Recently, former U.S. President and rather frequent visitor to Nigeria (at the behest of the rich and powerful), Bill Clinton, waded into the ongoing unrest in the northern part of the West African behemoth, where Islamic extremists, namely the notorious Boko Haram sect, continue to wreck havoc on the social and economic climate there.
Much like President Barack Obama recently stated as well, President Clinton, while speaking at the annual ThisDay awards ceremony in the Southwestern city of Abeokuta, blamed the continued unrest and acts of terrorism on the "extreme poverty" in Northern Nigeria.
While one would ordinarily not blame Mr. Clinton for this rather simplistic assertion, it would however have been more prudent for the former president, much like the current occupant of the White House, to at least attempt to better understand the intricacies and nuances of the Nigerian political climate, from a historical perspective, before making statements that have absolutely no iota of truth attached to them.
For close to 53 years of Nigeria's existence as a sovereign nation, the northern oligarchy, with the overt as well as subtle acquiescence of the Nigerian Military, has presided over the affairs of that nation for approximately four decades. During that period, the northern power structure through the military, has imposed the most corrupt and tyrannical leadership on the people of Nigeria.
A roll call of these afore-mentioned kleptocrats and dictators would include the likes of retired Generals such as Muhammadu Buhari (who is actually suspected of being the master-mind behind Boko Haram), Ibrahim Babangida (he essentially treated the national treasury as his personal bank account and was a renowned drug baron) and Sani Abacha (the ruthless dictator that murdered the winner of the freest and most democratic elections in the history of Nigeria, Moshood K. Abiola), just to name a few. Combined, these three northern kleptocrats alone, ruled over Nigeria for longer than any one or combination of southern leaders have ever presided over the affairs of that West African country.
The question then becomes this. With so much wealth and power in the hands of the northern oligarchy in Nigeria for close to 40 years of Nigeria's 53 as a sovereign nation, what exactly did this people do for the northern masses?
The answer to that is a simple one, absolutely nothing! Instead, while southern governors and administrators embarked on education and other society-building initiatives, geared towards lifting up the masses in their domain (mostly the southwest), the northern leaders preferred to engage in the politics of entitlement, laced with religious and ethnic bigotry.
The last time Nigeria had a southern president, the northern governors and their allies decided to impose the strictest of Islamic tenets on their people - Sharia. What was and is still ironic as well as unfortunate about this is that the law only seems to apply to the underprivileged and disadvantaged masses of the north, while their leaders wallow in the abundance of stolen wealth and egregious ostentation.
It would be prudent for Western leaders to at least do their due diligence and have a more polished understanding of events, rather than inject undue propaganda into sensitive matters affecting sovereign nations..... unless of course they have a hidden agenda.
It would be prudent for Western leaders to at least do their due diligence and have a more polished understanding of events, rather than inject undue propaganda into sensitive matters affecting sovereign nations..... unless of course they have a hidden agenda.
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