“Whosoever deceives him/herself of possessing the monopoly of violence at any given time is a daydreamer living in a world of illusion and swimming in deceit.”…………..Anonymous
For peace to return to the embattled Plateau State, there is a need to revisit the remote cause of the crisis and those behind it. There is need to know the level of government’s involvement most especially the past governments presided over by Joshua Dariye and Jonah Jang.
Today, even the heartless are not pleased or celebrate the ongoing killings in parts of Plateau State, but the bitter truth is yet to surface from reports of the various federal and state government committees appointed for that purpose.
It beats my reasoning that before the creation of Nasarawa State out of Plateau State in 1996, there was no case ethno-religious crisis or land grabbing palaver witnessed until the new state was created out of Plateau State that the ground for ethnic cleansing got watered.
When innocent Muslims who had spent over a century, born and brought up in places such as Kuru, Bisichi, Foron, Gindin Akwati (Ex-land), Heipang, Vom etc were gruesomely murdered by suspected Berom bandits and corpses deposited in shallow wells, the then governor of the state, Jonah Jang and other native leaders never deemed it necessary to condemn the beastly act with a visit to bereaved families to show concern.
But when there was a reprisal at Dogo Nahauwa, Jang and other tribal leaders were quick to apportion blame on the perpetrators with condemnation as he was an early caller to the area to condole and provide immediate succor to the bereaved. A typical case of selective justice!
As I was talking on reports of past issues, I don’t mean including the report if any from Plateau State Government on how Gen. Idris Alkali, a passerby and several other innocent souls were murdered and buried in shallow graves and ponds in Dura-Du village of Jos South local government area by suspected Berom bandits now enjoying their freedom courtesy of a bail granted by a Jos High Court judge and possibly celebrated by other native militia groups as heroes.
Those gruesome murders, although very painful, seems to have been swept under the carpet by those in authority, foolishly thinking it will not resurface or there wouldn’t be any reprisal action in future if justice is denied its rightful place. It’s a matter of time from my observation.
Recent statement credited to the military officer who carried out the cumbersome and dangerous assignment of digging deep down into how Gen. Alkali was murdered, reveals volumes. A Plateau State High Court Judge, Daniel Longi then, verge of retirement from the bench, had the guts, audacity and shamelessly ordered the release of arrested suspects in connection with the gruesome murder of the retired military officer on bail to satisfy the wishes of his kith and kin in their dream world.
The real hidden agenda behind the persistent crisis rocking Plateau State is yet to be exposed because sponsors of the crisis are not hidden but known, instead of arresting and prosecuting them, they are enjoying their peace and celebrated for reasons best known to those shielding them from justice which is gradually and steadily breeding reprisal through jungle justice, banditry or whatever it may be called.
What we fail to understand is the fact that a typical Fulani creation by extraction does not subscribe easily to any cease fire once charged from provocation, stupidity, challenge or any offence of high magnitude. He lives to fight till silenced forever or victorious not minding the consequences involved. We must put this at the back of our minds as a guide and not for any fear.
Unless, the Almighty intervenes, from my objective analysis of the love-lost situation at hand, there may never be permanent peace on the Plateau so long as those bloodthirsty ethno-religious jingoists are breathing on planet earth and occupying strategic positions of influence within the polity, their communities or religious organizations. Those are the real representatives of the devil stationed on the Plateau preaching hate and celebrating violence. Reference to one hopeless idiot, who of recent paraded himself as ‘Sheikh’ Pastor ‘Muhammed Muhammed’ who featured in a video clip, that went viral so desperate to cause other rounds of violence on the Plateau for his personal pleasure.
They encourage and sponsor mayhem, attacks and murders of their hated targets with or without an iota of reasoning, provocation or offence hiding under the canopy of either religion or land grabbing or ethnicity.
Let us look at the issue of the so-called land grabbing for this discourse. How and when did those referred to as settlers own land on the Plateau? Was it through inheritance, donation, failed mortgage agreement, purchase, seizure or forceful grab? Most of those referred to as settlers own their lands through due process not by seizure or the alleged grab. By the time the natives realized they had disposed off their lands and left with nothing, they started crying to the skies shouting alleged grab hence the issue of ethnic cleansing was cooked to retrieve the lands by force from legitimate owners using all available means.
Sponsors of the crisis forgot to reason that those “settlers” whose legitimately owned lands were forcefully seized, murdered or chased away have the right by any means possible to bounce back either to reclaim their land if interested or cause the breach of peace as a way out.
According to Nura Muhammed, chairman of Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria (MACBAN), Plateau State Council, “The natives have been shouting that Fulani should leave their ancestral lands. What do they mean? The entire Mangu local government area was a complete Fulani dynasty, called Butum Chiefdom, where Ardo Dabude was used by the colonial masters for indirect rule when they arrived Butum Chiefdom.
“And today, Dabude’s descendants are called non-indigenes of the area founded by their grandparents and made to face different kinds of harassment, threats, and intimidation just to send them packing. By the time the Fulani were in control of the land, the natives were said to be on hills and caves all over Plateau State. No single native was on the ground. If there was any, let history be visited
“We can name the first set of missionaries to have arrived Butum Chiefdom and when Mangu leprosium was built and the first primary school established before another leprosium was built at Bayara and Kampanin Kutare in Bauchi State, Bambur in present day Taraba State and that of Garkida in Adamawa State. We know when and how the Mwaghavul surfaced in Mangu and claimed to be indigenes. The relics are still there to establish our facts. The same thing is applicable to the Beroms who are claiming what originally belongs to others”
This reminds me on one Friday, August 27, 2021, members of the 9th Plateau State House of Assembly, called on ex-Governor Simon Bako Lalong to come up with a statement defending the people and to bring back renewed commitment to the cause of Plateau. They strongly called on the Plateau people to practically stand up and defend themselves, and their communities, as the conventional security design was no longer guaranteeing their safety as a people. That was a ‘patriotic’ call from lawmakers directing the people to stand up in defence of themselves as the conventional security design was no longer guaranteeing their safety as endangered people.
