Development analysts and economists say that Northern Nigeria is far behind the rest of the country in terms of development. Measured by all indices of development – such as poverty rate, unemployment rate, access to education, access to healthcare, etc – it is the poorest performer among all regions of the country, they say. This is in spite of the fact that it is the region that has ruled the country for the longest period since Independence in 1960.
There have been several outcries on the need to bridge the development gap between the North and other regions of the country. In 2008, Chukwuma Soludo, the then Central Bank governor, at a one-day public lecture organised by the Northern Development Initiative in Kaduna, had called on the Federal Government to declare a state of emergency on poverty in the North, saying the poverty level in the region was a national crisis situation which could stall the realisation of the country’s Vision 20:2020 goal – that is, being one of 20 top economies in the world by 2020.
The North has since then made some efforts to redirect its development trajectory. These include the 2008 Summit on Agriculture organised by the then Niger State Governor Babangida Aliyu-led Northern Governors’ Forum, the Northern Nigeria Economic and Investment Summit 2008 (NEIS-2008), which was organised under the auspices of the Conference of the Northern States Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture (CONSCCIMA), among others.
However, these were nothing compared to the new wave of commitment to aggressive development of the North that has swept across the region since President Muhammadu Buhari assumed office and Kashim Shettima, Borno State governor, became chairman of the rebranded Northern States Governors’ Forum in 2015. The 19 Northern states have since continued to act with concerted effort in several moves aimed at stimulating economic activities, tackling the prevailing economic challenges as well as fostering self-reliance in the region. For many in the region, the time has come to prove the point that the North can survive without oil and gas revenues from the Niger Delta but by relying on its agricultural production and solid mineral resources.
A number of Nigerians see these moves as a symbolism of the North’s effort to turn its fortune round, especially against the backdrop of global oil price crash and increased militancy in the Niger Delta which have adversely affected revenues available to states, while some others say the North may be readying itself for a possible break-up of the country.
While Nigeria has always tottered on the edge of a break-up since Independence, many watchers of political events say the country is more divided under the Buhari administration than ever and that the signs are ominous – the unending cries of marginalisation, the deafening calls for restructuring of the federation reverberating across the land, the gongs of secession resounding in every nook and cranny, the agitations for resource control, and many more.
As such, they conclude that the North may not want to be taken unawares in case of any eventuality.
MoU with General Electric
On Monday, November 28, 2016, the Northern States Governors’ Forum (NSGF) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with General Electric (GE) International for the construction of five solar plants which would generate 500 megawatts of electricity in some parts of the region.
Governor Kashim Shettima signed the agreement on behalf of the other governors, while Armand Pineda, GE’s senior executive, Western Europe and Africa, and Lazarus Angbazo, president/CEO, GE Nigeria, signed on behalf of their company at a brief ceremony held in Abuja.
Based on the MoU, GE is to build five solar-powered plants to be located in Borno, Kebbi, Nassarawa, Niger and Taraba States, each of which is expected to generate 100MW of electricity totalling 500MW across the five states.
“The 19 governors of the North jointly created this approach. We want to go beyond lamentation to provide solutions and we all know that power is key to industrial development. With power, we can create jobs, stimulate our economies and make life better for our people,” Shettima said at the MoU signing ceremony.
The project, which is a pilot phase, is being coordinated by the Northern Nigeria Global Economic Re-integration Programme headed by Tanimu Yakubu Kurfi, who was chief economic adviser to late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua and is said to have wide contact with leading development companies and financial institutions across the world. The NNGERP was recently created by the northern governors to serve as vehicle for the economic recovery of Northern states.
1,000km of pipeline from Niger Republic to Kaduna
Also in November last year, the Federal Government announced through the Nigerian National Petroleum Cooperation (NNPC) plans to build 1,000 kilometres of pipeline from Agadam in Niger Republic to supply crude oil to Kaduna refinery.
Maikanti Baru, NNPC GMD, during a visit to the Kaduna Refinery Petrochemical Company Limited, informed that President Buhari had made several contacts with the president of Niger Republic on the issue while the corporation was talking with Niger Ministry of Petroleum and the Chinese company operating in Agadam.
He also said some investors had shown interest to build another refinery of 50,000 barrels pay day capacity in Kaduna.
