Jos: Home of peace or city of carnage?
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- Written by Saleh Ibrahim Bature
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No city in this country has witnessed more bloodshed and wanton destruction of property in the recent past than Jos. The sectarian crisis that reared its ugly head in 2004 had led to an orgy of senseless killings that has left Jos and its inhabitants on constant and violent opposition for nearly a decade. It is rather unfortunate that another fighting erupted at a time when the committees set up by the Plateau State and the federal government to investigate the 2008 crisis are yet to submit their reports.
Much as there are conflicting reports as to what is the actual cause[s] of the latest violence in Jos, the subjective positions some of us take on the matter is a problem which the authorities saddled with the responsibility to investigate the crisis will have to deal with. I foresee an imminent danger in a situation where, Gregory Ayating, the Plateau State commissioner of police, an officer mandated to ensure that peace is maintained at all time and at all cost in the society openly taking side by accusing Muslim youths of attacking Christian worshippers in a church at the Nassarawa Gwong area of Jos as the cause of the Sunday 17 January, 2010 Jos crisis. The Commissioner of Police’s skewed accusation could be interpreted as an attempt to precipitate disaffection among people, especially if taken in the light of what the media widely reported as the immediate cause of the crisis. For instance, the Daily Trust and Leadership Newspapers editions of 19 January, 2010 published, on their front pages, a detailed report of Alhaji Kabiru Muhammad’s attempt to rebuild his house that was burnt down during the 2008 crisis and the yan kasa’s[a hausa pharase referring to natives] refusal to allow him from doing so as the actual cause of the latest Jos upheaval. And this is generally believed to be the cause at least for now.
The Commissioner of Police must therefore explain to Nigerians where he got the wrong information he gave to the media and why he did so at a time when nobody could tell with certainty what actually caused the crisis. The Inspector General of Police should summon the commissioner for appropriate disciplinary action in order to serve as deterrence and to convince Nigerians that there is no complicity between the police force and those that caused the mayhem.
The executive governor of Plateau State, David Jang and the retinue of aides around him operate as if they are a law unto themselves because they don’t respect the dignity and sanctity of human lives. Their unguarded utterances and the careless manner in which they handled the previous crisis portray them as ordinary tribal jingoists not the true elective representatives of the people. Jang’s interview after the outbreak of the 2008 crisis to one of the international radio stations in Hausa where, in utter disregard to decorum he boasted that he did not fear anybody in this country, among other impolite and rude utterances exposed the governor as a supercilious retired soldier and a highly temperamental and insensitive politician.
So long as people will be allowed to enjoy special privileges and rights because they are natives to the detriment of others who have settled there for over two hundred years, so long as government will continue to sheepishly treat issues of sectarian crisis in the country with kid’s gloves, as those who were found guilty in the previous reports were allowed to go scot-free; then Nigeria will never know peace.
Dazed by the pathetic report by Human Right Watch(HRW) of burnt and mutilated bodies of 150 residents of Kuru Karama, a predominantly Hausa-Fulani Muslim village, 30 Kilometres south of Jos, whose lifeless bodies were mercilessly stuffed in wells, the persistent radio spot announcements by the police in Kano and Kaduna state calling on residents in the cities to go about their normal activities, despite the palpable tension over the weekend, and the rather unfortunate report of the escalation of the crisis which claimed two lives in Sokoto on Sunday, January 24, 2010, are indications that the seemingly unending Jos crisis is silently but dangerously moving Nigeria down to the abyss of self destruction.
That is why the call by some patriotic Nigerians that whoever is found culpable in the recent Bauchi and Jos communal cum sectarian disturbances should be brought to justice, no matter the position he holds in the society, is gaining credence as events unfold. Unless or until this is done, the much needed peace that we all clamour for Jos and the nation will continue to elude us.
The seemingly unending communal/sectarian crisis in some states in the north is giving the entire region a bad name. Despite the unfortunate loss of lives and properties that stultifies development and progress in the region, the incidence also causes mutual mistrust, fear and a permanent chasm amongst people.
For Nigeria to find a lasting solution to the sporadic, violent and persistent sectarian crisis in Jos, we must dig out and find the root cause of the problem, and whoever is found culpable must this time be brought to justice. Most importantly, the unnecessarily prolonged settler/native question which I personally hold to be the bone of contention between the feuding parties must squarely be addressed to give Nigeria’s residents in Plateau State a sense of belonging.
Bature writes from Abuja
Articles
Jos: Home of peace or city of carnage?
