Re: Soludo: Decision time for Yar’adua - by Garba Deen Muhammad
DEENGARBA@GMAIL.COM
published here in August of last year under the title: “Soludo: Why the North would miss him”.
But I do affirm that whereas Soludo is not and could not have been the cause of poverty, ignorance and other social problems in the North, some of the policies he pursued tended to aggravate those problems. Among such policies were his banks’ consolidation policy; his recruitment policy and, lately, his decision to redefine the operations of Bureau de Change that places the impoverished region in even greater disadvantage.
It is also necessary to state that it is of no consequence to me who replaces Soludo; that is President Yar’adua’s problem. Nothing our leaders do would shock us any more. Like millions of Nigerians, I am oppressed by micro issues such as how to pay my children’s school fees, how to get out of my mortgage, how not to fall sick, and which number to call should armed robbers visit my neighbourhood in the middle of the night. These are supposed to be government’s concern too, but where is the government? I oppose a renewed tenure for Soludo because I believe he’s become too controversial (a very charitable choice of word) to continue to head a sensitive institution like the central bank.
As for the tragic situation in the North, there is absolutely no ambiguity about who is responsible. It is the northern military establishment, the northern political class and the northern traditional institution, in that order, that have conspired to turn a once vibrant, promising region into a bastion of squalor and despair. Even the ‘ignorant and illiterate’ ever-suffering people of the North have become aware who their oppressors are; which means that a climax and a change might be just a sunset or a sunrise away.
Re: Soludo: Decision time for Yar’adua
I read your above captioned article and felt depressed. For God’s sake what is the problem with us northerners? What is new that our leaders will need to learn from? You only learn from your mistakes and ignorance. They know everything, from the reasons for our backwardness to the solutions. The simple explanation is that we celebrate poverty in the north.
Northerners derive joy in the misery of their neighbours. Check out most of our leaders’ relations and neighbours and see whether you will not see abject poverty and illiteracy there. I am not talking about their G.R.A. neighbours; no, I am talking about people that helped in their upbringing in one way or the other.
Let each and every northerner search within him or her to see whether we are doing the right thing to our brethren. Thank you and keep up the good work.
Halima Idris < htaurean@yahoo.com>
Let me start by saying that it is normal to have the kind of sentiments you have about the situation in the North since you are a Northerner. But what I find unsettling is how you managed to bring the blame to Soludo’s court.
First of all, for ideological reasons, I’m not a fan of Soludo and his policies. However, if the issue you are raising is poverty in the North, you have been quite unbalanced in the blame you apportioned to Soludo in causing it. Although, you highlighted rightly in your article the poor leadership in the North, you did not apportion to it the weight it deserved.
I’m a bit surprised also that you are crying foul with respect to marginalisation. Even though recruitment in Nigeria that seeks to make equal representation of ethnic groups rather than merit is one of the problems we have (I strongly support that fields such as ‘state of origin’ should be completely removed from admission and employment forms), I think what Soludo did (if your accusation is right at all) is fair to the North. In other ministries and parastatals where northerners have been in charge, southerners have also been marginalised.
Chibueze < junijustin@yahoo.com>
Your grouse with Mr Soludo is summarised as follows: a) Recapitalisation and restructuring Nigerian banks; b) Failure to recognise federal character in the employment of central bank staff; c) The allegation that he enriched himself and d) patronising the North by recognising its unprecedented level of poverty and illiteracy.
The question is, how many times have you written any articles about individuals like Mr Ibrahim Babangida, Mr Abdulsalam Abubakar, Ibrahim Tahir, Sani Abacha, President Yar’adua and many others who have consistently raped and plundered the fortunes of your people?
You have not spoken or written about the unparalleled level of illiteracy and its corresponding effects in the North, yet you criticise other people who are doing their best to highlight the deliberate injustice engineered and perpetuated by the so-called northern elites in order that the people would remain as primitive as ever.
Ikem Onyia < Stage65049@aol.com>
From the content of your write-up, it appears you do not like Professor Soludo and you do not want him appointed for second term. Let me say here that I am not a fan of Soludo either but it will be wrong to insinuate that the CBN governor brought poverty to the northern states of Nigeria. It will also be wrong to say he aggravated the level of poverty in the North.
I served Nigeria as a ‘youth corper’ in 1987 in the then Kano state and I saw poverty at its highest level in the town where I served—Gumel. Soludo was not known in Nigeria during those periods, so why should we blame him now? Mallam Garba, sometimes the problem lies with us and not outsiders. You northerners will then need to search yourself and find a solution.
Gbenga < fgafolabi@aim.com>
I was quite impressed with your write up on the above and how the North is being made to suffer from backwardness, thanks to our so-called leaders. Even with the emergence of the Yar’adua government which we thought might bring us back to the lime light, the reverse is the case: the North has really been marginalised.
Ibrahim Sheik < ibrahimpizzo@yahoo.com>
Parks, alcohol and the right to revel
Your response to Professor Okello’s write-up appears anything but an aggregation of self-centred piety. The parks are not the only place criminals hide; indeed, most young people that go into crime these days are well educated and sophisticated enough to hatch their nefarious plans in the comfort of any luxurious hotel in town. Does that mean all the five star hotels or the first class restaurants where they eat in the FCT should also be demolished?
Why can’t the minister look at the more pressing issues affecting residents of the FCT like perennial power failure, incessant accidents, poor water supply, access to satellite towns, nepotism and high corruption in FCDA and its components, among others?
Udendeh Gabriel < gudendeh@cenbank.org>
We talk about Abuja as a mega city deserving foreign investment and yet keep implementing inhibitive and backward policies that are divisive and border on lack of sensitivity to other people’s rights. For goodness sake, Abuja is not a local government headquarter; it is a modern capital city for an emerging nation and must be allowed to thrive in civility.
Dr Maaki, Abuja
Comments