By BASHIR ADEFAKA
The Northern people of Nigeria are said not to be happy that each time their own is President of the country their fellow country people in the South always cause chaos so he does not end well.
This sadness was expressed during an interview with The DEFENDER by a Member, Board of Trustees (BoT) of the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF), Professor Kamal Bello, shortly after the first meeting of the Board in Kaduna, on Wednesday.
Professor Bello, a former Acting Vice Chancellor of the Nasarawa State University, said, “The complaint the South give has always been that Nigeria is not doing well and they say this only when the President in power is a Northerner.
“Remember this was what they did in 1966 during the first coup which they did against the North killing the whole officers and leaders of the North who were either in power at the centre or at the region, particularly the Prime Minister Tafawa Balewa and Premier Sardauna Ahmadu Bello.
“They would find one problem against the President from North and begin to cause chaos in the land promoting division, conflicts to run down his government.
“That is what the South do against us in the North whenever we are in power and then they will say Nigeria is bad. We don’t know why they are just happy doing this to us.
“But we have seen them in power. Why didn’t we in the North complain or cause disturbance for them when they were in power? What did they do better than this man in power, President Muhammadu Buhari?
“Buhari has been in power now for five years. Have you seen anywhere somebody has accused him of misappropriation or living above his means even as sitting President? Have you seen him building mansions somewhere as President?
“Obasanjo was in power for eight years. We saw what he did as President. What can he point to as his achievements?
“Jonathan was there and we saw what he did. Before he left office he had built mansion in his home land of OtuOke in Bayelsa.
“But to us Northerners they always complain about us. What did we do?
“They talk of lopsidedness. How? If you talk of security, we have four service chiefs. The Chief of Defence Staff Olonisakin, Ekiti South West, the Chief of Army Staff Buratai from Borno North East, the Chief of Air Staff Sadique Abubakar, Bauchi North East we didn’t complain in North Central why two chiefs from North East unlike the noise would be in the South, and the the Chief of Naval Staff Ibas, Akwa Ibom South South.
“Is it cool service? The South dominate the civil service, yet they are talking bad about the North all the times. Why? He asked.
On the #ENDSARS protests, the university don said here is no issue of SARS in the North and “so we are at peace here as far as that is concerned”.
“I just see that government wanted to practice American democracy here in Nigeria with the protesters. They forget that the kind of protesters who protest in America are more civil and mature than we have in Nigeria.
“So, once you allow them for more than three days you know they would go out of hand.
“I don’t also blame the President. It was Speaker Femi Gbajabiamila, Governor Sanwo-Olu that visited the President and told him it was just the normal protest and then presented their demands, which the President granted,” he said.
