sometimes i ask myself, was it my fault that i was born into a northern family??, life seems to hold nothing for a young hopeful northern born child like me,i was born in a rural area in zamfara state,a typical Hausa community, i was raised accordingly by my parents, on getting to my teenage years, it dawned on me that everything seemed to follow one pattern in my community, it was compulsory for everyone to follow the Muslim faith, it also seemed compulsory for every male indigene to marry from the same community, i observed the whole life process here, everything seemed the same, nothing different ever happened, men were born local and died local, the whole community lacked innovation, nobody ever thought of anything new, life was an everyday process which everyone had to follow. there was hardly any form of electricity supply in my community, power was supplied on very rare occasions, and on such white collar days, the whole village would gather at the village square to watch tv, most times news, probably to everyone else, they were having fun and expressed it with big grins on their faces, when they saw big cities like lagos, kano, abuja and the rest on television, to me, it was like watching a totally different world, most of the things i saw on television were non-existent in my community,good roads, water supply, electricity and the rest. It all seemed alien-like when i saw them, the schools we had in my community seemed like death traps, with the buildings dilapidated and slowly collapsing due to age, i used to imagine how old those buildings must be, not to talk of the kind of teachers we had, most of them took extra holidays and came to school whenever they wished, we were mostly taught Islamic doctrine and a little bit of arithmetic and English to go with, you would wonder where we the students got our motivation to keep attending school, it all seemed that school seemed to be the most exciting thing happening around us, even though we could not say we had even up to quarter of what you would regard as a stellar education. I myself had dreams to be different, to make my community a happening place, to make my family proud of me, to help all kids in my community have standard education, to put good roads and water in place for my people, but as i grew up, i faced reality and it dawned on me that my dreams would eventually amount to nothing, 'where would i start from?' was the question i asked myself frequently, i was willing to do anything to actualize my dreams, but everytime i tried to muster a little hope for the future, my dreams were dashed by reality .life went on like this for a long while until something happened sometime in August 2008,a group of men came to our community school and separated the male folk from the female folk, we were told that a lot is going to change in our lives in the next few months and advised to prepare for anything.The lessons we were having at school changed totally,we were now lectured in the reason why our lives and community had come to be like this, we were told by our instructors that our kind was hated and neglected in the whole of Nigeria, we were shown videos of how our kind performed roles of servants to the society in urban areas, how our kind seemed to poverty stricken and isolated in such towns and cities, we were told that we would be in the same situation if we tried traveling to such places in search of greener pastures. Therefore we had to do something that would make our lives and that of our families better, we were told that if we cooperated, our families would be rewarded with huge amounts of money and life would get better. We were then told that it would involve killing and suicide bombing for our plans to really work out. Already our minds were prepared for anything. That was how we took up arms to fight for better lives for ourselves and for our families.So next time you want to open your mouth to judge the youth who have joined boko haram,think of the situation of this young man, think of the plight of his family and underdevelopment that had eaten deep in to lives of everyone in their community. live positively!.
.This was written by a young Nigerian.. Just looking at things from the other point of view.. I am in no way supporting insurgency of any kind.. Share your thoughts

The plight and state of most parts of the north, educationally and financially is deplorable. A lot has to do with the attitude of the northerners towards school itself(western education) and the personal drive or ambition to succeed in life which many northerners don't have.

To think Northerners have been at the helm of affairs in Nigeria since I was born.
You are taking up arms to kill the Nigerian people that are suffering like you? You are not serious.
You say you took up arms to fight for better lives? So bombing innocent people at motor parks who have chosen to make lemonade out of the diseased lemons Nigeria throws at them is what you call fighting to better your life?
You say Zamfara...now that sounds familiar. Is that not the state that introduced Sharia into secular Nigeria? So you guys were suffering and Senator Yerima who was then governor was more interested in preserving a borrowed religion than your well being? You people are still not serious.
Your way of life is tied around a few being stupendously wealthy and the majority of the populace being subjected to stupendous poverty. In fact you are very very comfortable with this dynamic. This was the method your people used to rule and finish off Nigeria. And it ended up killing off the middle class. The middle class in the South ran away to other countries, that some have not been back in decades. However, Northern students that school abroad, never ever stay back, they go back to Nigeria because a lucrative job is waiting for them by a principality and powerful relative in Nigeria who is holding the country to ransom.

Please ring me up when you are done licking the bum bum of your leaders. When are you going to pelt eggs on Senator Yerima, his predecessors and successors for allowing your state to be in such deplorable conditions? Why can't you hold your governors to ransom instead of the whole country? Naa, according to the intelligence of the average Northerner, the unholy South is to blame, rubbish!

I will judge every damn nigerian, rich or poor. All have contributed to the rot called Nigeria.

