http://odili.net/news/source/2008/jul/24/315.html


[center]Soludo’s “northern phenomenon” [/center]
[center]Written by Ochereome Nnanna
Thursday, July 24, 2008 [/center]

LET me start by congratulating the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Professor Chukwuma Soludo, for summoning the courage to go to Kaduna and tell the elites of northern Nigeria the patriotic home truth last weekend about their neglect of Nigeria’s lower classes of northern origin.

Soludo shrugged off the real or imagined moves by some northern hawks to hound him out of office in order to take over the CBN.

Let me also commend the Northern Development Initiative (NDI), which organised the Arewa Inspirational Leadership Forum, the platform upon which Soludo stood and identified the socio-economic cankerworm he called a “northern phenomenon”.

It took courage on the part of the Arewa intellectual group to ask Soludo to come and expatiate on a point he made in passing in January, 2007 at a presidential economic forum in Aso Villa, Abuja.

After reeling out a number of socio-economic indicators among the various geopolitical zones of Nigeria in which Jigawa State was ranked as Nigeria’s poorest state, Soludo had concluded with the expression: “poverty is still a northern phenomenon”. I took up this matter with the outgoing governor of Jigawa State, Alhaji Saminu Turaki, who had run the affairs of the state for eight years. He called Soludo names and dismissed his analysis.

But when I took it up with the man who had just been given the ticket of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) for the governorship of Jigawa State, Alhaji Sule Lamido, he described it as “an embarrassment” and a serious cause for concern for all northerners and Jigawa indigenes, irrespective of how Soludo arrived at his conclusion.

By inviting Soludo to say more on this topic, the NDI obviously belongs to the group of northerners who are not afraid to confront the entire scope of this problem, possibly with a view to devising means of tackling it. They are not among those who would rather play the ostrich.

Part of Soludo’s disclosures included that the nation’s largest and most powerful geopolitical block, the North West zone, is actually the poorest, not only in the country but also in the north itself, with some states having 90 per cent of their population mired in “high poverty”.

A report of the event in Sunday Vanguard of July 20th 2008 quoted the CBN boss thus: “educationally, he said that the north was seriously lagging behind the south as the number of students who seek education from Imo state in one year, for example, is higher than 16 states in the north put together”.

Space constrains me here to bring out more facts, but as a way out, Soludo advocated some sort of emergency measures on the northern economy.

He said many members of the northern elite can help their states by establishing microfinance banks with branches all over their states to help the hard-working grassroots people who are mainly farmers to tap into the economy.

A lot of activity in that area is taking place in southern states. The situation right now is that “if you put together 12 to 15 states in the north, the (microfinance banks in them) are not up to the number you find in one state in the south”.

We cannot very well be talking about becoming one of the twenty biggest economies in the world in the year 2020 when the social indicators in a purportedly larger part of the country are so unbecomingly abysmal. Northern leaders must sit down and search their consciences.

The North West has called the political and economic shots since our independence.

They have their multi-billionaires. In fact, Africa’s self-acclaimed richest person, Alhaji Aliko Dangote, is from that zone. And yet the people who have complained of their domination are the ones whose grassroots are ahead in the social scale, with the gap widening by the day.

Northern leaders are fond of asking south-south leaders what they do with the oil money they have been collecting. Good question. We also know that the north has benefited so much from the number of states, local governments, electoral constituencies and population censuses, based on which huge sums of money are allocated from the federation account.

The question is: what do they do with the money?

The answer is simple and obvious. The elites of the north use it on themselves and their family members. Their offspring are educated in the best schools in the world. But apart from alms, little else percolates to the grassroots. Fertilizers don’t get to the farmers as intended.

Civil servants and politicians hijack them and sell to traders who now sell to farmers at exorbitant rates. And here is a zone where over 90 per cent of the people are farmers who, if encouraged, can feed this nation and produce for exports.

They are already feeding the nation even with little support. Where would a mega-city like Lagos be without the toil of northern peasant farmers?

The Nigerian grassroots are poor by universal standards. But the situation of poverty and educational backwardness in the north should be a source of concern to all well meaning Nigerians. The northern elite need total reorientation to begin to show more concern for the welfare of the less privileged ones among them. The ball is in the court of the NDI.

My bad. Anyway, this is a review of Soludo's statements, not his actual statement.

your insulting Hausas and their almajiris

I praise Soludo for his bravery in telling the North to the face what they are wallowing in.

I guess, we should now wait and see who will tell East, West and South to also face what they are wallowing in

I don't know that is a 'Northern phenomenom' I mean, where in Nigeria is poverty not evident? huh? I think it is rather unwise for Soludo to be saying such divisive things, he ought to know better.

last post: 3years ago...
how come this post is made a trendin topic

buzor: last post: 3years ago...
how come this post is made a trendin topic

Because he had foresight. Soludo is a great man.

