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From: Ibrahim Musa
You are here: Home / Editorial /
North and the fleeing investors
DECEMBER 10, 2012 BY PUNCH EDITORIAL BOARD 11 COMMENTS
Map of Nigeria
| credits: southernforum4truth.org
THE Governor of Niger State, Babangida Aliyu, was stating the obvious when he declared last Monday that investors were giving the northern part of the country a wide berth due to the prevalent state of insecurity in that region. Within a space of three years, the section of the country that used to be a melting pot of different ethnic groups and races, with a bustling culture of business and economic activities, has been reduced to a shadow of its old self.
The 2011 World Investment Report of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development says that the Nigerian economy has lost over six billion dollars (N1.3trillion) as a result of attacks by the Islamic radical group, Boko Haram. According to Umar Ibrahim Yakubu, the Executive Director of Kano-based Centre for Research and Documentation, "97 per cent of businesses were negatively affected by the security problem. Some of them had to close down, some of them had to retrench some of their workers, and some of them had to cut down on the number of hours of operation."
Many Nigerians from the South and foreigners are now wary of trips to the North, no thanks to the bloody activities of hoodlums, especially Boko Haram, which translates literally as Western education is a sin. Many National Youth Service Corps members have been killed even as prospective ones now avoid postings to the North. While churchgoers live in perpetual fear of being blown up during church services, indigenes and non-indigenes that can no longer bear the reign of terror are fleeing the North in droves. Security agents, especially soldiers have been at their wits' end trying to deal with the guerilla tactics of the blood-thirsty terrorists. States such as Borno, Yobe, Adamawa, Bauchi and Kano have become battlegrounds, just as sprawling metropolises such as Kaduna and Kano, that were hot on the heels of Lagos and Port Harcourt in terms of industrial development are now in ruins, dotted with relics of what used to be thriving industrial concerns.
A former Nigerian Army Chief of Staff, Lt.-Gen. Theophilus Danjuma (retd.), once described the rapid deterioration of the North as the Somalisation of the region, in apparent comparison to the failed state of Somalia, while the Borno State Governor, Kashim Shettima, predicted in June that the North would become extinct in five years if the trend was not halted. "Borno State is today a failed state…while Kano is moving towards becoming a failed state," Danjuma was quoted as saying.
Since last Monday, there has been hardly a day that Kano has not been bombed. Some foreigners, including Chinese contractors working at project sites, have been counted among the casualties. The situation strikes fear in the heart of everybody. Indeed, the consequences of the continued state of insecurity in the North are dire. As rightly pointed out by Babangida, nobody invests in a place where safety of investment cannot be guaranteed, as capital only goes to where it is safe. The economy will therefore remain locked in an embrace with stagnation or retrogression. This, in turn, will breed unemployment and aggravated poverty, which the Central Bank Governor, Lamido Sanusi, once put at 90 per cent in the North compared to 55 per cent in the South. The current situation where more than 10 million beggars roam the streets of the North and the women literacy rate stands at 20 per cent will also worsen. Little wonder a former Head of State, Gen. Abdusalami Abubakar (retd.), said on Thursday that the damage done to the North would take 20 years to reverse.
The people should be encouraged to take responsibility for their own lives. The truth is that there are very few options left for the North other than the ones its leaders have been shying away from. For more than five decades, they did little to expand education beyond being the preserve of an exclusive few, while other parts made education free and compulsory. Thus, they have fostered a class of child beggars that constitute a ready pool for recruitment into terrorism. This must be reversed quickly through mass education, since it has been established that there is a link between education and material prosperity.
Beyond mere lamentation, Northern leaders must move to end terrorism and restore investors' confidence in the region. Since the empanelling of a 40-man committee to address the problem, no impact has been felt. Reduced conflict will save lives, lower the cost of business, encourage investment and improve services. The attitude of hostility to others based on religion and ethnicity cannot help.
Things have to change and it is only the Northern leaders that can bring about the change themselves, through the choices they make.
Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless handheld from Glo Mobile.
