I was raised by the North.
And I watched the North bleed.
There was a time when Arewa was Nigeria’s moral spine a land of dignity, commerce, hospitality, and courage.
A place where a man’s word mattered more than his tribe, and a neighbor’s safety mattered more than his religion.
People traveled freely, traded freely, and lived freely. The North was not perfect, but it was peaceful. It was functional. It was respected.
That Arewa is gone.
And it did not disappear by accident.
It was murdered slowly, deliberately, and politically.
The enemies of the North did not arrive in tanks.
They arrived during campaigns. They arrived with microphones, prayer beads, and holy books raised not for guidance, but for manipulation. Religion was turned into a weapon. Tribe became a boundary line. Regional identity was poisoned and sold as loyalty.
Politicians discovered a dangerous formula:
Keep the people poor, keep them angry, and point them at each other.
That is how unity was butchered.
Today, Mustapha sees Isaac as an enemy not because Isaac wronged him, but because politicians taught him to fear Isaac’s name, faith, and face. Communities that once ate from the same pot now bury their dead separately. Children who should share classrooms are trained early to sit apart, think apart, and hate apart.
This is not cultural preservation.
This is engineered division.
And let us stop pretending we don’t know the roots of our crises.
Who created the conditions for Boko Haram to thrive—if not decades of neglect, corruption, and ideological exploitation?
Who allowed ISIS-inspired extremism to breathe in our communities if not leaders who abandoned education and empowered ignorance?
Who enabled Lakurawa to terrorize rural communities if not a failed security architecture and political silence?
Who fueled IPOB’s rage if not systemic injustice and selective governance?
These groups did not fall from the sky.
They are symptoms of state failure.
Nigeria’s greatest enemies are not tribes or religions. Nigeria’s greatest enemies are bad leadership, stolen futures, and leaders who sacrifice national unity for personal power.
Arewa is not weak.
Arewa has been betrayed.
Betrayed by leaders who fly abroad for medical care while our hospitals collapse.
Betrayed by elites who send their children overseas while almajiri children roam the streets.
Betrayed by politicians who shout “religion” in public and count stolen money in private.
Enough.!!
The North cannot move forward while feeding on lies. We cannot claim moral superiority while ignoring injustice. We cannot preach peace while voting for division. And we cannot defeat extremism without first defeating the politics that birthed it.
Arewa must wake up.
We must reclaim our history, our values, and our shared humanity. We must reject leaders who profit from bloodshed and fear. We must demand education, security, justice, and inclusion—not sermons that divide and promises that expire after elections.
Arewa was once a symbol of coexistence.
It can be again.
But only if we choose truth over tribal loyalty, justice over sentiment, and the future over fear.
Because a stained land can still be cleansed,
but only by those brave enough to admit who spilled the stain.
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