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Nairaland Forum / Nairaland / General / Politics / Inaccurate View Of The North By Southern Nigerians - Mark Amaza (5115 Views)
Re-introducing Northern Nigeria: Not As You Know It - Mark Amaza / Letter To Southern Nigerians Particularly Yoruba People / Nigerian President Or King Of The North?, By Femi Fani-kayode (2) (3) (4)
Inaccurate View Of The North By Southern Nigerians - Mark Amaza by Msquare220: 11:03am On Aug 22, 2015 |
Mark Amaza (Right of Reply)
I am writing this article mainly for
the benefit of Southern Nigerians
who have never been to the North,
and mostly have a warped and
inaccurate view of the North. I
have been driven to write this out
of my many personal experiences,
and those of friends and family, as
has been shared with me. This is
mainly an educative piece about
what Northern Nigeria is in reality;
a complete, holistic picture of this
region.
To make this piece a simple read
and easy-to-follow, I am going to
write it around five common
perceptions about the North and
debunk them:
Religious Perception: The general
belief held by most Southerners
about the North is that the region
is not just mainly Muslim, but
wholly Muslim. Whenever I meet
someone from the South and
introduce myself, I am correctly
placed as a Christian. But once I
am asked my state and I say
Borno State, the next question
becomes, ‘Are you a Muslim?’ This
is despite my name being a very
common Biblical name, Mark,
which is the second Gospel.
Matter of fact, I have been asked
that question while attending a
church programme, with a Bible
conspicuously held in my hands.
You could imagine my surprise at
that question. This has also been
the experience of a lot of friends
with common names such as
‘Emmanuel’, ‘Daniel’, etc.
To start with, out of the 19
Northern states, at least five have
a majority Christian population:
Plateau, Adamawa, Nassarawa,
Taraba and Benue. At least six
more have at least 40% Christian
population. These states include
Niger, Gombe, Kaduna, Kogi,
Kwara and either Borno or Bauchi.
That then leaves only Kano, Kebbi,
Katsina, Jigawa, Sokoto, Yobe and
Zamfara as having Muslim
populations above 60%. How then
are we all seen as Muslims?
This misconception could be
excused when the person has an
Arabic name, as there are many
Northern Christians who bear
names such as Jamila, Habiba,
Halima, Sadiq, Yunusa and so on.
But when the person has an
obvious Christian name and even
attends church services, you really
begin to wonder.
Ethnic Perception: Another
common perception of the North
is that we are all Hausa. My usual
response to this is to borrow the
logical argument of Simon
Kolawole, a former editor of
THISDay Newspapers. In an article
in which he attempted to educate
his largely Southern readership
base about the North, he went
thus: “If out of the estimated 250
tribes in Nigeria, we can say that
the South-west is mainly Yoruba
with a few other tribes around
Badagry area, the South-east
wholly Igbo and the South-south
being most diverse in the South
with about 40 tribes, that still
leaves the remaining 200 tribes in
the North.”
How then are we reduced to one
single ethnic group, Hausa? It is
only the North-west that is close
to being homogenous, mainly
Hausa and Fulani, but with still
some minority tribes in the Zuru
area of Kebbi State and the multi-
diverse Southern Kaduna. The
North-east and North-central is
filled with tribes, many of whom I
have never even heard of. For
example, Adamawa State is so
diverse that the largest ethnic
group, the Fulani, is just 3% of the
entire population. In my home
state of Borno, there is a local
government so diverse that from
one village to another, you are
likely to meet an entirely different
ethnic group. The number of
tribes there are so many that we
just address the people as ‘Gwoza
people’, after the name of the local
government.
Even though we all speak Hausa
as a lingua franca in order to
communicate amongst ourselves
as trading partners over the
centuries, that doesn’t make us
Hausa people as much as
communicating in English doesn’t
make you and I English people. As
a matter of fact, in the North-east,
Hausa people are a minority and
virtually non-existent in the North-
central region.
Intellectual Beliefs: Now, this is
one belief that whenever I am
confronted with, it takes me a
great deal of self-control not to
flip out and lose my temper.
