Just from the blues while the people were managing their peace, some ruffians emerged abruptly on the Plateau and enthroned the rule of native terrorism under the ‘Republic of Violence’.
Labeled as bandits, tribal militia or herders, they are devoted to brutish and indiscriminate killings of human beings, perpetrating looting, raping and arson with passion under the cover of land grabbing, ethnicity, cattle rustling and religion. But if the desire is to proffer lasting solution to the lingering problem, we should most sincerely ask ourselves why and what remotely caused the deadly acts from the onset in 2001? Was it an ethno-religious cleansing, forceful ejection from legally possessed lands or what? Who first shattered the peace and why? What was the response of the state government to the beastly act of destroying lives and properties of innocent persons, right from the onset? Was the government comfortable with the heinous act targeted at so-called settlers and the concoction labeled as ‘indigenous Muslims’ in the absence of indigenous Christians, pagans, and atheists?
The mainstream of the wretched on the Plateau across the ethno-religious divide are the usual casualties of the heinous and senseless killings. Their troubled world is controlled by excessive and persistent fears of incessant attacks by the murderers as if they were state enemies. Having degraded their living to the theatre of game of death, their costly blood has become cheaper than dirty water which cannot circumvent the horrors of the evil beasts.
The merciless assassins have murdered the fragile peace of the downtrodden and installed sorrow, tears, blood and despair unabated!
Alarmingly, ethno-religious crisis, banditry, and native terrorism are now a mega industry recruiting and breeding more terrorists to hike the general level of mass destruction and dislocations of law and order on the Plateau.
In spite of the efforts by our gallant soldiers and other security agencies, yet it is obvious that the expected light at the end of the tunnel is still a mirage for the hypocrisy and pretence of those in government. Is there any way out?
Plateau State, largely populated by ethnic minorities, has been conspicuously trapped between the devil and the deep blue sea. It is on the brink of a precipice because it lacks the political will to decipher and acknowledge its deeply rooted social diseases spreading destructions, and more pre-occupied with fruitless battle with symptoms as remedy to its socio-economic turmoil. Consequently, the people are timid or hypocritical in interrogating themselves some thought provoking questions which are inevitable for salvation.
The most wretched on mother earth, the direct casualties and targets of the continuous attacks, are left calling for a war or a gang-up to fight the ‘invisible’. That’s mere illusion spiced with foolishness out of frustration that cannot be of any help other than escalation of violence and more casualties. It had happened, the natives were gingered and encouraged to fight back with an alleged support of the state government and some influential ethno-religious bigots. That has not solved the problem since 2001 but escalated it. Instead of progress, the state has transformed to an abandoned orphan by investors and alike. No sane investor thinks of investing in a troubled environment other than hair dressing and barbing saloons, beer parlors, makeshift eateries, hawking of fruits and other petty trading activities. The state has been deserted by the serious-minded to safety coasts.
For instance, how did the people find themselves in that most embarrassing and frustrating situation? How bad are the people doing and how well are people in other states developing in peace? Are there no other ethnic nationalities or religious adherents in other states enjoying abundance of peace without pretending to be more Catholic than the Pope? Who are the architects of the lingering violence and their benefit? They must be identified and apprehended not minding their societal status! Are the people planning to unchain themselves from the zone of self-destruction to self-actualization? What is the rate of involvement of self-appointed religious leaders and preachers in fanning the embers of hatred on the Plateau now being paid dearly with precious lives?
Why are people allowing subversive tendencies and derogatory preaching from religious ignorant and agents of devil to shape their social living? What will be the future of Plateau State if the notorious cankerworm persists? Your Guess is as good as mine!
These are few questions that should be hitting and knocking hard on the minds of the people to stimulate and wake them up from protracted slumber and pursuit of a shadow to rescue their embattled state from further drifting by departing from the danger zone of ethno-religious chauvinism and day-dream of forceful Christianizing the state known as the national epicentre of religious pretense, religious ignorance, religious intolerance, paganism and atheism.
