Other major
untapped economic potentials of Arewa for sustainable economic growth and
development include:
-
Agriculture: implements and machineries for agriculture and large scale
production of rice, groundnuts, beans, wheat, date-palm, cotton etc;
-
Textiles: revival of textile industries with competitive advantage in
cost, quality and mass production;
-
Upscale engineering and construction;
Independent power generation;
-
Energy: small scale hydro power, solar and waste energy;
-
Exploration and exploitation of oil & gas; and solid minerals;
-
Manufacturing: automobile, motor-cycle, bicycles, tricycle including
manufacturing of basic essential goods;
-
Banking & Finance;
-
Road
and rail transport system;
-
Media
and Arewa entertainment industry;
-
Information and communication technology.
The
common perceived economy strength of the north that groundnut and cotton
industries in Kano State provide the main source of revenue for Northern
Nigeria. Tin mining in Plateau, Steel mining in Benue and other metal
industries in Sokoto build up the diverse mining industry of the Country.
Where, cement industries in Sokoto and Bauchi and leather processing
industries in Kano constitute the main manufacturing sector are no longer
viable. Arewa must promote its other economic strength and potentials to the
World now more than ever.
North (Arewa) has so many Potentials
The North has so many Potentials
of Solid Mineral Exploration, so great that by the time the
northern Governors realize it they will almost forget about
allocation funds coming from Federal Government and too much
Taxes on its citizens to generate more internally generated
revenue (IGR). The potential is great and better than crude oil
of the south. Gold, Uranium, Iron Ore, Gemstones, Columbite,
Tantalite, Kaolin, Goshenite and other precious minerals are
everywhere
across
the north, but also Lithium Brine Rocks, lithium-bearing
pegmatite and spodumene, a
critical component for making electric car batteries. By 2030,
oil will no longer be that important as electric cars will take
over, lithium batteries will also be used for powerhouses and so
much more. The potentials for export of these natural minerals
and local use in manufacturing from the north are unparalleled.
The Southerners are just beginning to realize the potentials and
if we begin to explore them, what it will mean to their
so-called oil; and clamour for Restructuring. That is why some
of them are beginning to downplay the issue of restructuring
now: every region to control its resources, but the north must
insist on Restructuring Now. Because the southerners erroneously
believe that northerners are backward and uneducated and think
that the north is dependent on the south simply because they
have oil while forgetting that the south depends on the north
for its staple foods. 80% of food consumed in the south, apart
from cassava comes from the north: rice, beans, maize, guinea
corn, yam, wheat, tomatoes, onions, pepper, spices and meat:
cow, goat, and donkeys, etc. Nigeria plans to spend 15 billion
naira, about $42 million over the next year or so to explore
minerals and attract investors into mining and reduce its
dependence on oil. Also, the north has oil too but abundant of
natural resources: solid minerals. The North must get its act
right and the future will be much brighter, more prosperous and
better. The teaming Youths
will have ample jobs and things to do; and for every mining job,
4 more jobs will be created and the north will virtually have
near-zero-unemployment. The North must respectfully ask
President Buhari to do these for now before 2023:
-
Complete the dredging of River Niger
up-North so that ships can dock and berth in Kogi, Kaduna, up to Sokoto.
Arguably, the dredging was 80% completed in 2015;
-
Complete Mambila Hydro Dam Power Project,
which is expected to provide 3.05GW, the largest power-generating
installation in the country, one of the largest in Africa and the
largest water reservoirs in West Africa;
-
Complete the Kashimbila Dam, which when
completed will provide 40MW and drinking water to 400,000 people. It was
arguably, 90% completed in 2019;
-
Complete the Katsina Wind Mill Farm
Project, many FG northern infrastructure projects initiated like:
railways and rail-lines, roads, water sopply, health centers, gas
pipelines; and other smaller dams like Itisi in Kaduna, Kiri in Adamawa;
and others all across the north.
The northern demographic shifts
will fuel the growth of new sectors, markets and service lines.
They will begin to innovate
and with creativity build viable businesses in areas of the
business supply chain, and in agriculture, livestock
mainstreaming, no more transporting live animals to the south
but slaughtered and freight in refrigerated trucks, renewable
energy like solar farming, ICT, Business Processing Outsourcing
and in healthcare, manufacturing and revitalize the Kannywood
entertainment industry in partnership with Indian Bollywood.