------------------------------------
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From: Ibrahim Musa
You are here: Home / Editorial /
North and the fleeing investors
DECEMBER 10, 2012 BY PUNCH EDITORIAL BOARD 11 COMMENTS
Map of Nigeria
| credits: southernforum4truth.org
THE Governor of Niger State, Babangida Aliyu, was stating the obvious when he declared last Monday that investors were giving the northern part of the country a wide berth due to the prevalent state of insecurity in that region. Within a space of three years, the section of the country that used to be a melting pot of different ethnic groups and races, with a bustling culture of business and economic activities, has been reduced to a shadow of its old self.
The 2011 World Investment Report of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development says that the Nigerian economy has lost over six billion dollars (N1.3trillion) as a result of attacks by the Islamic radical group, Boko Haram. According to Umar Ibrahim Yakubu, the Executive Director of Kano-based Centre for Research and Documentation, "97 per cent of businesses were negatively affected by the security problem. Some of them had to close down, some of them had to retrench some of their workers, and some of them had to cut down on the number of hours of operation."
Many Nigerians from the South and foreigners are now wary of trips to the North, no thanks to the bloody activities of hoodlums, especially Boko Haram, which translates literally as Western education is a sin. Many National Youth Service Corps members have been killed even as prospective ones now avoid postings to the North. While churchgoers live in perpetual fear of being blown up during church services, indigenes and non-indigenes that can no longer bear the reign of terror are fleeing the North in droves. Security agents, especially soldiers have been at their wits' end trying to deal with the guerilla tactics of the blood-thirsty terrorists. States such as Borno, Yobe, Adamawa, Bauchi and Kano have become battlegrounds, just as sprawling metropolises such as Kaduna and Kano, that were hot on the heels of Lagos and Port Harcourt in terms of industrial development are now in ruins, dotted with relics of what used to be thriving industrial concerns.
A former Nigerian Army Chief of Staff, Lt.-Gen. Theophilus Danjuma (retd.), once described the rapid deterioration of the North as the Somalisation of the region, in apparent comparison to the failed state of Somalia, while the Borno State Governor, Kashim Shettima, predicted in June that the North would become extinct in five years if the trend was not halted. "Borno State is today a failed state…while Kano is moving towards becoming a failed state," Danjuma was quoted as saying.
Since last Monday, there has been hardly a day that Kano has not been bombed. Some foreigners, including Chinese contractors working at project sites, have been counted among the casualties. The situation strikes fear in the heart of everybody. Indeed, the consequences of the continued state of insecurity in the North are dire. As rightly pointed out by Babangida, nobody invests in a place where safety of investment cannot be guaranteed, as capital only goes to where it is safe. The economy will therefore remain locked in an embrace with stagnation or retrogression. This, in turn, will breed unemployment and aggravated poverty, which the Central Bank Governor, Lamido Sanusi, once put at 90 per cent in the North compared to 55 per cent in the South. The current situation where more than 10 million beggars roam the streets of the North and the women literacy rate stands at 20 per cent will also worsen. Little wonder a former Head of State, Gen. Abdusalami Abubakar (retd.), said on Thursday that the damage done to the North would take 20 years to reverse.
The people should be encouraged to take responsibility for their own lives. The truth is that there are very few options left for the North other than the ones its leaders have been shying away from. For more than five decades, they did little to expand education beyond being the preserve of an exclusive few, while other parts made education free and compulsory. Thus, they have fostered a class of child beggars that constitute a ready pool for recruitment into terrorism. This must be reversed quickly through mass education, since it has been established that there is a link between education and material prosperity.
Beyond mere lamentation, Northern leaders must move to end terrorism and restore investors' confidence in the region. Since the empanelling of a 40-man committee to address the problem, no impact has been felt. Reduced conflict will save lives, lower the cost of business, encourage investment and improve services. The attitude of hostility to others based on religion and ethnicity cannot help.
Things have to change and it is only the Northern leaders that can bring about the change themselves, through the choices they make.
Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless handheld from Glo Mobile.
------------------------------------
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<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
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<*> Your email settings:
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<*> To change settings online go to:
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(Yahoo! ID required)
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