What is the North's true colour?

Governor Bala Mohammed

I have never met Governor of Bauchi State, Bala Mohammed but from what I have been seeing of him in photographs in newspapers and on television stations, since he was the minister of Federal Capital Territory, appointed there from the Senate by former President Goodluck Jonathan, he looks every inch innocuous. But since he became governor, he has been manifesting a persona that conflicts with his image as harmless. He seems the very opposite of that. Even after Jonathan had left office as president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, during which Bala Mohammed almost worshipped him, he continues to give worshipful deference to Goodluck Jonathan. He invited him to open a road he constructed in Bauchi and during the event he said he was grateful to Goodluck Jonathan who made him. How Jonathan made him is left to opinions but some think Jonathan who both delegated and abdicated, Bala Mohammed was left unsupervised and that may have left him to gather the chief weapon of fighting elections in Nigeria; the weapon of money. As minister of FCT, Bala Mohammed was Nigeria's unofficial 37th governor. He had almost all the powers of a state governor plus of course a heavy purse which he can deploy to advantage especially when he works under a president that does not supervise. Mighty man, Nyesom Wike, former governor of oil rich Rivers State, today is the current FCT minister, but the governor of the state, Siminalayi Fubara will best describe what the purse and power an FCT minister that has the ears of the president can do to his state governor. Fubara has not rested since he parted ways with Nyesom Wike.

Bala Mohammed is proving he knows some secrets of the North that is not known to the south. Once, he said all the Fulani across Africa will be brought into Nigeria to fight in the war of Fulani against Nigeria. The Fulani must dominate in Nigeria because as said by the first Premier of the Northern Region, Sir Ahmadu Bello, Nigeria is an estate of the Fulani's grandfather, by that meaning Uthman Dan Fodio, the founder of the Fulani oligarchy. And recently he has been quoted as saying the nation will realize the true colour of the North if the president, Bola Tinubu does not renege on his tax reform bills which are before the legislators. The governor choose the occasion of the visit of the Christian Community in Bauchi State on Christmas Day to make his statement. I think that was strategic enough to send jitters down the spine of those Christians and through them to other Nigerians, especially Christians and southerners that live in the North. Why? Christians are usually the first target of the true colour of violence in North. And the ones who visited Bala Mohammed were told they should be prepared for one more such anarchy. Bala Mohammed did not mince words, he said if Bola Tinubu did not backtrack on his policies, there will anarchy, Bala Mohammed's very word. This must become very weighty since Bala Mohammed is also eyeing the presidency in 2027. How would a man first destroy a nation and then rule over it?

Lawyers should tell us if such pronouncements are covered by the immunity clause that the governor enjoys sufficiently, but if he were an ordinary Nigerian he should be on trial now for treason. But who can touch Bala Mohammed or his ilk. When they sneeze the rest of Nigeria catches cold. For those who want to unveil the true colour of the North, this is it in the mouth of a very big northerner, anarchy. So when during the last #Endbadgovernace protest which was planned by southern activists but hijacked by the almajiris in the North, we can see clearly who and who could be behind the mayhem. Make no bones about it, the North’s trust on violence to move against whatever will advance the nation but which may not suit the laziness of the leaders of the North. Truly and as the emerging cerebral youth of the North are pointing out, the problem of the North is lazy leadership who will not think other than to depend on resources from the south to survive on, they always prefer to go to Abuja, collect the handouts and share it among themselves leaving the vast population very poor. The poorer these population is, the more religious they are made by giving their religious leaders free reign to teach them lies supposedly from the Quran, the more these are easily made to think that the south is against their religion. The more the vast majority is made ignorant, the more it remain tools in the hands of their oppressors who lead them. Bala Mohammed has told us plainly now that those acts of violence that killed southerners who live in the North, especially Christians are not spontaneous actions of the poor but orchestrations of the likes of Bala Mohammed. Nobody should be left in any doubt.

Another true colour is religiosity. The clamour for sharia law which these leaders breach at every turn is another colour. The leaders threatened with sharia that promise punishment of sin, which are selectively implemented in Nigeria as instrument of political manipulation and economic subjugation. A governor who had the wrist of a poor man cut for stealing a cow was himself found to have stolen billions of naira of the state's resources and is walking about free. The ongoing debate on the Tinubu's Tax Reform has shown there are some very cerebral youths in the North who are prepared to turn the region around. One of such that featured on a WhatsApp video but whose name was not mentioned gave a very brilliant analysis of the bill saying there was not a clause of it that is against the North. This vibrant youth said the governors were unthinking but this young Northerner who look every bit a Fulani said all the North needs to make much money out of the Tax Reform is to ensure that not a grain of its huge agriculture produce leaves the North without a value added, a value addition as simple as baging those products which will give the North opportunity to make money with which it can run its government.

But the North's old leadership brigade which is refusing to yield to a younger generation are manipulating the people of the North and threatening the people of the south with the cries of war. It has never augured well for the North and will never. It made the North get used to being giving preferential treatment in all things. They must be given preferential treatment in admission to schools and university. They are therefore not able to compete with their compatriots from the south. And they are made to be boss over their contemporaries from the south. It promotes superiority complex among the southerners which is not really true. Among the Northerners themselves it promotes inferiority complex, that makes them to fear the south and want to dominate every time.

The North must win all elections, the North must continue to procreate unrestrained because that is the instrument they use to hold on to power so that the leadership can continue to make money for their families while the poor remain as poor forever. This leadership style promotes all sorts of lawlessness in the North. There is a law for the south and another law for the North in the same country. But the North need to realize that using population as an instrument of sharing VAT revenue is against its interest. An ever increasing population will not allow the resources available to the North to go round essential services. Governor Bala Mohammed told his visiting Christian delegation that he will not get enough money to pay workers salaries. What ugly reasoning? The only duty of the civil service is to provide jobs whether there is job or not. It is to fill the service with persons who contribute nothing because their education has been very poor. The North will never grow if it continues as it is now and there will be no end to Boko Haram and banditry. It is ignorance and religiosity that has led to these two evils. The extinction of the North will be a certain result of ignorance and population that is unchecked. Rather than tell President Tinubu to cancel his Tax Reform, I expect the North to ask him to expunge population from the list of means of sharing the VAT. The North must stop giving the impression that it is lazy.

Tunde Akande is both a journalist and pastor. He earned a Master's degree in Mass Communication from the University of Lagos