Dr. Bitrus Pogu, national president of the Middle Belt Forum (MBF) and a member of the distinguished group known as The Patriots, has declared that they are no longer part of a unified Northern Nigeria.
In an interview with the TRIBUNE, Pogu emphasized that the North is deeply divided along ethnic and religious lines, and recent political events have demonstrated that there is no unity among its people.
When asked whether the Middle Belt still adheres to the principle of “one North” as proposed by the late Sardauna of Sokoto, he responded:
“Even at the time the Sardauna said one North, the Middle Belt was in existence. We were not a conquered people when the British came around 1902. There was a map that showed all the areas that were independent. My small tribe of Chibok was consulted just like the big tribes. The British came in 1902 to consult my people after they left Biu.
“My people, I mean, of course, responded with bows and arrows, but all the same, we were brought in, and through indirect rule—that is what has created our problem, indirect rule. All the minorities or the nationalities of the North, other than the majority, I mean, Kanuri and the Hausa, were placed under the supervision of the northern caliphate or the Sultanate of Borno, and that’s why we find ourselves up to this day under them, being manipulated by them. But when you know you are not what you are supposed to be, you will always complain. And we are complaining.
“Just look at the civil war, people of the Middle-Belt extraction worked assiduously with commitment for the North, protecting the interests of the North. But as time went on, when we got to 1999 and beyond, I remember when they were saying that the ministers from the North, including even T.Y. Danjuma who sacrificed his life for so many things for the North, were not Northerners.
“What makes one a Northerner? You have to be a Fulani, Hausa or a Kanuri Muslim. And then, you have second-class minority Muslims, and minority Christians. This attitude, which has continued to manifest, has torn the North. And then they brought in insurgents deceiving poor boys into the bushes and taking people’s ancestral lands, destroying lives and property and impoverishing people for political reasons.
“The North is no longer monolithic. We are Middle-Belters. The British brought us together, and we are true Nigerians.”
