By Ugoji Maximillian
Before you read this post I would like you to know something: I don’t care if you hæte me.
Those who love me are more than those who hæte me.
So I will speak the truth without fear.
Take the truth or throw it away.
But let’s be brutally honest—until the North decides to confront its own leadership failures, no president—North or South—can “save” it.
This might sound harsh, but history is stubborn.
From independence in 1960 up until 1999, the North—through leaders like Yakubu Gowon, Murtala Mohammed, Shehu Shagari, Muhammadu Buhari, and Ibrahim Babangida—held power for the majority of Nigeria’s post-independence history.
Even in the Fourth Republic, power rotated back with Buhari for 8 years (2015–2023).
That’s decades of influence.
So the real question is simple: what was done with that power?
According to the National Bureau of Statistics, Northern states consistently dominate poverty rankings.
States like Sokoto, Zamfara, and Jigawa have recorded poverty rates above 70% in past reports.
UNICEF has repeatedly warned that Nigeria has over 10 million out-of-school children—and the overwhelming majority are in the North.
This isn’t propaganda.
It’s data.
Healthcare?
The World Health Organization has flagged Northern Nigeria for some of the worst maternal and child mortality rates in the world.
So you know that in many communities in the North there are no hospitals?
When I was serving there, in a big local government there was no hospital except a Kogi Doctor who had a small clinic.
I went there one day to donate things only to see pregnant women lying on the bare floor because there were no beds.
In fact one of the women who was in labour died on the floor there because the conditions were bad .
Diseases like malaria, cholera, and malnutrition remain widespread—not because solutions don’t exist, but because governance has failed.
Now look at insecurity.
From the rise of Boko Haram around 2009 to banditry across the Northwest, entire communities have been wiped out.
Millions displaced.
Billions lost.
Yet year after year, the same political structures remain in place, largely unchallenged by the masses.
And that’s the uncomfortable truth: leadership failure survives where accountability is weak.
Instead, what do we see?
Blame games.
Political agitation.
Northern politicians sabotaging security efforts .
Narratives that shift responsibility away from decades of internal governance failures.
No region develops by outsourcing responsibility.
Look at global history:
The American South didn’t develop by blaming Washington—it industrialized itself after the American Civil War.
China’s inland regions didn’t wait for Beijing—they transformed after the Chinese economic reforms.
Even within Nigeria, Lagos didn’t become an economic hub by complaining—it reformed internally under leaders like Governor Bola Ahmed Tinubu and successors.
Development is local before it becomes national.
If the poor masses continue to defend the same political systems that keep them uneducated, unhealthy, and economically stagnant, then no amount of federal intervention will fix it.
And let’s be clear—this isn’t about North vs South.
It’s about leadership vs accountability.
Until ordinary people begin to question:
Where are the schools?
Where is the healthcare?
Where did the allocations go?
Why is insecurity still unchecked?
…nothing will change.
No president can override a region that refuses to hold its own leaders accountable.
In fact let me tell you that there’s zero accountability in that part of the country.
Leadership is to be worshipped and not to be questioned.
So the Governors there live anyhow. Do you know they’re yet to implement Minimum wage in most states there?
Not even a “strongman” and Not even a “reformer” can liberate a people who are not ready to move forward.
Even if you give them power forever, they use it to destroy themselves Instead of using it to develop.
History has already proven that.
The real revolution the North needs is not political power—it’s civic awakening.
Until then, the cycle will repeat.
– Ugoji Maximillian Teacher of systems. Translator of power. Builder of Elite mindset. Speaker, Author and Entrepreneur.
