By Ochereome Nnanna
SUDDENLY, the political atmosphere in the North has become active. It is no longer just the Boko Haram bombings and killings.

Those who pride themselves as “Northern leaders” (General Ibrahim Babangida, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar and their respective disciples) convened a meeting right on the heels of a series of meetings held by the 19 governors with the Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Sa’ad Abubakar in attendance.

At the end 10 standing committees of politicians, academics, professionals and businessmen were set up in apparent efforts to pursue “Northern unity”.

The question is: What is the real motive behind these moves? Is it because the North is now a virtual theatre of war, with Boko Haram running wild, targeting churches in Jos and Niger State, while kidnapping and killing foreigners and waging war on the citizenry in the North East? Or is it an early positioning for the presidential race in 2015? On the one hand a move is being made for “interfaith dialogue and inter-community harmony”, while on the other Northern governors who are Muslims are rejecting Governor Jonah Jang of Plateau State as the Chairman of Northern Governors Forum? Ironic?

Why would the non-Muslim communities welcome these moves with open arms when they are being targeted in their places of worship and in their homes while asleep and systematically massacred by Islamic terrorists?

What is in it for them when some Muslims resolutely opposed the accession of Patrick Yakowa to the seat of Governor of Kaduna State when his principal, Namadi Sambo, was picked by President Goodluck Jonathan as Vice President in 2010 when Yar’ Adua died? When would Muslims willingly vote for Christians in states where there are substantial Christian populations such as Adamawa, Kogi and Kaduna states as we see in Yorubaland?

These questions are central to any viable notion of “Northern unity”. Unlike in the First Republic when most Northerners felt a certain level of common bonds, which united them in their pogroms against Southerners, especially Igbos in their midst, fewer and fewer such ties exist.

The North’s common bond then was accentuated by the fact that both Muslims and Christians lost leaders to the Major Nzeogwu coup later ascribed to an Igbo agenda. The only conclusion one can draw from the renewed effort is that Babangida and Atiku have started oiling their political carts for their last go for the presidency in 2015.

The truth is this: Of the three majority ethnic groups which controlled the defunct three regions, the Hausa/Fulani group is the only one that has continued to maltreat their minorities, choosing to move for “unity” only when their votes or political support are needed.

Since the creation of the old Midwest Region, the Yorubas have ceased all attempts to lord it over their minorities in today’s Edo/Delta. In fact, historically, the Yoruba political model established by Chief Obafemi Awolowo has been the foremost champion for minority rights. That is why, any time the people of Edo/Delta take their political sabbatical from “national parties” they vote for West-based political parties such as the Unity Party of Nigeria and the Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN.

After an initial grousing over the support of the Eastern Minorities for the Federal side during the war and some rivalries over who should play the second fiddle to the North, the Igbo political elite saw the wisdom in ceasing all political hostilities with their Eastern Minority cousins. From the early 1990s they started championing political and economic autonomy for the Eastern Minorities. They played leading roles towards the creation of an Ijaw state (Bayelsa), and a separate geopolitical zone for them (South-South).

Igbos have been their greatest supporters for resource control and the adjustment of the derivation from oil to “13 per cent and above”. To crown it all, the Igbos in 2011 voluntarily gave up their right to contest for the presidency and vice presidency when an Ijaw man was in the presidency running to retain his seat.

They willingly gave him the greatest political and electoral support they ever gave anyone in history during the 2011 presidential elections. While the armed struggle by Ijaw militants lasted the Igbos opposed all-out military campaigns, while some Northern hawks pushed to “re-enact another Biafra”.

Frankly, the Igbo elite knew they would never make any progress in their bid to bounce back into the centre-stage of power in an atmosphere of quarrels and rivalries with their minority neighbours because their opponents from elsewhere would always find a handy lever to sabotage them form inside. Freedom for the Eastern Minorities became the stepping stone to achieve the bounce-back. The effect of these joining of hands with the Eastern Minorities have been dramatic, as evident in the camps of the South East and South-South when Ikemba, Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, was buried. The South-South stretched their hands of fellowship to the Igbos in appreciation of the many good turns done them.

If the North is genuinely interested in peace and unity with its serially injured and bleeding minorities, it must begin NOW to offer the necessary sacrifices, just as the Yorubas and Igbos did to their minority cousins and neighbours. The Muslim groups must go the extra-extra mile to overcome the complexity imposed by the bloodstained Christian/Muslim dichotomy. It requires the North voluntarily ceding the presidency to a Christian whenever the presidency returns to the North.

If Babangida and Atiku use the current hunt for peace and harmony in the North to support, say, David Mark for president after Jonathan steps down, it would heal the North faster than any apothecary’s magic potion could.

But will they do it? Given the mentality clearly emblazoned in their psyche, it will be the eighth wonder of the world if this happens. Yet unless this sacrifice is made, the political map drawn in 2011 (where the North East and North West had become sidelined from the new national mainstream) will become a permanent feature while Nigeria exists as one entity.