Staple food commodity would no longer be transported to the
south but buying-zones can be created along the borderlines
between north and south for southerners to come and purchase
there. “Wallahi it is a matter of time and the time is very
soon, it has
already begun. The unity of
northern diversity is the power that will propel the business
communities and consequently, the northern upcoming industries
into new dimensions of performance. Soon there will be on the
horizon, more northern banks, northern media and corporations;
and northern intelligentsia that will meet every contemporary
challenge; build capacity and human capital knowledge-pool; and
the end of youths banditry, kidnappings, communal crises,
terrorism and religious violence because everyone will have work
and meaningful things to do under strong, compassionate
leadership, propelling the country to a Greater Height as a
whole.
ICT-enabled solutions in
healthcare, agriculture, education, financial services and
States-public services will drive socio-economic inclusion of
everyone in the region and the country faster, cheaper and more
efficient than traditional methods. Indeed, the North; and
Nigeria will be Great Again. The PAN-Niger Delta Forum said that
the news that Northern leaders, who identified themselves as
Friends of Democracy, advocated a return to the 12-state federal
structure of 1967 and 100 percent resource control was
thought-provoking but calls for restraint and further
cross-questioning. The Pan-Yoruba socio-political organization,
Afenifere, said it agrees with most of the views of the northern
leaders and hoped to inter-face with them later, but said for a
group of northerners to now be advocating for 100 percent
resource control, calls for caution and further interrogation.
The question been are asked is that who will suffer if Nigeria
is restructured or in the event of a break-up of the country in
terms of food security or development? Some southerners have
never, in their entire life, stepped out of their zone. Yet, one
finds them propounding uninformed hypothesis and theories on
social media on how the North is the parasite that should be
dealt with. It is not a crime if one is ignorant or doesn’t
know, but the real crime is when one doesn’t know and keeps
pontificating based on half-and-ill-baked knowledge on a crucial
matter like this. Instead, it is argued that its best if the
government is pressured to come up with sustainable agricultural
programs on food security and peaceful co-existence with one
another. For someone to say “Northerners are parasites and that
the north feared domination by the more advanced south, and,
hence, was unenthusiastic about independence” is an insult to
the intelligence of the northern peoples; as clearly pointed out
by President Muhammadu Buhari on Sept 20, 2014, saying “it is
the highest level of an insult considering the contributions of
the region to the growth and development of the country in the
areas it has comparative advantages”.
The former Kaduna State governor, late Balarabe Musa’s take on
politics of restructuring and power rotation in the country took
a very interesting dimension. “Which part of Nigeria do they
own? He said. Igbo people are richer than Fulani people; Yoruba
people are also richer than Fulani people. There are more Igbos
and Yorubas in federal civil service than the Fulanis. Does any
Fulani own a bank, does any Fulani own a media house. Does any
Fulani own a hotel; all the hotels in Abuja and land are owned
by the Igbo; is Abuja Igbo land? Can Fulani own in the East what
Igbo own in the North? No. If you have never been to the North,
come and see the landed properties that the Igbos have in the
north, which the Fulani do not have and cannot have in Igbo
land. “Whoever that says Fulani man owns Nigeria, let him come
and say how. Fulani man occupies Aso Rock, and so what? An Igbo
man should come and occupy Aso Rock and give the Fulanis all the
material wealth he has in the North. That is nonsense. Igbos own
all the hotels, they own the banks, and Yoruba own the
newspapers and banks too, what do the Fulani own” said former
Kaduna State governor, late Balarabe Musa. There are now more
bandits, more kidnappings and killings in the North; the entire
North is now insecure. The South doesn’t know what insecurity
is; we are living it, but we don’t hear anything positive from
the Southeast or the Southwest, but they are talking of Miyetti
Allah or how Amotekun is supposed to protect the Yorubas.
Still on the issue of the break-up of Nigeria, humanity stands
at a defining moment in history and Nigeria is at a crossroads.
