Posted: July 30, 2013 - 16:36
By Remi Oyeyemi
“The North, on the basis of one man one vote can keep power indefinitely in the present Nigeria State…….. the demography shows that the North can keep power as long as it wants because it will always win elections.”
- Ango Abdullahi in The Nation newspaper of July 16, 2013
It has taken great restraint on my part to write this piece. Restraint in the sense that I am personally disappointed in President Goodluck Jonathan’s handling of the Nigerian state in the last few years and how he is letting by the golden opportunity to untie and let loose some historical chains with which his people in the Niger-Delta and the rest of the oppressed peoples of Nigeria have been bounded. If his predecessors have failed as presidents, that should not be his excuse to tread the path of failure too. I am leery to be supportive of him because of this. But at the same time, I am unwilling to be against him because of people like Ango Abdullahi, who in my own book is a political professor and a very dishonest man who seems to think that Nigeria belongs to him and his Fulani ilk.
Ango Abdullahi, a cold and wicked man who never had any qualms in ordering the murder of innocent students when he was Vice-Chancellor of Ahmadu Bello University is from the Fulani stock who believes that it is his and kinsmen’s birth right to rule Nigeria perpetually. This is regardless of the Fulani small number relative to many other ethnic nationalities in Nigeria. Any form of challenge to the Fulani dominance of political and economic space is intolerable by them in the land where they are actually foreigners.
The dexterity of the Fulani oligarch to use divide and rule to subjugate others is one of their sources of confidence. They have loyal satellites in all the ethnic nationalities who would gladly do their bidding. This is why there has not been any outcry from other sections of the country on Abdullahi’s recent vituperations in the media about the North having the capability to “always win elections” and control the Nigerian political levers indefinitely. One would have expected leaders from the South-South, South-West and South-East to come out and challenge his claims about the assumed numerical strength of the North and put nonsense to it. But alas! This is not the case because these satellites in all these regions are unwilling to offend their “paymasters.”
In fact, that President Jonathan’s political operatives are quiet about this portends that his political machine is devoid of fast thinking ability and is probably arid intellectually if not oblivious to historical facts. The president’s political machine ought to have come out smoking with fire, not just denouncing Abdullahi for lying, but should have exposed him as a discredited intellectual that has no respect for the truth and facts about Nigerian population demography. They should have come out with statistics to expose Abdullahi’s claim about the assumed numerical strength of the North as a lie and a figment of a corrupt and confused imagination.
It is not true that the North has more population than the South. FACT  Land mass does not automatically translate to big population. Canada has more land than the USA. But the USA is ten times more populated than Canada. It is a lie that has been put in place since the 1950s by the colonial masters who believe that imposing the malleable minority Fulani on the majority would be a way to guarantee the British unfettered access to Nigeria’s wealth. Granted that Olusegun Obasanjo as a Southerner has been a tool in the hands of the Hausa/Fulani oligarchy all his life to be able to attain the apex of politics that he has attained, what about Jonathan who has good luck on his side to be where he is today and avail himself the opportunity to loosen the chain of bondage for his people? Why won’t he correct some of these historical lies dressed in the garb of “truth” and accepted unquestioningly by the contemporary political leaders of other regions? When empirical facts could not support any claim, such claim ought to be discarded and replaced by a more verifiable ones.
It is internationally proved, known and accepted that the following variables determine the demography of any environment: (a) Access to water (b) Climate condition (c) Food among many others.
Of all the above three variables, the South is more favoured than the North. It is only in Nigeria that the Sahara Desert is more populated than the Savanna and the thick Forest. Compare the population density of the Nigerian desert states with that of Chad, Mali, Burkina Faso and others like that to recognise the enormity of lies that Ango Abdullahi is peddling and that are not being challenged by the contemporary leaders of other ethnic nationalities.
Add the middle belt to it!!!
This fallacy about the Northern Population advantage has been perpetuated through the use of government tools against the reality on the ground. Every time there is a Census exercise, this lie is reinforced through the cooking of figures to portray the North as having more population than the South. It is amazing that this lie is being accepted as the “truth” by the dealers calling themselves leaders in the South.
[b][size=15pt]For example, in a reaction to a book review by this author, Forshow3 had noted that according to modern satellite, an area of Kastina State (about 60% of the entire state) is seen to have 9,800 houses that anyone who knows how to count can do. The fraudulent 1990 census allotted 935,677 persons to this area. In 2006 the population Census also allotted 1,444,123 to this same area. Doing the elementary Mathematics to find out the population density of this area, you would divide the population of 1,444,123 by the number of houses, 9,800. This will give you 147.064 per house.
Where in the world is it possible to have almost 150 persons living in one single house? How big could the house be? And to have 9800 of such? It should not also escape our cognizance that most of the “houses” in this region are huts. Every idiot knows that 147 people cannot live in a hut.
Haba! Why is it that our so called leaders are not challenging this monstrous falsehood? Are they so intellectually challenged? Or are they cowards? Why are they quiet about this lie? What other way to prove this lie of population majority of the North except through technology that everyone had access to?
Also Jigawa State is given the population figure of 4.3million. Yet this is an entire state that has only 60,000 houses and or huts. If you use the same mathematical procedure, this will give you over 71 persons per house and or hut! How is this possible? It is physically implausible, untenable and indeed impossible.[/size]
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So, the question arises, where did the voter register giving all these mammoth figures to these Northern States come from? They have been cooked figures aimed to giving the North an undue advantage over the South and installed apartheid on Nigeria. It is on the basis of this lie that the political professor Ango Abdullahi is threatening President Goodluck Jonathan and the rest of Nigeria that the North could win elections indefinitely. Others, for pecuniary political interests could not summon the courage to fight for the truth and fairness.
