There is a popular Yoruba adage, that says ‘what we are looking for in Sokoto is in our shokoto’, which simply means that whatever our eyes deceive us to get far away from home, may be just within our reach. Sokoto is one of the states that constitute Northern Nigeria. Recently, some governors from North Western and North Central Nigeria were in America, on the invitation of the United States Institute of Peace (USIP).

Their mission was to seek solutions to the insecurity troubling the entire Northern part of the nation. It is not a strange development because they could be following the footsteps of their predecessors who flocked to the US in 2014, during the Barack Obama presidency. As events later unfolded, the previous trip ended up as an evaluation of the Goodluck Jonathan government and the need to back the North to return to power in 2015.

While it is too early to imagine that the recent trip may not be unconnected with constant calls of marginalisation by Northern leaders who have turned from supporting President Bola Tinubu to criticising his administration, there is every reason to believe that it was badly executed. Many of the Northern governors are owing their workers and have not been able to offer leadership.

While they were junketing in the United States, their colleague, Babagana Zulum, was busy in Borno State attending to the needs of the people. State governments must realise that security is part of the Exclusive List under the control of the Federal Government.

Perhaps, they did not seek the advice of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs or the Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA). The irrelevance of that jamboree in America was highlighted by Sule Lamido, a prominent Northerner who served as Minister of Foreign Affairs and later governor of Jigawa State.

He did not spare any words in condemning the governors. Lamido argued that whatever the governor’s went to discuss in a foreign land could have been handled by the National Institute of Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS) Kuru in Jos, Plateau State or the Administrative Staff College of Nigeria (ASCON) Badagry in Lagos State. We agree with Lamido. All taxpayers’ money wasted on the trip to the United States through flight tickets, hotel bills

Without mincing words, the Peace Tour of the United States will go down as another journey intentionally plotted to create free meals for a few…

and sundry allowances would have been enough to fix a few schools in Northern Nigeria. Many of the roads that lead to the schools are undoubtedly begging for attention. There are alternative means to tackle insecurity. The governors should be vocal in pushing for the decentralisation of the Nigeria Police Force.

They have not called a conference of stakeholders to push for the creation of State Police but found it convenient to talk about national security overseas. The Sardauna of Sokoto, Ahmadu Bello, was not known for globetrotting.

As Premier of the Northern Region in the First Republic, he understood the handicap of his people and tried to use education as a tool of emancipation. Sadly, some of these present governors benefitted from the foundation laid by the Sardauna and have refused to educate the North.

It is a shame that nearly 64 years after independence, illiteracy and poverty profile many parts of Northern Nigeria. Most of the bandits and terrorists parading the region are products of maladministration. Simply because many Northern governors are more interested in controlling power at the centre, they have abandoned governance in their respective states.

The United States Deputy Secretary General, Amina Mohammed, is from the North. Certainly, the governors visited her in New York. They should ask themselves questions about producing a future top UN official when Girl Child Education has not been captured in their plans. There is no record anywhere of North West or North Central governors uniting to create a group against banditry. In the South-West, there is Amotekun. The SouthEast setup Ebubeagu. Visiting America is not the same as reshaping Nigeria.

The words of Lamido are words of wisdom. The trip to the United States under the present harsh economic reality is not only a waste of public funds; it shows the emptiness of some of those saddled with salvaging the country. They have the guts to deplete the vaults of their states when there is trouble at home. Without mincing words, the Peace Tour of the United States will go down as another journey intentionally plotted to create free meals for a few, in the midst of biting poverty that has held down millions of Nigerians. The North does not need such democratic dividend.

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