It is confronted with a perpetuation of disparities between the
people as a nation having the worsening situation of poverty,
hunger, ill-health, despair & hopelessness and illiteracy,
including problems of Boko Haram terrorism and insurgency in the
south, which led to a hike in the population of the internally
displaced persons (IDPs), the influx of small arms and dangerous
weapons through ports and porous borders, incessant and
senseless killings and kidnappings, armed cult and youths
banditry, communal & religious violence, herdsmen-farmers
crisis, drug abuse by youths and young women including the issue
of social exclusion of many citizens, to name a few. There is
also the continuing deterioration of the ecosystems on which
people depend for their well-being, the environment. These are
the issues no restructuring.
Today, Nigerian ethnic diversity is not even a static
phenomenon. Ethnic groups change through time in complex ways.
Of course, it is natural to belong to a category or group of
people that are considered to be significantly different from
others in terms of culture, dialect or tribe, traditions,
religion, etc., and even physical characteristics like body
shape, colour etc., however, it is necessary, within the nation,
and in the interest of unity, survival and goals, to suspend
chauvinistic views to truly understand larger issues affecting
the interests of all of the diverse groups that have been wedded
together by God in terms of geographical and re-settlement of
people within the location, and of course by a deliberate union
of inter-marriages in such a location. Therefore there is the
need for consensus bridges of understanding, tolerance and
cooperation in the whole of Nigeria if people are to re-model
their future and that of their children. The founders of our
great nation, Sardauna, Awolowo and Zik wrestled with that
understanding and concentrated on that which united them and not
that which divided them although the younger generation has
tended to neglect it. Successful countries today, were those
whose citizens, at one time or the other, under strong and
unselfish leadership, rose above personal, sectional or
religious differences and worked together to build a viable
nation to guarantee the welfare of its citizens in a new and
improved ways. God created us from a single pair of male and
female, into nations, races and tribes so that we may cherish
and differentiate one another. In His Mercy and Wisdom, He gives
us diversity to test our capacity for friendship and accentuates
the need for unity and self-esteem. The days of ignorance were
the days of feuds and falsehood attitude of trying to forget
these differences rather than understand them.
Corruption in Nigeria
Nigerians are very good at talking about how bad the Nigerian economy is due
to corruption, the issue of insecurity and terror activities; the down of
Naira etc., without tangible solutions. But as long as we do not transform
our words into action, nothing will change. We often blame government,
politicians and other people but hardly take any responsibility to improve
ourselves. We talk about the corruption, unethical behaviours, crimes, etc.,
but hardly take any action to promote honesty, integrity, and ethics or to
eliminate corruption. Obviously, good and effective leadership is
indispensable to any anti-corruption crusade. Leadership encompasses various
dimensions, including, political, organizational, professional and
administrative. But the right kind of Leadership is in place, the next step
is for every citizen to do his or her part. Each and every person has a duty
and responsibility to towards addressing the menace. Therefore, knowing the
process is crucial to addressing it.
Political corruption in particular starts with siphoning away huge amount of
money from the country’s treasury by public officials, at all levels of
government to various foreign accounts as a result of their selfish
interest. This is partly done through contracts awards and inflating the
cost of the contracts with the consent of both contractors and public
officials of various offices. Little or no regards were given on the
viability of such projects and little or no effort is being made to monitor
and supervise its completion. In some cases some government officials like
governors have become so crude in corruption that government funds are
deposited in personal Saving Accounts which accrue interests not to the
government but to the person.
Strategies to Tackle Corruption
The first factor is initial willingness of the
Government to accept the method of change. Corruption is not easy to
mitigate or better still, eradicate. But it can be done. Obviously the
logical effort to tackle corruption in...READ
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AREWA UNTAPPED
ECONOMIC POTENTIALS -
Unlocking Arewa’s economic potentials will
require significant investment in the
region’s biggest asset, i.e. its people
through education.
Arewa requires a strong base of human
capital. So, investment in education and
training is crucial. The entire education
value chain must be restructured to reflect
the current economic realities. The emerging
labour force must have the basic skills and
the skills that match business demands.
Thus, equipping the youths with the
appropriate skills and tools will be key in
boosting the growth potentials of the
economy. One area where northern Nigeria’s
untapped possibilities in agriculture are
glaring is in rice and wheat production. The
northern date palm
industry has the potentials to provide food,
raw materials, income and employment to
millions of northerners (Potentials of Date
Palm Tree to the Nigerian Economy).
