Sen. Mark, 2019 and North

BY FRANCIS DAMINA
Now that former Senate President, David Mark, has finally joined the race for the presidential ticket of his party – the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) – to contest for the sublime office of the presidency that the PDP has zoned to the North owing to the unprecedented defeat it suffered in 2015, when former president Goodluck Jonathan lost to the incumbent president, Muhammadu Buhari, in a fierce and apocalypse-like battle, as a northerner- or so I presume, who has been peeping through the cracked walls of politics; especially northern politics, one cannot but quickly jump into harvesting the fruits of this development.
For a very long time, especially in the last three odd years, there has been a motley of narratives with expressions such as Fulani herdsmen, Jihadists, Islamization, president’s kinsmen, death, plans to eliminate the Middle Belt, etc. And of all these, death was the most reoccurring. Every day, especially in villages and towns of the Middle Belt- Jos, Kafanchan, Barkin Ladi, Asso, Gidan Waya, Godogodo – out of hundreds ofl other villages and towns, scores got killed with a conventional wisdom that then, as now, seeks to paint a picture depicting an ongoing implementation of a plan to Islamize Nigeria with a ‘devout’ Muslim now as president. This, of course, isn’t unrelated with why, specifically the Middle Belt, which is now, like the North itself, defined based on religion, rejected the Federal Government’s plan to establish cattle colonies in its resolve to end the perennial clashes between farmers and herders that has for sometimes now assumed a frightening proportion . It was rather – on the contrary, seen as part and parcel of a plan to Islamize the region particularly.
But suspicion between Muslims and Christians in Northern Nigeria as a consequence of the activities of feudal lords and their next-of-kin has a long history. It is an area already over flocked by scholars. Among many things and themes the debate has raised are the very nagging questions of who is a northerner and what the North constitutes? While a picture of the North has over years been presented to look as if it is synonymous to Islam, on who a northerner is, one has to quickly refresh his memory on George Orwell’s epic Play- ‘The Animal Farm’ wherein, though all animals are equal, some are more equal than others. And in this circumstance, though all of us are northerners, some are more northern than others based on the accidental advantage of merely being Muslims.
There are many examples to give as there is a gamut of literature to review on the matter. I can never forget a story His Excellency Most Rev. Dr. Matthew Kukah told me, I think in the year 2000. The Bishop checked into a hotel in Abuja where he was billed for a program. Hardly had he settled down when the intercom in his room rang. It was someone welcoming him into the hotel. Filled with surprise, the then Fr. Kukah asked: “Please who are you and how do you know I am here?” The man responded: “My name is Mohammed. You baptized me Father and I work here.” But being a philosopher, Fr. Kukah prodded further: “I know I may have baptized you but it wouldn’t have been as Mohammad.” “Yes Father! You baptized me as John, but you know in places like this, names such as Mohammed helps,” the man replied.
Only recently in a homily at the funeral of Dr. Joseph Danlami Bagobiri; the Catholic Bishop of Kafanchan Diocese, Bishop Kukah told us about the appointment – and based on merit – of General Martin Luther Agwai as Chief Of Army Staff by former president Olusegun Obasanjo which was greeted with so much opposition by northerners on claims that the appointee is not a northerner. And this is somebody from the southern part of Kaduna state- a state that was the headquarters of the defunct North. Yes, the hardship that Christians have been quietly enduring in northern Nigeria as a result of their identity for just being Christians can’t be completely told. It manifests in all departments of life which include denial of space for the building of places of worship, especially in schools, admission into the schools themselves, job opportunities, etc.
And this may account for why in 2010, in a piece entitled “The North and Rotational Presidency”, the erudite Bishop, seemingly out of sync with his usual diplomacy, rhetorically asked: “But, o my brothers and sisters who are Muslims, I wish to ask a few questions which I need you to think over as opposed to giving me answers. Assuming that power does return to the North, if the new presidential candidate is called John, Thomas, Sarah or Felix, will you be ready to embrace him or her as a northerner? ”
And while Peter Bauna Tanko – another northerner, a priest and scholar, in his “Socio-Economic Status Of Christians in the Northern States of Nigeria”, argues that there is segregation even in the so-called north based on “what they refer to as ‘upper’, ‘far’, or ‘core’ north, with a conclusion that “The Christians in the North especially in the Middle Belt were seen as ‘southerners’ at heart, dressed in northern ‘sheep’s clothing’ and were thus targets for political oppressive machinations of the ruling class.” Way back in 2015, a fine journalist of northern stock that many refer to as “The Protector In Chief of the northern region”, Malam Mohammed Haruna, had used his then column in both Daily Trust and Nation newspapers to defend the north on accusations that northerners believe they are born to rule.
Haruna, in a piece, “The ‘Born To Rule Syndrome’ And The Nigerian Elite”, said: “Last week in this column, entitled ‘Jonathan’s fair-weather friends,’ I said Dr. Reuben Abati, former spokesman of President Goodluck Jonathan, was wrong to subscribe to the popular belief that a section of this country, specifically the North- for which read the so-called Hausa/Fulani – believed it is, to use the hackneyed expression, ‘born to rule’. ” The peak of Haruna’s submission was his argument that this syndrome is not an exclusive iniquity of only the Hausa/Fulani as there are accusing fingers also pointing at some other directions. He said: “Anyone inclined to accuse only the North of a ‘born to rule complex’ should remember how, in an interview in Sunday Vanguard of July 21, 2002, Mr Femi Fani-Kayode, then spokesman of President Olusegun Obasanjo, declared that whether anyone liked it or not the South would rule Nigeria for ‘close to 50 years.’ He even argued that the North would ‘ actually be better-off being ruled by people from the South ‘ because the benefits of good governance, which, presumably, was a southern preserve, would ‘flow down’.”
Observers may also recall that sometime, during Obasanjo’s regime, when Professor Jerry Gana goaded us into his ambition of becoming President, there was a heavy crossing of swords between Mohammed Haruna and Bishop Kukah when the former opined that Jerry Gana can never be President. In a war-like rejoinder visibly emanating out of great angst, the Bishop argued that Haruna’s submission is based on the fact that, Jerry Gana, though a northerner, can never be President simply and squarely because he “worship (s) the wrong God.”
This is why, for most of us, Senator Mark’s outing to seek for his party’s ticket as its presidential flag bearer, already zoned to the North come 2019, is interesting as it will serve as a referendum to prove if Christians in the North are truly northerners! Let us keep our fingers crossed to watch how things play out.

Damina, a student of Religion and Society, wrote from Holy Family Parish Gidan Bako – Kaduna state and can be reached via francisdamina@gmail.com