Many have been wasted by boko haram activities,but never the less, it not late for them to change their evil ways.times hv changed and this world will never wait for them.the world has gone pass the time of war and fighting,let us all live as one...

Stillfire: To think Northerners have been at the helm of affairs in Nigeria since I was born.
You are taking up arms to kill the Nigerian people that are suffering like you? You are not serious.
You say you took up arms to fight for better lives? So bombing innocent people at motor parks who have chosen to make lemonade out of the diseased lemons Nigeria throws at them is what you call fighting to better your life?
You say Zamfara...now that sounds familiar. Is that not the state that introduced Sharia into secular Nigeria? So you guys were suffering and Senator Yerima who was then governor was more interested in preserving a borrowed religion than your well being? You people are still not serious.
Your way of life is tied around a few being stupendously wealthy and the majority of the populace being subjected to stupendous poverty. In fact you are very very comfortable with this dynamic. This was the method your people used to rule and finish off Nigeria. And it ended up killing off the middle class. The middle class in the South ran away to other countries, that some have not been back in decades. However, Northern students that school abroad, never ever stay back, they go back to Nigeria because a lucrative job is waiting for them by a principality and powerful relative in Nigeria who is holding the country to ransom.

Please ring me up when you are done licking the bum bum of your leaders. When are you going to pelt eggs on Senator Yerima, his predecessors and successors for allowing your state to be in such deplorable conditions? Why can't you hold your governors to ransom instead of the whole country? Naa, according to the intelligence of the average Northerner, the unholy South is to blame, rubbish!

I will judge every damn nigerian, rich or poor. All have contributed to the rot called Nigeria.

..you won't be saying this if you were in the shoes of the many youth who have found themselves in this situation

Edited.

bigfrancis21:

If you want your article to ever receive attention and heartfelt comments from nairalanders on your article, you had better take back your comment. I've recommended this article for the front page.

..okay.. But Why??

,

I expected you say when u took up arms nd bombs to fight for ur fAmilies u were heading to d government house to carry out ur plans.

bigfrancis21:

If you want your article to ever receive attention and heartfelt comments from nairalanders on your article, you had better take back your comment. I've recommended this article for the front page.

And its on frontpage

this is what happened when you have someone like PGJ running this country....

Human resources being wasted .

*soaks bread inside water, and sits on a mat*

A good article...and part of the problem too is the mistake made by the Gowon administration in the early 1970's when flush with cash, they took over most mission schools. A lot of these schools existed in the North...and many of them were crucial to the ending of the gap between North and South

Anyway, the takeover of the schools led to a point where the govt had too many schools without a corresponding increase in facilities. Of course standards went down.

Second,in the 1980's, promotion exams were ended in most Northern schools. You got promoted whether you were good or not. Standards fell further.

Third, education in Nigeria is slanted towards prepping you for a life in the urban areas as a clerk....not as a solver of your locality's problems. So, the educated leave their village...and leave the illiterates behind. That leads to people not liking education because due to the lack of the problem solving educated elite...most of them cannot see why education will benefit them.

So what is to be done? Well, we need more schools. We probably need more of the mixed schools...and also increased funding for education. We need more quality teacher training colleges...where only the best would be trained. Perhaps Islamic societies could set up mission schools.

If the North is to survive it needs Western education.

Stillfire: To think Northerners have been at the helm of affairs in Nigeria since I was born.
You are taking up arms to kill the Nigerian people that are suffering like you? You are not serious.
You say you took up arms to fight for better lives? So bombing innocent people at motor parks who have chosen to make lemonade out of the diseased lemons Nigeria throws at them is what you call fighting to better your life?
You say Zamfara...now that sounds familiar. Is that not the state that introduced Sharia into secular Nigeria? So you guys were suffering and Senator Yerima who was then governor was more interested in preserving a borrowed religion than your well being? You people are still not serious.
Your way of life is tied around a few being stupendously wealthy and the majority of the populace being subjected to stupendous poverty. In fact you are very very comfortable with this dynamic. This was the method your people used to rule and finish off Nigeria. And it ended up killing off the middle class. The middle class in the South ran away to other countries, that some have not been back in decades. However, Northern students that school abroad, never ever stay back, they go back to Nigeria because a lucrative job is waiting for them by a principality and powerful relative in Nigeria who is holding the country to ransom.

Please ring me up when you are done licking the bum bum of your leaders. When are you going to pelt eggs on Senator Yerima, his predecessors and successors for allowing your state to be in such deplorable conditions? Why can't you hold your governors to ransom instead of the whole country? Naa, according to the intelligence of the average Northerner, the unholy South is to blame, rubbish!

