NORTHERN NIGERIA, A HOUSE DIVIDED?

"Power can return to the North if they win. If they have a unanimous candidate and they win the election, nobody will question the return of power to them; but the North that they are talking about does not include the Middle Belt. That is the offending statement. Anytime they talk about the North, they mean the North-West. They do not include us. And we say we are tired of supporting people who will never include us in any election. So, this is the problem.” - Senator Ameh Ebute, Third Republic Senate President, harpooning the core North for using and dumping the Middle Belt people over the years. 

Icheoku says the Senator is right:- Ahmadu Bello is from Northwest; Sarduana same; Shehu Shagari same; Muhammadu Buhari same; Ibrahim Babangida same; Sani Abacha same; Umaru Yar'Adua same; Sanusi Lamido Sanusi same, El Rufai same; IGP Abubakar same; and the list goes on. Icheoku rejoices that at last the Northern-wool these core Northerners hitherto used in covering the eyes of these Middle Belters is gradually being pulled away for the Middle Belt to see reason and understand where their destiny really lie - THE SOUTH. They been unequally yoked for too long with these people and it is about time the yoke came off. 

May be some examples will suffice to buttress this point:- the distance going from Abuja to Enugu is shorter than going from Abuja to Kano or Sokoto or even Maiduguri (Northeast), yet these North-westerners readily claim Middle Belt as their own and Icheoku wonders why? Moreover, culturally and in physical appearance as well as the type of food they eat, the Middle Belters are closer to the Southerners than to these Northerners. The Middle Belt does not even speak the Northern language as the septuagenarian leader of Ombatse cult pointed out recently that he does not understand a word of the Hausa/Fulani language. Even the climate and general geography of the Middle Belt is more similar to the South than to the North; as well as peoples names, yet these Northerners maintain a vice choke hold on the Middle Belters as per affinity? 

So what are we talking about letting these mallams from the very far Northwest continue to lay claim to Middle Belt as their own backyard? Icheoku says it is about time some gerrymandering of the mind is done to right the wrongs of these past many years of Northwestern Nigerian bamboozle and fuzzy arithmetic of a Nigerian geographical portioning which allowed them to maintain political domination of the country since independence despite being actually in the minority in the country, proper census factored in. There is simply no ties between the core North and the Middle Belt to sustain this fraud of claim of ownership by the former of the later - not in language, not in culture, not in food, not in religion, not in geography or climate conditions, not in the nature of soil, not in religion and not in anything which could establish of prove affinity whatsoever. Icheoku says with this imaginary ties now severed, may be the process of really moving Nigeria forward has begun; so let the minorities of the South-South and Middle Belt show the rest of the country the way. ENOUGH says Senator Ameh Ebute and Icheoku concurs.