You cannot plant evil and run away from reaping its fruits, neither can you threaten a peace and dream to enjoy peace. As a life-long subscriber to the ancient philosophy of the Stoics, I don’t believe in murdering facts to suit a purpose, self-gratification or ridiculing a reputation. I always believe in stating facts no matter how sweat, soar or bitter.
In the process, I may be insulted, challenged, or misinterpreted for ‘offending’ certain characters that I have no apology or regret for offering once the points are factual.
I hate joining issues with anyone on the lingering crisis in Plateau State because the genesis is shrouded in secrecy spiced with hypocrisy by the architects until I read a disjointed piece, haphazardly penciled and ostensibly a response to my phase (1) analysis on the crisis from a hidden agenda, not far from ethnic cleansing brewed over the years and now consuming architects of the agenda piecemeal by some of their nurtured deadly killers, whose identity means nothing to humanity other than their type in daydream.
Individuals may strive for excellence in murdering facts and dissemination of hate as war mongers, but what builds great societies and nations are collective excellence and national distinctions. That is why societies and communities peopled by wild and untamed egos always come a sad cropper when in competition with more disciplined and self-regulating communities. The greatest capacity of genius is the capacity to mask genius.
Nevertheless, there is curious convergence of national identity and individual trajectory about the happenings on the Plateau that is tad short of the miraculous and which cannot be ignored unless we are to perish.
There is a seamless symmetry and a perfect synchrony about the way the crisis unfolds that is absolutely confounding and which points at the possibility of humanity itself being nothing but mere pawns at the mercy of the deadly marauding ethnic terrorists who fired the first shot in 2021 but forgot the possibility of a counterattack.
Let me hurriedly put it this way. Death has not been kind to many of my indigenous friends and elders who shaped the destiny of Plateau State with their sweat and intellectual sophistication and cut the edge intellect across various disciplines that have since joined their ancestors leaving us to battle marauding natives and hooligans for our cherished peace.
I must commend President Bola Ahmed Tinubu for reintroducing history as a subject in our schools. History may educate some of the marauding natives of their true origin and where their ancestors lived before few that could be reached and ‘forcefully’ converted to Christianity and other religions.
As a result of the persistent crisis, so many of my relatives, friends, acolytes and colleagues across religious divide have disappeared through coordinated murders. Had this been a less brutal and more caring environment on the Plateau, a few of them could have been with us. But they were gruesomely murdered and their legitimate properties looted by the murderous communities, yet the murderers expect to get away with the heinous crimes not expecting a reprisal because they believe to have a shielding ‘authority’ within the governing system deceiving them. The more they harm, the more they are harmed. The more the strike, the more they are countered. It has been a tit-for-tat scenario all along.
Let me quickly and painfully pay tribute to those avatars whose contributions to the development of Plateau State will better be appreciated by future peaceful generations the likes of Malam Nimfel, Yahaya Kwande, Malam Oga, Barnabas Dusu, Ahmadu Zakari, Samuel Mafuyai, Bitrus Rwang Pam, George Baba Hoomkwap, Sani Minista, Sulen Jebu, Miskoom Pupet, Jethro Akun, DB Zang, Inuwa Ali, Vonjen Gambo Sanda, Ali Ndam, Abdullahi Nimlan, AM Dung, PD Pwajok, Bagudu Mutle Hirse, Joseph Tongjin, Saleh Hassan, Ezekiel Washik, Jibrin Zololo, Garba Adama (Algadama), Maxwell Yakubu, Mije Gunen, Silas Janfa, Alhassan Shu’aibu, Mudi Dan Ardo, Micheal Hirse, Ahmadu Zaki Mangu, Bernard Banfa, Jafaru Tallen, Musa Maigandu, Nasiru Mantu, Jeremiah Useni, Suleiman Yero, John Wash Pam etc.
From the tide of the crisis, three contending imageries that capture the current circumstance can be isolated. A stalled behemoth evokes the images of a massive sea mammal trapped by adverse developments in the depth of the ocean, probing and thrashing in different directions but still unable to move an inch forward or break through the labyrinth of oceanic adversities.
We must remember as so called settlers that the mammoth creature is not dead and is still very much alive although weak and battling terminal ailment in isolation. If he does not do something foolish or foolhardy, there is every possibility he will be sea worthy again once he is able to figure out what has overwhelmed and trapped him in the icy shackles of the deep sea.
The other two images, reimagining and repositioning, are redemptive tropes and images of regeneration which may speak on how Plateau State can refashion itself once it is able to free itself from the multi-dimensional debris which is at once religious, ethnic, cultural and epistemological.
The respondent to my phase (1) analysis labored in-vain to rewrite the remote cause of the crisis disfiguring and courting more hatred to Plateau State hitherto known as Home of Tourism and Hospitality when the murderers were not at sight and on mountain tops, now turned to battle fields courtesy of the living devils garbed in borrowed cassocks and political garments.