Economic Miracle Of Northern Nigeria Is Not
Wishful Thinking
If the leaders of northern Nigeria, in one
of their fabled nocturnal meetings, decide
not to allow their agricultural produce to
head South, there will be starvation of near
biblical proportions in the South, at the
very least in the short term. Once the order
to stop the southward flow of agricultural
produce filters through the communication
system peculiar to the North, it will become
law and inviolate to the peasants and all.
Such is the hold of Northern leaders on
their people. Such is also the reality that
the North feeds the South with its vast
agricultural output.
A
visit to any market in the South will reveal
that at least eighty percent of the
foodstuff are of Northern origin including
but not limited to beans, tomatoes, ginger,
onions, pepper, potatoes, guinea corn,
millet, wheat, yams, benniseed, cowpeas,
ground nut, carrots, sugar cane, the full
range of livestock and so on. "Have you not
noticed that every time it is Islamic
fasting season, the quantity of agricultural
produce to the South is reduced to a trickle
with attendant spike in prices, even in the
face of reduced quality?" according to
Okechukwu Peter Nwobu.
Peter Nwobu posits that the vast northern
territory and agricultural potential are
real but grossly underutilised. The current
level of agricultural output from the North
is less than the tip of the iceberg of their
true potential to feed Nigeria and Africa
and supply the agricultural raw materials
required to sustain a wide range of agro
allied industries that should be located in
the North. The North is blessed with
renewable agricultural resources, unlike
crude oil which in Nigeria’s case will run
out in less than forty five years, that is,
if technological advances will not make
crude oil irrelevant long before the wells
dry up. What will it take to make the North
realise their full potential and march into
the 21st century confidently and emerge as
an economic miracle? The world will always
need agricultural produce f or
food and industrial raw materials, in ever
increasing quantities, thanks to the red hot
economies of China and India, who in
addition to their industrial demand, also
produce staggering numbers of newly emerging
middle class every year who feed better.
The astronomic rise in the price of crude
oil has also led to increasing production of
bio fuels from agricultural produce, whose
additional advantage is its smaller carbon
footprint, when compared to fossil fuel, in
a world caught in the understandable frenzy
of global warming. All the foregoing
explains why prices of agricultural produce
are going up and will continue to go up. The
agro based industrial parks that should
blanket the North will produce processed
livestock, canned, bottled, bagged or tetra
packed food for local consumption and export
to a world that still craves rapidly
disappearing processed natural foods and not
their synthetic replacements. Imagine
processed tomatoes, onions, ginger, carrots,
beans, chilli pepper, potatoes, ground nuts,
vegetable oils, sweeteners and syrups from
grains, livestock feeds, cotton etc, proudly
made in Northern Nigeria.
To attain these desirable goals will mean
taking quantum leaps in attitudes, behaviour
and political will, because what is required
is far beyond the present level of thinking
made worse by mental laziness at all levels
of officialdom. The starting point is large
scale mechanised agriculture. Before the
issue of land reform and redistribution
became a victim of political brinkmanship,
4,500 commercial farmers were the
cornerstone of the Zimbabwean economy. Their
mechanised farms earned Zimbabwe most of its
foreign exchange and the title of the food
basket of Southern Africa. The territory of
Northern Nigeria is bigger than Zimbabwe and
already has existing dams and irrigation
systems which can be expanded to make the
North the food basket of Africa.
Presently, only Kwara State is making
marginal head way with a handful of
erstwhile Zimbabwean commercial farmers. The
attempt in Nasarawa State is mired in all
kinds of difficulties starting from official
indifference, lack of basic infrastructure
to foot dragging by banks that daily change
the conditions for even already agreed
commercial loans.
Why is the North not willing to shake itself
out of its self imposed lethargy and take
advantage of these unique opportunities? For
how much longer will they remain victims of
the curse of oil and the dismantling of
regional governments in Nigeria? The curse
of oil has made them seem lazy and contended
with the monthly handouts from the Federal
government. In 1967, General Yakubu Gowon in
order to weaken Biafra, created twelve
states and destroyed regional systems of
government during which ground nut pyramids
were part of the Northern landscape. Today,
we have states that are too small to be
viable and too weak to challenge the
accumulated powers of a federal government
which has repeatedly failed to provide the
kind of leadership, regional leaders like
Sir Ahmadu Bello, Chief Obafemi Awolowo and
Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe or Dr Michael Okpara
provided. Apart from Lagos, other states of
the federation are not so viable, especially
the ones in the North. "I believe that if
the monthly allocation is
stopped,
the North will witness within two years an
agricultural revolution that will be the
spring board for an economic miracle that
will change the face of the North within a
generation". Why not pretend that the
federal allocations have ceased in order to
focus on the problems? Can Northern leaders
summon the political will and moral fibre
that will cause them to look upon their own
people with pity and resolve to push past
official indifference and develop a
concerted plan of action with measurable
yardsticks, to chart its progress?
