One Crisis Too Many

Governor Jonah Jang of Plateau State

Governor Jonah Jang battles to restore the glory of Jos, the Plateau state capital, as home for all Nigerians, just as the state Police Command arrests about 60 suspects amidst the loss of lives and destruction of property in the recent crisis which rocked the tin-city
By Stephen Ubanna
Former Governor Joshua Dariye must be a happy man. This is because of the peace of mind he is perhas enjoying. He is no longer occupied with holding meetings with leaders of the various ethnic groups and security operatives on how to bring peace to Plateau state. The task of ensuring peace between the various ethnic groups in the state now rests on Jonah Jang the incumbent governor. But Jang has not been lucky in bringing the leadership of the various ethnic groups in the state to call their ever restive followers to order. This is evident by the occasional violence that erupts, in which the Hausa Community have been often involved. The most recent of such flare-up took place on Sunday, January 17,2010. Eye-witness accounts say about 150 lives were lost in the crisis. The dead bodies were largely deposited in the University of Jos Teaching and Specialist Hospital. Observers say the situation would have been worse but for the quick intervention of governor Jang.The governor had declared a dusk-to-down curfew in Jos Town and its environs to avoid further breakdown of law and order.
Gregory Yelong, the state Commissioner for Information and Communications said, “the measure was aimed at nipping in the bud the prevailing situation in Jos Town so that the hoodlums would not take advantage of the security breach to molest innocent citizens’. Appealing to law-abiding citizens and resident, to adhere strictly to the curfew, Yelong said, ‘ all efforts were being intensified to ensure the safety of lives and property”.
He is right. Jang , the state governor was said to have invited the Police to restore peace in the troubled areas of Jos metropolis and its environs. The Source observed fierce- looking and heavily armed police- men poised to engage the rampaging youths, parading the streets of Jos on foot and trucks.
Worried by the loss of lives and destruction of property by the rampaging youths, Greg Ayanting , the state Commissioner of Police vowed to deal ruthlessly with anyone who violates the peace of the state. Ayanting declared that the Police would no longer deal with those who cause trouble in the state with kid-gloves. “It is going to be operation fire-for-fire,” he said.
True to his words, 60 suspects have been arrested by Ayanting’s men, five of whom were caught in Military uniforms. The Police and other security operatives are still combing the state to fish out more hoodlums who are bent on making the state ungovernable. Reports indicate that the streets of Jos have been deserted by youths who could not give genuine explanation of their sources of living for fear of being arrested by Ayanting’s men. Inspite of the presence on the streets of Jos, the riotous youths still found themselves loitering about. They were said to have engaged the police in a shootout. The situation was so bad that the commandore of the 3rd Armoured Division, Jos, had to roll out the armoured tanks and call the Army out to join the police to quell the riot, which had already spread to nearby local governments to Jos.
The question on the lips of most people was what might have triggered the latest crisis? There are different accounts as to what triggered off the crisis.
One account says the mayhem was triggered by a disagreement between some youths engaged in a football match in the Duse Uku area of Wasa Nasarawa Gwom in Jos North Local Government Area. The disagreement, sources say have degenerated into a full-blown crisis, with rival youth gangs unleashing mayhem on the other gangs using sticks, stones, clubs and other dangerous weapons. Observers insist the angry youths threw decency to the winds and went on rampage, killing, maiming and destroying property, including burning houses.
Others reports say the crisis had been simmering over time following the refusal of one of the ethnic groups to allow victims of the November 27, 2008 crisis to reconstruct their destroyed houses.
Sources also insist that the crisis had a religious coloration. This appear to be the mostacceptable reason from both official and unoffical quarters.
A group of Muslim Free Thinkers and Humanists are not happy at the waste of lives and destruction of property at the slightest provocation by Muslims. Given an insider information to the teachings of Islam, the group said, Islam never supported the killing of innocent citizens, noting, that Allah in the Holy Quran never advocated killings. The group said, ‘the killing of innocent citizens was the work of few misguided individuals at the fringes of society. The group said Islamic teachers had made people to believe that, ‘Islam means peace. Islam means tolerance.’ It said, conservative Muslims had turned the doctrine of Islam upside down, by insisting that, ‘Allah has ordered Muslims to strike terror in the hearts of the enemies.’
According to the group, those propagating and projecting Islam as a religion of tolerance are pathological liars. “With the known and documented violent legacy of Islam,” they querried, “how can we suddenly discover Islam as a religion of peace in the free world in the 21st century?” It further stated that, “it is a perpetuation of lies by a few ambitious leaders in order to gain political control of the image and ignorant Muslim population”. It said, Islam is not a religion of peace, equality and unity of mankind but one which is ‘feeding Terrorism’. The group said that as long as practicing Muslims pay their khums and zakat , it goes to promote ethnic expansionism’ and that means , terrorism, Jihad and war.
The Muslim Free Thinkers and Humanists said Islam has divided the world into two. Darul Harb, Land of war and Darul Islam: Land of Islam.
Darul Harb is the land of the infidels. Muslims are expected to infiltrate such lands, prostyle and procreate until their numbers increase and start the war, kill the people and impose the religion of Islam on them and convert that land Darul Islam.
It is not surprising, thereafore, the group said, why ethno-religious crisis in several cities in the North and the South continue to fester.
But Jang was said to have blamed the crisis on motor cycle riders, who always made themselves available whenever crises of such nature occurred. Stressing that they hid under the trade to perpetrate crisis. An angry Jang said the motor cycle riders that were arrested exhibited their ignorance of knowledge of Jos, showing that they were drafted by their pay masters from other states to cause the mayhem in Jos. The governor would be happy, if those arrested could be prosecuted as a deterrent to other, trouble makers. Jang has his reason. This is because those that were arrested in the November 27, 2008 riot were according to reports never prosecuted. They were said to have been left of the hook. Ayanting the statePolice Commissioner of Police said the governor has no reason to fear, insisting that those arrested would be prosecuted.