But, let us shudder to think on how lawmakers could descend to such a low level of primitiveness calling on their people to be lawless guising as defending themselves. Instead, one had all along expected the lawmakers to proffer better solutions to the security challenges disfiguring the state than the infantile call for self-defence. To defend themselves with bare hands, hoes, cutlasses, bows, arrows, spears and dane guns or with miracle? How many of those their community members can afford the cost of modern guns and accessories and what is their combined numerical strength to stand a fight with the most populous ethnic nationality in the African Continent? Was that not a direct call for a suicide mission in naked truth!
That bold statement was safely considered as a critical juncture which underscored media reports and spurious allegations of ineptitude, indifference and cluelessness against Governor Lalong in handling the fragile security situation on the Plateau.
The lawmakers took the ‘bold’ step to tackle the seeming vacuum in the political leadership of the state from their perception, where inaction had held sway as they showed. It was a decisive step to provide momentary relief to the despondent people of the state and possibly recover the state from sailing adrift on a rudderless voyage. They wanted the governor to double act and to be seen acting even in hopelessness to please their taste for cheap political dividends. That was a joke carried too far!
It can be recalled that Jos, Riyom, Barikin Ladi, Bokkos and Bassa witnessed several bloodbaths in the past triggered by the gruesome murder of innocent persons in separate incidents within just few days.
In Bassa, the killings were triggered by hoodlums believed to be Irigwe youth who murdered 25 innocent Tijjaniyya Sect Fulani travelers from Bauchi to Ikare in Ondo State on Saturday, August 14, 2021 around Gada biyu – Rukuba road within Jos metropolis. That was followed by the massacre of over 35 Irigwe villagers of Yelwan-Zangam, Jos North local government area barely 10 days after that was methodically executed in the night.
Till this moment, the state remains tension-soaked as fears of further attacks heighten with the alarm of an ‘influx’ of suspected ‘terrorists’ from other areas.
Plateau State is no stranger to communal crisis and the people are no less acquainted with the grief it generated over the years, as residents witnessed unyielding crisis with huge losses of lives and properties. Efforts to resolve the age-long crisis have often failed. More disturbing, was the fact that the coming of the All Progressives Congress (APC) to power in 2015 with its change mantra, and a vow to tackle the insecurity which it courageously achieved towards permanent peace, but the effort was periodically and rudely punctured by hoodlums on suspected sponsorship that almost returned the state to the dark days until the coming of Caleb Manassah Mutfwang of the PDP extraction in 2023, a straight forward leader who seems to know where the shoes pinches more ascended the throne of leadership.
Fortunately, Plateau State now has a governor whose commitment to achieving lasting peace in the troubled state cannot be doubted for now. It may not be out of place to say that the governor, a legal practitioner by profession and onetime chairman of Mangu local government council, is battling the odds to restore lasting peace on the Plateau without attached sentiments as characteristics of some past leaders that failed woefully.
Lest I forget, where are those Plateau State self-appointed indigenes masquerading as elders, community leaders, religious leaders and political players? Should we say they are comfortable with the situation as it is today? I remember the active days of real elders, leaders and political players the likes of Yahaya Kwande, Solomon Daushep Lar, Prof Dakum Gaius Shown, Nicholas Selben Musa, Gen. Jeremiah Timbut Useni, Vonjen Gambo Sanda, Sen. Silas Janfa, Sati Gogwim, Bernard Banfa, Jethro Akun, Samuel Mafuyai, Alhassan Shu’aibu, DB Zang, Inuwa Ali, Gen. Joseph Nanven Garba, Jibrin Zololo, Bishop Gabriel Gopsum Ganaka, Micheal Danbaki, Salihu Muhammed Gonto, DT Sango, Ahmadu Zakari, Musan Sati, Senator George Baba Hoomkwap, Abdulkadir Zakari, Sani Minista, Sulen Jebu, Nasiru Mantu, Mudi Ardo, Micheal Mutle Hirse, Joseph Tongjin, John Jatau Kadiya, Musa Maigandu, Fidelis Tapgun, Garba Pasali, Ambrose Gapsuk, Idi Abubakar BY, Helen Gomwalk, Alhassan Vono, Binta Maisango, Hajia Tawakali, Senator John Wash Pam, Sule Rabo Isa, Isa Garba Wase, Joseph Jiblik, AM Dung, Ja’afaru Tallen, Abdullahi Nimlan, Hannatu Chollom, Na’omi Jugu, Senator Cosmos Niagwam, Hajia Ladi Nimlan, Ezekiel Selzing Yusuf, Justice Yakubu Idris, Maxwell Yakubu, Sale Hassan, Senator Davou DB Zang, Prof Para Malum, John Nandom Kum, Ezekiel Washik, Pastor Yeriyep Lot, Barr Umaru Shittien, Barr Miskoom Pupet, Lohsel Shagayya and a host of others. They were elders and leaders that believed in the unity of Plateau State and Peaceful co-existence. With the exception of few, majority of those mentioned have joined their ancestors in a peaceful Plateau State they cherished and labored to build but now under destruction by those bloodthirsty vandals left behind. May the Almighty God light the path of understanding for unity and Save Plateau State!
Muhammad is a commentator on national issues.
