“Can anything be more stupid than that a man has the right to kill me because he lives on the other side of a river and his ruler has a quarrel with mine, though I have not quarreled with him?” (Blaise Pascal)
“Can anything be more stupid than that a man has the right to kill me because he lives on the other side of a river and his ruler has a quarrel with mine, though I have not quarreled with him?” (Blaise Pascal)
Jos has become the land of the dead, ghosts and spirits. A city riddled with fear of death and unknown. A city where everybody is a victim and could pay the ultimate price of being in Jos at any moment. Jos and the surrounding communities have become a national debacle of tourist cities and for the past 10years has been living exact the opposite of its state’s slogan as a “home of peace and tourism”. No more tourists or peace and hardly can someone sleep with two eyes comfortably closed at night. It is no longer a city where every tribe and creed co-exists in peace and harmony and lives as neighbours. It is now a city where even the security outfits are also victims of the circumstance, where nobody is a sacred cow when in the wrong hand at the wrong place at the wrong time. A city, which travelers are boycotting for a longer and safer routes. A city with a problem that has defiled all available solutions to extent of the Governor of the state crying in public along with protesting women. Jos is no longer the serene city we all used to know.
The problem in Jos is the failure of Nigerian inept ruling class to guarantee the rights and benefits of citizenship to every Nigerian irrespective of his or her circumstances of birth, tribe or creed. The underlying cause of protracted crisis in Jos is essentially the inability of the Nigerian State to abrogate the dichotomy between the “Indigenes” and “Settlers”. It has assumed religious connotation because the so-called “Settlers” in Jos are Hausas/Fulanis who are incidentally mainly Muslims. The argument of the so called “Indigenes” is that the Hausa/Fulanis in the core north will not allow them to be Indigenes in their respective States. Former administration failed to address this cancer eating the Nigerian State and from the actions and inactions of this present administration, it has shown disposition of tacitly and lackadaisically unwilling to deal with the issue of “indigene/settler” dichotomy.
This problem is everywhere in Nigeria. It showed up in Benue state few months back when the fulanis and “indigenes” of Benue slaughtered themselves for no just cause. Nigerians that have lived all their lives in places regarded as not their ancestral homes like Kano, Lagos, Enugu, and Port-Harcourt, who their parents have paid taxes there are regarded as non-indigenes and consequently deprived of all the benefits accruing to the ‘indigenes’. Lagos and Kano states are struggling to be recognized as the most populous state in Nigeria while most of these population are regarded as non-indigenes and therefore, their children cannot fill Lagos or Kano States as their State of origin. Why can’t any of the elites walk through the streets of Jos in demonstration of our common humanity? They will not because their children are not affected and Jos as a city does not hold any significance to their economic stake in Nigeria nation.
Living in Jos has become the art of daily calculation which when it fails could lead to one’s untimely death. On the two major campuses of the university of Jos, one can’t but notice the posters and pictures at every public notice board. These are not posters and pictures of students contesting departmental and students’ union elections or the posters of candidates for just concluded national elections, but posters and pictures of missing students. Disappearance of people in Jos is now rampant and daily occurrence. Some roads that were known to being scanty always are now witnessing heavy traffics and many roads with heavy traffic in the past are now deserted and lonely. There is “apartheid” in Jos city now, not created by law but by incessant crises that has bedeviled the city since the last 10years. Areas like Angwan Rogo, Congo, Nasarawa gwong, Dadinkowa first gate, Rikkos, and Bauchi road area are purely Muslim dominated areas. Whereas areas like Angwan Rukuba, Busa buji, west of mines, Apata, Some parts of Alika zaure, Miango road, Bukuru, channel seven, Liberty boulevard, Aliheri, Rukuba road, British junction are purely Christian dominated areas. Anyone that knows Jos city well knows that those areas dominated by Muslims are sand-wished by Christian dominated areas putting them at the centre of the town. It can be rightly said that there is people’s consented segregated dwellings in Jos. As a Christian in Jos, you dare not come near or walk through the streets of areas dominated by Muslims which if you do will result not only to your being hacked to death but also the disappearance of your body and the same fate befalls a Muslim who ventures into Christian dominated areas. It’s a case of friends and neighbors turning to foes over night just for belonging to different ethnic and religious groups. Jos crisis is far different from the kind of crisis that occur in other parts of Nigeria. Jos crisis has taken a dangerous dimension that will only take a decisive and firm stance of Nigerian state to resolve.
Some people attributed the unending Jos crisis to lack of information from the public to security agencies. Some other people attributed continuous Jos crisis to Youth unemployment. The present Jos Crisis is beyond unemployment and lack of information to the security. If unemployment is still fueling the crisis, students who are yet to graduate would not have had the confrontation they had with Hausa community which resulted in the death of some Hausas and students. How can security agencies lack information when within their fold, there is divisions among them along ethnic and religious lines. They have also contributed to the reduction of population in Jos. The situation in Jos is more of a mutual suspicion and distrust between Christians and Muslims. Whenever it is reported that there is peace in Jos, it simply means at least no more bloodshed at that moment and not a complete confidence and mutual co-existence of people.
Since after September 2001 crisis in Jos, there has never been a normal peace in Jos but only negative peace which even a drop of leaf can degenerate to mammoth destruction of lives and property. The “Indigenes” are saying that the “Settlers” must leave Jos or at least be docile politically especially as regards to contesting election while the “Settlers” are insisting that Jos is their home and must be politically active. Off course, the elites are too busy stealing public money to care about the discrimination and killings in the society.
The tribal marks of some people which use to serve as their tribal identification is now mark of death. The mark on the fore-heads of some Muslims as a result of constant prayer is now a mark of death. If you are identified with a mark at the wrong corner by the wrong people, your own is finished. A Muslim looking like a Christian could be slaughtered by fellow Muslims if he didn’t identify his creed on time and the same applies to a Christian that looks like a Muslim. I have a missing friend who I believe is dead. He mounted bike to go and withdraw money from his bank and that was the last time he was seen for over three months now. Cases like this abound in Jos and nobody is happy about it both Christians and Muslims alike. Muslims are disappearing, Christians are disappearing and I ask, who is the winner?
The Jos crisis has shown the level of religious hypocrisy among Nigerian religious devotees. The Christianity and Islamic religions in Nigeria have become tool in the hands of corrupt Nigerian ruling elites. If truly we are as religious as we claim to be, the issue of “Indigenes” and “Settlers” would have been replaced with “love thy neighbour as thy self”. The state and federal governments appear to have lost track in finding a lasting solution to Jos crisis. They are not even doing anything to even disabuse the minds of Jos residents from taking one another as enemies rather they were playing politics with it in their campaign adverts. Nobody here in Jos needs be told the dangers of living like animals because all of us see and witness the consequences every day. The ruling class has left the situation like that because it is favouring their political interest which they believe hold key to their economic domination.
Students are receiving lectures under fear of bomb explosion and likely attack from people desirous of killing in large scale. Terminus market is now a ghost market as Christians and Muslims trade at different locations. People go to public places in Jos with fear of likely bomb explosion, be it Church, Mosque, Market, School, et cetera. It is not an exciting experience living in a city knowing that some people somewhere will be glad to send you to an untimely grave. Sleeping at night is no longer a comfort but rather a necessity of life. Life experience in Jos is not what I will ever wish for anybody and government should take a very resolute step in resolving the problem as it takes deeper and dangerous dimension every each passing day.
Obi Ebuka Onochie writes from University of Jos
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