By Maijama’a Adamu
A friend I left in the secondary school and today fellow practitioner of journalism and member of the newly formed Middle Belt Journalists Forum advanced strong arguments on why he felt I must align myself with the Middle Belt movement.
The reasons are the recurring rants I hear from advocates of the regional ideology.
It’s about liberation from the marginalisation “we” suffer in the hands of the Hausa Fulani feudal lords.
As I take a critical look at this supposed map of the Middle Belt I get confused.
The marginalisation talked about centred on monopoly of power and the advantage it confers on its handlers.
In the map above, I see the very first and only Prime Minister Nigeria had, Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa. On the map I see Yakubu Gowon who ruled Nigeria for nine years. On it I saw General Ibrahim Babangida with also his near a decade rule. Of course the midwife of current democracy in Nigeria, Gen Abdulsalami Abubakar.
Which other regions boast of this array of “nonpushover” leaders?
What are we really saying!
Recently Obadiah Mailafiya, perhaps the most vocal advocate of MBF threatened that Middle Belt may explore the option of “joining our brothers and sisters” in Biafra. These and many related rants of his were never heard of when he was a Deputy Governor of the CBN. They are afterthought discoveries.
When I visited Gen Zamani Lekwot in his Kaduna residence, the only picture of a Nigerian president I saw in his parlour was that of president Shehu Sagari. By what I deduced of that picture, he (Lekwot) was then the GOC 82 Div of the Nigeria Army. Things were okay by then that the memory of that good time have not been dwarfed by the bitter pills of Middle Belt relegation.
Late Ibrahim Mantu seemed to have taken the front and centre stage of the MBF agitation quite recently, until his peaceful return to eternity (May Allah’s forgiveness and grace be unto him). Throughout his political exploits, climaxed by that eventful Deputy Senate President tenure, we never got to know him identifying himself with the struggle for liberation of the MBF.
Why do people only realise the agitation spirit in them against a system, only when they are done with dining and wining with the same system?
What seems obvious to me, the MBF has different agenda beyond their peripheral declaration, otherwise their rants look more bereft of logic.
You rule a nation much longer than any region had, yet you cry of relegation by successive leaders of the country.
Do we need liberation from our own selves or what?
I truly need more logical reasons for me to align with this decades long struggle.