Random Information Of Sub-Regional Groups: Is The North Crumbling?

• North East Governors Forum Set Up To Confront Security Challenges & Fight For Development – Governors of North East

•North Central Peoples Forum Set Up Because of Insecurity and Lack of Development – Gabriel Aduku

• Buhari’s Actions and Inactions Destroying The North – Danjuma Bello Sarki

By Mike Odeh James

The three geopolitical zones of the North commonly known as Northern Nigeria are currently going through some sort of changes that may have serious impacts on the citizens of the 19 States in its fold and subsequently the rest of the country.

In the month of March 2020, six Governors from Yobe, Gombe, Taraba, Bauchi, Borno and Adamawa states converged in Maiduguri, floated a forum called the North East Governors Forum, NEGF and appointed Babagana Zulum of Borno as the chairman of the group. And in September of the same year, the forum appointed Senator Abba Aji, a former presidential aide, as secretary.

The odyssey to the creation of the North East Governors Forum started last year in Gombe State when Governors from North East geopolitical zone converged to deliberate on the security and economic challenges bedeviling their various states.

The Governors who were obviously not happy with the security challenges in Borno, Yobe and Adamawa in particular also decried the slow pace of economic development of the zone as well. They, therefore, agreed to float a sub regional body that would come up with ideas and strategies on how to counter the incessant security challenges and dwindling economic fortunes of the North East.

After the attack on Governor Zulum’s convoy during a visit to Bama, the governors hastily met in Maiduguri, during which they issued a 10-point communiqué, calling for proper equipping of the police with strategic gadgets and for the “manpower deficit in the Nigerian Armed Forces to be bridged.”

The communiqué further called on the Federal Ministry of Water Resources to expedite action on recharging the Lake Chad from national water bodies, pointing out that it is a potent way of addressing the remote causes of the Boko Haram insurgency.

The forum also charged the Federal Government to revoke and re-award selected roads contracts awarded by the Federal Ministry of Works for years without progress, to more competent contractors to ensure quick execution.

The NEGF further called on the Federal Government to ensure local content in the execution of the Mambila Hydroelectric power project and other programmes of the North East Development Commission to ensure synergy with state governments.

The formation of the NEGF has attracted a lot of furore with many stakeholders in the North, pointing out that the formation of the group was borne out of the failure of past and present leaderships to address the security and economic problems in that part of the North.

However, Dr. Junaidu Mohammad, a former member of the House of Representatives, criticised the formation of the NEGF as a politically unwise move.

The former lawmaker further added that the problem of the northeast is first and foremost insecurity, followed by bad governance associated with collapsed economy which requires honest and credible approaches to solve.

He contended that the NEGF would amount to nothing but a waste of time.

Nonetheless, the underlying feat of Junaidu maybe that the NEGF would herald a new beginning – the disintegration of the North.

However, a former Director General of the Directorate of State Security Service, DSS, Mr. Afakariya Gadzama, disagrees with Dr. Junaidu, saying the NEGF is a welcome development.

According to Gadzama, the NEGF is most welcome because it would bridge the communication gap between the President of the country and the people of the North East as represented by the body.

He noted that in the past, those with access to the President had willfully refused to tell Mr. President the true state of things in the North East, thereby compounding an already bad situation.

“Those with access to the corridors of power have consistently failed to tell the President the truth about the insurgency situation and the nagging problem of Internally Displaced Persons in the North East.

“Such people have betrayed the President’s trust. This was evident in the attitude of those who were entrusted with managing the humanitarian situation in the region and other parts of the country until recently. The bold decision of the North East Governors to seek audience with the President over the situation in the North East is therefore very commendable”, he said.

What Dr. Junaidu and Afakariya had unknowingly agreed to the fact that the insurgency, the poor economic situation in the North East and the inability of the Federal Government led by President Buhari had prompted the Governors to float the NEGF.

As to how the NEGF would help to ameliorate these challenges; that would be seen in the next few months.

Just as the Governors in the North East were setting up a new governors body outside the traditional nineteen northern governors forum, another split happened in the North!

In late September, prominent leaders from the North Central Geopolitical zone converged on the nation’s capital and announced the formation of new group that would rival the pan Northern cultural group called Arewa Consultative Forum.

The Arewa Consultative Forum or the ACF as it is popularly known, was up till that moment when the North Central announced its parallel body, the umbrella body that unites the whole ethnic and religious groups of the North.

