dnex:

This Sanusi Lamido guy did not set out to compare 3 different regions, he was out to tell two other regions that are always complaining about what is always holding them back.

Even if you don't like the language, but you did mention that he made some relevant points. I can see why one person should see some relevant points yet not want another to make sense of the article.

The man was telling us the crude truth.

Most southern Nigerian cultures operate in tiny societies. It won't work in today's world.

We need to change.

This is an article, not a speech. . . . I expect that given more 'thinking time', he should be able to compose his article well enough not to reveal his deep seated prejudices, such as talking nonsense about Igbo traders taunting Hausas at Sabon-Gari etc. . . . he even despicaply and fallaciously claimed that the Igbos were the first to carry out ethnic cleansing in this country (in reference to the Nzeogwu coup). . . . firstly, it is jaundiced to attribute the actions of a few officers to a whole tribe. . . .secondly, he must have forgotten that there were progroms in the North in the 1940's, pre-Independence.

@ Poster and all NL

the Question should not be answered by Nigerians and Non of us (Nigerians) have answers to it.

the Question should be directed to our Colonial Masters, The Great Bratain.

the Hausa dominance didn't start now it started from the colonial days.

@post all all posters
C as they r fighting over something dat does not exist.Nigeria was long dead many many years (even b4 dem born me).The North were the ones put to watch over the GRAVE AND CORPSE of a country once called NIGERIA.

I, in particular, get lots to do on the net. I wonder why do some of us here waste their maybe valuable time talking trivia? What all these baseless and reckless accusations get to offer you as a NIGERIAN? This country is still ONE, and shall it remains. All these North, South and West stuff should, since, be discarded and buried, for it's out-and-out otoise. Be careful!

na wa o, with all the PhDs we hoard, Havard trained mahu mahu, IMF, World Bankers, Scientists blah blah blah we are still in here whining

its about time we stop playing victim and accussing others

Good input, bros.

Anybody who knows Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, should let him know that he is a f-cking bastard! May his soul rot in hell for blaming Igbos for the failed genocidal attempts of the Nigerian state on the peace-loving Igbo people from 1966 to 1970.

For me Soludo's speech below gets to the heart of the matter, when will the northern masses revolt against feudalism?

Kaduna-Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Professor Chukwuma Soludo, has said that the "high and persisting level of poverty in the country is a northern phenomenon."

Soludo who spoke weekend at the Arewa Inspirational Leadership Forum, organized by the Northern development Initiative [NDI] in Kaduna argued that the poverty gap between the south and the north seems to be widening adding that it is not only in the Niger Delta region that poverty is prevalent.

Soludo however blamed the problem on the northern elite who he said were not doing much to improve their environment.

According to him, for Nigeria to become a world leader in 2020, every part of the country must be developed simultaneously in accordance with the resources accruing to such area.

He spoke as one of the leaders of the Niger Delta, Chief Edwin Clark, blamed the crisis in the area on lack of political will to develop the oil producing areas, by successive administrations.

However, Professor Soludo said that there is no state in the north with less than 60 per cent poverty level even as the north-west geopolitical zone has some states with 90 per cent poverty level.

According to him, both the north-central and the north-east geo-political zones are better than the north-west in terms of poverty level.

Educationally, he said that the north was seriously lagging behind the south as students who seek admission from Imo state in one year for example, are higher in number than 16 states in the north put together.

The CBN boss noted that about 100, 000 students sought admission to universities through the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board [JAMB] while 16 states in the north excluding Benue, Kogi and Kwara, had about 73, 000 candidates even as Kano state, with a very high population, had less than 10 per cent of candidates from Imo.

His words, "there is probably no better time for us to declare, if you like, I don't want to call it an emergency, but to say that we really need to focus attention on the northern economy.

"I say this because if you look at the entire country, by the last census, if you put the entire north together, it constitutes over 50 per cent or thereabout, a higher percentage of people because development is about people.

"But if you look at all the indications of development, what constitutes today the North seems to be lagging far behind that the gaps seem to have even widened.

"And therefore, I must say that this is the time for us all to think together that while we are planning for the national economy and working to reduce poverty and to make sure that Nigeria becomes one of the fastest growing and one of the 20 largest economies in the world by the year 2020, we must also pay attention to one major thing and that is that we must not leave a significant proportion of the population behind.

"Poverty is unacceptable in Nigeria but high and persisting level of poverty in Nigeria happens to be essentially a northern phenomenon.

"In the north there is no state with poverty level less than 60 per cent. The lowest is in the urban cities and it ranges from the upper 60 to 95 per cent in a state in the north.

"And, if you put them by geo-political zones, poverty is lowest in the north central but the north east and north west have 70 per cent on the average and there are several states with over 80 per cent poverty incidence and even there is one with about 95 per cent.

"I have also listened to the presentation on the Niger Delta which is a major national challenge but permit me to argue that crippling poverty in the north is as much a national crisis as that of the Niger Delta.

"You will realize that I have not talked about banking sector but just one last word on that. I will not talk about the universal, national or global bank. "Within this hall, I can see some members of the elite from the north and I throw this as a challenge.

"The poverty in your respective villages, what have you done about it? How many micro-finance banks have you set up in your states? Don't say it's N25billion, it's just N20million.

"With N20million, you set up one microfinance bank and this can empower hundreds of people within your community. What I do say to people when they approach me and talk about banks, I ask the person, first do you have a microfinance bank in your village? N20million is all it takes. You mobilize other people around, not only one person. But if you want to set it up alone, you can.

"I know there are people who can bring say N1billion and set up microfinance banks with branches throughout the state. This is now allowed. "It is this kind of thing by the elite you find, for example in the south east. It is the elite that set them up such that you find in one state about 79 such microfinance banks.

