ibnaija@yahoo.com Political Scientist USA

IF THE OIL WERE IN THE NORTH

ave you ever imagined if Nigeria's oil and main foreign exchange earner were in the north? Have you ever thought of what would happen if the north had all the resources and the south was as arid as the desert? Have you ever thought of what would happen if the north had all the intellectuals and the south had the uneducated population? Have you ever thought of what would happen if the north had all the industries and the know-how and the south all the beggars? Have you ever thought of what would happen if the Liquefied Natural Gas was in the north? Have you ever thought of what would happen if the north had absolute control of Nigeria's resources in terms of location? Have you sat down to contemplate these questions?

The Nigerian Defense Academy [NDA] is currently in the north [Kaduna], and we have seen how rare defense installations are in the south. Can we expect a similar trend if the oil were in the north? What can we really expect if the north had the knife and the yam, that is, the political leadership and at the same time the oil wealth ON ITS SOIL? Southerners for the past thirty years of northern leadership have to some degree continued to remind the north that the oil is on their soil and as such revenue allocations and concessions must be given to the south. But imagine for a brief second if both power and the oil wealth were in the north---what would happen to the south? How about the north? Even now, the oil proceeds are drawn from the south to develop the north----but just imagine if they had the oil right there in the north which would reduce or eliminate the agitation of southerners for concessions and special allocations. What then would happen to the south? Consider the following;

	They would declare independence and leave the South to wallow in its misery. There would be no time for SNC talks, no time for confederacy talks, no time for referandum, just enough time to declare independence and have their oil republic without the infidels.

1. It [the north] would be paradise and the streets would be made of gold but the streets in the south would be made of mud. They would literally pave a road to heaven and charge souls of southerners on their way to heaven a hefty fee for plying their road;

2. The oil money would be used to create an ocean in the north, however artificial;

3. They would call it "REGIONAL RESOURCES" not "NATIONAL RESOURCES";

4. There would never be a scarcity of fuel in the north, but lots of it in the south;

5. The southerners would be treated as foreigners more than they are being treated now;

6. There would be viable infrastructures all over the north and the south, just ramshackled ones;

7. They would fight for a 50% revenue allocation for each of their oil producing states;

8. The only pipes that would run from the north to the south would not contain oil but TOXIC MATERIALS;

9. There would be no refineries in the south as they would say, "NO OIL MEANS---NO NEED FOR REFINERIES";

10. The "Jesse" fire incident that consumed more than 700 in the Niger Delta last year would not be as there would be enough fuel for everyone;

11. NNPC national headquarters would be in the north;

12. More than 95 percent of the managing directors of NNPC would be northerners;

13. They would import everything-- air, food, meat, etc., with the oil money;

14. They would lay claim to the leadership of Nigeria more than ever before with the logic that Allah put the oil in the north so they can lead the country both politically and economically;

15. Qualified southerners would be expatriate workers in their country given short term contracts;

16. The south would look like a fig leaf, southern Sudan would look like a paradise compared to the south;

17. The north would continue to raise the bar so that the south would continue to be behind educationally and economically as well,

18. Development in the south with oil money, UNHEARD OF;

19. NNPC would mean--NORTHERN NIGERIAN PETROLEUM CORPORATION;

20. There would be more oil sheikhs in the north than there would be grains of sand in the south;

21. They would live, breathe and sleep oil;

22. Babangida would not have changed the name of the national soccer team from The GREEN EAGLES to The SUPER EAGLES as he did in 1988, he would have changed it to the SUPER OILERS OF NIGERIA, with the word "Northern" in small print right before the name "Nigeria";

23. All oil ministers would be northerners just as all defense ministers had been for the past 20 years;

24. They would have established a PETROLEUM TRUST FUND [PTF] at the time of independence in 1960 and use the fund to compliment their huge oil-producing states revenue allocation;

25. They would be champions of the call for a SNC as they would like to make their ever-increasing demands known;

26. They would declare free education for all northerners to be sponsored by their state governments while the south would continue to struggle with no money to pay even bursary awards;

27. They would have a powerful and an exclusive oil producing state forum in the north just like the so-called northern governor's forum;

28. There would be the KADUNA OIL MAFIA to compliment the political Kaduna Mafia currently in existence. The "Oil Mafia" would be the custodian of the oil wealth;

29. They would have since built a wall around northern Nigeria to make immigration from the south next to impossible, or "better" yet;

30. THEY WOULD DECLARE INDEPENDENCE AND LEAVE THE SOUTH TO WALLOW IN ITS MISERY. There would be no time for SNC talks, no time for confederacy talks, no time for referandum, just enough time to declare independence and have their oil republic without the infidels.

31. The Queen would build her winter get away home in Kano and a pipe would be built from the north to the south where her human waste would go directly from her water closet all the way to the south, along with all other waste of the north.

If the oil were in the north, only the divine creator can complete the list above.