Thread by @j_esla

So yesterday, everyone north of #MiddleBelt was shouting North Central this, North Central that.
So I asked myself, what is this north central they are talking about?
SIMPLE ANSWER: Total BS

LONG ANSWER:
To understand this, we must go into history;
We start with the 1950s
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https://twitter.com/patrickanum/status/1642243848804917249

@patrickanum has pretty much explained when we started carving the #MiddleBelt IDENTITY.
See this too for more foundational knowledge.
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https://twitter.com/j_esla/status/1642686669466873858

Now that we know these, let’s jump in.
In 1967, Gen Yakubu Gowon abolished the regional government system to create states. He created 12 states out of the 3 regions that existed.
Dr Alex Ekwueme, the first elected VP of Nigeria in 1979, noticed while in office, that in
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the creation of the states;
1. There was still agitations from people that their interests were not being met in this structure.
2. There was inadequacies in governance. As states became microscopic in their dealings. They couldn’t zoom out and look at germane issues of the
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regions and tackle them. Eg, with regional governments, I doubt we’ll just be commissioning the 2nd Niger bridge considering how important it is to the SE/SS economy. The KD/KN road will not be that bad with a regional govt. East/West road, Jos/Kafanchan road etc. Not to
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talk of rails and airports. Generally there’s no regional economic planning. Look at when security forced the Ametokun and Ebubeagu regional action. You get the picture.
Also, the step down in governance between the FG and state was too wide. The FG was so big in comparison
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to the next level: the state.
3. The state creation solidified the notion that the Northern region was the Nigerian Bully. 6 states created from the Northern region while the 3 other regions got 6. It may look like nothing but in administration, that was plain bullying. Every
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constitutionally recognized level of government come with some form of revenue/expenditure, parliamentary representation, civil service etc. So 1 region was getting 6 considerations while 3 regions we’re getting 6 too. Doesn’t seem fair. Does it?
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In his wisdom, Dr Ekwueme proposed that;
1. We create 3 regional governments each from the old amalgamated protectorates (which is the foundation of the NG state anyway).
2. Create equal number of states in each region.
3. Each region is administered by Regional VPs
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with 1 President.
Brilliant solution in my opinion.
So many things happened from that time like more state creations, more agitations for self determination by different groups in different parts of the country, especially the places we term #MiddleBelt today.
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Well, in 1993, Gen Abacha created 6 ‘Geopolitical Zones’. Pay attention, I know you didn’t see it. Read the sentence again!

GEOPOLITICAL ZONES ARE NOT REGIONS!!!
Why? you may ask. Let me explain.
1. It’s in the name-geographical and political zone. So the considerations are
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https://twitter.com/j_esla/status/1643185267933577218

geography and politics.
This is the first fallacy on which the North Central is built on. Considering these 2 points;
-Look at the Nigerian map, the North Central, geographically, is actually the SOUTHERN NORTH!!!
Central North is Kano/Jigawa axis. Go back to my Notes in
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Tweet 2.
In the Nigerian context, that area called North Central DOES NOT make LOGICAL sense. It is either NORTH SOUTH or CENTRAL NIGERIA!!!
Central Nigeria will have to go West to East to be complete. Please what have we been talking about in our #MiddleBelt arguments?
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-Politically, the indigenous people of this regions had no say as to the composition of the region. I concede, all regions didn’t. But the greatest agitation for self determination in relations to their engagements with other parts of Nigeria was Central Nigeria at that time.
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The #OneNorth agenda was used to mask serious agitations which started from the 1950s. While agitations in the South were tactically promoted and implemented so as to fracture the south and ensure a supposed Northern dominance.
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2. There is no Geopolitical Zone government!!! Go back to tweet 7/8.
Region wey no get government, that one na region?
It’s laughable when they try to say the North Central will serve our interests. At best it’s neighborhood aggregation.
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Now to the meat of the argument. I have just been building foundations.

So what is North Central?

North Central is a wrongly described geographical area in the central part of Nigeria which has only geography and politics as binding factors. Nothing more.
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There has been efforts to build our identities around our geopolitical zones. So far it has worked well in the SE, SW. For the SS, it has worked fairly. There’s still agitations in some quarters like the northern part of the SS.
However, the 3 Northern Geopolitical Zones
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have seen agitations. What is the common denominator in all these agitations? They are all talking #MiddleBelt. This should tell you something.
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In conclusion, NORTH CENTRAL is a farce, an aberration, a logical travesty, a geographical joke, a political tool for control and an affront on the basic human principle of self determination.
We in the #MiddleBelt REJECT it with the very core of our being.
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We are #MIDDLEBELTANS!
Our Identity is the #MIDDLEBELT
We are the sons and daughters of Kwararafa Group of Kingdoms.
We are from the NOK Civilization.
You can’t NOK us down.

Long live the MIDDLE BELT CONFEDERACY!!!

Selah