The African way of explaining the recent decision by the United States Institute of Peace to assemble governors from the Northern part of Nigeria at a roundtable to discuss the contemporary threat to the peace of the region and by extension the stability of Nigeria would be to say the Americans have a clear understanding that when there is pepper in your throat, both the eyes and the nose suffer for it.
Without doubt, the current spate of insurgency in the North of Nigeria is a spoonful of pepper in the throat of the nation and expectedly, wisdom dictates that even though it is the nose that is currently dripping with mucus, the eyes will soon gather its own tears, if there is no water enough to quickly douse the fire in the throat. Nigeria is the nose. Insurgency is the pepper we have eaten. And the Big Brother, the United States of America, clearly understands that whatever affects the largest single collection of blacks in the world, the largest economy in Africa, may soon migrate to trouble its shores.
Apart from the governors who currently wear the shoes and know where it pinches, the faculty assembled by UISP to diagnose and recommend fix measures for the troubling development posed by the Boko Haram group and other allied violent-prone dispositions in the north, was arguably African in mind even if they are Americans by birth and orientation. They were men and women who have had contacts with Nigeria since the early days of the country’s independence. They were also experts in the field of dealing with insurgency and the political challenges that are common to evolving democracies.
Take for instance, Ambassador Jonnie Carson, currently Assistant Secretary of State for Bureau of African Affairs. Carson’s 37-year-old Foreign Service career includes a two-year posting to Nigeria, 1969-1971. Kristin Lord, Acting President of USIP, was from 2009-2013 Executive Vice President and Director of Studies at the Centre for a New American Security where she oversaw the centre’s research during which time the centre published more than 110 reports and policy papers on technology and national security and the military, among others.
There was also Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, who, like Carson, had served in Nigeria and had once led the controlling post over some 60,000 workforce of the US State Department, the office in charge of several intelligent agencies and organs of the USA. There was also Dr. Johan Paden, without doubt a versatile authority on the politics, culture and religion of the North of Nigeria. Although currently a professor of Public Administration at George Mason University, Paden had held the same position at Ahmadu Bello University and Bayero University, Kano before relocating home. Paden served as international monitor with the U.S delegation during the Nigerian presidential elections in Kaduna (1999), Kano (2003) and Katisna (2007). His latest work is titled “Postelection Conflict Management in Nigeria: The Challenge of National Unity.”
Jennifer Cooke, the Director of CSIS Africa Programme, has authored many CSIS Reports and most recently led a study commissioned by the US African Command that examined potential sources of instability in a range of African countries. There was also Georgia Holmer who since 1996 has been working on programes to understand and prevent violent extremism, radicalisation and conflict through the Women Preventing Extreme Violence. Holmer had worked 10 years with the Federal Bureau of Investigation as a terrorism analyst in some countries.
The Governor of Niger State and Chairman of the Northern Governor’s Forum, Dr. Babangida Aliyu, led 11 other governors to the roundtable discussion. Initially threatened by snow, the discussion commenced a day behind schedule. Glued to the grime of security challenge, extreme poverty, illiteracy, deprivation and uncertainty, the governors waited to cross fertilize ideas on combating terrorism and poverty.
Listed for discussion included Social and Economic Conditions in the North; Security Situation in the North; the Role of Madrass in spreading education, economic and social conditions; Boko Haram recruitment; Economic opportunities and challenges in Northern Nigeria – Governors Perspectives and Private Sector Perspectives on Barriers and potential of Northern Economy. Aid and Development roundtable was also a part of the fulcrums of activities of the chief executives for the next two days of their stay in the United States.
Aliyu’s submission included that tackling the economic, social and political challenges facing the North is a task that must be accomplished if leaders must get Nigeria and indeed Africa on the right pedestal of development; elites in the political, religious and traditional class in the North must take up the challenge of finding realistic and sustainable solutions to the mirage of problems and politicians must be ready to embrace meaningful change in the cultural practices that shape the economic and political development of the region.
In his presentation, the Kwara State Governor, Alhaji AbdulFattah Ahmed, highlighted the lamentable reality that the indices of social and economic conditions indicate an increasing democratisation of poverty in the face of growth. Ahmed said: “Today, the North has highest proportion of Nigerians living in poverty, the highest number of school age girls not attending school and the largest component of Nigeria’s unemployed youth. As of 2012, the average poverty rate of the states in the North-West geopolitical zone remained the highest at 71.4 per cent followed by North-East 69.1 per cent and North Central, 60.7 per cent, according to the National Bureau of Statistics. The North also lags behind in gender development and empowerment.”
A worrisome dimension to the Northern security and economic challenges, which were equally acknowledged by Aliyu and the governor of Kano State, Alhaji Rabiu KwanKaso, in their presentations, according to Ahmed, is the fact that these inequalities have been accepted by the majority of northerners, due to “pervasive residual superstition”. Aliyu in particular berated the wrongful entrenchment of “dependency syndrome” or the begging culture in the North, arguing that it is a tool being used by the elites to oppress and exploit the poor.
Ahmed told the panelists that the “pervasive residual superstition” stops our people from demanding better service from the leadership and certainly from taking more proactive steps towards their own material well-being. Like others, the governor argued against the direction of poverty as the causative factor of the crisis in the North, but accepted that poverty clearly aids the violent conflicts in the region. He also provided a well-thought out pragmatic solution to the challenges of the north.
His words: “From the conflict between cattle-rearers and farmers to the Boko Haram insurgency, a struggle for or lack of access to economic resources contribute to these crises. If we create conditions for the prosperity of a greater percentage of our people, therefore, we will at least reduce the number of people available or amenable for conscription into violent activities.”
Governor Ahmed argued that the North’s agricultural resources can provide an antidote to the socio-economic stagnation and crises that have brought the region to its knees. We must explore and promote investment along key agriculture values to reclaim the agro-allied prosperity this region once knew.
He said: “The solution lies in going back to the basics, sustaining good governance, implementing agribusiness, and promoting human capital development, especially functional education and access to quality healthcare.”
In the end, Kwankaso summarised the expectations of the Nigerian team from their American interventionists: apart from the usual diplomatic support for the country, the US should consider instituting a peace and security programme that will ensure a holistic and comprehensive approach to addressing current and future conflicts in Nigeria. This could also involve activities that will reduce poverty through job creation, education, infrastructure and institutional development.
Ahmed invited international donors to support his efforts at transforming agriculture, especially by promoting all season farming using advanced irrigation systems and making the state an international investors’ destination.
Responding on behalf of other international agencies, the Administrator of the United States Agency for International Development, 41-year-old Rajiv Shah, who sits atop more than $22 billion intervention fund, promised the preparedness of the agency to intervene in the areas of agriculture, health, education and power.
Oba, the Chief Press Secretary to the Kwara State Governor, Dr. Abdulfatah Ahmed, writes in from Ilorin, Kwara State.
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