Tinubu’s Government And The Continued Pauperization And Marginalization Of The North (Part 2) -By Hajia Hadiza Mohammed

I got peeved when Tinubu was quoted recently to have said that the North is the region that benefitted most from his reforms. And I asked: what reforms and where are the so-called benefits and I found none other suffering and pain for those allegedly brought him to power.

During the 2023 presidential election, the entire South rejected Tinubu on account of his inglorious antecedent but the North took the risk in the spirit of oneness, indivisibility and indissolubility of the nation and rigged him into power; Malam Nasir El-Rufai and those that masterminded the electoral fraud that brought Tinubu to power have confessed to that. Tinubu was rejected flatly in the South East and even in his own Southwest. He lost in his base Lagos, Ogun and Oyo State and yet the North chose him. The North rejected their own, Atiku Abubakar, the Wazirin Adamawa, a man with a formidable credential and pedigree, worked against Peter Obi, a man whose record of integrity in public service is nonpareil.

When a colleague of mine gave a cruel joke that what the North is suffering under Tinubu is karma, my initial reaction was to rebuke him, but on a second thought, I felt that there may be a kernel of truth in that joke for obviously, Tinubu has used the North to climb to power and dumped the region with ignominy. The North did not only accept Tinubu when the South rejected him but worked for his ascendancy. The political who-is-who in the 19 Northern State from Sokoto to Borno, Kano to Kogi, campaign, organized and mobilized the people, the political actors, traditional rulers, community leaders, the religious clerics  and anyone that matters to rally round him. But what the North get in return for that? Nothing! The North has been sidelined in the scheme of things.

Clearly, the North has remain the most impoverished part of the country despite its vast natural endowment and contributions to the country. Under Tinubu, the economy of the North has collapsed as economic activities are negatively affected by his harsh policies and insecurity prevalent in the country now. Granted that insecurity did not start with Tinubu but under him it has become worse. Under him kidnapping, banditry and terrorism has metastasized to every nook and cranny of the North. Mass killing of innocent citizens has become a normal routine; kidnapping of school children is going on a daily basis. The number of IDP camps are also growing. There is a high level of youth unemployment and the number of out of school children has risen to over 30 million.

We were told that olitics is about interest, power sharing and resource allocation. But it appears that the Northern political elites that supported Tinubu never negotiated anything with him. Under Tinubu, the political interest of the North has been compromised and violated. Apart from having the office of the president, every other key appointment is also in the hands of the Yoruba man. Everything that has to do with Finance from the CBN to Customs, Revenue Services, PENCOM, The Office of the Accountant-general, the auditor-general, the Bureau for Public Enterprise, the Bureau for Public Procurement is in the hands of the Yoruba man. The Chief Justice of the Federation, Kudirat Kekere-Ekun and the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Lateef Fagbemi are all Yoruba. The internal Affairs, the DSS, EFCC, NIMC, the Nigerian Satellite Communications Limited are all in control of the Yoruba people and the list is endless.

Those who sold Tinubu to the North mooted the idea of power sharing and infrastructural facelift but that has remained a pipe dream that is unrealizable. There is no infrastructural project in the North throughout this period. Most of the very projects of this administration are concentrated in Lagos. Tinubu now runs a parallel administrative office in Lagos. The State House in Lagos was renovated at a whooping cost of N7 billion. Some government offices and agencies have been moved to Lagos by Tinubu. And it is suspected that he has plans to relocate the capital of Nigeria back to Lagos if he succeeds in getting another tenure just as he returned Nigeria backwards to the old National Anthem.

Governance is about working to achieve shared goals and interest aggregation. But in the last three years of being in the saddle Tinubu has shown a flagrant disregard for power sharing and pursuant of general interest. Although Tinubu government has not favored anyone but the North obviously fared worse under him than under any government in the history of this country. And this ironical given that it was the same North that stood with him and rigged him into power (because everyone knows he never won the election and has no credentials to win a free and fair election in Nigeria).

But despite all of these many observers did not blame the Northern political elite for supporting Tinubu against one of their own, Atiku Abubabakar, the former vice-president because of the believe that it was the turn of the South then to produce the president according to informal arrangement of power rotation between the North and the South. And now that that unwritten pact has been honored, I think the North can take stock, redraw its strategies and realign as the 2027 Presidential election beckons. Tinubu and his people has shown that they cannot share power. We would no longer condone their winner-takes-all politics. Politics is about negotiated interest. Tinubu has proved that he cannot work for the interest of all but that of his Yoruba ethnic group. Nigeria is a multi-ethnic entity. Methinks that anyone that should govern this nation must be the father of all not a section of the country.

Hajia Hadiza Mohammed
hajiahadizamohammed@gmail.com
An actress, social activist, politician
London, UK