January 28, 2010
I did not want to write on the Jos crisis particularly because it has become a perennial phenomenon. I only decided otherwise because I have been inundated by telephone calls and several pieces of e-mail from people who believe that it’d be proper for anyone who can to write about it and bring views that condemns the evil that undergirds the crisis to the attention of people of goodwill everywhere. Blame for the violence that has time and time again ravaged Jos, which used to be a peaceful place of abode for all who reside in it irrespective of the part of Nigeria they are from or the religious faith they profess must be laid squarely on the doorsteps of Nigeria’s erstwhile dictator, General Ibrahim Babangida, the self-confessed evil genius.
Babangida’s social engineering policies were reckless to say the least. The perennial blood-letting that plagues Jos is one of the several horrendous crisis spawned by his heartless social engineering. Some of us still recall how he carved out what everyone knows as an exclusive enclave of Hausa Muslims who are not originally from the area into what exists today as Jos North Local Government Area. Subsequently the intolerance that pervades faith in most of the North continues to find vent in that enclave ever since. At the least provocation it is now the pattern for Muslims in Jos North Local Government Area to quickly summon their kit and kin from Kano to help them unleash havoc on innocent people who are Christians on the entire Plateau.
Unless something dramatic to undo some of his social engineering excesses, the likes of the violence outbreaks in Jos that consumes the lives of innocent people time and time again will sustain. I’m not diabolic, but if it turns out that we have been condemned to bear such violent outburst indefinitely, my wish is for him to live long enough and witness the ultimate crisis by way of Nigeria’s disintegration in his life time.
I don’t see why the Muslim Hausa in Jos North are to quick to wield violence against innocent people in their bid to assert the same political rights that Christians in Borno, Bauchi, Niger, Kebbi, Yobe and even Katsina states are routinely denied. The population of Christians in the above-mentioned states is quite significant. Christians enjoy a higher share of the population in about eleven out of the 34 LGAs in Katsina. The population of Christians the 9 LGAs in Bornu is significantly higher that that of Muslims. The same is true about 7 out of the 20 LGAs in Bauchi state. Yet, Christians have continued to experience so much political marginalization in all of those states. But at no time have they unleashed violence on anyone to make political statement and political claims.
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Why must the people of Plateau state who accommodate the Hausa-Fulani who settled amongst them and go as far as factor them quite generously into the political scheme of things be subjected to unwarranted expression of violence? Even as I write this piece, the deputy speaker of the Plateau House of Assembly is a Hausa Muslim from Jos North, the representative of Jos North/Bassa constituency in the Federal House of Representative is also a Hausa Muslim settler. No one has taken up arms against the Hausa-Fulani residents of Plateau state.
Unfortunately emotions are so high now over this latest violence that was unleashed on innocent people in Jos that everybody is coming to judgement. Those who love Nigeria must stand up now to support the call for the Sovereign National Conference. Postponing that conclave is akin to shifting the dooms days for Nigeria. If the reports published in the papers are anything to go by, the Nigeria Army which is supposed to operate above the fray has been implicated in the Jos violence. We may not be far away from Somalia-type mayhem in parts of Nigeria.
The resort to sectarian violence against innocent people which has become the pattern in Bauchi, Sokoto, Yobe, and even Borno states has now been extended to Plateau state since 1991. The resort to holier than thou tactics by irresponsible the interview in the Daily Trust of Friday, January 22 by one Sheik Dahiru Bauchi, the end of religious crises in Jos is not in sight yet. People of goodwill the world over must lend their voice on Jos to forestall genocide in the scale of what took place in Rwanda.
● Ndiameeh Babrik writes from Plateau State, Nigeria. He can be reach at [email protected]
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Babangida’s social engineering policies were reckless to say the least. The perennial blood-letting that plagues Jos is one of the several horrendous crisis spawned by his heartless social engineering. Some of us still recall how he carved out what everyone knows as an exclusive enclave of Hausa Muslims who are not originally from the area into what exists today as Jos North Local Government Area. Subsequently the intolerance that pervades faith in most of the North continues to find vent in that enclave ever since. At the least provocation it is now the pattern for Muslims in Jos North Local Government Area to quickly summon their kit and kin from Kano to help them unleash havoc on innocent people who are Christians on the entire Plateau.
Unless something dramatic to undo some of his social engineering excesses, the likes of the violence outbreaks in Jos that consumes the lives of innocent people time and time again will sustain. I’m not diabolic, but if it turns out that we have been condemned to bear such violent outburst indefinitely, my wish is for him to live long enough and witness the ultimate crisis by way of Nigeria’s disintegration in his life time.
I don’t see why the Muslim Hausa in Jos North are to quick to wield violence against innocent people in their bid to assert the same political rights that Christians in Borno, Bauchi, Niger, Kebbi, Yobe and even Katsina states are routinely denied. The population of Christians in the above-mentioned states is quite significant. Christians enjoy a higher share of the population in about eleven out of the 34 LGAs in Katsina. The population of Christians the 9 LGAs in Bornu is significantly higher that that of Muslims. The same is true about 7 out of the 20 LGAs in Bauchi state. Yet, Christians have continued to experience so much political marginalization in all of those states. But at no time have they unleashed violence on anyone to make political statement and political claims.
articleadslinks
Why must the people of Plateau state who accommodate the Hausa-Fulani who settled amongst them and go as far as factor them quite generously into the political scheme of things be subjected to unwarranted expression of violence? Even as I write this piece, the deputy speaker of the Plateau House of Assembly is a Hausa Muslim from Jos North, the representative of Jos North/Bassa constituency in the Federal House of Representative is also a Hausa Muslim settler. No one has taken up arms against the Hausa-Fulani residents of Plateau state.
Unfortunately emotions are so high now over this latest violence that was unleashed on innocent people in Jos that everybody is coming to judgement. Those who love Nigeria must stand up now to support the call for the Sovereign National Conference. Postponing that conclave is akin to shifting the dooms days for Nigeria. If the reports published in the papers are anything to go by, the Nigeria Army which is supposed to operate above the fray has been implicated in the Jos violence. We may not be far away from Somalia-type mayhem in parts of Nigeria.
The resort to sectarian violence against innocent people which has become the pattern in Bauchi, Sokoto, Yobe, and even Borno states has now been extended to Plateau state since 1991. The resort to holier than thou tactics by irresponsible the interview in the Daily Trust of Friday, January 22 by one Sheik Dahiru Bauchi, the end of religious crises in Jos is not in sight yet. People of goodwill the world over must lend their voice on Jos to forestall genocide in the scale of what took place in Rwanda.
● Ndiameeh Babrik writes from Plateau State, Nigeria. He can be reach at [email protected]
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