NOW THAT TINUBU HAS NORTHERN GOLD, ARE NORTHERNERS STILL PARASITES? —Mohammed Bello Doka

Lagos, Home Of Northern Gold 

If the South, especially Lagos, has endlessly mocked the North as a parasite — living off oil and Lagos taxes — what does it mean now that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s government wants Northern gold to be refined in Lagos? Is the North only a parasite until its resources become useful?

On January 18, 2026, the Northern Elders Forum (NEF) publicly blasted what it called the siting of a “National Gold Refinery” in Lagos, accusing the Federal Government of violating Nigeria’s constitutional principles of equity and federal balance. NEF pointed out that Nigeria’s commercially viable gold deposits are overwhelmingly in the North, yet value addition — the refinery — was suddenly in Lagos. 

The government hastily responded that the refinery is not a federal project but a private initiative of a company called Kian Smith. Officials described NEF’s claim as false and misleading. But the harsh truth is that this back-and-forth exposes a deeper, structural betrayal: the North is asked to give up its raw wealth, only to see the profits, fiscal revenue, jobs and technology anchored where elites already hold power. 

For decades, commentators in the South propagated a toxic narrative: oil from the Niger Delta may be sold into the country and abroad, but that was “national wealth.” Northern gold, however, they insist, belongs only to the North. This is not just dishonest — it is hypocritical. Oil and gold are both federal resources under law. Yet one is framed as national treasure, the other as regional entitlement. That double standard is a lie designed to legitimise the continued Lagos-centric capture of value.

This is the same Lagos where the Dangote Group refinery — already Africa’s largest — sits processing crude, while the North watches its own raw materials flow past it.  Meanwhile, other mega-projects like the BUA Group refinery are built in the South, reinforcing Lagos and its environs as the true hub of Nigeria’s real wealth capture.

Ask yourself: if the North truly “doesn’t produce,” why is its gold now suddenly strategic, but only once the final value is captured elsewhere?

What is left for the North — where most gold is mined and where citizens bear the environmental cost of extraction — is the bitter reality of poverty, insecurity and banditry, all festering where value is extracted but not captured. When regions are reduced to quarries for national wealth that is refined, taxed, and monetised in distant capitals, social disorder becomes predictable, not inexplicable.

This system is not accidental; it is bolstered by the complicity of Northern political elites. Governors, senators and House members elected to protect Northern interests have instead aligned themselves with a presidency and party structure that rewards loyalty at the expense of regional equity. Rather than forcefully demanding value-addition in the North — where the gold is — many remain publicly silent and privately compliant, because power in Abuja often means concessions, appointments and access — not advocacy for structural fairness.

But politicians are not alone in this betrayal. Northern business elites have largely chosen to build their industrial footprints — refineries, processing plants, headquarters — in the South. When capital votes with convenience, it abandons the region that needs value creation most. That is why, instead of roaring refineries close to the mines, we see industrial megaprojects in Lagos and Port Harcourt while the North remains the supplier of raw goods, not the beneficiary of downstream wealth.

Even worse, some Northern figures who dared to invest significantly in the North — turning raw resource zones into growth hubs — now face what their supporters call existential threats from state agencies, including investigations and pressure that could strip them of their investments. Whether true or politicised, the perception that successful Northern investors can be targeted for daring to build where they come from chills any budding industrial confidence.

And all the while, the media and public discourse keep pushing the narrative that the North is a parasite — until its resources become desirable. Oil is national wealth, we are told. But gold is only Northern wealth unless the South claims the refining rights.

These contradictions expose the lie at the heart of Nigeria’s political economy: extraction is de-linked from prosperity, but prosperity is always framed as Lagos-centric. The North is asked to dig, export, then watch as jobs, taxes and technological knowledge accumulate in the South. That is not federation — that is economic colonialism dressed as policy.

So let us be blunt: if the North’s gold is valuable only when refined and monetised outside its borders, what does the insult “parasite” even mean? Does a region only produce when its wealth is counted in Lagos books? Does ownership only matter when the benefits are visible in Federal Accounts credited to southern tax domiciles?

Now that Tinubu’s government suddenly wants our gold, the old slurs must be revisited, rejected, and dismantled. Because if the North is a parasite until its resources are needed, then Nigeria’s unity is being held together by a lie that cannot last.

The real question is not whether we are parasites — it is how long a nation can survive when its wealth is read through an accounting system that credits the centre and ignores the source.

End.

Mohammed Bello Doka can be reached via bellodoka82@gmail.com