Nigeria: The Illusion of a North Dominated Rule



May 14th, 2012

by Lekan Abayomi

NewsRescue OpEd- I am sure you have recently heard or perhaps said, ‘Nigeria’s Northern rulers are responsible for the problems of the nation,’ or that ‘that Northern Cabal, those Arewa boys and that Northern rule…never again, we must have Southern and Middle Belt rule from now on.’

In February, Nigeria’s notorious MEND (Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta) militant leader, Mujaheed Dokubo-Asari, while leading a coalition of South South and middle belt youths for condolence to late Ojukwu’s home, expressed a warning that the North should forget about ruling Nigeria next election, adding that the leadership position must go to the South or Middle Belt.

Quoting the Tribune

Mujaheed Dokubo-Asari, has advised Northerners to forget the Presidency in 2015, insisting that the exalted position will remain in the South or go to the Middle Belt.

Fact is, not the North, but the Middle Belt ruled Nigeria the Longest!

So the first question we address on this topic of the Illusion of Northern rule is, who are the Middle Belt?

We can get a lot of information on this from an article published on January 29th, 2012:
Middle Belt leader and Southern General decimated Biafra

The South usually blames the North for the decimation of the Biafra dream. But how real is this? Fact-check: It is very untrue. It was another Middle Belt leader, Yakubu Gowon, a Christian who hails from Kanke, Plateau state in Nigeria’s Middle Belt, that, together with his army commander, another Southern Christian from Ogun state, General and two-time president of Nigeria, Obasanjo (OBJ), led the assault of Biafra. In the Northern counter Aguyi Ironsi coup of 1966, according to Encyclopedia Britannica, Christian Gowon from the Middle Belt emerged as the ‘compromise’ head of the new government.

In this Youtube video, at 3 mins and 30 seconds, Gowon clearly acknowledges his being from the Middle Belt of Nigeria.

Indeed, according to NVS, and Wikipedia, the Middle Belt consists of:

BENUE, NASSARAWA, TARABA, ADAMAWA, PLATEAU, SOUTHERN KEBBI, KOGI, KWARA, NIGER, SOUTHERN KADUNA, FCT, SOUTHERN GOMBE, and the two minority local government areas of TAFAWA BALEWA and BOGORO in southern Bauchi State.

Nigeria’s prominent and most ‘remarkable’ leaders, the Babangidas, the Tafawa Balewas, the Abdulsalam Abubakars and the Gowons, blamed for most of the grievance of Nigeria, were all Middle Belt Nigerians.

In truth, the Sharia North has contributed very little to actual leadership of the Nation. And this area remains the most impoverished part of Nigeria, with the poverty level at 70-90%, at the low extreme of the combined 50% average. No surprise violence which is closely related to poverty is prominent in this Northern area.

Related: NewsRescue- Poverty in the North – A “Mayday” Call

The leaders from the ‘Sharia’/ Dan-Fodio North include: Shehu Shagari, Late Musa Yaradua, Late Murtala Muhammed and General Buhari, who is regarded by most Nigerians as having been one of Nigeria’s best and least corrupt leaders. Buhari together with his deputy, late general Tunde Idiagbon rejected IMF-SAP proposals which IBB later accepted, that crippled Nigeria. In like fashion, current president Goodluck Johnathan listened to the IMF and abruptly removed fuel subsidies, to the detriment of Nigeria.

Related: NewsRescue- Summary of Nigeria IMF-SAP debt progression

In a statement by a prominent Middle Belt leader, Leonard Karshima Shilgba, PhD:

We the peoples of the Middle Belt in particular and non Dan Fodians, in general, must rise up and resist this egregiously inhuman vision with every sense of pride and purpose. You can never be wrong in seeking to be free. Some have derisively asked the clear description of the Middle Belt peoples. Socially speaking, all non-Dan Fodians in the geographical north and central north are Middle Belt people, the oppressed people, deceptively huddled up under the “One North” of Sir Ahmadu Bello. However, geographically, it is generally acceptable to many scholars from the region that the Middle Belt federation consists of people in the present BENUE, NASSARAWA, TARABA, ADAMAWA, PLATEAU, SOUTHERN KEBBI, KOGI, KWARA, NIGER, SOUTHERN KADUNA, FCT, SOUTHERN GOMBE , and the two minority local government areas of TAFAWA BALEWA and BOGORO in southern Bauchi State.

The Powerful Multicolored Belt; is not the North!

We immediately see the areas recognized as the Middle Belt by the Middle Belt itself. This raises two pertinent issues,- Why does the South fail to recognize that it is the large Middle Belt that was responsible for the issues of the past that they hold the ‘Dan-Fodio’/Sharia North responsible for? And secondly, is it possible to ever expect this same Middle Belt will stand against their Northern cousins and support the South?

