By Umar Farouk Jahun
North we are good at fully engaging ourself with unending debates over trivialities while the numerous pressing issues that pose existential threat to all of us are ignored.
Northeners are too tolerant to mediocrity. Look at the quality of discussions and debates on social issues on the social media feeds of Southern region and compare it with what is available on the North, you’ll realize why mediocrity is officially dignified in the region.
In reality we are at war with ourselves. There are hundreds ghosts towns, destroyed infrastructure and social amenities as well as millions of orphans and widows all over. Our lives are meaningless, as the killings and kidnappings has became a daily appear and still we just move on as if it’s not human life, while the indigenes head all the security apparatus in Nigeria.
Some Northerners despise western education, promote intolerance, avoid taking responsibility of their children, as a result we have more number of out-of-school children. How could we not expect violence and terrorism?
Our North has most of it’s states at the frontline facing the hazard of desert encroachment, of which millions of people are loosing their farmlands and livestock, which is their only means of livelihood, and even settlements to desertification. This compounding the already bad economic condition of our peoples and creating hordes upon hordes of disillusioned population.
Our region (North) has the highest population in Nigeria, yet majority of our people are economically productive only during the short rainy season of just between two to four months of a year depending on the part of the region. And despite our semi-arid to arid climate condition, we are still indiscriminately cutting down what is left of the trees that provide a sort of cover against the rampaging desert as the major source of domestic energy and often the only source of getting dry season income.
I can go on and on mentioning so many pressing issues that should be getting our attention such as drug abuse, youth thuggery, closed industries, rampant cases of rape, youth unemployment, falling standard of education, rampant examination malpractice, rural-urban migration, waste disposal and management, poor urban planning, bad public transport system, environmental pollution etc.
Hence, our problem is not religion or its interpretation. Our problem is bad governance and corruption. Religious beliefs or ideologies do not build or destroy a nation, good governance or it opposite does. Even if we succeeded in making everyone in the North a Sufi, Salafi, Shiite, a Liberal Muslim or a Christian that won’t change our situation as long as the bad governance and corruption we are having in this region and the nation at large continues.
North should also unites and keep moving all on the ethnoreligious lines. There’s no two-way to it. If not the progress of the nation and more over the peace would be with the south. Until we all agree with that, we keep marching on a point. But until then Northeners are ripping from negligence in their responsibility.
Farouk is an Academia, Columnist and Member Chemical Society of Nigeria. He writes from Jigawa and can be reached Via +2347032843368, daddyjahun@gmail.com
The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Sky Daily
