nice piece @ op ...thanks for sharing.....i never knew this in as much as i never thought of the north as one

afam4eva: I don't belong to the category of southerner who think Hausa/Fulani is the only ethnic group in the north or that Islam is mainly or wholly muslim. if you think of it, it's even the northern muslims that push this thinking. They want people to beleive that Christians are minorities in the morth.

I agree with most of what the write said except this:



Without federal character, the north will be more far behind than they are right now. Who do they want to compete with? is it the Igbos or Yorubas? If the north are so good, how come they don't dominate private establishments the way they dominate NNPC, NTA, INEC etc.

ask him also why with the 25billion capitalisation in banking and the billionaire generals there how the south dominates banking telecoms trade education hotels engineering? Why is it only govt agencies they hold on too? Op made no new points cos we all know the norths heterogenous but if I rmba the civil wars immediate causes was the massacre of igbos at makurdi where over 30000 ppl lost their lives need I spell out other so called non hausa territories that partook in pogroms!!claim united north when convenient and deny it when dispised!!hope the op wasjoking when he said if northerners and southerners are put together to compete that the north...I cnt even complete it sef!!

This article is indeed enlighten. But the level of education and elightment in the north is very minimal compared to the population. When you correlate barbaric behavior exhibited by the north like killing of mrs Omowumi in Gombe state for stopping exam malpractices, beheading Akaluka in the name of God and the recent Boko Haram. Marriage of underage girls and all sort you tend to conclude that Northerners are bunch of unschooled and uneducated people. I served in Jigawa precisely Gwaram LGA. Almajiri is a big problem over there. While in the south west everybody struggle to give good education to their ward. Hausa/Fulani kids only go to quranic school only few have the privilege of going to school and it is not that they do not value education it is just a way of suppresing the masses of the people. Because the children of emirs and sultan are attending the same school with the children of the queen of england

As me i konsign, me i knw say if u aint from d south in nigeria, you are from the north, and that concludes the fact that you are a boko haramist!

Same way i tell pple who don't know that not everybody from cross river state is calabar. @op, u're 80% right. Growing up in the south, i find it amazing pple think so about the north. I further confirmed it isn't as am currently serving there.

Zediccus: Same way i tell pple who don't know that not everybody from cross river state is calabar. @op, u're 80% right. Growing up in the south, i find it amazing pple think so about the north. I further confirmed it isn't as am currently serving there.

The people they even call calabar are mostly peeople from Akwa Ibom state.

BUT is his article not tantamount to an ijebu man claiming to be different to an egba man when referred to as yoruba?


i have stayed in the north too, this poster is yarning total opata

i do concede that the minute portion of northerners who are educated and excel, do so very very well. if aboki go sabi book, e go sabi am die.
but i can assure u they are in the minute minority.

if the OP and his fellow complainants are honest, they know they come from families that are elite. 1 of such exist for every 2000 families in the north.

contrast that with the south and east where countless palmwine tappers and akara sellers have produced doctors and professors.

cheap story. aboki na aboki chikena

ignorant posters exhibiting their "southern intelligence" lol, ride on guys.

KINGwax: As me i konsign, me i knw say if u aint from d south in nigeria, you are from the north, and that concludes the fact that you are a boko haramist![quote author=4llerbuntu]BUT is his article not tantamount to an ijebu man claiming to be different to an egba man when referred to as yoruba?


i have stayed in the north too, this poster is yarning total opata

i do concede that the minute portion of northerners who are educated and excel, do so very very well. if aboki go sabi book, e go sabi am die.
but i can assure u they are in the minute minority.

if the OP and his fellow complainants are honest, they know they come from families that are elite. 1 of such exist for every 2000 families in the north.

contrast that with the south and east where countless palmwine tappers and akara sellers have produced doctors and professors.

cheap story. aboki na aboki chikena

Slizbeat:

true talk. Nt every1 4rm d north is hausa bt d fact is dat southernerz dnt kill pple lyk goats nd chicken. Durin tym of crisis, i was in kano nd saw a lot of killings, in 1996, in 2004, nd in 2010. Wn i left 4 d south, it was as if there were no crisis cos d hausas there were untouched bt in d north, d southernerz died lyk goats.

