Former U.S. President Bill Clinton said Tuesday Nigeria's challenge of terrorism in the north was being fuelled by extreme poverty that increases by the day, an evaluation he once offered during a previous visit to Nigeria. It is also an evaluation Nigeria's President Goodluck Jonathan hates to hear.
Mr. Clinton said Nigerian leaders must share the country's resources equitably, and develop the country's human resources to stem extremism that has seen bombings, shootings and abductions escalate mainly in the northern states where extremist groups, Boko Haram, and Ansaru, thrive.
"You have to somehow bring economic opportunity to the people who don't have it. You have all these political problems -- and now violence problems -- that appear to be rooted in religious differences and all the rhetoric of the Boko Harams and others. But the truth is the poverty rate in the north is three times of what it is in Lagos," the former president said.
Mr. Clinton remark must have irritated President Jonathan who has repeatedly dismissed poverty or misrule as responsible for the surging terrorism and violent crimes in the North of Nigeria.
In his recent infamous interview with CNN's Christian Amanpour, Mr. Jonathan vehemently objected to the suggestion that widespread poverty, massive corruption and misrule were the possible root causes of terrorism in Nigeria.
"Boko Haram is not as a result of misrule; definitely not," an agitated Mr. Jonathan said during the interview. "And sometimes people feel like it is a result of poverty; definitely not. Boko Haram is a local terror group."
But Mr. Clinton said clearly Tuesday, not minding the discomfort his comment might cause the Nigerian government, that the administration will have to cut down inequality and lift more people out of poverty if it truly wants to eradicate extremism.
He said Nigeria needs to adopt a political structure that gives more power to the local and state governments, to decentralize governance and deliver prosperity to the rural areas.
"You have about three big challenges. First of all, like 90 per cent of the countries who have one big resource, you have a number of ways with your own money. It shows you have different ways. Now you are at least not wasting the natural gas, you are developing and selling it through the pipelines. You have to do better job of managing the natural resources," Mr. Clinton said.
"Secondly, you have to somehow bring economic opportunities to the people who don't have. This is not a problem specific to Nigeria. In almost every place in the world, prosperity is heavily concentrated in and around urban areas.
"You have to have both powerful state and local governments and a national policy that work together.
"If you just keep trying to divide the power if you will, into loosening strategy, you have to figure out a way to have a strategy that will help share the prosperity."
The former U.S. president has raised similar observation in his past visits to Nigeria, only to draw criticisms for them, with many challenging the assessment as not reflecting the Nigerian reality.
While analysts agree poverty thrives in the country, they argue that it affects every part of the country and as such cannot be cited as a justification for regional extremism.
He spoke in Abeokuta, Ogun state on Tuesday where he attended the ThisDay newspaper award. The event was also attended by former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo amongst other dignitaries.
The event witnessed a dramatic start as guests protested a call by the moderator for the rendition of the American National Anthem, before Nigeria's.
Guests were already seated when the award organizer, Nduka Obaigbena, publisher of Thisday Newspapers; and the Ogun State Governor, Ibikunle Amosun; ushered in Mr. Clinton. Then, the Master of Ceremony announced that the American Anthem was to be played followed by the Nigerian anthem.
Guests swiftly kicked against the move, demanding that Nigeria's go first.
A change was effected. The Nigeria national anthem was sung, followed by Ogun State anthem while the American anthem was eventually dropped.
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WHO IS RESPONSIBLE FOR NORTHERN POVERTY
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Is it not true that the leadership of Nigeria since independence mostly came from the Muslim North. Not only that, most of the oil money was going to the north. There were also special consideration given to the North when it came to education, desertification and a host of other issues to help them "catch up". The money was not managed by non-Muslims but by their leaders. If properly used, the North would have been far ahead of the rest of the country. Who therefore is responsible for northern poverty? The south? Christians? or non-Muslims?
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The reason for northern poverty is very clear. Their leaders stole what was meant for the masses for themselves because they rightly believe that the masses were better off with their Islamic culture and Islamic education. Their main preoccupation was never how to better the lot of the masses. It was rather how to to to Mecca for Pilgrimage, marry more underaged wives and impose Islam on the whole of Nigeria.
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After the imposition of strict Sharia law in the 12 northern states, what happened? They drove non-Muslims and their businesses out, making the area unattractive (and even dangerous) to investments. When there is no business and no investments, what else do you expect than poverty?. We all can see that since the imposition of Yerima's sharia, the place has gotten poorer and poorer every day.
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Northern leaders deprived the north. No one else should be blamed. What we definitely resist is their attempt to deprive the rest of Nigeria through the imposition of the religion and culture responsible for this deprivation !!!
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For their small size they want to continue to dominate Nigeria.
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They created states the size of local governments in the south and for that get huge allocations.
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They get special allocation for education, desertification, pilgrimage to Mecca etc
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They children don't pay school fees, instead they are paid to go to school. In the south, parents starve to pay school fees.
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They contribute nothing positive to Nigeria yet most of the revenue is spent appeasing them.
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They occupy key positions at all government establishments and whine terribly if any of the positions goes to another.
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They are never grateful for all these benefits and services they enjoy from another man's sweat and another man's resources
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Instead they agitate and agitate and agitate. Instead they threaten and threaten and threaten. Instead they terrorize and terrorize and terrorize.
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The development in the south is by dingt of hard work. During the leadership of Northern Muslims there was a lot of mismanagement and confussion. Babangida, a Northern Muslim ruler of Nigeria for nearly a decade institutionalized corruption as part of Nigerian culture. Northern leaders were placed in key positions at Federal level. From thee they looted as much as they could.
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Let them have their Islamic Taliban republic and begin to work for and pay for those allocations, services and positions that are presently paid for by money from other parts of Nigeria.
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Let them have their Islamic Taliban republic and with it the freedom to create as many states as they want. They can even give their tiny villages the status of states. Who cares.
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Let them have their Islamic Taliban republic and with it the freedom to create as many military generals or naval admirals as they want - regardless of the fact that they live in desert
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Let them have their Islamic Taliban republic where they can practice their blood thirsty religion.
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Let them have their Islamic Taliban republic where they will pay the price for their delinquency
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Let them have their Islamic Taliban republic where we can contain them as Israel contains the blood thirst Arab Mohammedans