Nigeria cannot do without the North, By Femi Aribisala - Premium Times No serious-minded country relinquishes a region as rich and as resourceful as Northern Nigeria. Without the North, Nigeria’s much-vaunted potentials would vanish. Without the North, Nigeria would be nothing more than yet another balkanized and insignificant African country, or group of countries. Take the North out of the Nigerian equation and there can no longer be any black country in the world that can possibly attain the status of a major power in the world. Without the North, Nigeria and Nigerians would be reduced to nonentities. Northern Nigeria is bigger than most African countries. Currently, Nigeria wastes a staggering 1.3 trillion naira on food imports; virtually one-third of the annual budget. But the North can produce all the food we need, thereby liberating valuable resources. Already, it is the North that feeds the South in Nigeria. Virtually all Southern food crops and livestock come from the North. Much of Nigeria’s water resources are also in the North. With the right policy mixes, the North will earn for Nigeria billions of dollars annually from agriculture. Our Niger-Delta brothers should not get too carried away by their oil. If their oil is a national resource today, so will Northern agriculture and agro-allied industries be national resources tomorrow. Oil is a wasting asset. Short of new discoveries, Nigeria’s oil will expire within the next 50 years. However, Northern agriculture will never expire. Moreover, the North is rich in mineral resources; far richer than the South. There is gold in Zamfara; uranium in Taraba; tin-ore in Plateau; columbite in Nassarawa; iron ore in Kogi; gysium in Gombe and limestone in Sokoto among others. Hydroelectricity for the country is provided from Kainji Dam and Shiroro Gorge. There are game reserves in the North including Argungu, which make it a potential money-spinner for tourism, a possible Kenya in the making if we can get rid of the scourge of Boko Haram. All things considered, the boast of a Nigeria divorced from the North is balderdash. Nigeria cannot do without the North. We cannot divide Nigeria into 350 ethnic nation-states. Let Southerners stop fooling ourselves. Any attempt to abridge Nigeria because some Southern areas want to go it alone will be disastrous. Ethnic homogeneity is no panacea against internal conflict. Somalia is ethnically homogeneous. Nevertheless, it is a failed state. Southern Sudan only recently obtained independence from Sudan. Nevertheless, it is already embroiled in inter-ethnic conflict. All the Southern bigotry about the North being predominantly Moslem is just nonsense. When you see what economic wonders Moslems are doing in places like Dubai, Oman, Qatar, Abu Dhabi, Saudi Arabia and Turkey, you will realise that Nigeria has a lot to learn from Moslems. There can only be the Federal Republic of Nigeria. No matter what anyone says, Nigeria is a country and a country it should remain. You don’t live together for 50 to 100 years and not become a country. It does not matter if some of us are Muslims and some are Christians: we are all Nigerians. It does not matter if some of us speak Hausa and some speak Yoruba: we are all Nigerians. Our diversity is our strength. That is the beauty of Nigeria. It cannot be re-engineered. Nigeria is a blessed country, carefully-crafted by divine ordinance. This is not time to start hankering after some midget states when the herculean Europeans are busy crafting a super-state. This is no time to think small. It is time for Nigerians to start thinking big and bigger.
Posted on: Tue, 11 Mar 2014 16:16:12 +0000
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