Arewa at a Crossroads: The quiet restructuring and the call to compete, by
Engr. Bello Gwarzo Abdullahi, FNSE
In a seminal piece titled “The Quiet Restructuring: What Akande’s Akure Speech Means for Arewa’s Future,” Muhammad Suwidi Yusha’u reflected on a keynote address delivered on October 29, 2025, at the International Conference Centre in Akure by Chief Bisi Akande — a respected Yoruba elder statesman and former interim chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC). His reflection raised critical issues that demand serious attention from Nigerians, particularly Northerners.
Beneath the calm tone of Chief Akande’s theme, “Restructuring for Maximum Opportunities,” lay a profound statement: Nigeria has entered a new era of silent, strategic, and economic restructuring. This is not the restructuring of street protests or constitutional drama, but one led by institutional redesign, resource mobilisation, and regional capacity building. It is a quiet revolution — a repositioning of power from the rhetoric of political entitlement to the reality of development competence.
For Northern Nigeria, this speech was more than commentary; it was a mirror and a wake-up call. Akande’s message signals a shift in Nigeria’s political economy where productivity, innovation, and institutional readiness — not historical advantages or population figures — will determine relevance. The Southwest has embraced this ethos with discipline, unity, education, and strong institutions. With a son of the region in the presidency, the West stands strategically poised. As Yushau warns, Arewa cannot remain complacent.
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Acemoglu and Robinson, in Why Nations Fail, assert that societies decline not because of a lack of resources, but because they build extractive systems that serve a few and suffocate innovation. Nations prosper when they build inclusive institutions that reward ability, encourage enterprise, and empower citizens. Through this lens, Akande’s intervention becomes clearer: Nigeria’s regions are quietly reorganising, and the future belongs to those who build capacity rather than cling to sentiment.
Across the country, regional development commissions are re-emerging as engines of autonomy and self-determination — particularly in the Southwest, where strategic thinking and coordinated governance are shaping a productivity-driven future. This is a lesson and a warning: the new Nigeria will not reward noise, nostalgia, or political muscle; it will reward competence, education, innovation, and internal cohesion.
For Arewa, the implications are stark. Population is no longer a power without productivity. Influence will no longer flow automatically from votes if the voting bloc is trapped in poverty, insecurity, and underdevelopment. Regions that educate their youth, industrialise agriculture, build technology ecosystems, attract investment, and nurture merit will lead. Those who rely on old formulas will fall behind.
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This moment does not call for lamentation but mobilisation. Northern leaders — political, traditional, corporate, religious, intellectual — must synchronise vision and action. The North must re-engineer its development agencies, expand agro-industrial value chains, invest massively in education and innovation, and reorient governance to reward competence over patronage. Its greatest strength — its youth — must be equipped to become creators, innovators, and productive citizens, not bystanders or victims of manipulation.
Our history shows potential. Our present demands discipline. The same energy once channelled into political dominance must now be redirected into building schools, research centres, industrial hubs, and modern agricultural systems. Fertile land must become productive wealth; young minds must be nurtured into innovators, not idle observers.
The truth is simple: the North has every resource except time. The quiet restructuring has begun. Nigeria is moving — with or without us. The choice is not whether Arewa can rise, but whether it will act swiftly enough to shape its destiny.
Those who prepare will lead. Those who wait will watch.
The question before the North is therefore unambiguous:
Will Arewa defend its past, or design its future?
Engr. Bello Gwarzo Abdullahi, FNSE
bgabdullahi@gmail.com
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