Category: Comments Written by Saleh Ibrahim Bature Hits: 1194
No city in this country has witnessed more bloodshed and wanton destruction of property in the recent past than Jos. The sectarian crisis that reared its ugly head in 2004 had led to an orgy of senseless killings that has left Jos and its inhabitants on constant and violent opposition for nearly a decade. It is rather unfortunate that another fighting erupted at a time when the committees set up by the Plateau State and the federal government to investigate the 2008 crisis are yet to submit their reports.
Much as there are conflicting reports as to what is the actual cause[s] of the latest violence in Jos, the subjective positions some of us take on the matter is a problem which the authorities saddled with the responsibility to investigate the crisis will have to deal with. I foresee an imminent danger in a situation where, Gregory Ayating, the Plateau State commissioner of police, an officer mandated to ensure that peace is maintained at all time and at all cost in the society openly taking side by accusing Muslim youths of attacking Christian worshippers in a church at the Nassarawa Gwong area of Jos as the cause of the Sunday 17 January, 2010 Jos crisis. The Commissioner of Police’s skewed accusation could be interpreted as an attempt to precipitate disaffection among people, especially if taken in the light of what the media widely reported as the immediate cause of the crisis. For instance, the Daily Trust and Leadership Newspapers editions of 19 January, 2010 published, on their front pages, a detailed report of Alhaji Kabiru Muhammad’s attempt to rebuild his house that was burnt down during the 2008 crisis and the yan kasa’s[a hausa pharase referring to natives] refusal to allow him from doing so as the actual cause of the latest Jos upheaval. And this is generally believed to be the cause at least for now.
The Commissioner of Police must therefore explain to Nigerians where he got the wrong information he gave to the media and why he did so at a time when nobody could tell with certainty what actually caused the crisis. The Inspector General of Police should summon the commissioner for appropriate disciplinary action in order to serve as deterrence and to convince Nigerians that there is no complicity between the police force and those that caused the mayhem.
The executive governor of Plateau State, David Jang and the retinue of aides around him operate as if they are a law unto themselves because they don’t respect the dignity and sanctity of human lives. Their unguarded utterances and the careless manner in which they handled the previous crisis portray them as ordinary tribal jingoists not the true elective representatives of the people. Jang’s interview after the outbreak of the 2008 crisis to one of the international radio stations in Hausa where, in utter disregard to decorum he boasted that he did not fear anybody in this country, among other impolite and rude utterances exposed the governor as a supercilious retired soldier and a highly temperamental and insensitive politician.
So long as people will be allowed to enjoy special privileges and rights because they are natives to the detriment of others who have settled there for over two hundred years, so long as government will continue to sheepishly treat issues of sectarian crisis in the country with kid’s gloves, as those who were found guilty in the previous reports were allowed to go scot-free; then Nigeria will never know peace.
Dazed by the pathetic report by Human Right Watch(HRW) of burnt and mutilated bodies of 150 residents of Kuru Karama, a predominantly Hausa-Fulani Muslim village, 30 Kilometres south of Jos, whose lifeless bodies were mercilessly stuffed in wells, the persistent radio spot announcements by the police in Kano and Kaduna state calling on residents in the cities to go about their normal activities, despite the palpable tension over the weekend, and the rather unfortunate report of the escalation of the crisis which claimed two lives in Sokoto on Sunday, January 24, 2010, are indications that the seemingly unending Jos crisis is silently but dangerously moving Nigeria down to the abyss of self destruction.
That is why the call by some patriotic Nigerians that whoever is found culpable in the recent Bauchi and Jos communal cum sectarian disturbances should be brought to justice, no matter the position he holds in the society, is gaining credence as events unfold. Unless or until this is done, the much needed peace that we all clamour for Jos and the nation will continue to elude us.
The seemingly unending communal/sectarian crisis in some states in the north is giving the entire region a bad name. Despite the unfortunate loss of lives and properties that stultifies development and progress in the region, the incidence also causes mutual mistrust, fear and a permanent chasm amongst people.
For Nigeria to find a lasting solution to the sporadic, violent and persistent sectarian crisis in Jos, we must dig out and find the root cause of the problem, and whoever is found culpable must this time be brought to justice. Most importantly, the unnecessarily prolonged settler/native question which I personally hold to be the bone of contention between the feuding parties must squarely be addressed to give Nigeria’s residents in Plateau State a sense of belonging.
Bature writes from Abuja