Several times, when I tell people I
am from Borno State, I am asked
how come I speak such good
English. Why? What am I
supposed to speak? Arabic? The
general expectation is that
someone from the North is not
supposed to be this learned, this
well-spoken and articulate in
English, this knowledgeable. I
remember when a friend asked me
if my mother went to school, and
the surprised look on his face
when I told him that my mum
earned her masters’ degree over
20 years ago. There was also a
time when my dad met someone
at the Lagos International Airport
and they got talking. When my dad
told him his profession, the man,
in a fit of surprise, exclaimed, ‘I
didn’t know that there were
professors in the North’. ofessors in the North’.
I admit the fact that the North lags
behind the South educationally,
especially the North-west and the
North-east. But this is not due to
our inability to comprehend what
we are being taught, but rather
due to the incompetence of
leadership in the region to give
education its premium importance
as a form of human development.
We, like every other human being
on the face of this earth, can excel
when given the opportunity. Talent
and intellect abounds everywhere.
Opportunity, however, does not. I
personally know of many
Northerners who have excelled
nationally and internationally.
Daily, the story of young men like
Ahmed Mukoshy, who is born,
bred and schooled in Sokoto, and
yet, rose above his environment
to become one of the emerging
forces in IT in this country in his
early 20s inspires me. This is just
one example among many that I
could cite but for the lack of
space.
I find it outright disgusting
whenever people claim that if not
for federal character and ‘zoning’,
no Northerner would be able to
compete in this country. Last
week, I was shocked when a
friend said only 10% of
Northerners in the Federal Civil
Service deserved their places on
merit, and went on to add that if
he had not known me personally
and I were to get a job with the
federal government, he would
believe that I did not earn it on
merit. The most ridiculous one I
encountered was when earlier this
year, former Minister of Finance,
Dr. Mansur Mukhtar, was
appointed a World Bank director.
Most of the commentators on the
234Next article announcing this
achievement for this Nigerian and
Nigeria made the ludicrous
assertion that the appointment
was done to please the North, that
Mukhtar did not merit it. Little did
they know that Mukhtar had
worked at the World Bank and the
African Development Bank
(ADBLOCK), prior to his heading
Nigeria’s Budget Office on the
invitation of the then and present
Coordinating Minister for the
Economy and Minister of Finance,
Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, and
former World Bank Managing
Director, who also recommended
him for the post of finance
minister when she rejected late
President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua’s
invitation to join his government.
What is even worse is that they
did not care to know: their minds
were already made up and could
not be confused with the facts.
Geo-Political Beliefs: Another
common belief among
Southerners and most especially
spread by Southern newspapers is
that the entire 19 Northern states
act and think as one when it
comes to issues of Northern
politics. This is one of the biggest
untruths about the North.
Whenever Northern Nigeria is
mentioned, the people of Benue,
Kogi and Kwara States do not feel
it refers to them. Geographically,
they are part of the North;
politically, however, they and the
entire Middle-Belt act
independently. This can be clearly
seen in the last elections where
President Goodluck Jonathan won
in seven Northern states, even
against his strongest opponent,
General Muhammadu Buhari, who
is a Northerner. This was
something I am sure a lot of
people in the South, save for the
political savvy, did not see
coming.
One common sight of this
perception being entrenched by
newspapers is when politicians of
Northern extraction speak on
national issues. I have
innumerably seen a washed-out
Northern politician, without any
influence or popularity speak
regarding an issue, and the next
day, newspapers carry bold
headlines saying, ‘North rejects
this’ or ‘North plans to do that’,
quoting the same washed-out
politician as speaking for the
entire North. I have rarely seen a
Bola Tinubu speaking and being
quoted as the mouthpiece of the
entire Yoruba ethnic group, or a
Chief Edwin Clark for the Ijaw
people. Methinks this is a way of
selling newspapers by capitalising
on the image of the North as one
single, political force which moves
in a particular direction all-
together Cultural/Social/Economic
Belief: Admittedly, as people of
the same region, we share a lot in
common culturally and socially in
the general terms: our
mannerisms, modes of dressing,
traditional titles (apart from
paramount rulers with the
exception of emirates), etc.