The crisis has defied common logic for the rigidity and inbuilt primitiveness of those in the theatre of war as indigenes. The indigenes (natives), are comfortable with the crisis so to say, if not for anything, at least, for the free human flesh in abundance to feast on, grab other people’s legitimately acquired land and loot properties left behind by their chased away targets.
At their first coordinated strike, they erroneously underrated the courage and capacity of their targets of attack and annihilation. They later discovered their foolery and daydream and started crying loud for rescue. The crisis has overstayed its welcome that must either be defeated or allowed to continue until the grain is separated from the chaff. The pikin wey say him mama no go sleep…………
As usual of them, they expected conventional security agencies, not the suspected biased Operation Rainbow to give them a backup to achieve their diabolic ambition laced with satanic intention. In the absence of that, they turned against the conventional security agencies shouting loudly for disengagement of soldiers from normalizing the situation. If the authorities had subscribed to their request, their existence could have ended without a trace anywhere on planet earth within 48 hours of withdrawal. They could have since been wiped from the planet surface at the first round!
What interested and made me laugh most in his piece though expected, was his vain effort to know my profile. What he intends to do with my profile remains an albatross to his peace.
I may not at this point reveal some hard facts on the genesis of the crisis that dates back to 1976 in this analysis until coming days. Some of the brains behind have since exited this world now with their ancestors in the bowels of the earth or wherever they may be.
But for the tips, it was when Gen. Mur tala Muhammed and his fellow military colleagues booted Gen. Yakubu Gowon, an indigene of Plateau State out of power, his ‘kith and kin’ took offence.
Agreed, Gowon is an indigene of Plateau State (Ngas from Lur in Kanke local government), but neither birthed nor grew up in that vicinity. All his family members were born and bred in Wusasa, Zaria.
Gowon proved he was an indigene of Kaduna State not Plateau when he attempted to contest the presidency of Nigeria in 1993. All his credentials had the seal of Kaduna State and his presidential campaign coordination headquartered in Wusasa, Zaria.
Gen. Murtala replaced Gowon as military Head of State in 1976, but within six months in power, he was gruesomely murdered along with Col. Ibrahim Taiwo, governor of Kwara State and few others through a counter coup staged by majority of Plateau State natives in the Nigerian Army led by Col Bukar Suka Dimka an Ngas by tribe.
Their grudge was that Murtala had embarked on a cleaning exercise to rid the country of corruption, and several beneficiaries of the scandals from the Plateau State probe reports were those who dined and wined with the government of Benue Plateau State led by Joseph Gomwalk (Ngas).
Several properties criminally acquired by Joseph Deshi Gomwalk such as Votniski construction company chaired by one ‘Dr’ Okon and those of Gomwalk’s associates the likes of Dr Alexander Davou Fom (Gwom Chomo), Sati Gogwim, Clement Gomwalk etc as contained in a petition signed by Aper Aku, were seized on the directives of a tribunal chaired by Justice Fredrick Anyegbunam.
Some of the reasons Murtala was toppled as revealed by Dimka during interrogation are not for public consumption for now.
The aftermath of the botched coup was the trial of the coup plotters including Joseph Deshi Gomwalk, wife of his senior brother, Helen Gomwalk, Gen. Iliya Bisalla from Mangu, Colonel AB Umar from Wase and several other involved indigenes of Plateau State.
They were tried by a Special Military Tribunal, found guilty and some were publicly executed at Kirikiri firing range in Lagos.
The author appeared confused and so desperate to twist clear facts in the public gallery to suit his grievance and confuse the gullible to believe falsehood.
I never considered that as a sponsored piece but probably a contribution to the lost journey of no return embarked upon by the warring tribes on the Plateau blindfolded by sentiments, frustration and envy.
In my usual character, I hate discussing religion because of its inflammatory nature to our corporate existence as a people. But in few instances depending on the topic under discussion, and when it becomes absolutely necessary to strengthen the records for posterity, one has to discuss.
When talking on the religion of Christianity, one humbly and with absolute caution targets the real Christians practicing the religion the way it should be not those pretentious Pagans garbed in Christian robe, forced to accept the religion accompanied with incentives. And not those who had no direction until foreign missionaries came to clothe, dusty, and ‘forced’ Christianity on them, which metamorphosed into their greatest problem.
My interest rests with stating the facts and in spite of the pretence and associated hypocrisy of the natives. We are mischievously told that what the crisis on the Plateau is all about land grabbing. What does land grabbing mean in this case? Who is grabbing whose land? The so called settlers who migrated over 150 years from other climes to Plateau State, with some forced to labor in mining pits, bought their lands from the natives and developed same.
Criminally, the natives ignited trouble to reclaim the lands for free by force under the guise of land grabbing. That has been a long term plan by their elites.
If truth must be told, what were the offence(s) of those Muslims that had lived for over decades in togetherness and in peace with the natives but suddenly became victims of coordinated attacks and gruesome murder in Kuru Sabuwa, Bisichi, Gidin Akwati (Ex-land), Jos, Bukuru, Vom, Bisichi, Mararraban Jema’a, Heipang, Kassa, Foron, Barikiin Ladi, Mangu, Bokkos, Bassa, Kabong etc? What happened to their properties after the attacks and murders? Was there any assistance or compensation from any government to cushion the artificially created hardship related to ethnic cleansing? No, because it was ‘authoritatively’ planned.
