Re: What the North must learn from the South

My heart bleeds for the question you raised today. Since the days of the late Mallam Aminu Kano, who fought against the tax and Jangali systems in Northern Nigeria and played a significant role during the Tiv crisis, I cannot recall seeing or hearing of any major organised civic movement or protest in the North demanding better governance and accountability.

The North has much to learn from the South in several respects. Lagos, in particular, has consistently set the pace in infrastructure development and economic growth. Just last week, residents of Oyo State protested against the growing insecurity and cases of kidnapping. Meanwhile, Lagos continues to invest heavily in development, expanding its rail transport system and building another airport.

Northern governors, especially those of Kano and Kaduna states, can collaborate on projects that will transform the region. For example, both states could jointly develop a railway network linking Kano and Kaduna. They could also establish textile industries and manufacturing hubs that would create jobs and revive the region’s industrial strength.

Agriculture remains one of the North’s greatest economic assets and can generate enormous revenue if properly harnessed. States such as Zamfara can also invest in industries that process their abundant mineral resources rather than exporting raw materials.

If Northern governors unite and work collectively toward economic development, the region’s most visible and troubling “industry”—banditry—will gradually decline. Many young people who are drawn into criminal activities would instead have access to legitimate employment and opportunities for a better future.

A united effort against insecurity and underdevelopment would greatly benefit the North. It is troubling that criminals can abduct men, women, and even children, yet there is often little public outcry or sustained demand for action.

Civil society organisations, traditional institutions, religious leaders, and the media must continue to advocate for good governance and educate citizens on the importance of holding leaders accountable. Looking at the pace of development in states such as Abia, Anambra, Imo, and especially Lagos, the North risks falling further behind if urgent action is not taken.

The North possesses immense human and natural resources. With visionary leadership, regional cooperation, and a commitment to development, it can regain its position as a major driver of Nigeria’s progress.

God bless the North. And God bless Nigeria.

Dr Abraham Gankon Machu

Abuja

0805 996 5168

In his article, “What The North Must Learn From The South,” published in the Daily Trust, Suleiman A. Suleiman advanced a provocative argument. He contends that the North has become too accepting of insecurity and governance failures, while the South has cultivated a stronger culture of civic engagement and accountability. According to him, the North’s path to renewal lies in rediscovering an activist tradition capable of compelling leaders to act and holding them accountable when they fail. His argument deserves serious consideration, even though it rests on a number of assumptions that cannot entirely withstand empirical scrutiny.

The fundamental weakness of the article is that it mistakes circumstance for culture. It interprets the reactions of people living under vastly different conditions as evidence of differing values and civic dispositions. In doing so, it arrives at conclusions that are ultimately unfair to the North.

The suggestion that Northerners have become passive in the face of insecurity overlooks the extraordinary realities that have defined life across much of the region over the last two decades. From the insurgency in the North-East to rampant banditry in the North-West and communal conflicts in parts of the North-Central, millions of people have endured levels of violence unprecedented in Nigeria’s post-civil war history. Entire communities have been displaced, thousands have lost family members, farmers have had to abandon their farms, and children have had to drop out of schools, which further complicates the educational crisis of the North. Despite the absence of a formally declared war, Nigeria now faces a massive crisis of internally displaced persons, heavily concentrated in the northern region.

Under such excruciating circumstances, human behaviour inevitably changes. People who live daily under constant threats of violence should not be expected to respond in the same way as those living in relatively safer environments. Public silence should not automatically be construed as evidence of acceptance. It may just as plausibly be evidence of deep fear, trauma, and psychological exhaustion. What Suleiman sees as docility may well be the understandable reaction of communities that have spent years living under the shadow of unimaginable dangers—dangers that many Nigerians outside the affected areas know only through news reports and cannot appreciate. To describe this harsh reality as “fatalism” oversimplifies a profound human tragedy.

Indeed, one could argue that what the North suffers from today is not civic apathy but security fatigue. There comes a point where repeated exposure to tragedy produces emotional exhaustion. When kidnappings, attacks, and displacements become recurring features of life, people naturally focus their energies on basic survival rather than public mobilization. This is not unique to Northern Nigeria; similar patterns have been observed in several other conflict zones across the world. Before drawing conclusions about civic culture, it is necessary to take into account the psychological and social consequences of the prolonged insecurity.

The original article points to protests and public outrage in some parts of the South as evidence of a healthier accountability culture. It is true that the South has produced remarkable moments of civic activism. The EndSARS protests remain one of the most significant citizen-led movements in contemporary Nigerian history and it demonstrated the capacity of young people to organise around issues of public concern. However, it would be inaccurate to conclude that the South has therefore solved the challenge of accountability or that its civic culture is inherently superior.

The South, like the North, continues to grapple with systemic corruption, political godfatherism, electoral malpractice, cult-related criminality, youth unemployment, infrastructure deficits, and governance failures. Despite periods of intense activism and public protest, many of these problems remain stubbornly persistent. This does not and would not diminish the value of civic engagement; it simply demonstrates that activism and governance outcomes do not always correlate neatly. A society can be highly vocal and still be poorly governed. Likewise, a society may appear less vocal while remaining politically conscious and engaged through other channels. If activism alone were sufficient to guarantee accountability, many of Nigeria’s governance challenges would have been long resolved.

This is where the article underestimates the political history of Northern Nigeria. The region does not need to be reminded of its activist traditions because those traditions have not disappeared entirely. The region that produced the Talakawa movement, the Northern Elements Progressive Union (NEPU), the People’s Redemption Party (PRP), powerful student unions, labour organisations, and some of Nigeria’s most vibrant ideological debates cannot reasonably be described as politically docile. Northern politics has historically been characterised by intense contestation. The region has produced leaders, intellectuals, journalists, academics, and activists who challenged authority at considerable personal risk. Even in contemporary politics, Northern voters have repeatedly demonstrated their capacity to punish leaders they perceive as ineffective, with electoral defeats in Kano, Kaduna, Zamfara, and Katsina which defy conventional predictions.

More importantly, the article pays insufficient attention to the structural dimensions of the insecurity crisis. Nigeria’s security architecture remains one of the most centralised in the world. State governors are often described in borrowed robes as the chief security officers of their states, yet they exercise no direct operational control over the police, military, intelligence services, or immigration services. The coercive instruments of state power remain firmly under federal control, creating a profound disconnect. Consequently, governors bear much of the public responsibility for security within their states but lack the constitutional authority to directly command the security agencies charged with maintaining it.

Against this background, blaming state governors or public mobilisation for every security failure is unfair. While citizens naturally look up to their elected and traditional leaders for solutions, the constitutional reality limits their influence. When insecurity persists despite years of public complaints and advocacy, the explanation cannot simply be that Northerners have failed to raise their voices loudly enough. The roots of the crisis run far deeper than public mobilisation alone can resolve.

Emmanuel Ado, Media Consultant, Abuja

0803 308 6679

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