Despite that, the Jukun in Taraba
and the Kataf in Kaduna are very
different in the specifics, as even
the Bura and Marghi people of
Borno/Adamawa States. To pick
the attitude of one ethnic group in
the North and attach it to all the
others, is to put it mildly, a very
short-sighted way of knowing and
understanding the people of
Northern Nigeria.
Another belief in the South is that
the entire North is but an empty
land mass with nothing but trees.
I remember the controversy of the
2006 census when Kano State
was said to have a slightly higher
population than Lagos State. Many
of my Southern friends called it
‘an impossibility’. In the words of
one of them, ‘Lagos is so
populated that when you throw
grains of rice into the air, they
wouldn’t land on the ground, but
on people’. However, they all
forgot to factor in land mass,
because Lagos State is a much
smaller state than Kano State, and
hence has the highest population
density in Nigeria, hence making it
look as though it was way more
populated.There are cities in the
North that have been thriving
economically, such as Kano and
Kaduna. As a matter of fact,
Kaduna State was adjudged by the
World Bank in 2009 as the best
place to do business.
Lastly, the most retrogressive
belief about the North in the South
is that the entire North is a hotbed
for violence. As much as we have
had more than our fair share of
ethno-religious violence, there are
many states that have never
experienced one, including states
such as Zamfara, and others as
Nassarawa and Benue.
I have not written this as a
criticism of the people of Southern
Nigeria, but rather, in the hope
that this will be an enlightenment
of the South about the North. It
amazes me when I see that
despite the fact that we have been
a country for almost a century,
yet, a lot of people down South
know little or nothing about their
fellow Nigerians in the North, but
know about Europe and America.
I have also realised that we as
Northerners have allowed others
to say our story for ourselves,
hence have given it distortions,
deletion and generalisations. What
has happened over time is what
the writer Chimamanda Adichie, in
her TED talk in March 2009, at
Oxford, England, describes as ‘the
danger of the single story’, where
a single story of the North as a
region of poor, illiterate, lazy,
Hausa Muslims who do nothing
but connive to lord over this
country politically and kill
Southerners’ has been repeated so
much that it is seen as the truth.
This is the kind of stuff that
creates stereotyping, which in her
words, ‘not that it is untrue, but
that it is incomplete’.
This is one reason I still see the
significance of our NYSC scheme,
choked with problems as it may
be. We need to know each other
more. Let us override this
stereotypical mind-set and seek to
learn about each other with open
minds and seek the complete
story that gives a holistic picture
of our country. 20 Likes 3 Shares |
Re: Inaccurate View Of The North By Southern Nigerians - Mark Amaza by Ugomba(m): 11:34am On Aug 22, 2015 |
Nice write up.. The same way people think that Igbos are only in South East.. One of my friends is from an Igbo community in Benue state(North) while am Deltan.. IGNORANCE IS INDEED A Disease. 16 Likes 1 Share |
Re: Inaccurate View Of The North By Southern Nigerians - Mark Amaza by Msquare220: 11:53am On Aug 22, 2015 |
Ugomba:Indeed "IGNORANCE IS INDEED A Disease" We need to know each other more. |
Re: Inaccurate View Of The North By Southern Nigerians - Mark Amaza by Nobody: 11:54am On Aug 22, 2015 |
am surprised finally, nice writeup there... |
Re: Inaccurate View Of The North By Southern Nigerians - Mark Amaza by Ugomba(m): 11:56am On Aug 22, 2015 |
Mods. Push this topic to front page. 1 Like |
Re: Inaccurate View Of The North By Southern Nigerians - Mark Amaza by IsraeliAIRFORCE: 12:08pm On Aug 22, 2015 |
Ride on Sir, your article has inspired my gospel and believe in better Nigeria. Two among the best quotes from your article for me are the excerpts below: We, like every other human being on the face of this earth, can excel when given the opportunity. Talent and intellect abound everywhere, Opportunity, however, does not. 7 Likes |
Re: Inaccurate View Of The North By Southern Nigerians - Mark Amaza by Mogten(m): 12:15pm On Aug 22, 2015 |
