The figures are certainly not mine but those of experts who have taken pains to document them completely independent of me. Anybody is free to dispute them based on superior research and not on sentimental rankings of the types we have been used to. There is no doubt that there has been conspiracy against the economy of the North based on twisted logic fed to the political leadership by the dominant forces of the bureaucracy. A few examples would do. The same government told us that it is subsidising oil to the tune of 178 billion Naira annually, enough to develop the agricultural sector.
Oil is certainly very important in our economy particularly as a foreign exchange earner.
But let us reason this way. Between 1991and 1998 and even currently, we have been experiencing severe fuel shortages. Had the shortages been extended to the food sectors, no amount of Nigerian Army would have contained deadly violence throughout the country. We can go for weeks without fuel but we cannot go for days without food. Yet, in spite of pretensions to accord agriculture priority, we have not been treating it fairly.