I think that is blatant lie.During the sharia crisis of Kaduna,i for one can tell you that i was in Enugu and i saw with my eyes the implication of that.Even where the media failed to highlight the seriousness of the issue in the SE.Let me tell you,Enugu is relatively peacefull compared to Anambra,Abia and Imo.In Enugu i saw an old Hausaman lynched to death around Onu Asata which is closer to the artisan area,where the Hausa community is largely based .When i got back from school that day.The whole place seemed tense.The Normal Hausa suya spots and sweet,cigarette sales people had there items vandalized/looted.The Governor Chimaroke without doubt did his best to ensure things remained normal.I remember my cousin almost panicking when the old man was lynched.I told him to pull it together to avoid any suspicion.We walked all the way to the stadium to make a call through stacom phone boot that day(Then we had no mobile devices).Our families asked we all return home.I can tell you that night i didn't know the carnage done to northerners in the south-east until i went to the Ogbete market park and 82 division.In 82 division it was a refugee camp.With mostly women and children who were spared and alot of the male counter-parts killed.Government then had to make transport arrangement for alot of this people considering there situation.Later on due to the movement of people from the south east and North.The FGN instructed state governors to discourage the max exodus.As this sort of fueled the apprehension it could be back to the civil war days.LEt me tell you that the media focused mainly on the Kaduna crisis and ignored all that was happening in the South-east.I can tell you people were killed substantially in Abia and Imo states.Then later on the Anambra saga.Where non-Igbo speaking persons were lynched and killed crossing the Niger bridge.Inshort i even remember the government technical college around IMT in Enugu attacking the artisan Mosque over a rumor.If not for the intervention of police it was almost gutted down.Somehow it was later burnt down still by same SE people.In garki Enugu too.Killings took place.since the media down plays it.I also mingle with Northern counter parts and its sad what they tell you happens to them in this areas of the south east.In short i remember an Igbo friend telling me that in Umuahia an entire Hausa community was attacked and alot were killed.He told me to his amazement no media house reported this incidence.All they do is say "likely reprisals or reprisal killings" i feel the media should be more elaborate about such crisis there.AS they will,If it was in the North.NL tells you even more than the Nigerian Media will tell you.form eye witness accounts.

haka_nai:

I think that is blatant lie.During the sharia crisis of Kaduna,i for one can tell you that i was in Enugu and i saw with my eyes the implication of that.Even where the media failed to highlight the seriousness of the issue in the SE.Let me tell you,Enugu is relatively peacefull compared to Anambra,Abia and Imo.In Enugu i saw an old Hausaman lynched to death around Onu Asata which is closer to the artisan area,where the Hausa community is largely based .When i got back from school that day.The whole place seemed tense.The Normal Hausa suya spots and sweet,cigarette sales people had there items vandalized/looted.The Governor Chimaroke without doubt did his best to ensure things remained normal.I remember my cousin almost panicking when the old man was lynched.I told him to pull it together to avoid any suspicion.We walked all the way to the stadium to make a call through stacom phone boot that day(Then we had no mobile devices).Our families asked we all return home.I can tell you that night i didn't know the carnage done to northerners in the south-east until i went to the Ogbete market park and 82 division.In 82 division it was a refugee camp.With mostly women and children who were spared and alot of the male counter-parts killed.Government then had to make transport arrangement for alot of this people considering there situation.Later on due to the movement of people from the south east and North.The FGN instructed state governors to discourage the max exodus.As this sort of fueled the apprehension it could be back to the civil war days.LEt me tell you that the media focused mainly on the Kaduna crisis and ignored all that was happening in the South-east.I can tell you people were killed substantially in Abia and Imo states.Then later on the Anambra saga.Where non-Igbo speaking persons were lynched and killed crossing the Niger bridge.Inshort i even remember the government technical college around IMT in Enugu attacking the artisan Mosque over a rumor.If not for the intervention of police it was almost gutted down.Somehow it was later burnt down still by same SE people.In garki Enugu too.Killings took place.since the media down plays it.I also mingle with Northern counter parts and its sad what they tell you happens to them in this areas of the south east.In short i remember an Igbo friend telling me that in Umuahia an entire Hausa community was attacked and alot were killed.He told me to his amazement no media house reported this incidence.All they do is say "likely reprisals or reprisal killings" i feel the media should be more elaborate about such crisis there.AS they will,If it was in the North.NL tells you even more than the Nigerian Media will tell you.form eye witness accounts.

But you have to agree that these were reprisals attacks.