I will judge every damn nigerian, rich or poor. All have contributed to the rot called Nigeria.

Total bullshi.t, get use to it.

Very disgusting article from an obvious Boko haram sympathizer. Are Igbos and the south to blame for your current predicament? Instead of placing the blame on your useless northern leaders that build gold castles for themselves while the vast majority of the populace is uneducated and lives in squalor?

GEJ will hopefully kill all those mad people that choose to kill others indiscriminately in the name of a useless religion.

naijamerican: Very disgusting article from an obvious Boko haram sympathizer. Are Igbos and the south to blame for your current predicament? Instead of placing the blame on your useless northern leaders that build gold castles for themselves while the vast majority of the populace is uneducated and lives in squalor?

GEJ will hopefully kill all those mad people that choose to kill others indiscriminately in the name of a useless religion.

You did not read the article well....it is preaching the opposite of what you think.

I'm new on Nairaland.

Please, how do i comment on a topic

Hmm...
Happy to be a southwesterner..

And interesting though..

.

@op, your exposition is noted. However, have you taken time to ask yourself why the life development index for the middlebelt is better than that of the core north? If you do, you will notice that your brand of Islam won't be innocent. Despite the fact that the core northerners have a headstart of being politically more powerful with the economic benefits it offers, the region still fail to improve. Your religion can never be exonerated and your politicians only see you as pawns that could be easily assembled at anytime for their selfish aims just like you highlighted in your write-up. And to cap it all, your gullibility is purely daft. If one must help you and your family, must it be after you have killed so many innocent people? If you can't confront you politicians by demanding the dividends of governance, why can't you take the risk of travelling out of your monotonous and poverty stricken abode to other areas where you might be lucky to get a better opportunity? If you must express your frustration, why not vent it on your government and their politicians' properties? Why destroying what took another man in a similar position as you his life time to build? Why? The moment you accepted the proposal for being a paid destroyer, you signed your death warrant and as such, you are living on a borrowed time.

Bullshit! What's with the generalization? Mention your village in Zamfara state.

He even mentioned Kano. Isn't Kano in the north. The rural areas are truly in deplorable states but limit your thoughts and yarnings to those areas.

The north isn't as bad as we've been made to believe. I went to Kaduna recently and I must confess, people have money.

There's no America in Nigeria abeg.

Their problem is innate.

The one thing that baffles me is the Almajiri concept.


The young boy is drafted to a malam for tutelage, upon completion of studies, he is leased to a suya seller, cobbler, sugarcane hawker, etc where he learns the rudiments of that trade. Thus ends his destiny, he starts his own business, gets married and soon gets younger almajiri from the malams for business trade...

Meanwhile, these malams have their daughters and sons schooling abroad or at least in western education and Islamic education as well. Where do we find these crop of youths, in banks, telecoms, hospitals, military etc



Make I hear anybody wey go blame other regions for the northern woes.

?

The day you guys learn religious tolerance that's when things will start to improve

" Already our minds were prepared for anything. That was how we took up arms to fight for better lives for ourselves and for our families."""





Interesting!!!!

Instead of questioning your leaders you guys resorted to bombing the lives of innocent citizens, why don't you channel the grievance to the government, other than the masses who in one way or the other have no answer to your poor standard of living.....

Don't worry, you all were born to rule, just wait for your turn, you will soon rule..

Teamalmajiri.
Teambokoharam
Teamviolence

God help the north and it's inhabitants.

Life is not fair. Agreed.
However, the mentality/ Idea that If I can't have it, then no one else will have it takes us nowhere.

The Bombing and destruction of other places/ regions will not bring about the much needed development your community needs

The individuals/groups that visited the community definitely have ulterior motives......

Whatever happened to giving out scholarships to the youths?
Whatever happened to pooling resources together to create/provide some amenities in your community?
Whatever happened to taking / demanding from your elected representatives at both the federal and state levels to fulfil their electoral promises?

The problem with Nigeria is a lot of the Unfortunate Play The BLAME GAME.

But who really is to blame?

What does your community add to the economy?
Yet, you want the same attention/ allocation the Niger delta and similar regions that drive the economy receive.

What is the Educational Level/ Mindset of a Northerner?
Yet you want posh/fancy Jobs in Urban areas. This reminds me of the gateman, Cobbler and Mala in several urban areas.......

The North is fond of looking for Pity.
Check out the thousands of beggars they produce in cities like Lagos?

The North will make progress only when they stop the Blame game. And /or looking for Pity.

They should Imitate their neighbours from the east and west that are enterprising, hardworking, and proactive.

onyiwest: this is what happened when you have someone like PGJ running this country....

i won't be surprise if you blame your frustrated life on jonathan.
common Sense is not that common