Dr. Tom Ohikere
1. The North We Lost: 1960-1999
The north was not built by accident.
Under the Native Authority system, the Emirate, the Ardo, the Hakimi, and the village head kept order. Tax, justice, and discipline flowed through structures people recognized.
Sir Ahmadu Bello, the Sardauna, expanded it. He built Government Colleges in Keffi, Bida, Zaria. He sent the poor child from Toro, Gusau, or Biu to ABU Zaria, Bayero Kano, and Unimaid on full scholarship. Textbooks were free. Hostels had water. Hospital beds were real.
Agriculture was policy: Groundnut Pyramids in Kano, cotton in Funtua, hides in Sokoto. The north fed Nigeria and exported to Europe.
The moral code was simple: _Mutunci, Gaskiya, Alheri_ — Dignity, Truth, Charity. A trader in Sabon Gari trusted his Igbo neighbour. A Berom farmer and a Fulani herder shared water. Religion meant sacrifice, not extortion.
That was the northern dream: Size + Population + Resources + Moral Compass = Leadership for Nigeria.
2. The Cracks: 1999-2026 — When Service Became Extraction
So when did it break?
A. The Oil Doctrine: We learned that money comes from Abuja, not from farms. Governors became budget administrators, not nation builders.
B. The Coup Culture: Military impunity normalized “take it, no one will ask.” That habit entered civilian government.
C. The School Collapse: The same men who sat in free GSS classrooms now preside over schools without teachers, chalk, or roofs. Almajiri schools were abandoned without a modern alternative. 10.2 million out-of-school children — UNICEF 2023 — most of them in the north.
D. The Shame Vacuum: Qur’anic ethics and traditional _kunya_ — shame — died. Honesty became a political liability.
E. The Weaponization of Poverty: Politicians now campaign by emirate, tribe, sect. They arm “our boys” in wards. Religion became opium: Friday and Sunday envelopes to clerics, while the jobless graduate is told “leave it to God.”
3. The Blood Evidence: 2026 Csdes We Cannot Pretend Away
General Abubakar Rabe, May 30, 2026, Katsina: 35 years in uniform. Taken with his wife on a highway. He died in bandit captivity from diabetes and hypertension. His wife remained with the killers. If the man who guarded our borders is negotiable, who is not?
Emir Isa Muhammad Bawa, Gobir, Sokoto, June 2026: 73 years old. 40 years on the throne. Tied up, filmed begging for his life. Bandits demanded N500m, then N60m + 6 motorcycles. Paid. Shot dead after Asr on a Tuesday. Body withheld. His son buried the story, not the king. If a Sarkin Gobir is disposable, then traditional authority is dead.
Chibok, Kautikari, Gobir Villages, May-June 2026: Classrooms burned. ∼90 children and teachers taken since May 15. 150 villagers taken in Gobir after the Emir’s murder, with 1,000 cattle. We post “Sad” and scroll.
Tax to Bandits, Zamfara/Niger/Katsina/Sokoto:
Village heads now negotiate levies before planting. Girls are married at 12 to avoid abduction. Governors blame “climate change” from convoys of 30 vehicles.
4. The Empire of Family: Monarchy Without Crown
Today the north runs like an inheritance.
1.Contracts: Shared at dinner tables, not on Bureau of Public Procurement portals.
2. Appointments: Commissioners are sons-in-law. SAs at 25 with no CV except a father’s name.
3. Recruitment: Civil service, police, military slots auctioned. Scholarship boards exist only on letterheads.
4. Industry: Kaduna and Kano textile mills are dead. Dams are silted. Grazing routes are blocked. We import tomatoes, milk, even toothpicks, despite 19m hectares of uncultivated land.
5. The Moral Collapse
Trust Die: Hausa no longer trusts Igbo in Sabon Gari. Berom youth sees Fulani student as enemy. Those suspicions were manufactured in state capitals and distributed through hate sermons and thugs.
Clerics Sold Out: Imams and pastors who should be conscience now auction endorsements. The poor are left to God because leaders abandoned them to fate.
Elite Betrayal: The generation that ate free boarding school food now approves budgets without school feeding. They fly over flooded villages to attend graduation in London.
6. The Blueprint to Heal the North; Not Prayer Alone
Prayers without policy is noise. Here is the ADC/Coalition 5-Point Northern Recovery Plan:
1. Declare a Security + Education Emergency in all 19 states
Shift 40% of security votes to community policing: recruited from the ward, trained, kitted, paid at source, not through Abuja.
2. Rebuild the Primary School, Ward by Ward
One functional school per ward: Fence. Water. 12 teachers on IPPIS. Feeding program. A school is worth more than 10km of road to a burnt village.
3. Agro-Industrial Clusters, One Per Senatorial District
Irrigation. Cold storage. Tomato/milk/dairy processing. Revive the Bank of the North mindset: Capital, not crumbs. N5,000 cannot replace a job.
4. End the Auction of the State
1. BPP portal: All contracts >N50m must be open tender.
2. Civil Service: Merit portal with exams + biometric capture.
3. Scholarship: Publish names, schools, amounts quarterly.
5. Restore Conscience
Emirs and clerics must be free to say “fear God” to a governor without losing their mosque or pulpit. Parents must stop sending 10-year-olds to beg. Youth must stop renting their voices for rice.
7. The Final Indictment
The north was not broken by colonialism.
It was broken by the children it educated for free.
By the clerics who sold mosques built by honest traders.
By the elite who flew over villages to bury their fathers in Europe.
By the followers who clap for a bag of rice and forget their grandfather’s dispensary.
General Rabe was not asked for his party card before he died in chains.
Emir Bawa was not asked for his godfather before they shot him.
The Chibok girl was not asked her tribe before the forest took her.
The bandits do not check APC or PDP before they knock.
> The north is bleeding, but it is not dead. The soil that buried our fathers still holds water. The question is no longer “Who broke the north?” The question is “Who will heal it?” And the answer must be all of us, starting today.
– Dr. Tom Ohikere, Public Affairs Analyst /Former commissioner for information Kogi State.
