Between Dr Aliyu Tilde and Folake from America let the Debate continue.
The exchange between Folake from America and Dr Aliyu Tilde from Bauchi is quite interesting. If you ask me my opinion, a lot of water has passed under the bridge in Northern Nigeria or a lot of dirty water as Alhaji Sani Kontagora will call it. Apart from Sam Nda-Isaiah, the only other objective commentator worth reading is Dr Aliyu Tilde. It is true that sometimes he is emotional and is carried away with ethnic sentiment but to some degree he states the truth and backs it up with some facts.
However it is not true that OBJ created the middle belt region . It was the outcry by the far north or Hausas that lead to the re-mergence of the middle belt in 1999 shortly after OBJ made some key appoints in his government.
In 1999, after he assumed office as the civilian president, OBJ made the following appointments:- General TY Danjuma. Minister of Defence, Taraba State . Chief of Defence Staff, Admiral Ibrahim Ogohi Kogi State . Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Gen Victor Malu Benue State . Chief of Naval Staff, Vice Admiral AA Afolayan Kwara State . Air Marshal Isaac Alfa . Chief of Air Staff, Kogi State . Dr Iyorcha Ayu . Minister of Internal Affairs, Benue State . Of course Atiku Abubukar was then the vice president
Hardly were those appointments made then there was outcry that the north has been short changed in terms of appointments by the Obasanjo government.
When the attention of the protesters were called to the fact that apart Musiliu Smith a Yoruba Muslim who was the then Police IG all the other appointees are northerners. The Protesters were of the view that all the appointees were not true northerners!
Please check all the Trust Media publications right from the 3 rd of June 1999 up to May 29, 2003 .
Now that the chips are down it is the same Dr Iyorcha Ayu who was not a true northerner in 1999 who is a proper northerner and in fact is a key member of the Northern Elders Political Forum.
I am happy that Chief Audu Ogbeh has since seen the light.
Therefore Dr Tilde, it was the reaction of the Hausas particularly that lead to re-emergence of the middle belt of Nigeria . If people from Kogi , Kwara and Benue are not true northerners as was brought to the fore in 1999? What has changed in 2010?
When it comes to the PDP zoning, what some of us are saying is that people like Adamu Ciroma cannot claim to speak for the North.
We all take the blame collectively because they claim to speak on our behalf and nobody has the gut to say no to their mischief.
One cannot forget to still mention that for the greater part of the 38 years the North was in power, people like Adamu Ciroma has been there. By now we expect that the North ought to have caught up with the South developmentally but that is not true.
If IBB the self acclaimed evil genius is now claming it is the turn of the North what has he done for the North in his eight wasted years?
OBJ had his sins agreed, but brought people who touched the lives of Nigerians one way or the other. Be they from the North of from the South. Good people like Dr Oby Ezekwesilsi, Dr Ngozi Aweala, Nuhu Ribadu , Nasir El-Rufai and even Dr Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso are not Yoruba people. If we have to be very objective can we compare the OBJ appointments to his successor in terms of national spread?
Since the northern minorities are not true northerners, they surely have to look for their own identity.
We cannot forget in a hurry the genocide in Kaduna as a result of sharia introduction. There were genocides too in Bauchi against the Sayawas and the persistent massacre of the Plateau people.
My question now is why is it that the name Northern Nigeria is instantly remembered when it comes to taking power from the south?
Since the creation of the six geo-political zones in 1995, the term north is technically dead. Please let us encourage the six geopolitical zones. It guarantees more equity and justice for all the various tribes rather than the so called block north or block south.
The Southern part of Nigeria has since accepted the nomenclature. We have the South-west, the South-east and the South-south.
Therefore let us affirm the North-west, North-east and North-central. That way, the Kanuri man, the Bura man, the Margi man, the Gwoza man and the Chibok man in Borno State will have a future and aspire to be the president of Nigeria .
Likewise in Adamawa State the Bachama man, the Kilba man. The Kamwe man, the Falli man and the Lunguda will have hope and aspire to be the president of Nigeria .
In the North central, the Tiv man, Idoma man, the Igala man Berom man will aspire to be the president of Nigeria .
All those insisting on PDP zoning formula between the north and the south have a hidden agenda and will want to continually lord it over others in the North.
Any discussion pertaining to power in the north now must be based on the North-east, North-west and North-central geo-political zones.
Fortunately I have just read in the news that four states in the North-central zone have started their North-central zone meeting in Abuja . I hope those in the North-west and North-east will start their own very soon.
The way forward in Nigeria is the six geo-political zones. North-east
North-central
South-west
South-south
South-east. Ndiameeh Babrik