16/11/2022
EXCERPTS FROM THE BOOK- "NEW NIGERIA: NOTHING IS WRONG WITH AFRICA AND NIGERIA JUST COMMON SENSE"
THE FOLLOWING CHAPTER UNDERLIES THE IMPORTANCE OF VOTER EDUCATION.
AND, ONE GREAT CHALLENGE WE HAVE IS THE NORTH. BECAUSE ONLY FEW ARE EDUCATED.
THIS FEW MOST TIMES TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THE LARGE UNINFORMED AND UNEDUCATED LOTS.
THIS IS WHAT CHAPTER 28 OF THE BOOK TRIES TO DEAL WITH.
MISINFORMATION HAS GREATLY MARRED THE NORTH AND THE RESULTS ARE WHAT WE SEE TODAY.
CHAPTER 28
'AREWA: THE SCHLEMIEL OF POLITICAL DECAPITATION.'' - Dr Ahmad Abubakar Mahmud Gumi.
The following article was posted on Facebook by Dr' Ahmad Abubakar Mahmud Gumi.
AREWA:THE SCHLEMIEL OF POLITICAL DECAPITATION, on 21st July 2022.
I was greatly disappointed by his write-up so I had to respond. My response follows his lenghty divisive article.
Dr Ahmad wrote as follows,
“A generation which ignores history has no past – and no future.” - Robert A. Heinlein.
"On the 15th of January 1966, Ahmadu Ibrahim Bello, the Sardauna of Sokoto was assassinated by Major Chukwuma Kaduna Nzeogwu an Igbo Nigerian Army officer for no obvious reason besides religious and sectional bigotry. Arewa lost a great political leader. On the same day also the Prime Minister, Abubakar Tafawa Balewa was killed by the same group of coupist. The nation lost a great most competent eloquent leader.
However, the SW and SE had their political leaders all saved by providence or prudence giving them an edge to date in the political scheming of power struggle. They inherited a legacy that Arewa lost.
Then ten years later on 13th February 1976, Gen. Murtala Ramat Muhammed was also assassinated by Lt. Col Buka S**a Dimka, a fellow northern Christian from the Langtang tribe. Murtala was a nationalist married to a Yoruba Lady. Therefore the apparent cause of his murder by fellow Dan Arewa was purely on religious prejudice.
With the brutal killings of these great leaders of Arewa, the region became an orphan politically at the mercy and whims of other regional political powers and a victim of vicious political dynamism and power struggle.
The insurgencies and kidnappings rampaging the region today are not unconnected with this political decapitation as Arewa became dismembered and disorganized without any legacy inherited from the founding fathers of the region so as to sustain collective mutual respect and obedience.
Only a few people of influence are crying for Arewa, the new crop of her political leaders are by and large after their own interests first and foremost, which explains why the region is economically in a pathetic situation. Just imagine if the SE or SW had any of its regional leaders killed by an Arewa soldier or that they have a teaming population of greater numbers than Arewa, what the language of equity and fairness would be then. Cameroun and Benin Republics are neighboring examples.
Your guess is as good as mine.
Yet, with this traumatic history, Arewa has remained the cement of the Nation. The schlemiel of political absurdity. Nobody is there to seriously bargain on its behalf. The victim of malign and abuse. Arewa trucks burnt, their cattle killed, and they were once required to wear identity tags in some places and not much hullabaloo about it. The Hausa will say, Haba!
Fortunately, the Nation still has Arewa as one of its last hope. Only a nationalist like Gen. Murtala can hold the nation together. A man devoid of regional sentimentalism. One who believes in one Nigeria at heart, not for political expediency or hidden motive.
I have hope for this great nation. It will overcome its deficiencies and heal from the wounds of its past, but only with people who are genuinely nationalistic.
May Allah Be our protector and guide. Amin""
My Response
I wondered how could a man of his calibre and learning inform people of his religion with such a divisive write-up, because they contained so many half truths and all half truths put together equals complete lies.
So this man was lying. My response to him was a lengthy one, and it goes thus: "Your thesis is very very sentimental and very very divisive. You have only mentioned the killing of hausa moslems by christians or southerners, but failed to point the whole truth.
Who killed Abiola? Who killed Yar Adua? Was Ironsi a part of the coup? Who killed him? Who moved first for the Independence of Nigeria? It was the South.
The north refused to bell the cat in the demand for Independence. But who became most important when it was granted? The north. Which region has been in the seat of power in Nigeria the most? The north. Who should therefore be held responsible for the woes Nigeria is presently going through? The north.
Who should be held responsible for the terrorists in the north? The north. Why? They desired to leave a large proportion of their people in the dark so they can be eternal stooges? Now the table has turned around, the stooges have become scourges.
Dear Doctor our learning should be used to instil virtues not incite violence. It was this type of your publication that incited the civil unrest and war that claimed the lives of over 2 million southerners. The killings first started in the north through a religious propaganda. There was no retaliation in the south because they are very civil down here and their leaders always try to nip violence in the bud.
And note these was not the first religious crises that was incited. The north has it in history to have propagated such killings even before the killings that culminated into a civil war. The Nigerian purse was used in executing the war against fellow Nigerians. The war was unnecessary.
But because hitherto, injustices like the incessant unwarranted religious killings in the north of innocent Nigerians have never had anyone brought to book, never has any head rolled after such unwarranted attacks, it therefore led to the uprisings of the likes of Kaduna Nzeogwu.
They desired a Nigeria of equal rights and justice. Thank God he gave orders for the elimination of the premiers in the South but his commands were not attended to. So, he acted without tribal sentiments. But this your poor thesis is packed with so much tribal sentiments.
And, am amazed you will still do this even with the level of awareness we now have and in this age of technology.
Where was Abacha from? How much did he loot? To which nations did he domicile the monies? Did he really love the north? No! Why? Because if he truly did he would have invested those monies in the north!
But like many other leaders who have arisen from the north, he chose to underplay the Importance of his people due to selfish purposes.
Dear Doctor if there is any region that should have the most qualified human resources, it should have been the north. But I don't seem to understand the mannerisms the north displays. Like a pretentious woman they want a thing but then in the open condemn that very thing.
Boko Haram is one of such example. Almajiris is another. No one can eat his or her cake and have it! Why? Because God rules in the affairs of men. You can deceive men not God.
The violence in the north today is an escalation of the violence that some northern leaders chose to condone for several centuries. Now, they are reaping the fruits. Goodluck Jonathan decided to solve the issues of Almajiris but the very north arose against it and said they needed no one to do it for them.
Please Dr Ahmad use your ability to truly educate your people. Stop polarising them to their disadvantage. If their thinking is not straight then their very societies will not be.
I will encourage you to think and act like Abraham Lincoln,' I do the very best I know how, the very best I can, and I mean to keep on doing it to the end. If the end brings me out all right, what is said against me will not amount to anything. If the end brings me out all wrong, then a legion of angels swearing I was right will make no difference.'
We must stop running after cheap recognition and instead be the hand of God to humanity.
God bless Islam and God bless the truly faithfuls.