Nice one, Mark. couldn't have put it any better. 2 Likes |
Re: Inaccurate View Of The North By Southern Nigerians - Mark Amaza by otr1(m): 12:26pm On Aug 22, 2015 |
That was how an idiiot who knows less to nothing about me said I "parabulated in school" on this forum when I said I'm a northerner. Funny enough, he doesn't seem to know that North-Central is a part of the "Nigerian North". He claimed he speaks three main indigenous Nigerian languages, yet so ignorant. It's so annoying hearing the so-called Southerners who had never for once came top above me in academic performance, right from elementary school to the University, accusing me of "prarabulating in school. It's sickening and so pathetic. 7 Likes |
Re: Inaccurate View Of The North By Southern Nigerians - Mark Amaza by JingoOAU(m): 12:28pm On Aug 22, 2015 |
Simply put, it's only those idiots that's never left their enclave that have this shallow thinking 1 Like |
Re: Inaccurate View Of The North By Southern Nigerians - Mark Amaza by Msquare220: 12:33pm On Aug 22, 2015 |
NOBLEDANDY:Thanks you sir |
Re: Inaccurate View Of The North By Southern Nigerians - Mark Amaza by BishopMagic: 12:38pm On Aug 22, 2015 |
The northern christians need to come out and fight for your survival and rights. There is no jihad in Sokoto, Kevin or Zamfara because there are no christian indigenes unlike what we have in Gombe, Bauchi, Adamawa and Borno. Chibok is a predominantly christian community just like Michika, Gwozo. 3 Likes 1 Share |
Re: Inaccurate View Of The North By Southern Nigerians - Mark Amaza by bilulu(m): 12:39pm On Aug 22, 2015 |
bros forget all dis grammars....... as long as u re from d not whether north centre or far north or u b Muslim or Christian my brother u b AB0KI mai suya 7 Likes |
Re: Inaccurate View Of The North By Southern Nigerians - Mark Amaza by fulanimafia: 12:41pm On Aug 22, 2015 |
bilulu: And you're not ashamed to display your ignorance? 13 Likes |
Re: Inaccurate View Of The North By Southern Nigerians - Mark Amaza by Msquare220: 12:48pm On Aug 22, 2015 |
otr1:Yeah its sickening, pathetic and hassle at the same time. Unless we override the stereotypical mind-set and seek to learn about each other with open minds we will never comprehend the complete story that gives a holistic picture of our country. |
Re: Inaccurate View Of The North By Southern Nigerians - Mark Amaza by sdindan: 12:53pm On Aug 22, 2015 |
Good one bro |
Re: Inaccurate View Of The North By Southern Nigerians - Mark Amaza by bilulu(m): 12:53pm On Aug 22, 2015 |
fulanimafia:U mite call it ignorance but Dats d fact...... u re entitled to ur opinion n my opinion remains all northerners re AB0KI 10 Likes |
Re: Inaccurate View Of The North By Southern Nigerians - Mark Amaza by Msquare220: 12:53pm On Aug 22, 2015 |
fulanimafia:Don't mind him my brother. 1 Like |
Re: Inaccurate View Of The North By Southern Nigerians - Mark Amaza by fulanimafia: 12:59pm On Aug 22, 2015 |
bilulu: Suit yourself. 2 Likes |
Re: Inaccurate View Of The North By Southern Nigerians - Mark Amaza by EasternLion: 1:01pm On Aug 22, 2015 |
Hahahaha, see explanation. |
Re: Inaccurate View Of The North By Southern Nigerians - Mark Amaza by EasternLion: 1:04pm On Aug 22, 2015 |
fulanimafia: Abokina or Aboki in short form is ... Aboki no be mumu, it is kwanfam aboki, kai minini legit aboki. |
Re: Inaccurate View Of The North By Southern Nigerians - Mark Amaza by fulanimafia: 1:05pm On Aug 22, 2015 |
That's a beautiful article, most youth corpers are usually amazed when they see the well laid out roads and beautiful architecture in the North, not to mention the night life. Daniel Amokachi's nightclub, Rampage, is situated in Kaduna for example. 4 Likes |
Re: Inaccurate View Of The North By Southern Nigerians - Mark Amaza by dokiOloye(m): 1:18pm On Aug 22, 2015 |
I rep Biu ppl in Borno state. Highly educated and exposed peeps. |
Re: Inaccurate View Of The North By Southern Nigerians - Mark Amaza by jemir000: 1:47pm On Aug 22, 2015 |
j |
Re: Inaccurate View Of The North By Southern Nigerians - Mark Amaza by Afam4eva(m): 1:53pm On Aug 22, 2015 |