AfroCynic: I don't know that is a 'Northern phenomenom' I mean, where in Nigeria is poverty not evident? huh? I think it is rather unwise for Soludo to be saying such divisive things, he ought to know better.

^^^I guess you spoke too soon .

What we need is bold people to say it as it is, no matter whose feelings are hurt. The fact of the matter is that the core north -inspite of the head-start, quota-system, federal character, oyel blocks and other advantages they've enjoyed since 1967- has f/uckall to show for it (besides having the highest concentration of liquid Billionaires in Africa), and the rest of the country is just fed-up with them.

Be amongst the top 20 economies by the year 2020 my D/ICK!!! Now tell me how that's feasible with this dead-weight we're carrying ? Like the other countries will wait while we sort out our mess. That'll only happen when hell freezes over.

Just watch as little Ghana passes us on the highway to peace and prosperity, waving at us cheekily as they pass, and we watching as their tail-lights disappear in the distance.

Yea a great looser! lost d cbn gov and lost his home state govship. Mu he he he he

aurenflani: Yea a great looser! lost d cbn gov and lost his home state govship. Mu he he he he

^^^Stop clutching at straws and focus. Is what Soludo said fact or not? Don't know the timelines, but i'd have even more respect for him if he said it when he was still the CBN Governor.

Really? Yet Nigeria remains a poverty-stricken under-developed tenth-world jungle!
90% poverty rate nation-wide.
Yeah! Blame the "North"!

This same 'North' that is 'greener pasture' to some of his people?

I hear you 'Charlie'!

Abagworo:

Because he had foresight. Soludo is a great man.

i tot u a northerner...
@d topic, core northerners re nothing but parasites . i guess their religion encourages poverty by supporting lazyness and alms giving...

Make una leave "North" alone.
419, drug-swallowing/shyting or 'otokoto' nor be hard work!
After passing JAMB with expo. . . .what next?

Execution in Malaysia or "ANUS" flushing and decongesting at Dulles airport?

PROUD-IGBO:


^^^Stop clutching at straws and focus. Is what Soludo said fact or not? Don't know the timelines, but i'd have even more respect for him if he said it when he was still the CBN Governor.

This thread is old and he did say it when he was still the CBN Governor.

Abagworo:

This thread is old and he did say it when he was still the CBN Governor.

^^^Cheers. Maybe that counted against him when his first (and only) tenure came to an end. Moral of the story is: never say it as it is in Nigeria if you want to progress in your career.

Big B1: I guess, we should now wait and see who will tell East, West and South to also face what they are wallowing in

If you are an adult and you talk like this, sorry.

AfroCynic: I don't know that is a 'Northern phenomenom' I mean, where in Nigeria is poverty not evident? huh? I think it is rather unwise for Soludo to be saying such divisive things, he ought to know better.

even in your afterlife, its still the Northern Phenomenon, if you are a northerner, your leaders have blinfolded you both religiously, socially and otherwise. Its a shame.

bilymuse: your insulting Hausas and their almajiris

More like telling them the truth to their faces? btw it is 'you're' not 'your'. Are you also from the educationally backward north?

Anglican Church members protest alleged poverty, suffering in Ebonyi
On November 4, 2011 · In News
12:59 am
Email0

By PETER OKUTU
ABAKALIKI— NO fewer than 2,000 church members resident in Ebonyi State capital, Thursday, staged a peaceful protest to register their dissatisfaction with the administration of Governor Martin Elechi these past four years.

The protesters, who were mainly members of the Church of Nigeria, Anglican Communion, Abakaliki district, expressed discontent over the slow pace of development in the state and raised alarm over the level of poverty currently plaguing citizens of the state.

As they marched through strategic locations in Abakaliki metropolis, traffic was obstructed as vehicles were seen driving slowly to allow the protesters the liberty of exercising their fundamental human

rights.

They also chanted choruses and brandished their brooms which they said symbolized spiritual cleansing of the state.

Leader of the group, Evangelist Ephraim Ononye, stated that the church decided to stage a peaceful protest to let the government know that it was no longer happy with the condition of the citizens of the state.

He said: “Ebonyi is backward. Among the states in the old eastern region, Ebonyi State is the most backward. In this state, nothing is moving and people are complaining, people are crying, people are suffering; there is darkness in this state and we need electricity.

“We demand that the government and governed should embrace change. We want change, that’s why we are going round this roundabout and I know that there is power in what we are doing; let the government govern the people with its heart.”

haha

Ibime please check your mail.