforestation and desertification by the Northern Governors Forum is a step in the right direction that deserves to be intensified. You should extend similar attention to independent power generation once the Trans-sahara gas pipeline reaches Kaduna and Kano. You should go after the underground sea beneath Gwarzo which has enough clean water to serve the whole of Nigeria.

The Forum should also intensify the search for Northern oil and gas; but great care and caution should be exercised to avoid the circumstances that led to the make-belief crisis of Darfur.

In the same breath, before I am done, I want you to advise your colleagues strongly to fund Arewa House to carry out serious research into the sources, impact, and implications of the economic policies of the last eight years. The result of such research could bring you face to face with a reality you never suspected existed.

Dr. Tahir is the Talba of Bauchi.

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