When the Arewa Consultative Forum held its Annual General Meeting on Tuesday 15th of March 2011, not a single State Governor from the North was in attendance. A ready and plausible excuse is that they are all busy on the campaign trail. Vice President Namadi Sambo attended though, which says a lot about President Jonathan’s desire to find a way into the heart and minds of the mainstream political north. General Yakubu Gowon was the only former Head of State in attendance. He, along with former President Shehu Shagari are generally seen as harmless old gentlemen who periodically make some sentimental statements about the north. Generals Babangida and Abdulsalami Abubakar, who were key players in terms of the North’s project to make former President Olusegun Obasanjo President in 1999, and whose eight years in power virtually decimated the remnants of quality northern political leadership were absent. In the end, the Annual General Meeting, under a new leadership of Alhaji Aliko Mohammed merely registered the political poverty of the North, and exposed its weaknesses in the context of the current contests over the Nigerian Presidency.
Even in their absence, northern governors were the main issue. They were not there to hear Vice President Namadi Sambo promise that the Federal Government would continue the search for peace initiatives in Plateau, Bauchi and Borno States, a matter in which the Governors are key players, both as solutions and as sources of the problem. The Governors were not there to hear and make inputs into the promise by the Federal Government to enhance infrastructure in the north by dredging the River Benue up to Yola. They were not there to hear of the promise to revive the New Nigerian Newspapers through settling the long-standing liabilities of the company by the Federal Government. But most important of all, the Governors were not there to hear Vice President Namadi Sambo urge the new leadership of the ACF to revisit the works of past Northern leaders and rediscover their commitments towards political unity and rapid economic development.
The Arewa Consultative Forum is gathering of mostly senior citizens from the north who like to think that they are keeping the ideals of a united northern Nigeria alive. The Forum claims to be non-partisan, but has recently undergone a major crisis and change of leadership over the roles of some of its leaders in the struggle to acquire the support of the north for President Jonathan’s presidential bid. It cannot influence what State Governors do. It cannot influence major politicians from different political parties in terms of strategies for strengthening northern political unity, and reducing its weaknesses. It is a socio-cultural organization which has no influence over what happens in Plateau State; or in Tafawa Balewa; or what to do about the faceless group called Boko Haram in the northern part of the north.
It is little wonder therefore that northern Governors pay very little attention to it. After all, they know where power in the North truly lies. It lies in their hands. The realities of the political impotence of the ACF and the existence of power outside it makes the Jonathan-Namadi’s effort to enlist it as an asset all the more curious. Either they do not know that the ACF cannot help them, or they are so desperate for support that they will ask anyone in the North for it.
As things stand today, the north has a major leadership deficit which will make its economic underdevelopment and insecurity even more serious. The amount of money our 19 Governors are spending in their campaigns, much of it in the form of public assets, put together, can make a huge difference to the lives of northerners. These are the people who have the real power to make a difference in the north. The biggest expenditure they incur presently is for re-election, or support for Mr. President’s re-election. General Muhammadu Buhari, Malam Ibrahim Shekarau and Malam Nuhu Ribadu’s entire campaign funds may not equal the amount which three or four northern governors spend. These candidates will compete against each other; and against President Goodluck Jonathan with the active support of most northern Governors. How, then can the North achieve the political goal of capturing the Presidency in April?
There are a number of opportunities to correct the failures which led the north to lose its political power. One of these opportunities is available to our Governors, Presidential aspirants and organizations such as the ACF and the northern Political Elders Forum to contain the political disarray and economic poverty of the north before the elections. If they can engineer a winning formula, people in the north may be assured that some remnants of northern political leadership still exists. If they cannot, then a new generation of northern leaders must emerge to give political leadership which the north deserves.
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