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Between God, Jonah Jang And The Plateau Crisis

September 22, 2011

“In response to [a] barrage of questions from journalists on the Plateau issues [SIC], Jang angrily said: “Am I God to end Jos crisis...He wondered why people were particular about insecurity in Plateau. ‘Is Plateau the only place that has security problem? Security situation is all over the country, so why are you so particular about Plateau State?”- DAILY TRUST, 9/14/2011

Frankly, I was not surprised by Governor Jonah Jang’s response quoted at the head of this piece. Under his watch, crisis has turned beautiful Plateau state, into an unparalleled killing field. Jos was the most cosmopolitan city in Northern Nigeria, drawing vibrancy from peoples from everywhere, to post success in different human endeavors; while its most-reassuring geography, made it a place to settle in or visit.

Whoever has experienced Plateau hospitality would feel the pains of its peoples today and lament at the sorry state of social existence; the ruination of economic intercourse and the destruction of the inter-personal relationships across divides that reign in city and its outskirts today.
 
One of the most tragic expressions of leadership failure is the refusal to rise above prejudices and mindset. Leadership obliges those in power to go beyond their own tunnel visions and appreciate the larger picture to work for the overall interest of society. Unfortunately in Plateau State, elites on the two broad sides of the divide have been unable to rise above their entrenched positions. This reminds me of a well-used maxim “If you get caught up in a hole, stop digging!” In Plateau State, contending groups of the elite have chosen to ruin their society, rather than build an inclusive peace or search for truth and reconciliation.

The Plateau’s crisis diminished the humanity of many of its people, judging by the tragic videos posted on the internet. I have seen shocking postings of human heads stuck into staffs and paraded on the street, with children, men and women, jubilating that an “enemy” was dealt with. There were images of human corpses cut into pieces like rams during Sallah! The building blocks of genocide are already laid in the Plateau as well as other parts of Nigeria, where people are butchered on the basis of identity: religion or ethnicity.
 
The elites that encourage these acts and manipulate them hurt the long-term health of society, and make it very difficult to build platforms to deploy against underdevelopment. At the heart of the crisis is a vicious elite competition for hegemony as basic needs of the people suffer neglect. The leadership recruitment process which threw up leaders like Governor Jonah Jang must be interrogated if we hope for the restitution of peace and the totally broken down inter-community relationships. So when Governor Jang said he was not God, to stop the crisis, he was right in a sense; but he also betrayed the mindset of an individual too lost in his biases to rise above them.

Certainly, there are crises situations in other parts of the country, but they don’t compare to the bitterness which feeds the Plateau crisis. The ruling elite seem to have completely vacated rationality, almost as if it went through a lobotomy procedure; they preside over the death of social existence in Plateau.

The city of Jos has been carved into “No-Go-Areas”; there are places where Muslims must not enter and vice versa for Christians too. Most of the original tit-for-tat killings were urban-based but more problematic are those in rural settings pitching Berom peasant communities against nomadic Fulbe groups. Rural Plateau State is tragically hemorrhaging, just as its urban setting cannot find lasting peace.
Governor Jang cannot be God, but between him and God, he has become too sucked into the Plateau crisis; he does not seem to possess the statesmanship to navigate a route out of the morass. Our ruling class has failed Nigeria, by recruiting the likes of governor Jang to provide leadership; it has led to disaster! 
 
 OUR COUNTRY IS AN OPEN TOILET BUILT UPON A FOUNDATION OF ABSURD RUMOURS

Dr Suomi Sakai is not likely to be known to the “average” Nigerian; but he makes very telling comments about our country. Dr Sakai is UNICEF’s Country Representative and Chief Ambassador. Last week he reminded the country about the level of our underdevelopment: “It is estimated that about 33 million Nigerians defecate in the open, depositing about 1.7 million tons of faeces into the environment annually”.

Dr Sakai described the practice as a “most worrisome…unsanitary practice.”  We confront the sight each day; an individual on a motorcycle or driving a car suddenly stops and chooses a space to either urinate or just bends and defecate, openly. I was in a taxi to Ikoyi, Lagos one day, when, from the gridlock, a man perched on a pavement near-by, unconcerned about the scores of eyes trained on him as he contributed his own share of the annual 1.7m tones of s**t (pardon me please!) to the Nigerian open space.

