Nigeria and problems ahead?

I used to think our founding fathers; the great Awo and Zik of Africa were the architects of the problem we are still trying to solve. (I may not be totally correct.)

The colonialists didn’t want to give independence until all the three units agreed. The north was not ready but these men persuaded them and as stupid as you think the northerners were, they had good sense of bargaining.

The north bargained our independence with the south, demanding they (north), produced the head of government. As at that time, there was no single medical doctor of northern origin and of course, most Nigerian professionals were southerners.

For instance, at independent, the late Chukwuemeka O. Ojukwu was the first graduate in the Nigerian army.

Later, Chief Awolowo made education free in the Western Region, the East too embraced education. These two men I think should have prevailed on their northern partners to educate their children as a matter of urgency so as to protect the southern educated children. As the adage goes, ‘the leper cannot milk a cow, but can spill the milk. Today, the educated can’t sleep because of the large population of illiterates.

It’s not enough to train your children and empower them to be the bosses of others, those in the lower cadre may not allow peaceful cohabitation.

However, I won’t blame these our two fathers too much because there is a limit you can go in persuading an unwilling soul who believes everything happens as allowed by God.

The north had had longer years in leadership, yet still underdeveloped, still intellectually behind. This is something those leaders need to explain while they still live.

In the past two weeks, our major headlines have been problems from this part of the land: Abduction of an underage girl from Bayelsa State for forceful conversion to Islam and marriage in Kano, the Agatu massacre where Fulani men killed scores of Agatu farmers of the Middle Belt, the Ketu Mile 12 mayhem, all happening as the nation is getting relived of terrorism that has destroyed lives and property in the north east.

*Ketu Mile 12 mayhem

If the leaders don’t invest in compulsory education of northern children for them to reason like 21st century beings, there may be the development of hybrid problems in the near future.

This is my submission and it is subject to debate.

 

*Article written by: Dayo Emmanuel

First published on www.dayoemmanuel.wordpress.com