Frankiln Cudjoe who posted about poverty in Northern Nigerian does not know what he is talking about. Ignorance is a disease. You see, like in Ghana, the colonial system designed it to keep the North poor and down. For example, when the British Governor of the Gold Coast first traveled to Navrongo in the North in the 1800s, he met primary school children in Navrongo Catholic School. He was called Sir Gordon Guggisberg. He was shocked at the level of English being spoken by the primary school children in Navrongo. The British Colonial system was only interested in the natural resources of the colonies. Northern Ghana was a reserve of cheap labor for cocoa farms, the mines, the timber industry, the railroads to caary the colonial loot and to construct limited roads to connect the areas with the natural resources down south. This Governor of the Gold Coast, as it was called, ordered that education in Northern Ghana should be stopped at primary 6. He said Northerners were only a reserve of labor for the industries of raw materials down south. The same policy was initiated in Nigeria. Only sons of Chiefs and Paramount Chiefs in Northern Ghana were selected to go to school. The Governor also ordered that, after primary 6 education, the Northern boys should be sent to trade schools to learn to be carpenters, masons and construction workers. That policy was also initiated in Northern Nigeria. It kept development down, increased poverty, left Northerners uneducated and that we were only good to work as laborers in the cocoa farms, in the mines, railroads and road construction. That is how the South in Ghana got ahead of Northern Ghana. In Nigeria, the same policy was designed. However, the Hausa in Northern Nigeria, as a result of Arabic influence, were very advanced in Islamic studies and Hausa was even a written language in Northern Nigeria. It was written in Arabic alphabets. So, the British Colonial masters designed the system in Nigeria in such a way that Northerners in Nigeria will always win general elections as the Prime Minister, and the President, who will be ceremonial will come from Southern Nigeria. So, in Nigeria, after independence in 1960, Sir Abubakari Tafa Balewa and his party won the general elections and became the first Prime Minister of Nigeria, until he was overthrown in a coup by General Gowon, who was also a Hausa man. In Ghana, after independence Kwame Nkrumah said the colonial arrangement was unfair to Northerners, So, he changed it, built more schools in the North, gave Northerners special education funds and scholarships and made education in Northern Ghana free and compulsory. But the legacy of Northerners being laborers in cocoa farms, in the mines, in the timber industry, railroads and road construction laborers did not change fast enough before Kotoka and Afrifa, with the help of the CIA of America, overthrew Kwame Nkrumah in a coup in 1966. That is the history of poverty, ignorance, diseases, and lack of development and education in Northern Ghana and Northern Nigeria. So, Franklin Cudjoe has no sense of history, he does not know what he is talking about and I am here to set the records straight for him and for all Northerners. Do not be offended by ignorant people like Franklin Cudjoe.
Posted on: Sat, 22 Nov 2014 06:12:06 +0000
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