A uniquely Northern Nigerian Muslim culture, which traditionally holds education in contemptuous suspicion as a Western Judeo-Christian expansionist ploy, has continuously relegated the region to the abyss of socio-economic dysfunction. In combination with a distorted but widely practiced form of Sufism, which holds poverty as virtue and material prosperity as vice, the entrenched Muslim culture that abhors education is responsible for the social menace of poverty-stricken, mostly homeless children, commonly known as AlmaJiri, roaming the streets of northern Nigeria in their millions.

A region that formed part of the greater western Sudanese states, with a history of Islamist revivalist movements for most part of the 19th Century, northern Nigeria was made fertile for the rapid sprouting of the early seeds of radicalisation in the second half of the 20th century when Salafism was birthed in the region from modern-day Sudan. While also holding education in utter contempt, the cardinal objective of the reformation of the Islamic faith by ridding Muslim practices of what were considered all forms of innovation and a return to their interpretations of puritan Islamic prophetic tradition saw Salafism attempting to wipe out Sufism in all of northern Nigeria.



Imbibing the contemporary aspiration for global Islamist revivalism of the Muslim Caliphacy through political Islamic theology as localised galvanizing tools, the separating line between the state and religion became blurred in Salafi doctrines, setting the stage for a prolonged agitation for the full imposition of the Muslim legal code, Sharia, in Nigeria. The aspiration for the imposition of Sharia law in Nigeria by millions of northern Nigerian Muslims now under the firm influence of Salafism but the failure to achieve same through political Islamic theology was the precursor of the devastating Boko Haram insurgency, whose objective is to forcefully put to practice what has been preached in the mainstream Muslim community for several decades.

The twin menace of Almajirnici and Boko Haram insurgency that has reduced the image of the Muslim North to the most impoverished, ignorant, diseased, socially backward, economically underdeveloped region with notoriety as the third most dangerous place to live in the world is discernably a consequence of a wilful Muslim culture, which is without parallel anywhere in the entire global Muslim world, as these practices are fundamentally not Islamic. While the Almajiri institution has been sustained by the still entrenched traditional Muslim Sufi practices, the Boko Haram insurgency is kept alive by the constant nourishing of the seeds of radicalisation through the preaching of hate, intolerance and separatism by mainstream Muslim religious leadership under the heavy influence of Salafi radical Islamic theology. Whereas, Sufism birthed Almajirinci, Salafism gave rise to Boko Haram insurgency and both are still imbedded in the complexities of northern Nigeria’s traditional Muslim culture, making those problems very intractable.

Despite these challenges associated with a wilful but woefully wrong choice of a manifestly retrogressive northern Nigerian Muslim culture, little or nothing seems to have been done to reposition the region onto the path of socio-economic redemption, no thanks to a visionless political leadership backed by the conservative religious establishment. Taking advantage of the widespread ignorance of the mass of the uneducated poor of the North, which is fostered by the conservative religious establishment and the political leadership in the contestation of power with their counterparts in the predominantly Christian southern part of Nigeria over the leadership of the Nigerian state for the control revenues accruable from Nigeria’s oil mineral resources for primitive self-acquisition is primarily responsible for this leadership inertia.

Positioning as defenders of the people’s interest against perceived enemies from the South, the political leaders of northern Nigeria have evolved a triumvirate system of power brokerage, which ensures a cohesive front in the battle for the soul of the Nigerian state with the South in a mutually beneficial arrangement. This triumvirate consists of the educated elements with the ability to engage with their counterparts from the South constituting the political class, the traditional religious establishment, which sanctions the divine right of temporal rulers, and the uneducated poor masses that form the bulwark of northern Nigeria’s political power. In this complex web of power relations, the religious establishment secures the political base of uneducated poor masses from which the political class derives the legitimacy to lead, through the preaching of poverty as virtue, prosperity as vice, education as western, hence, inconsistent with faith and strict obedience to constituted authority as they are divinely ordained to govern. Most importantly, the religious establishment has also successfully created a “we versus them” situation, through hate, divisive, intolerant and ethno-religious discriminatory preaching, between the Muslim North and the rest of Nigeria as useful election protectionist tool against loss of presidential power. With underage voters constituting a significant portion of the largest voting demography in Nigeria domiciled in the North, the over 13 million out-of-school children, commonly known as Almajiri, form the backbone of the region’s power base, hence the institution must be preserved for the advantage of political class.