“We are convincing them to come and build side by side with the Kaduna refinery. The intention is to build around Kano but we think there is greater synergy to what I have seen here. I am more convinced they will benefit from some of the utilities of Kaduna refinery,” Baru said.
Although this idea came from the Federal Government, many see it as one of those moves to make the North self-reliant.
Oil and gas exploration
In August 2016, barely two weeks after President Muhammadu Buhari gave an order to the Nigeria National Petroleum Commission (NNPC) to commence oil exploration in the North, the media was abuzz with the news that the 19 Northern states governors had employed a British firm to explore for oil and gas in the region. One major aim of the move, it was gathered, was to stop the over-reliance on Niger Delta oil that has brought about the rise in militancy in the region.
“We have engaged a British company that is already working in the Lake Chad region and from Niger and Chad side in the same area with us and we have been meeting with the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation in order to put efforts together,” Bashir Dalhatu, chairman of the Northern Nigeria Development Company, which was set up by the 19 northern states perhaps as a counter to the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), explained in Katsina when the company’s board and management met with Governor Aminu Masari during their fact-finding visit to the state.
“The Federal Government has also re-emphasised to us, during those meetings, its total support for exploration and exploitation of oil and gas in the North-East of the country,” he said.
Partnership with Islamic Development Bank
In January 2016, the Northern states governors commenced talks with the Islamic Development Bank (IDB) in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, for a possible collaboration in addressing the turbulent developmental challenges in the region.
Apart from holding discussion with Ahmad Mohamed Ali, IDB president, and the bank’s vice president, Operations, on a wide range of possible areas of collaboration – such as agriculture, poverty eradication, education, maternal mortality and other problems prevalent in the North – the governors were also scheduled to meet with the Islamic Corporation for the Development of the Private Sector (ICD), International Islamic Trade Finance Corporation (ITFC), Islamic Corporation for the Insurance of Investment and Export Credit (ICIEC), Islamic Research and Training Institute (IRTI), and Islamic Solidarity Fund for Development (ISFD).
The delegation was led by Governor Shettima, while Governors Tanko Almakura of Nassarawa, Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna and Mohammed Badaru Abubakar of Jigawa were there. Others on the delegation were top officials of the NNDC, selected commissioners of Agriculture, Education, Post Insurgency Reconstructions, Rehabilitation and Resettlement, Home Affairs, Economic Planning, some technical resource consultants and facilitators engaged by the NSGF, among others.
Yinka Odumakin reacts
Reacting to the news that the North was seeking partnership with IDB, Yinka Odumakin, National Publicity Secretary, Afenifere, the pan-Yoruba cultural organisation, said, “It is interesting how ‘one nation, one destiny’ has given way to regional initiative based on civilisation with the crash of the oil economy. Now that the North has gone to Saudi to start its rebuild, where should the South go?”
In an article “Northern Governors Forge Alliance With Saudi”, Odumakin said the various nationalities within Nigeria were brought together by circumstances and that these entities “have made no conscious effort to make a salad bowl out of our lettuce, carrot, tomato, egg and other distinct ingredients”. He said Nigeria lacked coherence and cohesion, a fact that had long been overlooked “for as long as we were sharing oil money” and “we kept on shouting a deception called ‘One Nigeria’ for as long as the party was on”, adding that “the collapse of the oil economy has, however, brought the damn lie to a cold end”.
Is the North ready for divided Nigeria?
To the question of the North’s readiness for a divided Nigeria, Balarabe Musa, a former governor of old Kaduna State, said there is no region in Nigeria that cannot stand on its own if a collective decision for the country’s breakup is reached, but insisted that Nigeria was better off as one indivisible country.
“As other regions in the country can boast of being able to stand alone if the entities making up the country agree to go their separate ways, the North can also survive on its own as a region. The North is not threatened by the call for secession; but Nigeria is better and greater as one,” he told BDSUNDAY.
Speaking with BDSUNDAY recently, Dauda Birma, a former presidential aspirant, lamented that there was so much hatred in the land across the divides which points to the fact that the North-South marriage may be nearing its end.
“There is cultural, religious and ethnic hatred in the country today. Personally, I think that we are gradually walking towards the end of the entity called Nigeria,” Birma said.