In an article “The Unmaking of Nigerian Federalism”, I had quoted the request of the Sardauna of Sokoto and the Premier of Northern Region, Sir Ahmadu Bello’s request in 1952 to the Nigeria’s Colonial Secretary, Mr. Oliver Lyttleton as follows:
“If you want us (the North) to be part of this Nigeria you have in mind, then we want 50% of the membership of the National Assembly.”
In deductive analysis, what this suggests is that the North is smaller in numerical strength compared to the South. The fact that bears out this analysis is embedded in the number of seats held by each region before the 1954 rigmarole allotment of seats by the Colonial overlords that gave the North undue advantage over the South. Before 1954, there were 162 seats in the Federal House of Representatives distributed as follows:
Northern Region 79 seats or 48.76%
Southern Region 83 seats or 51.23%
It should be noted that the Northern seats included that of Yoruba Kwara. This means that if the Kwara people were not lumped with the North, they would still have less number of seats than 79, since this was based on population. This shows that the South of Nigeria has always been more populous than the North of Nigeria.
But the Sardauna does not have any qualms about appropriating an advantage that is not due to him and his people as long as he has the hegemony over others. A perusal of the Fulani historical trajectory would confirm this as a second nature. More so, power is also an aphrodisiac for any human being. Thus in 1954 when Lyttleton became the Governor General of Nigeria, he granted the wish of Ahmadu Bello without any census. He arbitrarily re-allocated Federal House of Representatives’ seats as follows in lieu of November 11, 1954 elections:
Northern Region:92
Easter Region: 42
Western Region: 42
Southern Cameroon: 6
Lagos : 2
In the election that followed, only the Action Group won seats in all regions except the Southern Cameroon. This was the beginning of apartheid in Nigeria. But it is now left for the rest of the ethnic Nationalities in Nigeria of today if this would continue. This is because as Eleanor Roosevelt contended “No one can make you a slave without your consent.”
This ignoble exercise was repeated in the months leading to the December 12 , 1959 elections preparatory to Independence. The seats in the Federal House of Representatives were increased to 320, again without any Census, and allotted by the Colonial Government as follows:
Northern Region: 174 or 54.48%
Eastern Region: 73 or 22.81%
Western Region: 62 or 19.94%
Lagos: 3 or 0.94%
Southern Cameroon: 8 or 2.50%
(Source of the figures: Nigeria - A Complete Factfinder, 9th Edition)
Again, it was only the Action Group Party that won election in all regions as opposed to NPC and NCNC. No election was held in Southern Cameroon in 1959. This left 312 seats for the Nigerian National Assembly. Ahmadu Bello had asked for 50% of the seats in the National Assembly, he got 55.7%. Suddenly an apartheid system was put in place permanently as the majority South became the minority and the minority North became the majority.
Ango Abdullahi carries around the title of a “professor.” But this does not mean that he is professorial in any way. A professor would respect facts and be cautious about what he dishes to the public. He could not go into the media propagating falsehood, especially where there are incontrovertible records about a subject. For him to say that the North has a massive population is pure lie. He is engaged in pranks of repeating a lie several times to make it a “truth.” But it is incumbent on the rest of us not to let him get away with it.
Abdullahi was following the mentality of Ahmadu Bello when he insisted as follows:
“I want to make it absolutely clear to you that the ACF and all these groups that have emerged in the recent past are committed to the interest that underlines northern interest………On behalf of all of us, ACF in the front because they have been the oldest group and the Middle Belt Forum (MBF) and our other groups that have been very active and strong.’
The quote above is akin to what Ahmadu Bello said on October 12, 1960 in Parrot newspaper about using the Northern minorities as “willing tools” and taking the South of Nigeria as a conquered territory and never allowing Southerners to be in control of their own destiny. One is not aware when Ango Abdullahi, whose Fulani people have almost exterminated all the Biroms of Plateau among others, and other minority nationalities in Adamawa, Taraba and Kaduna among others, became the spokesperson for the Middle Belt Forum. If it is not weird, then it is part of the plan of using the Northern minorities as “willing tools” of the Hausa Fulani agenda. It however, remains to be seen if the Middle Belters would continue to be the “willing tools” against their own interests.
With this in mind, hegemonic lie peddlers like Abdullahi should not be left off the hook. He should be continuously exposed for what he is – a liar with a “born to rule” mentality. Leaders of other ethnic Nationalities should insist on the restructuring of the Federation and change the status quo in the National Assembly that has given the North underserved advantage. If this is not going to be possible, the break-up of Nigeria should be seriously considered so that we can go all our different ways rather than remain in perpetual political, economic and social subjugation. http://saharareporters.com/article/ango-abdullahis-lies-and-%E2%80%9Cborn-rule%E2%80%9D-mentality-remi-oyeyemi?nocache=1#comment-604088 Just as i was about to start reading this on my phone, a guy was callously stating that Jonathan has a big problem because of the north's false majority and when i read this piece i was yes, this is a piece that when utilized effectively, one can silence the false "born to rule" mentality. How? Simply download google earth, zoom to any state capital in the north, count the houses by numbering them, get to population website and get the figure of people in that city then find your population density Thanks |
