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Today is a good day to talk about the gaslighting that's always attempted anytime you criticize anything northern: whether personality, socio-economic conditions, cultural practice, or even a criminal (like Yunusa Yellow). It is called an attack on the north & Islam.
But the North & Islam aren't the same. They are mutually exclusive. There are millions of northerners, like myself, who aren't Muslim. In every northern state, there are lots of indigenous people who aren't Muslim, who are Christian or another faith altogether.
For all the name-calling Babachir DAVID Lawal has gotten here, you have never called it an attack on the North. If Boss Mustapha gets criticized, it won't be an attack on the North.
There are also millions of Muslims in Nigeria who aren't from the North. Why is a criticism of Bola Tinubu not an attack on Islam but a criticism of Buhari is? Why is a criticism of Ishaq Akintola of MURIC not an attack on Islam but a criticism of Pantami so?
For all my active years on Twitter, I get this every time I do any kind of commentary about the North. Sometimes, I'll be on my own sef & I'll just see "amasonic hates the North & Islam". The same north I'm from, I grew up in, I still have family in & go often?
This isn't just a matter of not knowing where I'm from by merely looking at my name. There are times I've tweeted a thing & gotten heat for it. Another person will tweet it & you'll see them agreeing in the comments. The difference between us? Our identities.
I talk about sth in the North, I get "but this happens in the East, you don't talk about it." But I'm not from the East, I've never lived there. I talk about where I know better by virtue of birth & breeding. Who stopped you from talking about the East?
I keep coming back to this article from 2012 (I won't tag the author). But pay attention to the 5th paragraph, posted in the screenshot. If it was me or someone whose name doesn't conform to an identity, it would have been endless bashing
https://www.google.com/amp/s/zainabusman.net/2012/02/17/a-people-in-terminal-decline/amp/
https://www.google.com/amp/s/zainabusman.net/2012/02/17/a-people-in-terminal-decline/amp/
Even for ppl who don't want to be identified as northerners, you insist there is no such thing as the Middle Belt, only North. But yet, you don't recognize them as northerners. They speak, it is the same "you hate the north & Islam."
Gaslighting at its best.
Gaslighting at its best.
I've said before: I'm not going to preface any commentary of mine about anything North with "I'm from the north" so as to make it valid. It's not cos I'm denying my identity. I'm proud of where I'm from, of my culture, my heritage, & I've never regretted being from the north.
But you will learn to take my points on the merits or demerits of it, & not on the basis of whatever identity I've or you perceive me to have. And no, shutting up I won't. We won't. We speak up because it's our North as well, & cos we want it to be better than where it is now.