Undoubtedly, this unbridled criminality (native terrorism/banditry) is a product of bad governance as well as collapse of jingoism. From general assessment, there is scarcity of foresight in Plateau State on where the government intends to take the people, and what the people want to be and how to reach their planned destination because they have imbibed the culture of ‘misplaced’ fight for a religion they so much love to be seen practicing but ignorantly. Their belief is predominantly focused on doing what they think is right than doing things known to be right and conventional. While the former is negative and myopic in reality, the latter is positive and progressive. That has been the thinking of typical Plateau natives right from the 70s, 80s, 90s, and even in the 20s. Thus, their socioeconomic infection is not given the treatment it deserves just as a doctor refuses to diagnose a disease and allows the patient to die.
I candidly view ethno-religious cleansing and terrorism as symptoms of a contamination called retrogressive society. The more we deliberately discard this fact, the longer the end of disaster and hence the turbulent journey to the last bus stop.
Recall that a retrogressive society strives by reproducing and conserving the conditions of its own survival in the midst of progressing societies. Essentially therefore, Plateau State from the look of things is not ready to usher in a paradigm shift to eliminate its myopicism, destructive socioeconomic and political structures. It has refused overtime to respect Sections 33 (1) and 41 (1) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended) that stipulates right to life and right to move freely, own property and reside anywhere within the country unless otherwise.
To those Plateau State ethno-religious jingoists, a Hausa/Fulani Muslim has no right under their self-made laws to reside and even move freely in the lands they claim ownership. But foolishly, they want to move freely and reside in other climes populated by those they hate.
Former governor Simon Bako Lalong while in power, tried to achieve lasting peace, but his efforts were thwarted, frustrated, rejected and his person subjected to ridicule by blood thirsty criminals garbed in ethno-religious attires believing in a mirage called ethnic cleansing targeted at so called settlers. They always think negatively believing in an illusion of frustrating the so called settlers who are great contributors to the development of the state for over a century than the land claimants in all facets of life.
It was Micheal Oakeshott who argued that to be retrogressive or conservative is to prefer the familiar to the unknown, prefer the tried to the untried, the limited to the unbounded.
Are the mass of the people guilty of boycotting new discoveries of former governor Lalong to usher-in everlasting peace for a rebranded Plateau State or not?
As a people, they seem proud to preserve the extreme class of the rich, secured and the extreme vulnerable class of the poor. This gives rise to class and ethno-religious antagonism, distinction etc. Whatever the factors the orthodox arrangement may be it is not a socioeconomic setting that strives in other states of Nigeria; Adamawa, Bauchi, Bayelsa, Kaduna, Nasarawa, Niger, Gombe, Ogun, Oyo, Delta, Rivers, Akwa-Ibom, Cross River and Lagos are typical examples of liberal and progressing states to buttress the point.
Of course, the blood thirsty terrorists who unleashed mayhem in Kuru, Dura-Du, Riyom, Anguldi, Vom, Bukuru, Jos, Naraguta, Bassa, Dogo Nahauwa, Bisichi, Bokkos, Barikin Ladi, Gindin Akwati (Ex-land) etc, and of recent Mangu and Panyam, are just a symptom of a social infection consciously and devilishly created to destabilize Plateau State under an ethno-religious blue-print. That is why the people are acting the script of human catastrophe on the Plateau and not analyzing their devilish activities beyond the surface level. The unrepentant villains across the divide are products of an ailing system of a class society among others.
To buttress this point further, some interviewed apprehended suspects confessed to have been offended by their targets, neglected by the government and pushed by social vices to commit atrocities. Nevertheless, that cannot be accepted as genuine reason for gruesome murder, arson, looting and rape.
If our governments have made judicious utilization of state resources spiced with sincere policies and commitment to peaceful co-existence and overall inclusiveness as was the case, heartless murderers and ethno-religious bigots could have since relocated out of the shores or repented.
