Nigeria, the foremost Sub-Saharan nation over the times past has shown in most of her major events that it is divided over geographical delineation and tribal as well as religious divisions.

Right from the time the country was badly stiched together by the self-gratifying British colonial masters over the Northern and Southern protectorate, the seed of discord over geographical, religious and tribal dichotomy was planted.

While the North had been majorly infiltrated at least a century earlier by the marauding Arabic Warmongers, which saw the region been run over with Islamic religios practices, beliefs and tenets, the West had been invaded by the West invaders who also stamped the major religion of the West as at the time, Christianity, coated with Western beliefs, practices and values. This, naturally is the root of the disunion among the two unions forcefully married together by the British through Lord Lugard in 1914; the Northern and Southern protectorate that became Nigeria, a short form of Niger area.

British soldier, colonial administrator and Governor-General of Nigeria, Frederick John Dealtry Lugard (1858 - 1945). Photo: Topical Press Agency

Events that took place from then on showed that the people are never willing to let go of what divide them and give very little regards to what unite them. It was not therefore surprising that the foundation of the union of the two estranged people began to shake shortly after independence as one region tries to outwit the other region in all things.

The coups and counter coups of the 60s are another indicators of disharmony between the two regions which laid the foundation for the civil war of 1967. The series of military takeovers of the 80s never showed any difference either. The disharmony continued even after the country managed to enter civilian rule in 1997 with the third Republic.

Kaduna Chukwuma Nzeogwu staged the first coup where the Prime Minister (of Northern region) was killed in 1966

Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, Nigeria's Prime Minister killed in the 1966 coup led by a Southerner

Murtala Muhammed led the counter coup in 1966 to avenge the death of Balewa

With over 25 years of unbroken civil rule, Nigeria is yet to shake off the grip of geographical, tribal and religious divisions. Political parties have always been having their strongholds in their respective regions and distributions of votes show the same thing. Resources distributions, government appointments and others activities of the government have always been lop-sided towards a particular region. Perhaps, the only period when the Nigerian masses vote against the north-south dichotomy was the June 12, 1993 presidential election which shows that M.K.O Abiola had victory across the two regions. Yet, the North-South Phenomenon reared it ugly head again, as the election tagged the fairest in the history of the country was annulled by the Military Head of state, General Ibrahim Banangida of Northern extraction.

M.K.O Abiola below won across the two regions in 1993 but was denied his victory

The major contenders of the last presidential elections representing the North-South Dichotomy

It is perhaps not surprising therefore, that this phenomenon played out again in the ongoing #EndBadGovernance protest in the country.
While survey shows that the protest, because the centre is presently occupied by a Westerner, within the Southern region, is not really effective in the Southern States. Whereas, in the Northern states, the protest took the form of war, especially in the Northern states like Kano, Zamfara, Niger and Kaduna.

In these Northern states, scores of lives have been reportedly lost as the protest became violent and many government and private properties were destroyed, while no records of such was recorded in the southern states.
In Kano State alone, lives are lost almost every day of the protest since it started on 1st of August. The NCC office was destroyed with other public properties. Kaduna states and other Northern states had declared a 24-hour curfew.

It is important to ask the question why the nationwide protests against hardship and hunger took a dangerous dimension in the Northern region.

The protest in the region even started to have a colour of foreign interference with protesters in some Northern states waving the Russian flag as they chanted “Tinubu must go.” With this, is it not obvious that the Northern protesters are more active than other protesters from other regions because the government seat at Abuja is not currently occupied by a Southerner?

It is on record that Protesters in Kaduna were seen waving the Russian flags and chanting in Hausa, “Tinubu ze soka’ kaa’sa,” which translates to, “Tinubu must step down.” Some military personnel who patrolled the metropolis were also reportedly seen chanting, “Tinubu yaa’so’ka, mu’na so soja”, meaning, “Tinubu step down, we want soldiers.”

Presently, four of the major politicians from the same Northern states have been fingered by the security operatives as the brain behind the distribution of money and Russian flags to protesters in the region.
A series of undisclosed sources revealed that the political bigwigs, who hail from Katsina, Kaduna and Kano states, were principal actors who instigated the use of Russian flags among demonstrators in the north to fan the embers for an unconstitutional regime change. A change against a Southern government that has barely spent a year in government.

Meanwhile, while the tide of the events in the ongoing protests showed that the North is active against the government of Tinubu, the reverse is the case during the #endSARS protest that took place in October 2020 during the Buhari Administration. The protest in the southern states, especially, in Lagos was so vehement that the Northern President ordered the 'intervention' of the soldiers which resulted in the lost of many promising young lives.

The question is, when will Nigeria become really one and be one? When will the Northern and Southern dichotomy phenomenon be overcome and Nigeria will truly become one in all things? Or perhaps, is the forceful union of the British to be looked into again for a possible divorce so that the two regions can, and will live in genuine peace individually, and the politics of regionalism will go for good!