Is the North patently lazy as their sole
dependence on federal allocations seem to
suggest? The vanished ground nut pyramids
which made them the world’s largest exporter
up to the early 1970s and the various food
stuff in our markets are proofs that the
answer is an emphatic-no, because they bear
testimony to a people as industrious as
anyone in Nigeria. The only problem is that
this back breaking farm work is at
subsistent level. This is where the
governments, leaders and wealthy moguls of
the North should step in to fashion out
investor friendly packages that will bring
in commercial farmers from all over the
world.
How
I wish that Sir Ahmadu Bello is alive to run
with this vision, because the present
leaders of the North who benefited
prodigiously from his policies think of no
one else but themselves. Will they shift
their gaze from influence peddling, manning
the choicest ministries and government
agencies, oil blocks and crude oil lifting
contracts to look upon their own suffering
masses? Will they be willing to stop the
exploitation of the minds of their own
people while they grow obscenely rich? These
are the leaders who as military and civilian
rulers are responsible for the disgraceful
failures of Nigeria and the abject poverty
which every study has found to be more acute
in the North. It is traditional, perhaps
fashionable but nonetheless selfish to make
Northern communities believe God ordained
one person in their community to be the
heart of that community whose name he bears.
It is mindless exploitation to offer these
leaders their daughters in return for basins
of food placed under dogonyaro trees for the
wretched of the community.
And while this exploitation of Northerners
by Northern elite is going on, their masses
are told that Southerners are the scourge of
Nigeria, irrespective of the fact that in
the only free and fair presidential election
in Nigeria in 1993, Northern masses voted
overwhelmingly for a Southerner ahead of a
Northerner. Unknown to them, their worst
enemies are not Southerners but their
leaders who have left them and other
Nigerians adrift. As long as these Northern
leaders focus their eyes on crude oil, they
will never allow the Niger Delta keep 50% of
revenues derived from their land and waters
that can no longer support farming and
fishing activities of any kind. They fear
that with 50% derivation, they will lose
their oil blocks and crude oil lifting
contracts. Do these leaders not know that
the North will earn billions of dollars
annually from agriculture, a renewable
resource unlike crude oil that will some day
run out or become irrelevant? Do they not
know that while they amass amazing personal
wealth, the ranks of their wretched, the
‘legendary almajaris’, armed with begging
bowls and gullible minds swells, perhaps
someday soon, to their own peril?
Very soon, what worked between the 1960s to
date, that unleashed the almajaris on the
streets of the North against Southerners
will no longer work. When you look to the
Gulf and see what their Muslim brothers are
doing in Dubai, Oman, Qatar, Abu Dhabi and
Saudi Arabia, to reinvent their societies to
face the challenges of the 21st century, you
will realise that the failures in Northern
Nigeria has got nothing to do with their
religious beliefs. The example of the Gulf
nations is an eloquent testimony that
poverty is not a virtue but along with its
twin brother ignorance, are curses.
The North which once produced 80% of
Nigeria’s total grains output must use its
agricultural endowments to dig itself out of
the hole which she dug and fell into. They
must take away the begging bowls and daggers
and send their children to school to equip
them to work in the farms and factories that
will spring up all over the North. When we
add to the equation, the equally untapped,
vast mineral deposits beneath the soils of
the North and their potential multiplier
effect, then we can begin to understand how
big the economic miracle of Northern Nigeria
can be.
If they chose to continue to ‘almajarise’
Northern youths in sustained poverty and
ignorance, someday soon they will sink their
daggers into the opulent flesh of their
leaders in what will be fits of righteous
anger for making their lives meaningless.
