Kome zurfin ruwa, da yashi a ciki.
However deep the water, there’s always sand in it.
Ba a hada gudu da susar katara
It is impossible to race more than your speed
This is my final take in a three-part series treaty to my beloved North.
With the title of this last take, I know that I would have courted the anger of many of us “Arewa blood”, I however pray that my opinion will be taken for what it is, an admonition from a son who hurts that his father has ruined his future.
Before I go far, I would tell us about two Northern sons, and trust me, there are thousands of them, infact tens of thousands of them.
Baba Adam, born in Maiduguri, Borno State, Nigeria on March 3, 1958. He attended Abba Ganaram Primary School, Maiduguri and Yerwa Government Secondary School Maiduguri. Dr. Adam graduated with Bachelor of Science degree in Agriculture (1987); Master of Science degree (1990) and Doctorate degree (1995) in Agricultural Education from Oklahoma State University, Stillwater Oklahoma.
While at Los Angeles, Dr. Adam was the highest-ranking black/African American male in the Los Angeles Community College District [LACCD] system. The district consisted of 9 colleges and has over 150,000 students; 5,000 staff and faculty and annual budget of over half a billion dollars. Also in addition the district has an on-going construction of over 2 billion dollars funded through bond.
Then, there is Jelani Aliyu, from Sokoto State, he is US auto giant General Motors Senior Creative Designer. He designed the world acclaimed Chevy Volt, which has been described as an American Revolution and a hot concept in automobile design line.
In a Company release on the car, this was what was said, “GM`s most electrifying advanced technology vehicle is the Chevrolet Volt concept, a battery-powered, extended-range electric passenger vehicle.”
It is from this point that I continue my admonishment, in recent visits to Borno, Yobe and parts of Adamawa, I do not need a soothsayer to tell me that my beloved Arewa is dead! Killed by arewa, not Jonathan, Asari, or Clark, not even by Boko Haram, but killed by us, killed in the most brutal manner by our very own.
For all the noise that the political class makes, for all the billions that we have received from the federation, our schools are dead, and suffice to say on intent. We have allowed our talents and gifts lay waste, gifted kids litter the streets of Rukuba in Jos, Angwar Rimi in Kaduna…
From old Sokoto which includes Kebbi, and Zamfara, how many Universities do we have, between old Kano that includes Jigawa, do we have any world class health facility, in old Kaduna, that includes Katsina, all the textile companies are dead, factories closed.
And before I hear it is the same story elsewhere in Nigeria, I dare say not true, the North has murdered its own sleep and indeed is paying and sadly we are not even on track to revival because we are yet to realize that lying waste are millions of Baba Adam, and Aliyu from Bauchi, to Plateau, Benue to Niger.
Kifi a ruwa sarki ne is an old saying, Nigeria may not be totally working, but a fish is a king in the water, a man can do what he likes in his own house, other parts of Nigeria is doing better than the North and painfully it is the truth, their leaders are stealing even worse but Universities are scattered all over the place, they are building hospitals, go to Lagos, Osun, Ekiti, Rivers, and do a comparative without all the crakum-crinkum of APC vs PDP politics, and see how far the North is behind.
We have as a people lost belief that there is nothing we cannot achieve if we put our mind on it, we have become a fixated decimal that all is Buhari, all is Ribadu, all is Rufai, and yet we forget that we have got the very basics wrong. We are no longer kings in our own water.
Today, I challenge us, arewans to tell me, where is that great city in the north, Kada city, once the mighty ‘garin governor’ is lost, Kano is battling to regain lost glory.
The North is no longer thinking, our sons and daughters are scattered all over the world, with potential to make a difference, but like the Nigerian story, our leadership circle is made up of mediocrity.
Aliyu grew up in Sokoto, in the northern part of the country. His parents came from Dogondaji, which is a town about an hour southwest of Sokoto.
He studied Architecture, the closest thing to it in Nigeria, at the Birnin Kebbi Polytechnic.
He went ahead to attend the College for creative Studies in Detroit studying Transportation Design. Got a job with General Motors, worked at the GM Tech Center for about three years and then went on international assignment to Germany for about two years at Opel.
Like Baba Adam, he needed no godfather, mother or some emir to help facilitate, all we need to resurrect the North is a dream, a great vision, not on a fixation of derivation formula, not on how the south has cheated us, forgetting that we cheated them also…
Not on creating more states, or having more seats at the National Assembly, not on more local governments, because as has been shown, having the Chief of security, or Judiciary has not given us security or peace and justice.
Today, it may not be as bad as painted because I am still a son of the North, but it is really very bad, permit me say it is terrible. There is no state but one that is self sustainable if not for oil money, yet the entire North sits on a goldmine of resources both human and natural.
We need to interrogate our leadership, which schools do our governors’ children go to, where do they do their holidays, which Arewa governor would go to Yankare Games for his next leave, before we ask Jonathan to go to Chibok, can we Arewa storm Chibok in solidarity, — It is impossible to race more than your speed, will the North resurrect or do we just conclude the requiem mass—Only time will tell