otr1:The ignorance is not limited to southerners. I have on several occasions witnessed where some middlebelters were arguing about how they're not northerners but middlebelters. They think being called Northrrners meant that they're Hausa or Muslim without realizing that the term " North" is just a geographical convenience. 5 Likes |
Re: Inaccurate View Of The North By Southern Nigerians - Mark Amaza by BlackBaron: 1:59pm On Aug 22, 2015 |
I am from the south and I am not oblivious of facts concerning the North. I know about the different languages, ethnic groups and don't call every 'northerner' I meet Hausa or fulani. Though I can't deny I'm more familiar with southerners than northerners, I do not exhibit any of the aforementioned ignorance mostly from southerners to northerners. We're not smarter than northerners but comparatively the literacy gap is my greatest gripe with that part of Nigeria. (not all part of the North) I keep hearing leaders are to blame, well the southerners also had their collective fair share of terrible leaders who preferred to pocket money for good schools than anything. However, the difference is that the southerners chose not to be limited by this. Most strived, even if to put their wards through the poorest schools. Even building community schools themselves. Others tried to at least get to a decent level of education before dropping out if no longer capable of financially paying tuition. It is very different in the core north where it is not preferred by the guardians to educate their children. Maybe to do with religion or plain recalcitrance to 'foreign teaching' I can not tell. This is as a result of an 'engrained culture' that'll require shaking off by those heavily affected areas in the north. The same way the northern majority pushed aggressively for introduction of sharia should be the same way they should aggressively push for bridging the massive educational gap with the south. Now there lies my 'misconception' with the North. And the other being the religious extremity in certain areas of the North. 7 Likes |
Re: Inaccurate View Of The North By Southern Nigerians - Mark Amaza by xmich(m): 1:59pm On Aug 22, 2015 |
Ok |
Re: Inaccurate View Of The North By Southern Nigerians - Mark Amaza by knowledgeable: 2:00pm On Aug 22, 2015 |
fulanimafia: Hausa/fulani have made a complete mess of Nigeria, over the life of the Nation period. Buhari can never fix any thing fundamentally. The Christian minorities in the North are doomed ( like the Christian Turk over the years). 15 hundred yrs of Arabs in Africa will probably end with African muslims within West Africa through Fulanis/hausas destroying and destabilizing the entire region for decades to come. I can see them introducing any kind of weapons of mass destruction. Biological, chemical, poisoning of water, agricultural and livestock poisoning and many more. If groups like Biafra opted for any of the above options, we all will be faced with mutual assured destruction. If Nigeria is allowed to continue the way it's being going, I am afraid, the world will witness Africans killing themselves in tens of millions to the delight of the World and more importantly Arabs whom have completely replaced the African soul of the Fulani/hausa with something undefined. 11 Likes |
Re: Inaccurate View Of The North By Southern Nigerians - Mark Amaza by fulanimafia: 2:04pm On Aug 22, 2015 |
knowledgeable: You're not making any sense, face your Biafra struggle, it just might be considered. 1 Like |
Re: Inaccurate View Of The North By Southern Nigerians - Mark Amaza by likila: 2:07pm On Aug 22, 2015 |
op, you are the ignorant one. why are fulanis 80% of the political leadership of the north. even in the so-called 60% non-moslim states, all the governors, senators, ministers, etc are fulani! who is fooling who? 8 Likes 1 Share |
Re: Inaccurate View Of The North By Southern Nigerians - Mark Amaza by bilulu(m): 2:12pm On Aug 22, 2015 |
likila:Live d AB0KI make e dey here dey explain say him no b AB0KI 4 Likes |
Re: Inaccurate View Of The North By Southern Nigerians - Mark Amaza by Nobody: 2:35pm On Aug 22, 2015 |
My space please. ...A thread worthy of an input. |
Re: Inaccurate View Of The North By Southern Nigerians - Mark Amaza by AnambraDota: 2:40pm On Aug 22, 2015 |
bilulu: 2 Likes |
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