 In the 21st Century, why have public toilets not become de rigueur, in our cities and towns, as if humans will not be human. People build houses and forget that the guard post too deserves a toilet; so the Maigadi sneaks around the walls of houses looking for space to defecate.

Ours is truly a very backward society. Fantasy, miracle and delusion, have captured the social imagination while the depth of philistinism is mind-boggling! People do not read except tracts/books from the “prosperity preachers” of Nigerian Pentecostal churches or tracts/books from Saudi sources, in the case of Muslims.

The counterpart read is material about getting rich fast or what is generally referred to as ‘motivational’ literature, part of the delusional baggage of making capitalist exploitation and the accompanying poison  palatable inside the sugary coating of ‘hope’ that you too can ‘make’ it!

 Well, last week, a new page of delusion was opened in Nigeria, with the absurd text which most people received, and I did too: “Pls be careful in receiving call especially new numbers. Over 10 people lost their lives in Wukari LGA in Taraba state 2day in answering call. Dis are d no 09141 only 5 digit. Pass it 2 other pls 2 save life”.

Naturally it generated panic, precisely because we live in a society that does not interrogate phenomena nor ask basic rational questions. How plausible is it that death can occur from telephone calls? Which service provider issued the number? Could 09-14-1 not be September 14, 2011? Was someone not playing games with the Nigerian, as a sucker for mystery and the deification of myth, especially in a world where people confront the real fears of poverty, underdevelopment, unemployment, infant mortality, disease and inadequate social provisions?

It was also in our country that panic was generated last year, when a certain date was also announced for an “acid rain”. I got the text from a Senior Advocate of Nigeria and wondered why he and others couldn’t have simply googled “acid rain” and then spare themselves of the panic? When a society vacates rationality and superstitious mumbo-jumbo and other mind-bending belief systems take them over, this is what reigns.
 
 
SENATOR MUHAMMED SHA’ABA LAFIAGI: CAN’T PUT A GOOD MAN DOWN
Last week, Senator Muhammed Sha’aba Lafiagi, former governor of Kwara State, was made the representative of the state in the Senate Constitution Review Committee. I called to congratulate him and then spoke with a cross section of people in Kwara who agreed he was a good choice, with a genuine commitment to and understanding of the state. He will not offer representation with ulterior or pecuniary motive nor will he feather his own nest, behind propaganda and the façade of representation.

People remember him as governor during the ill-fated Babangida transition, and is appreciated for his devotion to the best interest of the state. His administration opened up the narrow-based civil service, allowing several people to build sustained civil service careers; and one of the direct beneficiaries of Sha’aba Lafiagi’s foresight is the PDP’s National Chairman, Abubakar Kawu Baraje.

 Out of power, he fell upon hard political and material times, but remained a dignified individual, appreciated by a lot of people. Not for him, as governor, an over-exaggerated sense of self, nor the distortion of the visual space of Kwara with billboards of self and family. He was never on record as having paid for spurious award ceremonies that people were then corralled to attend. He did not try to extract affection or loyalty by force out of people; in fact people carried the placard of their affection for Muhammed Sha’aba Lafiagi in their hearts. His choice therefore recognizes his worth, especially nationally, even in the context of the cloak-and-dagger propensities of our nation’s politics. Truly, a good man can’t be put down forever!
 
IKENNA NDAGUBA: ONE OF THE BEST OF NIGERIAN BROADCASTING
This week, veteran broadcaster, Ikena Ndaguba died at 76; he had been sick for a while. It was his indisposition that stopped him from heading a committee I work in, which helps Radio Nigeria select awardees for its annual Excellence Awards. Oga Ikenna taught me News Reading at the Radio Nigeria Training School in 1978. He was simply one of the very best of his generation, who also mentored those of us who came behind. His diction was excellent and he made news reading a great pleasure and the ultimate professional performance, at a time when Radio Nigeria compared with its peers around the world. Those were some of the best years of Nigerian life. May God give his family the fortitude to bear his passing.

Is’haq Modibbo Kawu

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