When Gabriel Aduku, a former Minister of State for Health, former Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Senator Jeremiah Useni, former Deputy Senate President, Ibrahim Mantu, a former Military Administrator of Kwara State, Col. David Bamigboye (retd.), and a former deputy chief of staff to the President, Chief Olusola Akomode decided to form the North Central Peoples Forum, NCPF effectively breaking away from the North, many could see the handwriting on the wall.

The new group which is led by Gabriel Aduku, listed the pervading insecurity situation in the sub region, economic deprivation and marginalization as the main cause of its split from the North.

The North Central Zone like the North East has been plagued by insecurity which has virtually destroyed the economic lives of the people in that sub region.

Nearly all the six States of the North Central have been bedecked with constant attacks from foreign Fulani Herdsmen or bandits from neighbouring states. In addition, the zone is perceived to have been economically neglected by the Buhari led administration.

According to Alex Agbo, a native of Kogi, “Benue, Plateau and Nasarawa seem to have borne the weight of the foreign herdsmen attacks, while Niger State has been experiencing increasing attacks by bandits. Only Kwara for the moment seem a bit safe.

“Most importantly, the insecurity in the North Central has been politicised by the Federal Government, State Governors and the citizens. It is the ordinary citizens of the North Central that suffer the most,” he added.

As the North Central zone decouples from the North, the Yoruba speaking group in Kwara and Kogi which were also part of the North since the amalgamation of Nigeria, suddenly declared their intention to seek boundary readjustment which would merge them with the Yorubas in the South West.

The group, which occupies seven local government areas in Kwara South senatorial zone and five LGAs in Kogi State, made their intention known when it had forwarded a memorandum to the National Assembly on the aegis of Kwara South Consultative Forum.

The memorandum which was issued by Josiah Aderigbigbe reads:

“The Yoruba of Kwara South occupying seven out of the 16 LGAs in the state and their counterparts in Kogi state were not given any say to determine where they wanted to be and who they wanted to live with before lumping them in with the Northern Protectorate, contrary to their right to self-determination as enshrined in the United Nations Atlantic Charter.

“The search for freedom, liberty, independence and self -determination for our people, born and unborn, therefore continues. We want a group and region to which we truly belong, where respect between us and others is reciprocal. We can no longer tolerate second -class citizenship, marginalisation and domination in a place and state that is supposed to be for all of us who live in it.”

Again, the issue of marginalization just like in the cases of the North East and the North Central featured prominently as one of the reasons why the group is seeking to opt out from a region they were once proud of.

Many analysts have posited that never in the history of the country and the North has the region called North been so troubled with cries of marginalization.

Mr. Abdulrahim Sumaila, a resident of Kaduna, believes poor governance and lack of human feelings by the leaders of the states in the North had brought about the feeling of marginalization.

He added in that “When the Premier of Northern Nigeria then, Sarduna of Sokoto, Alhaji Ahmadu Bello, held sway, he carried both Muslims and Christians along.

“He also carried all Northerners whether Yoruba, Nupe, Berom or Ebira along by giving them all sense of belonging,” Sumaila added.

A youth leader in Kaduna, Danjuma Bello Sarki, said that the agitations leading to a split or cracks in the North did not start from the Buhari administration but that the incumbent President really helped in exacerbating the tensions and factors that are leading to these cracks.

He said more than any President or leader, President Buhari promoted religious, ethnic and sectional tendencies within the North hence the leaders of the North Central in particular are up in arms against the President.

In his words:”If you look at Buhari’s appointments, you would discover that the North Central zone did not get up to twenty per cent, while Buhari’s region has over fifty per cent.

“How can you explain to the North how come Buhari appointed the Chairman and Secretary of the Federal Character Commission from the same region and both of them are of the same religious affiliation?”, he queried.

As for the split from the Arewa Consultative Forum, Mr. Sarki said, “The ACF does not serve an unbiased umpire when there is a quarrel between ethnic nationalities in the North.

“One always sees ACF taking sides or standing aloof anytime the North is in turmoil. I will therefore support any group that would split from ACF. Be it the North East Governors Forum, North Central Peoples Consultative Forum, or the clamour for boundary realignment; any form of disunity or crack in the North portends danger not only to the inhabitants of the North but to Nigeria in particular.”

As Governor Nasiru El Rufai once said, “the North is an unhealthy” region; an unhealthy region is virtually a threat to itself and the nation.

Would the President heed the warning signals and act to save his region or would he continue playing the ostrich? Only time will tell.
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