BLESSED JATT TO PROFESSOR ANGO ABDULLAHI IN DEFENCE OF SANUSI

Blessed Jatt

With due respect to Prof Ango Abdullahi, from his propositions and by his opposition  to Sanusi Lamido's advice to northern  Nigeria, what became obvious was that he is either consciously  ignorant of history or sentimentally  falsifying the facts of history to soothe his claims either of which makes  his professorship  questionable

it is true  that he is entitled  to his views  and that he has the right  to disagree  with Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, but it is his attempt to falsify history  to back up his claim  that I find  most disappointing and challengeble.
the summary  of his argument  are that
1. Nigeria  can divide because the north can sustain  itself  since there  are now potentials for oil in the north.
2. He also claimed that the north has more population  than all of Nigeria
3. that the north has sustained, is sustaining and can continue  to sustain Nigeria. More specifically, he mentioned  that the North sustained  Nigeria  from  1914-1974.
Let's carefully analyze  the later two arguments.  First if the supposed learned  professor  is pegging  his assertions  on the blotched 2006 politicised sensors were even goats and cows were counted in the north,  then I beg to say  'that when the educated is void of education,  the educators  themselves needs to be educated.'  The politicied  nature of the 2006 sensors across the country is obvious to the blind and audible  to the deaf. Nigeria  as it stand is a country  without clear figures of how many they are, we all swim in the ocean of speculations. Academias should be exempted from this pitfall

Also I find the proposition  that the north sustained  Nigeria  from 1914 to 1974 to be historically misleading and very disappointing. To put record straight, Nigeria  was almagamated in 1914 because the north was not economically  viable, and was becoming  a strain to the British treasury. It was therefore  resolved  to bring the two protectorate  together so as to use the surplus from the south to make up for the shortfall in the north.  For the avoidance of doubt. In his address  prior to the almagamation of the northern and southern  protectorate in 1914, the secretary  of state for the colonies Lord Lewis Harcourt asserted,  "we have released northern Nigeria  from the leading strings of the economy, the well promising  youth (north) is now on allowance  on his own and is about  to effect an alliance with  a southern  lady of means, I have issued the special  licence,  Sir Lord Lugard will perform  the ceremony. I pray may the union be fruitful  and the couple  constant." from this position there is nothing that connote the north was sustaining  Nigeria  rather she was the one effecting  an alliance with a "southern  lady of means"

If we are to also take Prof Ango insinuations  that Nigeria  can divide because there are now potential  for oil in the north,  it will mean he is affirming  that the north  has remain in the union  because she is been sustained  by the South. So with potential  for oil,  they can take a walk. Another position  I find very disappointing.

Also, on the viability of the north,  the second Military  coup of 1966 which brought  in General Yakubu Gowon as head of state was purely a northern coup with two objectives: revenge on the Ibo and to divide  Nigeria. The British  again stepped  in and advised the north to discard  the idea of separation because the north will be a land locked country. The implication  of which is that the north will remain depended on Nigeria to meet their export and import  demands.

Prof Ango also argued that the north has more advantage  than other part of Nigeria. It is true that every part  of Nigeria  has their peculiar  and distinctive challenges and opportunities, but fact remains  the north is lagging  far behind the rest and the prof needs to wake up to this reality.

The stand of Sanusi which I strongly support was that instead of Haramising everything that looks like civilization  and development, Islam in northern  Nigeria  should copy from the progressive  and developed  Islamic  state like Qatar, Turkey,  Saudi Arabia etc and not the retrogressive  and underdeveloped state like Afghanistan, etc. Rather  than dismissing  Sanusi's arguments  with the wave of hand,  I believe  what scholarship should  do,  the likes of prof  Ago is to research and recommend  workable  template that will move northern  Nigeria  out of its current doldrum  of retrogression  and haramisation.

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