Nigeria’s Middle Belt, just like any belt does, has historically fastened the South to the rest of Nigeria. Indeed this vast area of mixed tribes, including some who will associate as Northerners and others who will call themselves Southerners. A rich even mix of Muslims and Christians has long been the capital and command and control center of Nigeria. A quiet, hidden giant. Silently operating to foster unity and maintain its quiet dominance. Little surprise the capital of Nigeria is not situated in Lagos anymore and was not moved to the impoverished North, but was rather situated at Abuja, FCT, right beside IBB’s Niger state, in the Middle Belt.

Is a conclusive division of Nigeria possible with this multi-religio-ethnic vast Middle Belt?

Chimaroke Nnnamani, the then governor of Enugu State, in his speech delivered to the National Union of Journalists (NUJ) and Africa Republic Foundation (ARF), in Jos, in 2005, described the Middle Belt as ‘the Glue of the Nation’. Nigeria Central: Middle Belt, Glue of the Nation- Chimaroke Nnamani, Enugu Governor


As Middle Belt has come a long way in history, it has expanded on the political fillip of a feeling of system emasculation and oppression. Indeed, such feeling has drawn more who were not ordinarily, by geography and culture, considered by Middle Belt. Mid way, it was simply those who considered themselves unfortunate to be hemmed into the Northern Nigerian political system. That way, even some of the ethnic groups, evident northeast bound but living on the feeling of alienation, either by the old Northern system or the evolving Northeastern patch-up, had to seek succour under the umbrella of Middle Belt.

Further south, the Yoruba of Kwara and Kogi, Kabba, Ebira, Igala, Idoma, etc, had to be sucked into this emerging political feeling.

It is on account of this that it is currently argued that in terms of geopolitical territory, what may eventually spring up as the Middle Belt would be a behemoth squeezing apart the North and South of Nigeria, but constituting a seeming natural intervention between some alleged dominators and usurpists favoured at the transition of power from colonialism to nation.

It becomes clear that either Dokubo Asari for instance does not realize who the Middle Belt is and what they have represented in Nigeria’s history, or he for purposes best serving his strategic interests, chooses to ignore this.

Nigeria’s most infamous president, Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida(IBB) is a true representative and leader from the Middle Belt. Is it the likes of that administration that Dokubo Asari and others who call upon a comradeship with the Middle Belt seek?

Now let us get to the Nitty-gritty of this subject. Nigeria’s leadership, Northern dominated or not?




The truth and facts immediately become glaring. The Middle Belt likes of Christian Yakubu Gowon and IBB held the reigns of power and are culpable for the success or clear failure of Nigeria more than any other group.

The western-literate Southern journalists and historians have re-written Nigeria’s history to create an illusion of Northern dominated rule. Perhaps it is time Northerners learned and participated more in journalism.

As noted above, it was under the tenure of Yakubu Gowon, a Christian from the Middle Belt that the Biafra project was decimated, and this decimation was led by his Southern General, soon to become leader, OBJ.
Ok, not leadership but a Northern caucus?

Read more: Nigeria: The Illusion of a North Dominated Rule|NewsRescue!

Nice try, but you are looking at the realities that is confronting Nigeria today. An illusion? NO, it was the grim reality then. Then there was nothing like Middle-Belt only ONE monolithic North. People from the Middle-Belt never saw themselves as coming from no other region than the North. Nigeria was known then by regions and it was only natural for one to identify with the region one hailed from. We only knew of Northern, Eastern, Western or Mid-Western Nigeria, that is before the creation of states. I am being generous here, the colonial masters created only 3 regions as at 1954, there was no Mid-western region. Don't blame the Middle-Belt, they woke up almost too late having realized that with the exigencies and happenings in today's Nigeria,(especially religious, ethnic and political killings of Christians and even muslims who are not of the core north extraction)the north is longer the north. Hence the New Middle-Belt identity. You will be surprised to know that some states being mentioned as belonging to the Middle-Belt would choose to have nothing to do with it. My only question is where did the wanton slaughter and killings of the Igbo race first started? In the Middle-Belt? No! But your guess is as good as mine.

An Historical Map of Nigeria Showing Three Federal Regions Created
by British Colonial Rule (1954)

Source: http://www.waado.org/nigerian_scholars/archive/pubs/wilber1_map1.htm

It appears u are one of the people that uses Middle Belt as suits you.

The Middle Belt will eat their cake and have it? They ruled us most and worst and they are now absolved of blame and made to appear as victims in position and preference to rule again?

Let us give blame to whom it belongs. The Middle Belt were our longest and worst rulers. The core North appear to be victims as much as any other region. Hence their poverty.

This noted, the article does not discuss killing of Christians. That is a different topic for a different day.