By Abdulyassar Abdulhamid
In the column Alternative Perspective titled ‘Why the disinterest from Northern Nigeria’ published in Daily Trust of Saturday October 26, 2019, the author, MD Aminu, as usual, raised some thought-provoking issues, which put together centered around ‘rearward-ness’ of northern Nigeria.
The idea of “rearward-ness” of the region as portrayed by the column is, to say the least, one reckless conclusion of depicting the north as parochial – opposing to progress and or innovations, which I have not only found to be a sweeping statement; but also incapable of withstanding academic tests. Why do I say this? It is this.
Going by social indices, education, health, technology, employment and unemployment rates, among other development indicators, the north may well be trailing behind the south. There is no doubt about that; but that does not justify the claim that the north is retrogressing.
My thought was that the column would concentrate on, lack of focus, the existing unfriendly relationship between lecturers and students in our universities or how best to marry up possible mentors and prospective mentees to fast-track socio-economic development in the region.
Let us analyze some of the major arguments the column has raised: (1) young people (from the region) are missing from other proceedings…such as essay competitions open to undergraduate students across the country’; (2) ’there is a sharp “difference in scholarly output between northern and southern Nigerian academics’; and (3) scholars from northern Nigeria are performing oddly behind their southern Nigeria contemporaries.
Neither the summit the author attended nor the experiences of his two friends (cited in the column) have adequately proven the argument right that the region is relapsing with regard to scholarship (serious academic study). It is very difficult to arrive at such a conclusion taking into account the giant strides the north is taking lately in that direction.
For one, it is an understatement to say that young men and women from the northern part of the country are participating more than ever before in a serious of activities, home and abroad.
Perhaps the writer is not aware of a 17-year-old young man from Kano, Mujahyd Ameen Lilo, who recently won the 2019 Wole Soyinka International Cultural Exchange Competition – Lilo’s paper emerged the best among the essays presented by the winners from the six geo-political zones, when he represented the North West.
Abubakar Adam Ibrahim, whose first novel, Season of Crimson Blossoms, in October 2016 won the Nigerian Literature Prize, has since then been included in the Hay Festival’s Africa 39, which is a list of the 39 most promising African writers under the age of 40 – since then Adam has been enjoying his literary honeymoon in the company of the world best literati.
He has also been awarded the “African Writers’ Residency Award” by Germany’s Goethe Institute and the Sylt Institute, among other mouth-watering opportunities he has enjoyed.
Second, the column is, permit me to use the word, insensitive of the devise launched by Nigeria and co-designed by the Minister of Communication Dr Isah Pantami, Jelani Aliyu’s breakthrough, and a host of other Nigerians of northern extraction who have been contributing researches to bodies of knowledge in technology, sciences, health, IT, engineering, journalism, literature etc, and achieving feats in different areas of callings.
Third, it is true the output ratio of the southern academic may by far outnumber that of the north, but even that argument is based on quantitative analysis rather than qualitative one. Besides, the argument needs rigorous academic checks to arrive at a reliable conclusion.
If there was total ‘disinterest’ as the article suggests, then neither he (the writer), one Yahaya Maikori, who made up part of the moderators at the summit they attended, nor Moses Ochonu or Faruq Kperogi he cited in the second part of the article would have made it to so high a rung of social leader.
Yet in the region there are Aliyu Isa Aliyus, Muhsin Ibrahims, Hamisu Hadejas, Abdullahi Zubairu Abduls, etc, who are all taking it to global arena.
If the word disinterest in the article was used to mean ‘indifference’; then the whole article is an insult or a bashing of some kind to the region; and summarily it is off the track of a wake-up call.
As a response to one Dahiru Abdullahi, upon whose submission the article, partly, based its arguments and who alleged that religious factors are responsible for the ‘total disinterest’; a learned brother Shamsudden Al-kanawy has this to say:
“The Northern Academia is comparatively inferior to the South’s that’s undeniable.
The gap between the south and the north in terms of professionals is tremendously wide. Nevertheless, I will hesitate to agree that the south is intellectually superior per capita to the north.
Most southern populations, the supposedly enlightened South West inclusive, fumble in gross misinformation about Nigeria, its cultural, socio-political structures. The South’s attitudes to intercultural dialogue, pluralism and inclusiveness is pathetic, while a non-bookish educated rural politician from the North understands the laws of compromises that are necessary in politics and business, an educated southerner elite may give in to headline impulses in that regard.
The southern academic and media narratives of the Muslim north are deep rooted in subjectivity and fallacies, which stimulate even many intellectuals to form false perceptions about the north such as the north is barren, and has nothing to offer, for instance.
Of course, the north has got to step up in its struggle to close the gap. By the way, the Muslim north has rich intellectual and industrial backgrounds.
Sultan Rumfa of Kano (who reigned 1463-1499) had a written constitution for administering his vast kingdom even before Christopher Columbus (b. 1451 d. 1506) sailed to the Americas. Mai Idris Aloma of Borno (who reigned between 1570 and 1670) had a well organized army equipped with Turkish muskets, and employed the services of 200 military advisers.
Hugg Clapperton spoke highly about the Sokoto Caliphate in his ‘Travels into the Interior of Africa’. Richmond Palmer is so impressed by the intellectuality and technological prowess of Kano that he rendered the famous ‘Tarikh al-Kano’ into ‘The Kano Chronicles’.
Al-Qalqashlandi (1355-1418 C.E) in his 10-volume book, Subh al-Asha ‘The Composition of Chancery Documents’ (from all over the world) spared a whole chapter in discussing the pattern of Chancery composition in the Great Kanem-Borno Empire.
summarily, the article is not academically oriented, let alone armed with substantiated evidences, and it is probably meant to disparage the Muslim north, as it mentioned some alleged forces (perhaps he meant religious) advocating hostility against western education. Such forces in the north scarcely have their voices heard. If he means religious circles are behind it, he is then not telling the truth… Why don’t such people celebrate the struggles of religious elements such as Abubakar Gumi, who for 60 years painstakingly promoted that cause (of western education) and civil participation?”
The idea that the north is parochial or is characterized by ‘total disinterest’ toward scholarship despite the corpus of literatures in various disciplines emanating from the region is totally ill-informed and insensitive.
Abdulhamid wrote via abdullahiyasar2013@gmail.com
Twitter: yassar2013
08145901322
The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Sky Daily
