26-7-2025.

Although I am not competent, or coherent enough to set an agenda for this august group of people, all of whom are intellectually far ahead of me, I feel since it is not about me, my incompetence and my incoherence should however, not prevent me from offering my little advice. By the way, I hope I am not late in offering the advice, since it is better to be late than to never give an advice.

The elites usually go to these conferences to protect and promote their interests, rather than the interests of the generality of the people. They go there with a predetermined agenda given to them by an interest opposed to the majority’s.

The leader of the present regime is notoriously noted for having his own way, and his own way is always at par with what the majority of the citizens want. And in the thinking of many people from THIS side, that person has done nothing to hide his apparent hatred for people of the Northern region, particularly the so called Hausa/Fulani elements.

And with a pliant National Assembly (NASS), President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, who once publicly claimed NOT TO BELIEVE IN NIGERIA, could have anything he wants, and what he normally wants is always opposite of what the North wants.

The National Assembly is alleged to have sold out to the presidency, agreeing to amend the National Constitution, with the AMENDED one greatly FAVOURING the Southern part of the country, while placing the Northern part at a great DISADVANTAGE.

The town hall meetings on the imminent Constitutional Conference arranged by the NASS, appear to be mare charades, designed to give a semblance of action by the legislature. But the NASS is unfortunately noted for doing the bidding of the president without second thought, since the desire of most of the members appears to be money. The president obliges them, sometime even pretending not to notice some of their shenanigans, including padding the annual budget.

And some Northerners, who were famously known to be principled, and who stood for the truth, have now become turncoats. They appear to have sold themselves to the highest bidder, and the highest bidder being the presidency. Among them are of course, some politicians, journalists, academics, and other professionals. They appeared to have sold their souls to the devil, with money worship as their new religion.

Not all Northern politicians are in this category, though. A Northern politician with a cult like following, recently voiced out his concern that the present regime is developing the Southern area while ignoring the North. He gave the example of the Lagos to Calabar Coastal Highway, claiming that the only ‘highway’ in the North is an imitation of one that is full of portholes.

However, our representatives to the Constitution Review should be aware that what the North wants is clearly not what the presidency wants. What the North wants is anything that will advance its interest. But what the presidency wants appears to be anything that is counter to the interest of the North. Just a look, even casually, at the president’s appointments before the death of the immediate past president, may be enough to convince the doubters that he really does not appear to mean well for the Northern area.

Nearly 90% of those in the Federal Cabinet, and all the money making agencies as well as parastatals, are people from the President’s tribe. Agencies like NNPC, CBN, FIR, NPA, NIMASA, Customs, etc, are all headed by persons from the president’s tribe

Clearly, the president has not hidden his unexplained distaste for the North, and he said as much in his infamous EMILOKAN speech, which he made to an all Yoruba audience after his emergence as the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC). Allowing him the chance to have his way will only mean additional problems for the Northern region. The ONLY place that can check him is the NASS, but it has sold its power to the Villa.

Members are no doubt aware that Northerners are considered by some Southerners as Second Class citizens in the land of their birth. They are seen as unnecessary burden (excess luggage), that the other side could do without. This appears to be the mindset of the president, and of some of his fellow regional irredentists.

Members of the Constitutional Conference Committee may not be victims of the excruciating poverty, hunger and hardship that are pervasive in the country. They may also not be victims of the ravaging insecurity that is rampant in some parts of the country. They may neither be affected by the stereotyping that is the lot of the Northerners. But they are in the minority. 

Therefore, it cannot escape the august members that the present federal regime favours one section of the country over the other, and the unfavored section is, without question, the producer of most of the food (food basket) consumed in the country. In fact, a lot of members are aware that ONE state in the North is more than the land size of a one WHOLE geo-political zone in the South.

But since many of you are moniedmen (derogatory referred to as moneybags) you are therefore, immune to the hardship of living in the Nigeria. This is a place where the citizens are supposed to live somewhat comfortably, due to the abundance of resources available in the country. But the avarice of most of the political leaders has made that a possibility in the reverse. 

Annoying is the fact that some thoughtless and selfish Northerners are among those who want the 1999 Nigerian Constitution amended because they are, allegedly, promised positions which they believed they did not possess the capacity to get without the help from some powers in the federal capital.

The position expected to be taken by the members is that which will be in the ABSOLUTE interest of the North, not that of a few people who care not what negative things happen to the place as long as they get what they want.

May God give the Northern representatives at the Constitutional Conference the mind and the courage to do the right thing, not just the bidding of someone somewhere, because it is ‘his chance’.

Malumfashi wrote from Katsina.