Just from the blues while the people were managing their peace within an artificially created hardship from insincere federal administration piloted by a tribal bigot with the support of Arewa parasites, some ruffians emerged abruptly on the Plateau and enthroned the rule of native terrorism under the ‘Republic of Violence’.
Before dwelling into the topic of this discourse, let me quickly address a recent ignorance that I perused through which was the friction of imagination of a bigot who displayed his crass ignorance on the histories of Wase and Kanam traditional institutions.
First, the broad day converted Pagan doesn’t even know what an Emirate stands for. He believes it has its meaning rooted in the Sokoto Caliphate to have encouraged him to spit venom. If it has its meaning rooted in the Caliphate, where does the meaning of Gwom Gbong, Mishkam, Long Goemai, Ponzhi Taroh etc originate from because the mentioned tribes had no organized traditional institutions or even mode of dressing other than wearing animal skin and nakedness in wandering.
The ignorant asked why Wase and Kanam in Plateau State have Emirs instead of bearing tribal titles of Long, Ponzhi etc as Plateau State has nothing to do with Sokoto Caliphate.
The author of that piece must be living in a world of ignorance since his creation and must not be ignored for being ignorant.
First, let him ask himself why is the country called Nigeria not changed to an indigenous name? And why is the state itself bearing Plateau not an indigenous name? Is Nigeria still a British colony to have retained its name as Nigeria? Jos, Pankshin, Mangu, Langtang, Bassa, Bokkos etc are not indigenous names but mere creation to suit a purpose for convenience.
After all, when were Chiefdoms created for Shaushau (Berom), Sura (Mwaghvul) Ankwe (Goemai) Yergam (Taroh) etc and by which government? Was Rwang Pam not the first appointed Chief of Shaushau by the Northern Nigeria Government? I refer the ignorant bigot to go and dig deep down into history for knowledge than further display of ignorance and bigotry in public space.
Before any indigene was appointed as Chief in Plateau State, Wase and Kanam, as Muslim dominated areas had their Emirs administering the domains and were met, recognized and sustained by the British colonialists who brought along with them Christianity as a religion, and converted the Pagans through incentives and domestic labor.
The bigot should advance his argument to address why the so called Plateau indigenes bear foreign names such as Caleb, Kefas, Jacob, Joshua etc. and where dressing in borrowed attire not their traditional attires of animal skin and nakedness?
Back to my topic, the perpetrators labeled as bandits, tribal militia or herders are devoted to brutish and the 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 or illegally 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? Which was the first religion to have reached Plateau State apart from Paganism heavily practiced by the natives?
The mainstream of the wretched on the Plateau across 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 destructions 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 with more casualties. Instead of progress, the state has transformed to an abandoned orphan by investors and alike forced to rely more on the federal monthly handout. No sane investor thinks investing in a troubled environment other than hair dressing and barbing saloons, beer parlors, makeshift eateries, hawking 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-destructions 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 and property?
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 pretence, 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, own property 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 socioeconomic 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), Panyam, Mangun etc, and of recent Mangu, 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 penultimate week at plenary that during the Jonah Jang administration, 300 youth were ‘secretly’ recruited, sent to Israel for ‘training’ that needs to be further investigated for clarity of the mission. In the first place why Israel of all countries? Why not to any of our domestic security related institutions that once trained Jang? Why the training in Israel and for which intention? What of the alleged container that contained ‘explosives’ and other deadly weapons revealed? Why the import of the explosives and the motive behind? Does it mean the government trained and armed some native terrorists to escalate the violence in the state and for which gain?
Related to this hard fact, the governments of Northern States have continued to neglect agriculture and skills acquisition as the mainstays of the economy despite the absence of other channels for wealth creation to reduce the level of poverty ravaging the region with its vast arable land. Instead, One Jonah Jang as a governor (2007 – 2015), preferred to train 300 youth not in modern agriculture but in Israel for an impossible mission against a targeted industrious people. He hurriedly created his brand of security out, Operation Rainbow for a specific intention. He has woefully failed overtime. He may exit this world a disappointed and disgraced bigot!
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. It is lamentable that agriculture, animal husbandry and skills acquisition are neglected at the peril of peace and 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 to allow the escalation of violence to flourish. Tourism which was a huge revenue source for the state has collapsed beyond rescue. 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 Resort, Pankshin, Shendam, Plateau, Jos , Hill Station hotels, and 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 Musa Bogos, as an ignorant pretending Christian, lacks the knowledge of what Jaiz Bank stands for. It only operates Islamic model of banking but is not an Islamic Bank. There are several Christians, Atheists and Pagans with substantial shares in Jaiz Bank not to his knowledge.
Bogos subtracted positive thinking from his model of 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, Darius Ishaku 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 and Jonah Jang were the first to reject the federal government’s ranching initiative without proffering a better solution until they exited power and left the people to bear the brunt. What an insult to leadership!
They are today left in daily mourning of their murdered tribal men and women from the crisis they created out of sheer hate and sentiment that are at variance with the Christian doctrine.
Muhammad is a commentator on national issues