"But if you put together about 12 to 15 states in the north, they are not up to a number that you find in one state in the south.

"There is something that is in that for you the elite. We must take the issue of poverty reduction very seriously. Government can only do little but the bulk of it remains with the rest of us, the elite."

let put it this way, if yar adua tell the world the real figure of population of nigeria. I can assure you that in 48 hrs, some northerner would have killed him. that one of the reason. it is call honour killing. That how bad it is. This is the reason they need to pass the Nigeria-benin commission. If you doubt me. Look at out history. and you know why. even they may make his wife shoot him or his bodyguard. It is that bad.

you have to live in the north to know why.

This Sanusi of a man still has deep tribal blood running in him. He blames the Igbos for the first military coup but fails to blame Hausas for counter coups that later followed and destroyed Nigeria.  Did he also forget that some Igbo officers foiled the first coup attempt? If others blame the north for some of our socio economic problems, he should rebut  them with facts not innuendos. he should tell us why folks in the north  are disproportionately poorer than southerners or why northerners are less likely to go school than southerners. This is another northern elite who is a beneficiary of the northern hegemony. Does anyone know his family background or ties. I bet he didn't get here just by himself or true hard work

You better leave TRIBALISM & post something nice, where are you from? Our POLITICAL CULTURE entails Power Shift, lol.

Honestly, I think the problems affecting naija is larger than North and South(regionalism) and tribalism issues. Our major problems are corruption, lack of accountability and lawlessness; the sooner we the younger generation realises this, the better for us all. Eight yrs of Obasanjo leadership has he improved the living condition of yorubas or southwest? Or Donkey yrs of Northern leadership in naija history has that improved the living condition of an average northerner? Pls, I need an honest answer.
I also wish GEJ rule for 8yrs and an Igboman to rule for another 8 yrs and lets see whether the living condition of their people will improve under this corrupt and lawlessness set up.
Whoever becomes the president to me is not important as long as the person will address our major problems and there is no better time to turn things around than in 2011. Enough of this regional and tribal issue, it 'll lead us to no where.

The statement below only tries to let you know how your politicians have been playing the game and why the results have always remained the same.

For the leaders of Southern Nigeria and, in particular, the two dominant tribes, the Igbo and Yoruba, it represented an opportunity once more to make a move for the presidency, and shift power (whatever that means) away from the North which has come to be portrayed as the source of all the problems of the nation. The desire to win over power is the natural goal of political activists. The use of propaganda, blackmail, lies, bribery, deception, even threats of secession has been the hallmark of many an astute political strategy aimed at attaining set goals. Yet the choice of which method is appropriate to a specific polity in a specific historical context is a difficult one, requiring a high sense of perception, a knowledge of history, a natural intelligence and political sophistication. In choosing the path of black-mail and ethnocentric diatribe, the leaders of the South have once more displayed to the world their political naivete, and set the stage for another defeat that may see them remaining in opposition for the next four years.
One marvels at the never-ending cycle which sees Southern Politicians play into the hands of their northern counterparts.


This guy drives home the desire of an average Nigerian and a true Nigerian. If you have a ‘different opinion’, then you must belong to that group of those who have kept us where we are today.

A democratic system is primarily about Institutions and the rule of law. It is not about individuals. We need a system, based on laws and a constitution agreed upon by all, that guarantees each and every Nigerian wherever he is from the right to full political participation and unfettered expression. A system that protects each and every one of us from the tyranny of an individual. A system in which our dignity and liberty are not protected only when the president comes from our own part of the country.

How I wish a lot of Nigerians particularly Nlanders will see every issue from this perspective. Then, what a wonderful forum would we have and infact it might evolve to a proper ‘paliament’.

Abacha was a corrupt, ruthless dictator – period. Where he was from is immaterial. All Nigerians, Northerners and Southerners, Muslim and Christians, suffered from the corruption and injustices of his regime with the exception of a small band of family members, sycophants and traitors who joined him in looting the coffers of our nation. Those who stood against his tyranny and spoke out for freedom and equity suffered: among them Obasanjo, Yar Adua, Abiola, Rimi, Ige, Lamido, Nwakwo and Ken Sarowiwa. A cursory look at the list of those detained, framed, murdered, lied against, pauperized and otherwise abused in the last five years will prove to honest persons that Abacha was no respecter of region or religion and that he represented the least form of humanity degenerating dangerously close to bestiality, which is why, like Pharaoh, he is remembered today for his evil rather than his good, for no good of his can obviate the memory, etched in the individual and collective consciousness of Nigerians, of what it is like to live in an environment of terror, not knowing who next will be struck with impunity.

This unfortunately is what is happening again. i imagine what will happen after a maximum 8 years rule of jonathan. Will power then go back to the north? A people with no direction can only keep taking the same path that leads to nowhere

In pretending that these are not the issues, in teaching their followers to oppose Abacha not for his corruption, greed and cruelty but for his ethnic origins, in portraying the annulment of the June, 1993 election as an act against the Yoruba, in pretending that Abiola’s death in prison was in some way different from ‘Yar Adua’s death in prison, in claiming that the solution to this country’s predicament lies in changing the ethnicity of the president and producing a “Southern” President: in all this, the political leaders of the South have displayed the highest degree of naivete, the lowest sense of responsibility and the crudest application of their intellectual faculties. Worse than all this, they have played straight into the hands of their political rivals, the Northern Politicians.

The North is just a useless entity that needs to sit back and tend to cattle, chickens, etc.

Why should the south dominate either. Nl bigots.the norh is not an ethnic group.