They thought that they could use Boko Haram to cripple the then government of Jonathan because they thought it was their inalienable right to continue to rule over the rest of Nigeria despite the fact that, they have de-industrialized and pauperized their states. Emphasis was placed on using Islam as a tool to cripple the minds of their people who is mostly gullible. Sharia law was imposed as a sort of opium to keep the average northerner to believe in the fathom utopia that religion was supposed to offer while the few rogue elites with their friend in power continued to plunder the north to the detriment of the masses. Its rather weird that the average northern elite will send their kids to the best schools both in Nigeria and abroad while they try to cripple the rest of the masses with the fact that all will be well so long as they attend Islamic schools and wreck religious havoc at the slightest provocation. It was the norm in the north that if there are religious riots,properties and churches are destroyed with the slightest whim while the northern elites looked the other way.
Now that the Boko Haram monster no longer discriminate in their killing between muslims and christians the northern elite has waken up to the fact that the monster they created has gotten out of control but it is too late to do anything.
It was rather naive for Nigerians to imagine that it will take a northern leader like Buhari to curb Boko Haram but the problem with such idea is that so long as the northern ruling elite continue with their selfish plundering of the north,Boko Haram will continue to have a massive recruitment fodder from the the army of illiterate street urchins who are enslave with a religion.
Why does the average northern does not invest in educating their kids unlike their peers in the South and the only asinine argument that is been peddled by the northern elite is that the north of marginalized!!! The fact is most of the oil blocks in Nigeria is owned northerners and what are they using the money to do. The north brings down Nigeria's average in everything - education, infrastructure, sports, poverty index etc, despite the huge monthly allocations they get. Because of these levels of poverty, it is an easy recruiting ground for terrorists. Can someone explain why Lagos and Oyo with significant muslim populations are not recruiting grounds for terrorists? What do northern governors do with their monthly allocations? Why do their youths not hold their leaders accountable like in the south? The answers to these questions may help us crack open the doors into what keeps the north in perpetual poverty...making it violence-prune. Ekiti State today has about the same revenue as Yobe and Gombe, but in 2012, only 17 students passed WAEC and NECO in Gombe state, while Ekiti is known for its high literacy level. Gombe State has a bigger budget that Enugu and Anambra, but how come MASSOB not bombed anyone.
Borno State has a budget twice that of Enugu State but the poverty and unemployment level in Borno State is more than thrice that of Enugu State. Borno has a bigger budget than a Niger Delta state – Cross River. While the leaders of Cross River over the last decade have transformed it into the nation’s leading tourist destination; those of Borno have transformed it into a Somalia. Kano State gets the highest statutory allocation from the Federal Government, because on paper Kano is the most populated state in Nigeria, yet Kano has about 1.6 million destitute Almajiris. Kano has a budget almost thrice the budget of Enugu, twice the budget of Kwara, Anambra and Ekiti, but how come almost 90 per cent of students in Kano fail WAEC? How come the poverty level in Kano is higher than all these states put together? Why is the North so poor,northern governors should genuinely ask themselves these questions and sit down to develop a reconstruction masterpan for their region.Outside investments can do very little if your own people are not skilled enough to work in the factories being sited in your region.
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