Boko haram and the culpability of Northern elite

To say the generation of Northern elite, from 1970s through to 1980s to the present, have failed the region in virtually sphere, is an understatement. We have, in the North today elite, that takes pride in seeing fellow citizens live in abject poverty and squalor; elite that is happy to be the only educated and enlightened ones in their villages and neighbourhoods; elite that prides itself of being the richest in their communities, while majority can’t afford to feed their families. Northern elites have failed the North; I say this, times without number and with all sense of responsibility. We deserve better in the North.
The North has all that is needed to solve its economic and social problems. But look at the North today; go round the states, the local governments; check the indices of education, check the state of our public schools, hospitals, look at our industries, check out how we are fairing in agriculture, etc. But what are the elites doing? To secure a position in either the civil service or ensure winning the next election by hook or crook and afterwards abuse the public office by stealing public funds meant for education, for healthcare, for water.
When the events surrounding ‘boko haram’ started in some parts of the North, this time with violence in Bauchi, Maiduguri, Yobe and other parts, which claimed hundreds, I blamed no-one but the insensitive and greedy Northern elites. For the greater number of its independence, Nigeria has been ruled by Northerners, the only interlude was John Thomas U. Aguiyi-Ironsi, Earnest Shonekan and General Olusegun Obasanjo. But in all these years, the North remained a backward region in terms of education, and accounted for the highest level of poverty in the country. The region remained a leading region in producing the highest number of Almajirai, local manicurists, shoe shiners, manual labourers and all other menial jobs you can think of. One might argue that a typical Northerner is very difficult in accepting change, but the fact remains that if we removed the Sardauna and his friends of the First Republic, a generation that did their best in transforming the region, the generation of leaders that came after them have been a big disappointment. They failed to build from where the Sardauna and his associates stopped. Today what we have in the North is a social crisis, which, if not tackled, and tackled urgently, is going to consume the whole nation.
The nation’s problems of erratic power supply, poor drinking water, inefficient civil service, inadequate crime control, inadequate primary healthcare, and less than average educational system, compound already existing problems of the North - almajirci, street begging (a purely Northern affair), ‘maula’ and many other social and economic problems. And let truth be told, the ‘boko haram’ crisis was caused by nothing but the combination of poverty and bad governance. The trillions of naira that accrued from the federation account made available by the office of Accountant General of the Federation to the region through state and local governments is enough to pull the region out of these problems. But why are people in this region living in abject poverty? Take for instance the small Mikang local government in Plateau state, which received N762, 644.76 in 1999, today receives close to N100 million every month, but nothing would tell the difference between what accrue to the local council and the living conditions of the people of that area. One would be shocked if he checked the level of poverty indices in that local government area today.
Boko haram sect members, in their myopic thinking, were not fighting book, or Western education per se; it was the only way they felt they could fight the people that they saw as having hijacked a system and turned it, or misused it and turned the citizens into slaves in their own country.
We, as guides, have betrayed our people and failed to give them hope, a sense of belonging. Our governors have turned their states into fiefdoms. They steal with impunity. They arrogantly convert state resources to their own. They have deliberately destroyed the public school system, which most of these young people that found themselves in the boko haram sect are supposed to attend. They denied them access to education; they deprived them living a decent life.
Our elites need to have a re-think. Nigerian political leaders should learn to respect the wishes of their people. They should address basic issues that affect the people. They should go beyond promises by showing a serious commitment to efforts to address the problems of development. They should show real commitment to education, reviving our power sector, addressing the issue of unemployment by reviving our collapsed industries. The government has to show real commitment to fighting corruption and outright stealing of public funds. If not the crises we see in Niger Delta and the boko haram is just a sign of what is to come.