Thursday April 14 2005
NEW AGE Online
Northern Muslims tackle Obasanjo over marginalization
TONY AKOWE in Kaduna writes that Northern Muslims’ claim of marginalization under the current political dispensation has widened the rift between the core North and the Middle Belt.
The composition of the National Political Reform Conference (NPRC) has attracted lots of criticisms from the Muslim community in the North. This situation has further thrown a spanner in the works of the age-long attempt to close the gap between the ‘core North’ and the Middle Belt zones. At the beginning of President Olusegun Obasanjo’s regime in May 1999, the appointment of ministers and service chiefs gave rise to what is today referred to as the ‘core North syndrome.’
It was the late Special Duties Minister, Alhaji Wada Nas who first coined that phrase when he alleged that President Obasanjo discriminated against the core North in making those appointments. It is noteworthy that all the service chiefs at the inception of the Obasanjo administration as well as the Chief of Defence Staff were all from the North. But that was not satisfactory to the Muslim community who felt that since none of them was a Muslim, they claimed that the North had been sidelined.
Many of them failed to appreciate that the then chief of defence staff was an Igala Muslim from Kogi State. That apparent ranking of tribe above religion gave rise to the renewed agitation for the Middle Belt identity. Immediately, the Northern Governors’ Forum felt that the North was drifting apart under their leadership. They came up with the idea of the Northern Peace Summit, which was aimed at finding a way out of the problems facing the North, which they traced to ethnic conflicts.
Although ethnic crises in the name of religious conflicts have ravaged some parts of the North, the leaders failed to realise that tolerance and understanding were needed to move the region forward. The peace conference has come and gone, but the problems of the region are rearing their ugly heads again. Otherwise how else can one describe a situation whereby the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF), which co-hosted the Northern Peace Conference, has threatened to unleash violence in the country because of perceived marginalization of the Muslims in the composition of the national conference when it is supposed to speak for all northerners whether they are Muslims or Christians.
In the same vein, Northern traditional rulers and religious leaders are threatening to unleash a jihad on the country, if their grievances are not addressed by President Obasanjo. They are also claiming that the North is marginalized in the appointments into Obasanjo’s government. Of particular importance to them is the fact that most of the positions given to the north went to the Christians in the region.
A germane question is whether these people are northerners or not. If the leaders of the north claim that the unity of the area is of paramount importance to them, will it not be out of place to regard non-Hausa/Fulanis in government as not northerners. It is on record that the nation’s three service chiefs are from the North. Lt. General Martin Luther Agwai, chief of army staff, hails from Gidan Mana in Sabon Sarki district of Kaduna State. Jonah Wuyep, the chief of air staff and Samuel Afolayan, the chief of naval staff hail from Plateau and Kwara states respectively. In this era when the North has been broken into 19 states, can anybody claim that these people are not northerners?
NewAge came across some documents circulated in Kaduna by some Muslim associations. One of them, a 10-page document, tried to draw people’s attention to the fact that the present administration has more Christians than Muslims. Authors of other leaflets threatened a breach of the peace of the nation.
For example, one of them claimed that out of Obasanjo’s 41 ministers, only 17 are Christians. However, it failed to acknowledge that there are Yorubas who are Muslims in Obasanjo’s cabinet.
It also listed the Military High Command as comprising of purely Christians without taking note that there are lots of senior military officers who are Muslims, either from the North or South of the country holding command positions in the country. For instance, they failed to take note of the fact that the Provost Marshal of the Army is a Muslim from the core North, among others. They even failed to realise thatpeople like Brig. General Bomai, from Borno State, who is the current director general of the National Youth Service Corps is still serving in the Army.
What is more, the same ignorance was extended to police and even ambassadorial posting. Interestingly, while not giving any chance that any of the Yoruba ambassadors could be a Muslim, they still alleged that the list of ambassadors is dominated by Christians when out of the 44 ambassadors from the north, 33 of them are Muslims, while the rest 11 are Christians. They also failed to come to terms with the fact that states with sizeable Christian population in the north like Borno, Bauchi, Niger, Gombe and Nasarawa do not have a single Christian as ambassador. Since they have concluded that every Yoruba man appointed by the president into public office is a Christian, one does not need to go into statistics about this, but to ask where these divisive arguments would lead us as a nation. Does appointing a Mohammed or a Joseph amount to religion?