Plateau Indigenous Development Association Network, PIDAN, in the Memorandum submitted to the Judicial Commission of inquiry on the Jos unrest of November 28, 2008 alluded much to this. PIDAN said the crisis in Jos was not unconnected to the alleged claim to the City by the Hausas. The Group said the issue of ownership of Jos has been settled since 2004 by the Peace Conference organised by the Federal Government Emergency Administration attended by all the ethnic nationalities living in the Plateau including the Hausas in Jos.PIDAN would want the Hausas to have a rethink over the claim of ownership of Jos. According to them, the Tin City belonged to the trio of Afizere, Anaguta and the Berom.
Delving into history, PIDAN said the Hausas from the onset were not indigenous to the Plateau. It claimed in the Memorandum submitted to the Justice Bola Ajibola Commission of Inquiry that Jos was established by the colonial government and not by any particular ethnic group. It wondered then why the Hausas would lay claim to the ownership of Jos.
According to PIDAN , the Hausas flocked into the -tin -mining camps that were opened in Jos just like any other labourers from other parts of the country. This conjecture seems to be right. As at 1931, there were 14,817 labourers in the Mine camps. The Hausa population was put at about 6,498 at this time, while other tribes had 8,319 in the Mine camps.
Giving an insider information to the make-up of Jos Town, PIDAN said, there are still Igbos, Yorubas, Fulanis , Nupe, Beriberi, but that all these other groups are not laying claim to Jos Town like the Hausas.
Profering insight on how the Hausas entered Jos, , the group said that it was in two ways. One of the ways, according to them was through bilateral agreement known as Mana –Trust. The group stated that the Agreement was on a voluntary basis and purely for commercial purposes.
PIDAN said the arrangement gave the Hausas the opportunity to enter into and enjoy the beauty of the plateau.
The second way, according to PIDAN through which the Hausas entered into Jos was the discovery of Tin-Ore in the area.
PIDAN blamed former Military President , Ibrahim Babangida, for allegedly laying the grand plan for the crisis in Jos.PIDAN said the former Military President had created the false impression that Jos belonged to the Hausas by creating Jos North Local Government Council in 1991, amid protests from the trio of Afizere, Anaguta and the Berom Communities. The three Communities had described the creation of Jos North Local Government Council as a grand plan by the Hausas to seize Jos from them.
More worrisome was the fact that the creation of the Jos North LGA left the Berom paramount ruler, the Gbong Gwom Jos, isolated in the enclave of Hausas in Jos Municipality.
“What the Hausas of Jos are always quick to do is that whenever ethnic land-grabbing agenda suffers a setback, they mobilise their youths and direct them to burn houses and before you know it, the whole town would be in flames,” PIDAN said.
The group exonerated the indigenous communities of being the agrressor, stating that the crisis have always been perpetrated by the Hausas.
But the Hausas would not agree with PIDAN that they forment trouble in Jos nor would they agree that Jos, belong to the trio of Afizere, Anaguta and the Berom.The Source learnt that the Hausa community in their Memorandum to the Commission of Inquiry on the Jos crisis insists that Jos belongs to them.
There are fears that , if the report should favour the trio of Afizere, Anaguta and the Berom, Jos would be in flames, a resident of Jos told the magazine.
Although, there is enormous work for the commission, witnesses say the latest carnage has more to do with intolerance. By last week, the Plateau State government had declared 24-hour curfew as the violence simmered. After taking a bloody turn on Sunday, the mayhem was extended to major settlements in the city, including neighbouring Bukuru, headquarters of Jos South local government area.
By Tuesday, however, the death toll was said to have risen to about 150, but other sources put the deaths toll at 300. The Source was reliably informed that there was an amazing twist to the conflict when Secretary to the Plateau State government, Nde Jidauna Dimka, narrowly escaped death when he ran into some riotous youths on his way to Government House in Rayfiled. He escaped by the whiskers when his driver intuitively beat a retreat when the mob stopped his car. With fierce-looking soldiers already deployed alongside anti-riot police to keep the peace, the sectarian violence continued for the most parts of the week as an unidentified Assistant Superintendent of Police, (ASP) was allegedly killed at Sabo Barki while many churches and mosques were razed. A meeting of the State Executive Council, scheduled to be held in Government House, had to be moved to the Governor’s residence in DU, few kilometers from Bukuru.
Yenlong, who gave the order for the 24-hour-stay-at home in a live broadcast on Tuesday advised residents to remain indoors as troops battled to contain the situation. Only people on essential duties such as medical personnel, journalists and security operatives are allowed to move out during the curfew. As the situation escalated, Inspector General of Police, Ogbonna Onovo, Abdulraham Dambazzi, a Lt. General and Chief of Army Staff and Director General of the State Security Service (SSS), moved to Jos to take charge of operation as sporadic gunshots rented the air.
Security operatives, analysts say, would have to be on the alert to ensure that the release of the Commission of Inquiry report on the Jos crisis would not create further tension. There had been instances in the past in which a Commission of Inquiry report had aggravated a crisis situation. It happened in the Tiv , Lagos, Shagamu, Zagon Kataf, Bauchi, Lantang and Katsina crises, among others. The Hausas had been allegedly involved in all the listed crises (see box), and may never accept any report that never favour them.
The Jos crisis may have been one of the reasons why Pius Anyim Pius, former Senate President led 41 other prominent Nigerians to the National Assembly to register their feeling about the long absence of President Umaru Yar'Adua from the country, and the need for Goodluck Jonathan, the Vice President to effectively take charge of government.