Andre Uweh:
Interprete what this Delta Igbo motto is

Good day Mr.Andrew.I am sorry but i have to say something here.i am disappointed how you derailed this thread.I am sure you can notice that you shifted this thread from the original discussion to something mean less or baseless,the reason why i felt like to voice out is because i am not expecting this from a person of your type,i have looked up to you as someone to be the next Eze Igbo Nairaland and this is what caught me worried.I wouldn't have say this here if i have any other means to communicate with you,since i have no other means i have to use this place to inform you of my disappointment in your part.I am not trying to bash or interrupt you.I just want you to know that one of your fan is highly disappointed that you gave this nama call alj_haram the opportunity he have been looking for to derailed this thread.Remember i am confirmed nwa afo,and few people might have noticed my strong position in issues concern Ndigbo and Biafra.

OP Is right to some extent, but i disagree with some of his assertion,Federal character favours the north in the area of employment opportunities in government establishment, also in the area of education, it is easier to gain admission to northern universities than most universities in the south west,but i am not discarding that given north and south thesame opportunity that north cannot thrive, academic performance is not dependent on some particular origin.

afam4eva:

But you have to agree that these were reprisals attacks.

Not totally i doubt.An instance also in Enugu as a result of a gambling dispute had turned violent.Simply because the fight was between a Hausa/Igbo gambler again.The Igbos were on the match not minding the fact that this is a game between two grown people.Even where it is criminal.Before you know it,The Igbos were shouting how can a Hausa man come and probably have a fight with his Igbo gambling friend.Again in this instance the Hausa community was targeted.
Also on a separate account My friend also told me while in Anambra at a park.He was about to observe his salat when an Igbo man violently shoved him and denied him praying.Reason he gave him is you can't pray here on our land.Remind me if that is reprisals.
Lastly my response was not over who started or reprisals,But largely of the notion that nothing happened to the Hausa/Muslim communities in the south-east.That is a lie.

3direct: The writer is not from the north all the saying na lie
Before a diamond shows its brilliancy and prismatic colors it has to stand a good deal of cutting and smoothing
his dull shyness anger and envy of the west is making him witty!!
northerners Ke!! Compare? nibo,
From what i know every northerners is a Mootola!! Heavy Ofrugbe
If we increase the size of the penguin until it is the same height as a man and then compare the relative brain size, we know find that the penguin's brain is still smaller. But, and this is the point, it is larger than it was, so are my good neighbours the haramist the mootolas!

You are such a terrible ASS-WIPE?..this thread was open for contributions from intelligent people not form milk-sucking kids like you. Have you ever left the bossom of your mummy?
I am a Deltan and I live in the North and I agree.although not totally with the OP but 95% of his write-up is very true. I can tell you a place in Borno state,where everybody thinks everyone there is a Muslim,there are families where they have both Xtains and Muslims,I mean a family of 5 could be divided into 3 Xtians and 2 Muslims or vice-versa and they live in harmony.
We recently attended a wedding in Mafa,Borno state where a Xtian business associate of mine got wedded to a Muslim woman,and I witnessed the most amazing thing ever,Something I never believed could happen in the core North.
In attendance of the wedding were many Muslim women and men,friends and relatives of the bride and groom and the women were all dressed in hijabs,and dancing happily to the events in church,I was left in utter amazement and had to come out of the church to read the signpost of the church,to really ascertain that I'm still in Nigeria and Borno state for that matter. I later got clarifications from the groom later on that most families had mixed religions amongst them and it has been like that for ages.
Another amazing thing was when he told me that since the beginning of the crises in the late 90's,there has been a strong directive never to sell any piece of land,no matter how small,to a Fulani settler,they could sell to any other tribe but not the Fulani's; The reason: they brew trouble(their opinion,not mine).
So Mr novice,it is better you just keep your lips glued and stay in your little haven than open your open and say things you know nothing about.

ti-ebe:

wow, yet another clever nairalander! this ur statement no be am. dnt some southerners also kill people like goats and chicken on the basis of tribe? shior.

OK, try religion.

ti-ebe:

anyways, I too am guilty of stereotyping northerners. However, i've met some recently and i've learnt that not everyone frm the north is hausa!

Myself likewise.

Nayah: Perfect post!! As a non- Nigerian I think this enlightens a lot of things even though I know that not all Northern part is Muslim or Hausa. But this is not so different from my country, actually in Cameroon for Southerners the Northern part is Muslim while the region of Ngaoundéré in the Adamaoua region ( yes Cameroon has also Adamaoua region and Cross river) are full of christians about 50%, and they (Southerners) used to talk about Hausa to define the North while Hausas are just located in Maroua( Northern region) and the rest is populated by Fulanis, Mbororos, Kanuris, Arab Shoa, Tupurris and so on on the Extreme North Region.

