Norm of The North
Nnamdi Ebo argues that the crisis in the middle belt is bound to have devastating effect on the ‘north’
In 1963, minorities were excised from the West to create Midwestern region; in 1967 minorities were excised from the East to create Rivers and Southeast states. In 2018, Fulani herdsmen killings excised minorities from the North, reinforcing the Middle Belt
Norm of the North is a 2016 American computer-animated film. Norm the polar bear develops the ability to speak to humans. Because of this, he is made an outcast from other animals. During pre- and post-colonial periods leading up to independence and the civil war, Middle Belt constituted the norm of the North, subjugated by core North. Middle Belt was used extensively to lay claims to a monolithic North, albeit to corner political power at the centre with imposing size, population and hegemony. This hegemonist grip started unravelling in April 1990 after Major Gideon Orkar excised six states from the Muslim North in Nigeria’s last failed coup d’état.
In 1958, Joseph Tarks’s United Middle Belt Congress (UMBC) entered into an alliance with Obafemi Awolowo’s Action Group. On August 9, 2001, a delegation from Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) visited Jos. Abdullahi Shelleng invited his audience to join ACF. Governor Joshua Dariye was not interested in being marginalised and would rather remain a “Middle-Belter”. In an interview, Jonah Jang put the position simply: “Middle Belters are Middle Belters and we will remain Middle Belters.”
In September 2001, Dan Suleiman, ex-governor of Plateau State, said the Middle Belters are grossly marginalised and have become an endangered species on the brink of extinction and cultural annihilation. He was supported by Zamani Lekwot, ex-military governor of Rivers State, who attributed the failure to create a Middle Belt region in 1963 to politicians perceiving the Middle Belt as a threat. In an August 2002 interview following civil unrest in the Middle Belt, Suleiman partially blamed the core North leaders for encouraging the violence.
In May 2003, Vice-President Atiku Abubakar met with Middle Belt Forum (MBF) leaders. Atiku described the region as “patriotic, supportive and selfless Nigerians who have sacrificed much more than the people of other regions in holding this country together”. Following another crises in Plateau State, in March 2010, MBF President, Pius Atta, called for North Central Zone to be changed to Middle Belt Zone.
In October 2017, ACF leader of Northern Elders Forum (NEF), Dr. Paul Unongo and Arewa Youths Consultative Forum (AYCF) were not on the same page with the ACF spokesman, Prof. Ango Abdullahi, who, speaking at a public debate in Kaduna, had said the best option for Nigeria was a return to the 1914 or 1960 status quo or alternatively, “let us go our separate ways.” I saw the North losing its grip on aberrant power, and Prof. Abdullahi and the Hausa-Fulani oligarchy were going berserk as their “birthright” to rule Nigeria unravelled.
In February 2018, Prof. Abdullahi described the Fulani herdsmen killings as a politically-driven agenda to split the North and claimed that killing in the Middle Belt is a plot against the North. It will be recalled that UMBC was a political party during the First Republic; a political platform for the ethnic groups in central Nigeria covering parts of present-day Benue, Kogi, Plateau, Nasarawa, Adamawa and Kwara States. It was a minority voice in the Northern Nigeria Assembly dominated by Ahmadu Bello’s Northern People’s Congress (NPC).
The North’s unravelling came to a head with the pathetic Makurdi mass burial of 73 Benue crop farmers/villagers slaughtered by marauding Fulani herdsmen. The remnant “unity of the North” was broken on that day – forever! The hitherto united North started tearing fast at the seams as the Middle Belt became a “conquered territory” where Myetti Allah disregarded/disobeyed a state law (anti-open grazing law) and the police chief told the Benue governor to suspend the state’s statute law until cattle colonies were created. Myetti Allah said the law is obnoxious to nomadic lifestyle. For the people of the region (a loosely defined area between the Moslem, Hausa-dominated North, and the predominantly Christian Igbo and Yoruba areas of the Southeast and Southwest) cattle is more important than their people. They have endured enough!
Surprisingly, a core North conservative dissented. ACF Secretary General, Mohammed Abdulrahman, warned that any attempt by the North to retain power in 2019 may lead to disaster. In an interview with The Sun, he said: “We must not lose sight of the fact that it was an alliance that brought him in. The North and Buhari must get serious and behave themselves. Nigeria does not belong to the North because if you maintain the position, grandstanding that the North is powerful in Nigeria, you are wasting your time and Nigeria would collapse and crash. Why is the North asking for eight years? It is because of incapability to put in a leader. After Buhari, the best is Buhari. I am telling you now; go and write it down. The best the North can ever offer is Buhari. He failed three times woefully until the South West came and they had an alliance. Why are they trying to abuse that alliance? Four years is enough for the North. Let us respect each other,” Abdulrahman said. He said 2019 is for the Southwest and the ACN which formed the alliance for the 2015 presidency.
Will core North oligarchs listen to Abdulrahman? I doubt it. Birthright is a consuming passion. The leadership of Afenifere, Ohanaeze Ndi Ìgbò, Middle Belt and South South Forum, stormed Makurdi soon after the Benue mass burial. They urged President Muhammadu Buhari and the APC to embrace the call for the restructuring of Nigeria. Norm the polar bear was made an “outcast” because of his ability to speak to humans, like Middle Belters, who dared to protect their farmlands and ancestral lands. In 1963, minorities were excised from the West to create Midwestern region; in 1967 minorities were excised from the East to create Rivers and Southeast states. In 2018, Fulani herdsmen killings excised minorities from the North, reinforcing the Middle Belt. This definitive geopolitical structure will ensure checks and balances as the core North cannot lord it over Nigeria with their broken alliance with the Norm of the North.