It is important to mention that the threat of a jihad does not amount to civilization at all because those calling for this jihad will be the first people to board the next available plane out of this country when the chips are down. One is at loss as to the reasoning of some Nigerians at this point in time when all hands should be on deck in trying to find solutions to the nation’s problems. Imagine the argument that the former Inspector General of Police, Tafa Balogun was removed from office because he is a Muslim, only to be replaced by a Christian. Ironically, the Kaduna State government has not taken any step to address the issue of the inciting documents that are making the rounds in the state. Some of these documents, it was gathered, were prepared with the full knowledge of the Muslim leaders and were freely circulated at their meetings.
But some well-meaning Muslims have expressed reservations over the utterances of some of those who claimed to be their leaders. One of such is the former Military Governor of old Kaduna State, Col. Abubakar Umar (retd) who argues that it is wrong for anybody who calls himself a true Muslim to threaten violence when peaceful avenues exist to deal with conflicts. Umar is even more worried that some people like the Zamfara State governor, Alhaji Ahmed Sani, who participated in the meeting and made contributions. He reminded the governor that his action of introducing the Sharia has caused the nation so dearly since it has fuelled the current suspicion in the North between the Muslims and the Christians. One thing that has been of concern to many is the fact that the same people who are today crying foul are the same people that have been canvassing for the unity of the North. They have always argued that the North left behind by the late Premier of Northern Region, Alhaji Ahmadu Bello, is drifting apart. Some Christian faithful are now wondering whether the same North left behind by the late premier is the same North they are residing in today. Even some honest Northern Muslims point out that in the days of Bello, he never discriminated against any Christian from any part of the North.
“What the Sardauna wanted was to see people from the North occupy positions of authority. It did not bother him whether they were Christians or Muslims as long as they were northerners. But today, those of us from the so-called North who are Christians and occupying positions are not regarded as northerners any more and yet we talk about one North. It is better for them to let us go and have our own identity as Middle Belt”, said one official of the Kaduna State government who pleaded anonymity.
Against the background of the raging animosity, Nasarawa State governor, Alhaji Abdullahi Adamu apparently hit the nail on the head during the Northern Peace Summit when he argued that the problem of the North had to do with the fact that northern leaders had refused to come to terms with the fact that the Middle Belt exists or that it should be heard. Mordecai Ibrahim, President of the Southern Kaduna Youth Vanguard, believes that with their posture, Northern traditional rulers are sending a dangerous signal to those agitating for the Middle Belt that they are indeed not wanted in the North. “The mere fact that our sons in the North are in position means that we all should be happy because that was what the late Sardauna wanted. What they are telling us now is that people like Martin Luther Agwai, Wuyep and Afolayan who are the service chiefs are no longer northerners. Does it mean that all of us must be Muslims before they recognize us as northerners?” he asked. Ibrahim appealed to the National Assembly and the Federal Government to give them in the Middle Belt an identity so that the idea of referring to them as northerners would be laid to rest.
There are many people who argue that the current happening is good for the political development of the region. In this connection Ibrahim throws a poser: “At least, with this type of thing, they will no longer rely on us for the presidency. They are saying that the presidency should come to the North in 2007. Let me ask: which North are they talking about? You will agree with me that there is no longer one North because there is the North for the Muslims and another for the Christians. So, which part of the North will take the presidency in 2007?”
NewAge learnt that the Muslims are of the opinion that the highest ranking military officer from the North is a colonel. But information available to NewAge revealed that the Northern Muslims have one Major Gen. Nuhu Bamali who is currently serving in the United Nations intervention force. We also have General Lemu who is said to be the Provost Marshal of the Nigerian Army and Brigadier-General Bomai who heads the National Youth Service Corps among many others.
The Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) in the North is of the opinion that the Muslim leaders in the North are being economical with the truth. CAN points out that out of the 44 ambassadors appointed from the North by the Obasanjo administration, only 11 of them are Christians with the Muslims taking the lion’s share of 33.
Col. Umar believes that while the president made attempt to address the issues raised by the Muslim delegation that visited him last month, northern governors have not made any attempt to address the imbalance in their states, and yet nobody is complaining. Unless they retrace their steps, the North is drifting into disunity with northern leaders at the driving seat of the destruction.
8:37:38 PM 
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