Buhari was my candidate in the last election; he will still be in the next election if the same sets of candidates or a semblance of same are presented. Not because of any other reason other than my perhaps wrong but very strong notion that Nigeria’s woes has a lot to do with corruption and I see in him a man that will not be favourably disposed to it. On the other hand I also see him as a man who though a product of the Northern feudal system, is not drunk on maintaining the system that has helped to keep the North and by extension Nigeria in this unenviable state. By this I mean poverty in the midst of plenty. There however seems to be a little problem here, Buhari or any other talakawa loving leader may not be able to lift our northern brothers out of poverty.

I must confess here that I don’t know the boundary of the North I am referring to, but I am sure it may not be the same as the political North that has been created by the Northern Oligarchs in their bid to continue to advance their personal interest. It is however my hope that my referenced North will fall into place naturally by the time I am done with my assertion.

A good starting point may be to quote from late Chief Obafemi Awolowo’s allocutus statement in his famous September 11, 1963 treasonable felony’s sentencing. “Since 1957 I have fought, as your Lordship remarked, with vigour against the feudal system in the Northern Region and for its eradication. I have also fought to prevent the spread of this evil political system to other parts of Nigeria. During the same period I have strongly advocated the breaking up of Northern Region into more states in order to have true federation in Nigeria, to preclude the permanent subservience of the people of Nigeria to the autocratic ruling caste in the North, and to preserve peace and unity in the country.”

What is it then about this system that will make a sagacious personality like Obafemi Awolowo refer to it as evil? In my own interpretation, the feudal system as it is practised in Nigeria it is a system that establishes legitimate masters (Master class) and legitimate subservient slaves (Slave class) with none questioning the existence or the role of the other. This is the system that is firmly in place in the North. It is the system that produces almajiris, it is the system that ensures corruption in the North is not exposed. It is the system that ensures that the educated Northerners are direct descendants of the masters or few elevated followers that pleased their masters. It is the system that ensures there is no poverty based agitation by any group in the north even in the mist of excruciating poverty. It is the system that gives the notion to an educated Northerner that the Northern problem is from the central government and not the state. It is a system that creates secrecy in the governance process in the North and in Nigeria. It is the system that created the yardstick that is being used to adjudge formal Nigeria rulers who empowered the master class as good leaders.

To further analyse this system, I will take some excerpt from Malam Nasir El-rufai’s “Bauchi’s Hopeless Budget” on the back of Thisday Newspaper of 13th April 2012.
In 2012, Bauchi will generate only N7.3 billion internally but it plans to spend N8.3 billion on its political officer holders.
It plans to spend N19billion to produce only 1900 students qualified to be admitted into universities.
There are 20 special advisers, 94 senior special assistants and 810 special assistants, 24 director generals and 20 commissioners.

This is a typical hopeless situation that is going on in the North. You can ditto this pattern of budget for other Northern states. Are we honestly expecting any serious development or advancement here? If few people have perfected the act of consuming what is meant for everybody? The Northern governors however have nothing to worry about as the educated northerners are members of the master class. With the exception of few ‘troublemakers’ like El-Rufai, nobody will probe or raise eyebrow about what they do. Even where somebody does, the slave class are too uneducated and generally uninformed to understand what the real issues are.

Just before I forget, this is the system that has been entrenched in Abuja. This is why some hundreds of people lock themselves up in a chamber they insist is not shallow nor hollow but hallow and allocate money to themselves at the expense of the rest of us. This is why the federal government will spend more than 70% of its budget on less than 0.5% of the population. It is this system that Akwa Ibom, Imo, Lagos, Rivers, and other few states are gradually breaking away from. While we are interested in breaking this system, some people are only interested in having a fair master class who allows more crumbs to fall to the ground. If we however fail to defeat this system Awolowo couldn’t defeat, majority of Nigerians from the Northern part of the country will not only continue to be poor but will continue to be grateful and loyal to the master class who in turn will continue to nurture them as a weapon against the enemy of the system he(the master class) uses to enslave them.

Uchizo is my pseudonym
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