This is news albiet strange because I know they do not dominate the polity.

@ op in a muslim dominated 'world of d north',how misleadin it is; dat all northerners are muslims & hausas,which ws not of d makin any southerner, but an homogeneous propaganda of d core north in an attempt 2 continue 2 submit & subject d minorities 2 der domination. minorities 2 actually concurred 2,until recently dat section of d north;part of north central woke up & started loosenin d grip of the core north by wantin a separate identity of middle birth.iz not lyk they dont kno if the existence of other ethnic nationalities in that same region,but they had all been totally supressed (historical factor) & mayb in der thinkin clarification ws effort in futility.even now i dont c much effort 4rm other minorities.

On d misconception dat all are muslims in d north,if there exist xtianity there,i would say that,because islam of d north has no tolerance,d few states known as hardline notably;sokoto,maiduguri,kano,katsina,zamfara,gigawa & yobe,no freeborn of these places can hv a conflictin religious belief 2 dat of their parents or community witut a consequence,u're lebel infidel,d risk is far 2 gr8,u can be banished 4rm d home & family,xcommunicated & austraxizd 4 u've brought shame 2 ur family or even death.xcept d family's faith is esrablished,unlyk in d south wer father's religious conviction is different 4rm dat of d wife & even dat of d children,it neva seriously affected der relationship. based on this odd,it ll definitely beat their imagination 2 hv a separate conversion. God,u nid 2 c hw scornfu they luked @ us yl goin 2 church,it ws even a scare most recently; on each sundays we usually had some kids cumin & convergin @ church entrance,notin u do 2 want 2 clear d entrance dat ll deter dem,so we were told nt 2 conduct service on dat particular sunday,if ll do d buildin ws goin 2 b razed ,d reason ws dat we were convertin their poeple,d emir ws said 2 hv bin spotted arrnd d locality durin all of these,anoda info mentioned deeper lyf as target of d scare bein d culprit.u can imagine d pandemonium created.

d people of d south ar not entirely different 4rm d people of d north humanly,d uncommon is in culture & religious belief.it tends 2 affect ways of learnin & seekin knowledge.religion is a veritable 2l of d muslum north,they ar enthusiastic of their spirituality,d culture favours Arab based knowledge (Islamic education),& in my locality wer i hv my ppa in katsina state,we were initially shocked dat sch. assembly wuld b conducted in hausa, d only tym english is spoken wuld b durin press news,i stopped attendin assemblies,they are acquirin western education but detest english language.opinion i sampled 4rm sum of d pipils were dat english is christianity & dat western education is christian colonization,can u beat that!,teachin & learnin bcam an herculean task in 1st term & had 2 adjust our drives.hw well can 1 go unda such senerio attainin academic xcellence.thus is not generalization.i'll stop here 4 now.

Perfect post!! As a non- Nigerian I think this enlightens a lot of things even though I know that not all Northern part is Muslim or Hausa. But this is not so different from my country, actually in Cameroon for Southerners the Northern part is Muslim while the region of Ngaoundéré in the Adamaoua region ( yes Cameroon has also Adamaoua region and Cross river) are full of christians about 50%, and they (Southerners) used to talk about Hausa to define the North while Hausas are just located in Maroua( Northern region) and the rest is populated by Fulanis, Mbororos, Kanuris, Arab Shoa, Tupurris and so on on the Extreme North Region.

torkaka:
no offence chap,but A.B.U is miles ahead of UNIPORT

Their remedial programme is 50 years behind UNIPORT and most other southern universities with entry requirement of 3 credits and limited to only people in the north

9ja_I_hail:

Good day Mr.Andrew.I am sorry but i have to say something here.i am disappointed how you derailed this thread.I am sure you can notice that you shifted this thread from the original discussion to something mean less or baseless.

its ridiculous how 3 people totally derailed this thread. They took almost 2 - 3 pages engaging in meaningless arguement and display of ignorance. It got to a point i was uninterested in reading any longer because of them. This thread was created to enlighten Southerners about their fellow Northerners. You can argue about the North because its part of the enlighenment that the OP intended but If you want to argue about the south, feel free to do so on another thread but not on this particular one.

