Correcting the Middle Belt Narrative
over NWDC Board Nominees
By Abdullahi Usman
I just came across a Press Statement signed by one Luka Binniyat, the Middle Belt Forum’s Kaduna Chapter Chairman, dated Sunday, October 6, 2024, in which he raised legitimate issues around the composition of the Board nominees of the newly established North West Development Commission (NWDC).
Without prejudice to the whole essence of the inclusivity message that the said intervention seeks to push through, one would still like to insist that there are palpable signs of gross misunderstanding bordering on confusion around the definition of the term or concept of the Middle Belt that Luka Binniyat, Chairman of its Forum’s Kaduna Chapter, is attempting to project in his Press Statement.
First of all, even from the sound of its name alone, the Middle Belt concept looks to be a geographical expression, and that has been the case since its introduction into the public consciousness several years ago.
It all started as an agglomeration of the various people and communities spread across the middle or centre of the geographical expression we all know today as Nigeria, and that has been the case for quite a while now, following it’s official launch, but I stand to be corrected.
As time went by, the Middle Belt Forum sought to expand its reach to attract other people of the same or similar beliefs and shared experiences on account of their minority status in several of the core Northern States in order to fight for a common cause, and that is all fine and good.
But what they should probably have done from that point onwards was to effect a change in its name to reflect its new status, because many of the new entrants are definitely not located in the middle of any belt, geographical speaking.
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Again, you cannot go ahead to define the Middle Belt “as all parts of Nigeria that were not ruled or conquered by the *Sokoto Caliphate* (emphasis mine) and the Kanem Borno empire in pre-colonial Nigeria”, in one breath, and then go right ahead to include Kalgo, Koko/Besse, Suru and the like, in your dream of an expanded Middle Belt, in another breath.
That does not seem make any logical sense at all, unless you have got no idea what you are really talking about.
Indeed, if you can get away with ‘annexing’ any other town based on your own strictly defined criteria of not being ruled or conquered by the Caliphate, that town will certainly not be Kalgo, which is reputed to be a staging point of sorts for many, en route their onward journey towards their manifest destiny of ascending the Gwandu Emirship stool of their forebears; Gwandu, being the pivotal Western flank of the expansive Sokoto Caliphate, just in case Mr. Binniyat may not have been aware of that fact.
In addition, and talking specifically about Southern Kebbi, I struggle to see how a place like far away Kalgo, a town that is both critical and historical to the Gwandu Emirship stool, and also proximal to Birnin Kebbi, its longstanding capital that is located just a stone’s throw away , can be considered as an integral part and parcel of Southern Kebbi or Kebbi South configuration, by any stretch of the imagination.
Plus, I am not exactly aware of the existence of any belt, in the middle of which Kalgo can logically be deemed to have been factored into.
These are just a few observations around the strange inclusion of certain areas in the buckle of the utopian Middle Belt concept that Mr. Luka Binniyat may wish to respond to.
But I would like to restate that nothing I have said or written here detracts from the essence of the primary message he is trying to pass there around the recent nominations into the newly established NWDC Board.
Abdullahi Usman writes from Lagos