Imagine for a moment the additional vast
agro based industries in other parts of
Nigeria based on cocoa in the Southwest; oil
palm, rice, coco yams, yams and cashew in
the South East and parts of the South South;
cassava, corn, mango, citrus fruits,
plantain, banana, rubber and timber in parts
of the South East, South West and South
South. I believe I am not the only one the
Lord has allowed to photograph the great
future of Nigeria and its endless
possibilities. If our leaders are clueless
and not interested in sacrificial
leadership, then they do not deserve to be
called leaders but thieves!
If the groundnut pyramids and indeed
pyramids of many grains and produce are to
reappear, and poverty’s march slowed,
stopped and reversed, a new way of doing
things must be adopted by the north
otherwise what is point of having the
richest African, Alhaji Aliko Dangote, as a
Northerner.
Inland Water Transportation: The
Untapped Potentials in Nigeria’s Economy
It is imperative for government to develop
inland water transportation in Nigeria
because it is cheaper, safer, more
environmentally friendly, with less
operating cost and handling capacity.
Nigeria is well drained by over three
hundred inland rivers and waterways, these
natural waterways have not been developed
for the transportation of goods and
services, and people. It has been argued
that the commercial life of the inland
waterways in Nigeria, and especially in
northern part of the country could be
sustained by the industrial and agricultural
products of the hinterlands. Significant
because bulky commodities such as
steel, cement, wood, furniture and
livestock, and fragile goods such as glass,
agricultural products, diary products etc.,
can be better conveyed on waterways. All
inland river terminals and ports in Nigeria
should be dredged well with infrastructural
facilities like transport system,
light railways and roads networks to link
all state capitals, and develop artificial
canals that should open up alternative
passenger routes particularly in river side
settlements.
Arewa great economic potential and abundant
resources
Nigeria possesses much more than simply oil
and gas. It is home to significant deposits
of coal, iron ore, lead, limestone, tin
gold, and zinc etc, especially in the north.
The potential
is great and better than crude oil of the
south. Gold, Uranium, Iron Ore, Gemstones,
Columbite, Tantalite, Kaolin, Goshenite and
other precious minerals are everywhere
across the north.
Just as importantly, it has rich land and
water resources that are ripe for further
agricultural exploitation. Indeed, the
agricultural industry remains a mainstay of
the economy, accounting for 23.9% of GDP and
upwards of 70% of the country’s workforce
(see Agriculture chapter). Approximately
83.7% of Nigeria’s land area is
agricultural, although only 40% is arable.
Substantial water resources also assist the
agricultural sector. The country has 230bn
cu metres of total renewable water
resources. This should help expand
productivity through irrigation. As of 2012,
only 0.3% (or 2930 sq km) of Nigeria’s total
land area was irrigated.
Population - The country’s
other major resource is its people and large
internal market. With an estimated 184m
people in 2015, according to the IMF,
Nigeria ranks as the seventh-most-populous
country in the world. Furthermore, it is
predicted to rapidly climb through these
rankings in the coming decades. With a
current population growth rate of 2.7%,
Nigeria is forecast to reach 440m people by
2050, ranking it as the third-largest
country globally by demographic size
according to the Economy chapter. Given
these trends, it is unsurprising that
Nigeria is also a young country,
increasingly urban. With the urban
population growing at 3.75% a year, the
share of Nigerians living in towns and
cities will soon surpass 50% of the total
population according to the Construction &
Real Estate chapter.
The country has more than 250 different
ethnic groups. Half of the population is
Muslim, while a further 40% are Christian.
English is the official language of the
country, while Hausa, Yoruba and Igbo are
commonly spoken in specific regions. In
total, there are more than 500 indigenous
languages currently spoken throughout the
country and over 300 are in the northern
part of the country.
Climate - Given the contrasts
between the north and south of the country,
it is hardly surprising that temperature and
weather conditions vary substantially. The
far north is arid, the centre of the country
is tropical and the south is equatorial.
Along the coast, humidity reigns, but
temperatures rarely climb above 32°C.
Further north, there is a dry season,
running from November to March, and a wet
season, lasting from April to October.
During the dry period, temperatures can
reach 38°C during the day. However, they
drop as low as 12°C at night. Average annual
rainfall can vary from roughly 430 cm in the
south-east of the country to just 50 cm in
the far north. The latter region is
influenced by the Harmattan, a hot and dry
northerly wind, which blows in dust from the
Sahel and Sahara.
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