By Mohammed Bello Doka
In 2023, the North made a choice. It placed its trust in a man from the South who promised to restore its glory, to end the bloodshed, to fill its granaries, and to lift its children from the dust of poverty. Four years later, that promise lies broken in the ashes of burnt mosques, in the tears of mothers whose daughters were handed to bandits, in the empty classrooms of closed schools, and in the silent graves of farmers who could no longer tend their land. The North is bleeding, and those who should speak are silent; those who should lead have sold their souls for appointments and allocations; those who should remember have chosen to forget. But history will not forget. History does not forgive. And in this age of social media, where every word, every image, every act of cowardice or courage is preserved forever, history will remember each and every one of us by our names.
So, in the 2023 elections, the North—most especially the Muslim North—had a choice: between a Northern Muslim, Atiku Abubakar, and a Southern Yoruba Muslim, Bola Ahmed Tinubu. The North feels that, since Buhari—a Northerner—has ruled Nigeria for eight years, the turn should come south. Yet some argue that, according to the gentleman’s agreement between the North and South, the North actually has a deficit from Yar’Adua’s truncated years. But the majority opted for Tinubu. They gave him the bulk of their votes, and he won the election on a set of promises: to tackle insecurity, to defeat poverty, to end unemployment, to improve agriculture, and to restore the North to a path of glory. That was the bargain. That was the deal.
Today, almost four years have passed. And everything has gotten worse. Tinubu abandoned the North on insecurity. Farming has become almost impossible. Poverty has skyrocketed. The subsidy was removed, and the North was stripped of its economic lifelines. He wanted to take nearly eighty percent of the region’s VAT earnings, and only when governors and senators united to fight him did he retreat, and even then, only because their own pockets were threatened. On every other issue, they supported him. He gave them a free pass on state allocations and budget approvals, and they repaid him with loyalty while their people bled.
The numbers are there for everyone to see. Nigeria is now classified as one of the top sixty poorest countries globally. Over 140 million Nigerians live in poverty, the vast majority of them in the North. When Tinubu took office, fifty-six percent of Nigerians were poor. By 2025, the World Bank confirmed that figure had climbed to sixty-three percent. The 133 million figure you hear? That was 2022. Under Tinubu, it has only gotten worse.
Insecurity has deepened beyond imagination. In 2025 alone, 4,654 lives were lost and 3,141 people were abducted. Banditry alone killed 2,724 people. Between July 2024 and June 2025, at least 4,722 people were abducted across 997 kidnapping incidents. Ransom payments totalled at least 2.57 billion naira. The Northwest accounted for over forty percent of all incidents and over sixty percent of all victims. Zamfara, Kaduna, Katsina. The names are seared into memory.
Farmers cannot farm. In Zamfara, bandits impose harvest taxes, demanding cash or produce before allowing access to fields. Those who refuse are attacked or abducted. In Kaduna, residents sold over 3,000 bags of maize to raise 40 million naira in ransom. Parents have been forced to take their teenage daughters to bandits to have sex with them for protection. Imams are slaughtered in their schools. Worshippers are burnt alive in mosques. Women are raped in the open. Children are snatched from their classrooms.
Schools are closing. In November 2025 alone, over 300 students were kidnapped from two schools. The federal government closed 47 Unity Schools. Eleven northern state governments indefinitely shut down schools. All schools in Niger and Kebbi states were closed. Over 180 schools have been forced to shut for years. A generation is being lost.
And now, 2027 is approaching. The people are hungry and tired. But the entire Northern governors except one have joined the APC. Allegations swirl of billions given to senators, governors, and other relevant stakeholders. Imams, scholars, media professionals, and even data boys who were paid stipends that cannot buy a decent meal in highbrow Abuja or Lagos have all of a sudden abandoned their people. They ignore the blood. They ignore the screams. They ignore the fact that worshippers are burnt alive in mosques, women are raped in the open, children are kidnapped from school, parents are forced to offer their daughters to bandits, and imams are slaughtered in their schools.
But these people are forgotten now. The same Northerners, imams, professionals, teachers, and data boys have now chosen to campaign for this government despite the glaring failure, bloodshed, and carnage. Isn’t it?
So everyone can do what they want. But history will remember each and every one of us by our names.
If history remembered Queen Amina, Yunfa, and Othman dan Fodio, and those who came before them, then it will not be difficult to infer or correctly predict that history will remember us now. In this age of social media, where our actions, voices, pictures, and articles are saved forever on the open pages of history, there is no escape. There is no hiding.
Every tweet, every interview, every photograph, every video, every statement is archived. It is searchable. It is permanent. The imam who preaches peace in public but endorses a government that lets worshippers burn in mosques will be remembered. The scholar who speaks of justice but stays silent when children are kidnapped from school will be remembered. The governor who collects billions and looks away while farmers are driven from their land and teenage daughters are handed to bandits will be remembered. The media professional who collects a stipend and suddenly becomes a defender of failure will be remembered. The data boy who twists numbers and spins narratives to protect power will be remembered. And the ordinary Northerner, the mother who lost her child, the farmer who lost his harvest, the parent who was forced to choose between ransom and death, the voter who remembers the promises and remembers the betrayal, will also be remembered.
History does not forgive. History does not forget. You can collect the money today. You can take the appointment. You can choose access and closeness to power. You can write to defend those who enslaved you. You can usher a khutbah in the mosque and lie, cover up, twist ayas and hadith, bend history. You can go to media houses and lie on camera, create content, lie and deceive the people. But you will be remembered. Not in another man’s writing, but with your pictures, your voices, and your video evidence.
And God forbid, when the inevitable happens and the North collapses, or by divine Providence she survives, you will be remembered long after you are gone. History is so wicked that there will be no data boys to whitewash your lies. Your children and grandchildren will see you for who you are. Your data boys by then will be buried and forgotten. Only what they wrote, what they shot, and what they recorded will be studied as cautionary tales in the pages of history.
So, to every Northerner, every Imam, every traditional ruler, every politician, every expert, every student, every journalist, every data boy, and every person who calls the North home: We know things are falling apart. We know the North is burning. We know children are being kidnapped, killed, raped, and enslaved. Some chose silence. Others chose complicity. Others chose convenience. Others chose to lie with a straight face. Everyman to his faith. But history does not forgive. It does not forget.
History will remember us by name. The only question is: what will it say?
