THE PSYCHOLOGY OF THE NORTHERN ELITE.

 
Salisu Suleiman

In 1955, Chief Obafemi Awolowo introduced a Free Education policy as Premier of the Western Region. Already, his region was well ahead of the North in terms of western education.  Today, the products of that policy dominate education, the civil service, business, financial services, medicine, law and a host of other professions in Nigeria and beyond. Fifty- five years later, few, if any of the North’s 19 states has a free education policy. Today, a single state in the South has more school enrolments than an entire geo-political zone in the North.  Pupils still study under trees. Teachers are ill-trained and poorly paid. A primary school in Kaduna state (Rafin-Pa) has 300 pupils who share two classes.  A chalk line on the floor serves as demarcation for the different classes. It has two teachers, including the headmaster. There are more private universities in a state in the South than all federal, state and private universities in a Northern zone. In schools, working conditions are so poor that our few highly trained university lecturers are opting to teach (even in secondary schools) abroad. There is only one state owned university of science and technology in the entire North.  A single university in the South graduates more students than several in the North. Even the famous Ahmadu Bello University is crippled by internal wrangling and power-play. Education is symbolic of the psychology of Northern elite. Fifty years ago, the region was battling to catch up with the rest of the country. Today, the gap is wider than ever. All economic indicators point to the North as the poorest region in Nigeria. Unemployment is higher than other parts. Industries, even in Kano have become empty, cob-webbed buildings echoing with the silence of inactivity. Our elite would rather buy factories in Malaysia and other countries. Agriculture, the region’s great area of comparative advantage and mainstay of its economy remains subsistence and dependent on the vagaries of weather. This is in spite of the many dams and huge tracts of fertile land the region possesses. Healthcare is not any better. Most states in the South have more doctors than any zone in the North. Recently, a volunteer group called Movement for a Better Future organized a medical caravan to assist a small village with basic medical services, only to be confronted with many patients requiring surgery and other more serious medical attention from surrounding settlements.  Government healthcare has never reached majority of people, so they die from preventable, treatable diseases that should have been long eradicated. The few doctors and other medical personnel we train have no hospitals and no equipment to work with. So they transfer their expertise to other countries. Cholera, dysentery, meningitis, polio and other preventable diseases seem to afflict only the region. We have been accused of single-handedly stalling the elimination of polio from Africa. Bill Gates had to spend $750 million to fight diseases in our backyards. Our elite would rather keep their dollars in Switzerland, Dubai, Hong Kong and South Africa.