In an effort to dig deep down into the remote cause/support to the crisis bedeviling the state, a House of Representatives member representing Wase federal constituency in Plateau State, Ahmed Idris Wase, revealed at plenary that during the Jonah Jang administration, 300 youth were secretly recruited and sent to Israel for military training that needs to be further investigated for clarity of the mission. In the first place why Israel? Why not to be trained in any of our institutions? Why the training and for which intention? What of the container that contained explosives and other deadly weapons? Why the import and the motive? Does it mean the government trained and armed some native terrorists to escalate the violence in the state?
Related to this hard fact, the governments of northern states have continued to neglect agriculture as the mainstay of the economy despite the absence of other channels for wealth creation to reduce the level of poverty with its vast arable land.
Climate change and artificially created abject poverty and unemployment, selected justice, lopsided state policies laced with sentiments are some of the backbones of the persistent crisis rocking Plateau State. Â It is lamentable that agriculture, animal husbandry and skills acquisition are neglected at the peril of the people. The once vibrant Plateau State Vocational Training Centre is a replica of its former self. Private investors have since closed shop and relocated to safer climes. Tourism which was a huge revenue source has collapsed. Other state revenue generating holdings such as Plateau Publishing and Printing Company (Publishers of Nigeria Standard Newspaper), Jos main market, Jos zoological garden, Panyam fish farm, Butura dairy farm, Wase Rock, Pankshin, Shendam, Plateau, Hill Station hotels, Jos Turf club etc are moribund.
In his determination to improve the revenue base of the state and boost trade and commerce, former governor Lalong deployed efforts through partnership with Jaiz Bank to rebuild the burnt Jos main market for revenue and job opportunities, ethno-religious bigots and undertakers of the state hurriedly rushed to the Court to put the effort on hold in the absence of an alternative even from the Vatican, Bacchus or any of the Pentecostal organizations. Is that how to progress in peace associating religion with an already battered economy?
The funny part of the foolishness is that the master mind of the blockade, one Dachung Bogos, as an ignorant Christian, subtracted positive thinking from Christianity. Before the blockade, he could have provided an alternative for a way forward. I still keep on wondering aloud!
To conserve and sustain the retrogression order for the underdevelopment, most governments are more into building powerful individuals with hidden agendas against the collective progress of the people rather than constructing a strong and virile state in which the average and ordinary people will enjoy a dignified living. Able-bodied educated youths are roaming the streets hawking carrots, birds, bush meat, rats and vegetables while few are in the internet fraud business to sustain a living or waiting anxiously for eruption of crisis to block the federal highway that passes through their localities, to murder the innocent, loot and rob unabatedly.
With this negative trend, Plateau leaders are not interested in serving the less privileged but to concentrate their vast resources to building new worlds while the downtrodden are sponsored to fight for the protection of claimed lands and an imposed religion. This uncharitable character is a training ground for the evolution of envious and broken men and the end result is what we are witnessing today.
The bandits and terrorists of our generation are too unrefined that they enjoy and celebrate mass murders. This is notwithstanding, they are not pure evils as we think but the negative of positive evil. It is therefore condemnable that our sentimental structure is the positive evil, the father of banditry and terrorism.
Bandits and terrorists can be killed on a mass scale at a time but no amount of armored tanks, air bombardment or military prowess can eliminate banditry and terrorism if this ethno-religious setting of exclusiveness remains what it is. No government can stop the herder from herding as no herder can stop the farmer from farming. Therefore, it is left for the government to proffer applicable and acceptable solution to the herder/farmer conflict, forceful land grabbing etc without bias than the window dressing on display.
All states with lingering security challenges should strive to go back to the drawing board to launch heavy assaults against the virus that caused the disease not the symptom. I most sincerely hope former governors Joshua Dariye, Jonah Jang and Samuel Ortom are listening as they vacated office disappointed village tyrants without restoring peace in their embattled States despite their hypocrisy and pretence. They created part of the problems and run away from the troubles. Ortom was the first to reject the federal government’s ranching initiative without proffering a better solution until he exited power and left the people to bear the brunt. What a mockery of leadership!
Muhammad is a commentator on national issues. Â