What of the attack on the late pillar of Izala sect, Musa Mai Gandu’s residence at Kwata near Vom? What was his offence for the daylight attack? Who murdered Gen. Idris Alkali at Dura-Du and what was his offence? Who master-minded the bail of suspects arrested in connection with Alkali’s murder? Who are the real terrorists on the Plateau? Who are those who attacked innocent Muslim worshippers on Sallah day at their Eid ground opposite the entrance to Kabong village? Where are those cannibals that feasted on the flesh of the murdered and posted their feast while munching on human flesh on social media?
I read the blatant lie on how Izala sect allegedly created the crisis in Plateau State after its establishment in 1987. The writer expressed crass ignorance of what Izala stands for and its mode of operation.
Izala was established primarily to wage an aggressive campaign against some unwholesome activities in Islam and to encourage the girl-child education not to ridicule or oppose Tijjaniyya sect or any religious organization. Its application for registration at the Corporate Affairs says it all and has not been violated or abused to my knowledge.
I had wanted to address all issues raised in the hallow piece, but for security reason, I opted to address few for the records.
I repeat, there was a long-time hatchet plan waiting to erupt against the Hausa/Fulani Muslims on the Plateau. The most ideal time to strike was when Nasarawa State was curved out from Plateau State. A good chunk of the Muslim population moved to the new state. That became a golden opportunity for the execution of the mischief against the left Hausa/Fulani Muslims who were reduced in numerical strength.
Poorly educated ethno-religious jingoists with abundance of poor understanding of Christianity bearing Christian names as newly baptized suddenly became daylight clergies in the absence of real Christians. Some from villages were rushed for tutorials at Theological College of Northern Nigeria, Bukuru to obtain certificates to preach and preside over Churches. Pulpits superintended by those converted Pagans turned to gossip centres and evil planning venues.
From my assessment, the die has been cast and if any warring faction is still in doubt, should be told to face the reality on the ground.
The crisis has deepened hate that there should be a review of strategies, seeking genuine forgiveness, and forging realignment for return of peace. That is possible through regulated public comments not through Greek assistance, sweet talks, meetings and formation of amorphous/curious groups.
The first hurdle before any peace can be achieved is the deployment of sincerity and honesty in all efforts. It is on record that Plateau State is blessed with all it takes to be transformed to an Eldorado without going cup-in-hand begging for support from anywhere but that quality has been shattered. Any settlement or negotiation for cease fire spiced with honesty will hold water. The government needs to put its house in order, speak with one voice and lend the necessary and required support to all.
The other point is that despite its numerical strength, the Hausa/Fulani plays the second fiddle in the equation. Most of those rewarded with ‘reasonable’ appointments in successive administrations were mere political parasites with more interest to their personal ‘stomach infrastructure’ and could hardly deliver positive results to the transformation and political unity of the state.
Like the late politician of timber and caliber, Kingsley Ozumba Mbadiwe will say, there will be time for “accord concordial”.
Time will tell and we shall also tell and join in celebrating the ouster of crisis where and when necessary for a prosperous Plateau State. A Hausa adage says, “Komi yayi zafi, zaiyi sanyi”.
It is said that people are governed by love or fear. However, human experience demonstrates that the submission brought about by love or fear is often of an extreme quality: either too loose or too tight. That is why wise people in authority seek a balance between showing love and fear to their people.
The fact is that although mankind has similarities with animal characteristics on the lower levels of life, human being is a superior creation according to the scriptures that was created in the image of the Almighty Creator Himself. Thus, it is unrealistic to imagine that human beings, as sophisticated creatures can be threatened, intimidated, murdered and chased away and their properties looted and peace expected to reign. Either way, the human mind works in such a complex manner and through so many complicated ways that we cannot predict what a man’s next mood or move will be.
Rulers and leaders are known to have a hard time managing the governed. In fact, many rulers and leaders in modern times are known to spend more time sustaining and maintaining their hold on power than carrying out the responsibilities entailed. That is why insincere governments spend so much on security, vigilance, surveillance and defense than on other issues or programmes that can improve the lot of the people. Of course, this amounts to chasing the shadows and leaving the substance and, probably, explains why good governance is elusive in so many states in Nigeria.
Before I bid you farewell in this piece, let me quickly remind Governor Caleb Mutfwang that parts of Kanam and Wase local government areas are under siege by bandits. Although he inherited the situation, it appears his government has also kept a distance all along, like his predecessor. But when Bokkos, Bassa, Panyam, and Mangu were attacked, the Mutfwang-led government acted promptly with visits to the troubled areas to douse tension and rekindle hope. How then does the governor want the people of Kanam and to react to his silence and inactiveness towards their plight? A case of selective justice on display?
With a change of style in governance, attitude and character towards one another, Plateau State will certainly bounce back as a strongly united progressing entity if the governor so wishes! I Come in Peace!
Muhammad is a commentator on national issues