The political leadership, on its part, has devised an intricate patronage system, which caters for both the religious establishment and the masses in proportionate measure thereby deepening the propensity for dependency rather than self-reliance. The political leadership of northern Nigeria has gone a stretch further to champion cherished religious aspirations ranging from Sharia to the strident defence of child marriage on the national stage to please the religious establishment. To keep the bulk of the masses in perpetual mental and material dependency, the northern political leadership has disingenuously defended their right to remain uneducated, citing the fallacy of pre-existing “Islamic education” (Almajirinci) before the advent of “western education” in contemporary times, a form of education they tend to present as equal, if not superior. By adorning the toga of educational disadvantage like a badge of honour nearly six decades after Independence, northern political leaders have advanced their pecuniary interest to the collective detriment of the entire region in a manner that is akin to cultural self-immolation.

The rise in ethno-geographic and religious populism in northern Nigeria in recent times has compounded the problem of the region more. Pressed from fellow Nigerians of different geography, ethnicity and faith in a fit of superiority complex, northern Nigeria turned towards their kind in neighbouring African countries in a clear case of conflict of ethnicity and citizenship, which has rendered the entire northern flank of Nigeria borderless. Taking full advantage of this unfortunate situation, mercenary fighters, criminal gangs, cross-border bandits, smugglers and kidnappers have poured into northern Nigeria as the region presents a thoroughfare of limitless opportunities for criminal enrichment.

Today, northern Nigeria is falling apart under the effect of sediments of cultural self-immolation, which has turned the region to the worst place in human misery index, as the poorest, most insecure and ignorant region in the world. As northern Nigeria is set aflame by Boko Haram insurgency on its eastern flank, cross-border banditry on its west and killer herdsmen in central Nigeria, the purveyors of visionless political leadership, which is directly responsible for its state of anomie, have fallen victim to their disingenuous power grab scheme over the years. The failure to transform the grassroots to tall trees has seen the grassroots turning to weeds to wither the tall trees. With dwindling revenue from the centre and accompanying rise in population, the intricate patronage system hitherto put in place by the northern political class is now grossly inadequate and unsustainable, thereby leaving out a large section of the surging population of the masses desperately poor.

Without education and requisite skills to survive in modern times, the poor have resorted to feasting on the rich in northern Nigeria and the lamentations have just begun.

Source: https://www.sunnewsonline.com/lamentations-after-self-imolation-in-northern-nigeria-2/amp/

Well written! Articles like this is what South need to distribute repeatedly and beat back the Northern arrogance and sense of ownership. This cannot be a once a year push-back, it must be a pressure sustained with constant barrage to question the strength and value in North.

H
Serious talk here

Islam means backwardness, death and destruction, warn your love's ones to stay away from it, do everything to stop it's spread in your environment or else death will visit you

I keep telling ppl but they won't hear.
Nigeria as presently constituted is a hopeless entity and will never make progress cos d Muslim north will keep dragging the zoo back.
How can you deal with a region which takes pride in mass illiteracy up till today?
How is boko haram, kidnapping, banditry going to end when ppl who are finding it difficult to eat still marry multiple wives to give birth to multiple children who are pushed into d streets to fend for themselves?

The only way for the south to be free from the problems created by the north is to demand for regional government. Each region must govern itself and will do so with the resources found in the region.

Very deep

The lords and fiefs

Tumbulum:
The only way for the south to be free from the problems created by the north is to demand for regional government. Each region must govern itself and will do so with the resources found in the region.

I fully agree with you. We must practice federalism, if the North is not ready, then Nigeria should be split into 2 and they can keep practising unitary system of government in northern Nigeria while Southern Nigeria practice federalism.

I wander why our southern politicians have not take any step concerning this The north is so so backward.

Let me not talk

Spot on.

Brilliant writeup! This is the crux of core northern Nigeria backwardness and Nigeria's bane of national development.Will the northern elites & masses listen? I doubt, they wont.Divide this nation.

Then why are the children of the rich Muslims going to study in Canada, UK, USA, why don't they just go to Saudi since western education is haram?

This self imolation is in itself a vital political tool. It has become like an ornament on them. Northern elites refuse whatever attempt people make towards emancipating them because the system itself serves a purpose. These roaming and poverty stricken almajiris are the people who win them elections. It was a mistake herding us together with these backward people who are academically, physically, mentally and religiously unfit to commit to nation building and development.

The only solution is to divide this nation.