Once, When I was a Northerner

This is a must read for all Middle Belters.

Once, When I Was a Northerner

by Jonathan Ishaku, 29 July 2011

I was once a Northerner. In Maiduguri, where I grew up, I was actually considered a Hausa. If you lived in Maiduguri in the 60s and 70s, you will know what I mean.

The Kanuris, keenly proud of their rich language and Islamic heritage, resisted, albeit, in a mild and non-xenophobic manner, the infiltration of other languages into their domain, most especially the pervasive Hausa language. I recall the many gentle rebuke we, as children, received from Kanuri market women for speaking Hausa while bargaining the price of groceries.

Maiduguri, was a lovely northern city; it was peaceful, socially laidback but culturally vibrant. It was home of the most spectacular durbars I ever witnessed. The horses and riders decked in resplendent decoration and attires, accompanied by gaily damsels with their uniquely weaved long hair and flowing robes, were a delight to behold on any festive occasion.

I have vivid recollection of the Shehu's palace; the foreground was where we spent many an evening playing football or any other game we could improvise. But the place holds a special place in my memory; it was on this ground that our Boys Brigade company once joined other youth groups in a magnificent match- pass and gymnastic display. We must have won something because I was among the kids called upon to shake hands with the Shehu that day. That was huge, to use a contemporary expression! It left a lasting impression on me; I felt a sense of belonging in my community. Ok, the Angas and Kanuri share common historical links to the ancient Kanem civilisation; but this experience was personal and the impression didn't wear off for long time.

In the later part of the 70s and 80s, I schooled and worked in Ibadan and Lagos, respectively. Once again, I found myself a Northerner. If in Maiduguri, it was because I spoke Hausa and shared historical affinity with the Kanuris, here it was for a completely different reason. In Ibadan I represented, it turned out, a string of stereotypes: the anachronistic North, the feudalistic North, the iron curtain of anti-Western education (boko haram, if you like), the home of anti-democrats, the haters of "Awo", etc. In short, I was Omo gambari. I was aboki (as in aboki, the shoe-shiner). I was also mallam (as in mallam, the security guard at the gate).

I worked as a journalist for a Lagos-based newspaper. It was the most wonderful working environment I had ever had and I enjoyed Lagos' liberal ambience.

One day we were told that President Ibrahim Babangida had finally agreed to grant us an audience for an interview. I was among the four-man team to meet the President. As we drove to Dodon Barracks, the erstwhile resident of Nigeria's leaders, a colleague remarked that I was obviously eager to meet with my fellow Northerner, the President. I retorted that I didn't know the President personally and, point of correction, I added, I was not a Northerner. I was a Middle Belter! I was pained by his remark; it was an affront to my anti-establishment and anti-feudalist credentials which I had painstakingly cultivated over the years!

I could well have saved my breath; I hadn't reckoned with the maverick General. For as soon as the Babangida entered the room, he announced, with a gusto reserved only for a long-lost buddy: "Jonathan, one of these days, I am going to respond to your column!" I could just catch the conspiratorial exchange of glances among my colleagues.

After that counter, the President became "your brother" and I was practically queried at editorial meetings on why the government embarked of certain programmes as if I was part of his kitchen cabinet. Middle Belter or not, as long as you come from beyond the Niger and Benue rivers, you are treated with a measure of suspicion.

Why do I use such anecdotal approach to the request to write an article on "Charting a Political and Economic Future for the North"? There are main three reasons for doing so. First, I intended to use my personal experience to show how the North has lost its innocence using as the point of departure the emerging scenario in Maiduguri, the town embodying my fondest childhood memory.

As I write the city writhes in the grasp of an unprecedented, religiously-inspired terrorism. The group behind these acts of terrorism, Jama'atu ahli-Sunna Lil Da'awati wal Jihad, also known as Boko Haram, generally targets law enforcement agents, traditional rulers, judges as well as religious clerics, both Islamic and Christian, for assassination. Of recent, however, it has stepped up the violence by indiscriminate targeting of innocent citizens through the deployment of explosive devices positioned in public places.

Now terrorist violence has been exported to most states of the Northern Nigeria including the Federal Capital Territory. On June 16, 2011 the Nigerian Police Headquarters, Abuja, was bombed in a brazen display of impunity by the Boko Haram using a suicide bomber, a first in the North's emerging history of ethnic and religious violence.

If there is any single issue that challenges the political and economic future of our nation, in general, and the region, in particular, it is this phenomenon of religious terrorism. We must live first before we are anything else! If we must recue our nation, we must forge a consensus on this: peace and security as the first condition to political and economic development. The North should find a lasting solution to its incessant acts of violence or we will end up destroying the nation as a whole.

Secondly, I intend to point out that discrimination among elements of the North in the post-Sardauna era does not augur well for development of the region. The Rev. Father Matthew Kukah once spoke of Sardauna's political ecumenism "using the apparatus of modern democracy to transform Northern Nigeria into a modern Caliphate." While the Sardauna tried to accommodate the North's ethnic and religious minorities, the succeeding elite did the exact opposite. These days we hear stories of how northerners of ethnic minority origins are discriminated from appointments in northern-based public institutions.

As minorities, we suffer double jeopardy; we are distrusted by our southern compatriots and discriminated by our fellow northern neighbours. And to cap it all, ethnic minorities in our region have always been the prime targets of violence. Or why did the violence following the 2008 local government polls in Jos North and the 2011 Presidential elections in Nigeria take an unmistakable religious coloration by targeting Christians? These perceived acts of aggression continue to undermine solidarity and hamper the mobilization of common resources for human and physical development in the region.

Thirdly, political ecumenism should be accompanied by economic ecumenism; the North should pull together its vast and enormous resources if it must fight the prevalent poverty in its midst. The famous groundnut pyramids, oil mills, the textile industries, the tin mining industries, banking and hotel, and the tannery industries which once made the North ticked were made possible because the region pulled its resources together. Decline set in after sharp and discriminatory practices begun to emerge; bias in appointments and location of new ventures, unfair pricing of commodities, profiteering by selected middlemen, corruption, etc, led to the collapse of most of the New Nigeria Development Corporation (NNDC) institutions.

Some years back I presented a paper at Arewa House at a workshop organised by Northern Media Forum. I pointed out that the late Commissioner of Police and Governor of the defunct Benue-Plateau State, Joseph Dechi Gomwalk, established the Nigeria Standard newspaper after the jointly-owned New Nigerian newspaper consistently gave a black-out to ethnic minority groups in the region. My argument was that unless we respected the principle of diversity and fair-dealing, we shall never project a common voice for the North.

But just before I was crucified by the incensed audience, I was rescued by the highly venerated chairman of the occasion, the late Alhaji Liman Ciroma, who confirmed my statement. He, however, gave further insight: Gomwalk, he said, was the first to embrace the idea of establishing Bank of the North among the Northern Governors of his time and he went further to demonstrate this by donating a prime parcel of land to the bank. Lesson: a good economic idea will always have supporters, sans politics.

In short, the future of the North lies in cooperation and tolerance not discrimination and violence. I rest my case.

Mr. Ishaku, a veteran journalist, was one time editor of Nigeria Standard, Jos, and founding editor of Sunday Champion newspaper, Lagos. He was on the founding team of ThisDay and later worked with Daily Times of Nigeria as General Manager before taking up appointment as General Manager of Plateau Publishing Corporation, Jos. Ishaku was also a member of the National Technical Working Committee of Vision 2020.