MR. MARK I DON'T KNOW ABOUT OTHER STATES BUT KWARA STATE DONT HAVE UP TO 40% CHRISTIAN... YOU CAN PROVE YOUR STATISTICS WITH EVIDENCE, I KNOW THIS STATE VERY WELL AND THAT WRONG ASSUMPTION YOU GAVE HAS GIVEN ME DOUBT ABOUT THE OTHER STATES I DON'T KNOW

semoskillz: MR. MARK I DON'T KNOW ABOUT OTHER STATES BUT KWARA STATE DONT HAVE UP TO 40% CHRISTIAN... YOU CAN PROVE YOUR STATISTICS WITH EVIDENCE, I KNOW THIS STATE VERY WELL AND THAT WRONG ASSUMPTION YOU GAVE HAS GIVEN ME DOUBT ABOUT THE OTHER STATES I DON'T KNOW

I don't have any census data but Kwara state should be at least 40% christian considering it is more or less a Yoruba state. Ilorin is majority muslim though.

lagcity:

I don't have any census data but Kwara state should be at least 40% christian considering it is more or less a Yoruba state. Ilorin is majority muslim though.

These is a cheeeky reason why it should be 40% christians. Note that majority of Kwara Yorubas are like aboki.

@Haka nai. The problems with your last post are those "someone said this, a friend of mine said that and another friend of a friend said this". Would it not be a joke if you keep judging and reaching conclussions base on what "friends" said happened to "hausa people" in the south to justify the shameful massacre by the hausa/fulanis? Infact i think the writer could easily be ndu_chuks & co who are more than ready to use any guise to decieve people as much as they can, orderwise the writer should have known that he has know right to accuse us the southerners of those things he said, when he should be making effort to stop those violent lots from reprenting the whole north, instead he is busy playing the blame game here.

What's this crap I hear about ndoki being in akwa ibom, I ask where in akwa ibom do they stay?which LGA in AKS?pls there r no ndoki ppl I AKS.

In addition, many southerners also do not know that Fulani herdsmen are great sheep and cow lovers...they kiss them and make love to them very sensually ikpoke!

Some people usually forget that kwara state isn't just ilorin alone. The state as a whole is almost evenly distributed between the muslims Ƌπϑ the christians so ΐ̲̅ƒ̲̅ you say its a ratio of 40-60 percent, its can't be authenticated by its still sensible. Try τ̅ȍ take notes the extent of followership on any festive day between these twos.

BabaTony: What's this crap I hear about ndoki being in akwa ibom, I ask where in akwa ibom do they stay?which LGA in AKS?pls there r no ndoki ppl I AKS.

Ndoki is located in Ukanafun Local Government area of Akwa-Ibom.

Afam this is not true, ndoki is just a border community in abia state,they are not part of ukanafun LGA nay AKS. The fact that they share borders with AKS does not make them part of AKS.

zeeleso: 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 per cent 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 per cent. 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, and Yunusa and so on. But when the person has an obvious Christian name and is even attends church services, you really begin to wonder.

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, the Editor-in-Chief 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 Fulan[/b]i, but with still some minority tribes in the Zuru area of Kebbi State and the multi-diverse Southern Kaduna. The [b]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 three per cent 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 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.

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.

Times without number, when I tell people I am from Borno State, I am asked how come I speak such good English. What the hell? 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’.

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[b] due to the incompetence of leadership in the region to give education its premium importance[/b] 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 per cent 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 Dr Mukhtar did not merit it. Little did they know that Dr Mukhtar had worked at the World Bank and the African Development Bank, prior to his heading Nigeria’s Budget Office on the invitation of the then and present 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 former President Umaru 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.

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 in the last elections where President Goodluck Jonathan won in 7 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 capitalizing on the image of the North as one single, political force which moves in a particular direction all-together

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 landmass 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.
http://tribune.com.ng/index.php/politics/39214-the-north-that-southerners-dont-know

Ignorance is worse than corruption. And ignorance is actually what is destroying Nigeria more than corruption. Because ignorance kills.

That is why Boko Haram is actually on rampage, because their ignorance is the cause of their insecurity and is the cause of their insanity.
Many Muslim students even show symptoms of the Boko Haram sickness by deliberating provoking and attacking Christians on campuses in the north. Their insanity is powered by their insecurity.
Only the TRUTH can set them free and save them from the calamity of their insanity.