Thinking about writing this piece, I recalled the words of a very popular English nursery rhyme “The house that Jack built”. In it were a rat, a cat, a dog and a cow. Next were a maiden, a priest “all shaven and shorn” and a man “all tatter’d and torn”. All preyed on everyone else. The rhyme does not say what happened eventually to the house and its tenants but the reader is left to presume that a house in which there is this much commotion will fall.
Talking of which brings me to this behemoth called Arewa Consultative Forum [ACF]. It is not ethnic or “socio-cultural” as are Nd’Igbo and Afenifere but it makes a claim of representing the northern part of Nigeria, which now has 19 states, two big religions [Islam and Christian] and accounts for more than one-half of Nigeria’s estimated 230 million population. I understand this ACF is the initiative of Atiku Abubakar, once Nigeria’s vice president and he has struggled since 2007 to be ‘elected’ president himself. According to its secretary general Murtala Aliyu, the ACF is non-partisan politically. In the dying days of November, it suspended its chairman, barrister Michael Osuman for saying the North would push for a northern presidential candidate in 2027 because people of the region “have lost faith” in the present president Ahmed Bola Tinubu, who rode to power in 2023 on the crest of the northern vote. Aliyu said what Osuman said was his private opinion, not the position of the ACF. But he spoke as the forum’s chairman anyway. Well, like in our old nursery rhyme, Osuman’s suspension by the board of trustees caused quite a commotion in the house. Some influencers saw a grave danger in letting the crisis fester and moved quickly to head off the unravelling of this tenuous symbol of the North’s unity – something that, in many people’s thinking, ceased to exist since the death of the first and only premier of the North, Ahmadu Bello. This last Thursday, it was reported that Osuman’s suspension had been reversed, thanks to Ahmed Yayale’s good troubleshooting. But for how much longer will this facade be kept up?
The sign of a crisis emerged early. Some people, my humble self-inclusive, had received invitations to attend the inauguration of the ACF’s media and publicity committee Nov. 21 at its head office in Kaduna. We were told the forum’s chairman was to personally swear in the committee’s members and later hand to them certificates of membership. That date, everyone who mattered was seated but there was no ACF chairman. The explanation offered was that he was “unavoidably away” somewhere. But that was a terrible lie by an association that seeks to be believed to be speaking and acting for the North. A further sign of mess was the gatecrashing of a so called League of Northern Democrats into the meeting. Dressed in flowing shiny white baban riga, the “democrats” took over the meeting meant for media invitees. But what did we expect of an ACF without a chairman and the other officials being overly concerned with burying the truth?
One thing though it managed to do rather well. The crisis that arose from Osuman’s suspension almost assumed a religious shade: Muslims versus Christians. Thanks to cool heads like Yayale and former senator Shehu Sani as well as a firebrand youth association that threatened to occupy the ACF Secretariat in Kaduna if Osuman’s removal was not rescinded, the boiling water didn’t spill over as people feared it would. But this fault line that has come to define the North more and more runs too close to the surface to hide it. Or close it forever.
On the ACF’s non-partisanship claim, not a few doubt it. Remember I said earlier I learnt the ACF was a house built by Atiku. This fact was brought to light by a fiery northern politician, Usman Bugaje. And the ACF has been doing its damnedest to not hide its support for Atiku in all his fight to become president. So Aliyu was economical with the truth when he said Osuman was suspended as the ACF chairman for being patently partisan. One of my reasons for turning down my appointment as the ACF’s media spokesman was my concern over the group’s unabashedly political partisanship. I understand, Bukar Zarma, my one-time editor at the New Nigerian and someone I respect very well, had put my name forward to replace my close friend Emmanuel Yawe, who died suddenly March 10, 2022. The other reason was my health wasn’t good at the time. I promised Bukar and Murtala that I would give my response whenever I felt up to it. They got tired and went for a university prof, who, I must confess, is doing a good job. However, I fear he and his people at the ACF have their work cut out, trying to convince a gathering crowd of Thomases that there is ONE North to speak for and act on behalf of.
