THE NORTH: A COW HELD DOWN TO MILK ANOTHER. All through The North from the fringes of the two extremes of the Sahara Desert and River Niger, you found very hardworking and industrious Commoners eking out living in two major areas; the market and farms. We tilled the soil and attended regular weekly market days in nearby towns and villages to sell our produce and do other commercial transactions. The system encouraged self sufficiency to the level that begging was a shameful act. Even the Almajiri system of Islamic education was respectable as pupils had the farms of their Teacher/Mallam to grow their own food and needed not beg to eat. The political class gave us leadership and harnessed our potentials in the market and farms. Most taxes in the North were on these to the extent that even cows and goats were taxed. Produce merchants were the money men of yore and a sizeable source of income to local authorities through taxes. Because we paid taxes, we held our leaders accountable and politics was essentially seen as a call to service. We were a self sufficient and proud people. The first lessons we were taught at home when we learnt to walk and were ready to step out of home was not to receive anything from anybody outside or eat in anybodys house. Dependency or any semblance thereof was a dent to the family image and must be preserved. We were that proud. Then oil money came. Free money. Our political leaders needed not look at our local economies to raise taxes to run any level of government. The system that worked for centuries was abandoned and the local economies that employed multitude of the population and fed industries were left to collapse. Locals were glad that they were no longer paying taxes and were the least bothered to hold their leaders accountable on the oil money that were statutory allocations. And the economic and social decline of the North set in and we are here today. Opposition to Resource Control by the Northern political elite like Paul Unongo and Ibrahim Coomasie is to preserve the source of servicing of their allocations from the Abuja booty. It is an open secret that there is a first line charge on statutory allocations to the Northern States of maintenance allowances to community elders and godfathers. What remains goes to service the greed of those in power and very little to take care of development issues in the states. The Northern power elite want the status quo to continue for easy access to easy oil money. They have held down our people by ignoring agriculture and other natural resources for the cheap oil money from the Niger Delta. The most amazing aspect of this indolence is that they cannot even begin to explore and exploit the oil deposits in the North for the easy money they so crave. They are the parasite; not the average suffering Northerner. If the long suffering Northerner has a voice, he will support 100% Resource Control and other aspects of Fiscal Federalism so that he can get back to work. He is no parasite but a proud citizen of this country held down by vicious parasites threatening to pull down everybody.
Posted on: Wed, 28 May 2014 09:35:38 +0000
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