Plateau State has become a killing field ruled by fear as efforts to restore peace are yet to yield desired results. But the National Assembly is working on a legislation that is expected to bring a lasting solution to the crisis
By TAJUDEEN SULEIMAN
After the evening prayers that fateful Friday, Nuhu Hamza who owns a grocery shop in Dutse-Uku area of Jos, capital of Plateau State, sent his teenage son on an errand in the neighborhood. The boy never came back! His corpse was found the next day. It was tied inside a sack and dumped along the road! He had been abducted and killed.
The discovery of the corpse infuriated Hamza’s kinsmen who took to the streets in protest. In the process, four people were killed. More could have been killed but for the quick intervention of the men of the special military task force who stopped the riots.
On the same day, the decomposing corpse of a 20-year-old man identified as Weze Nhiwe was also picked up by the special military task force at Kpamru area of Miango, Jos. He too had also strayed into “enemy territory.”
A few days earlier, corpses of seven people were found buried in shallow graves at a village in Ryom, along the Abuja-Jos road. The vehicle they were traveling in was said to have been stopped by some youths who barricaded the road and dragged the men out. The driver of the vehicle was later asked to proceed while the men were killed and hurriedly buried. The traditional ruler of the village and the local government chairman were later picked up by the police for interrogation.
Men of the task force prevented what could have been another major tragedy on April 18, when they succeeded in stopping a planned attack on Bisichi village in Jos South Local Government area. The invaders planned to strike at 3.20 am but they were ambushed by the task force, which had been alerted by men of the vigilante group. The attackers engaged the task force in exchange of fire before retreating. Two of them were killed. Donald Oji, spokesman of the task force said one of the men killed was wearing a military pullover.
These are scenes from renewed ethnic crisis in Jos. Secret killing is the new rule of engagement in the more than a decade old ethnic hostility that has engulfed the state. In spite of the military presence in the state, secret killings are reported in different parts of the state nearly on a daily basis, and there are no signs that they’re about to stop, despite assurances to the contrary.
Since the bloody violence of January 17, this year, in which over 500 people were either slaughtered or shot dead, the state has not known peace. The world was outraged when Fulani herdsmen attacked Dogo Nahawa, a Berom village, in February, killing hundreds of people, mostly women and children. According to the police, the Fulani claimed the attack was in retaliation for a similar attack on them during the January riots.
The crisis took a new and dangerous dimension after the early morning attack on Dogo Nahawa by Fulani mercenaries who claimed to be on revenge mission. Reprisal attacks have continued secretly, both in the metropolis and in remote parts of the state. Ikechukwu Adoba, commissioner of police, Plateau State Command, speaking on the climate of fear that now pervades the state, confirmed to journalists recently that secret killings had become the order of the day, adding that no one is safe!
Church processions or Muslim gatherings are now potential security threats because they are most likely to be used as opportunities to seek revenge. That was what happened on April 5, when a Christian inter denominational Easter prayers at Rwang Pam Stadium, Nasarawa Gwom, was hijacked by hoodlums. It became a street fight between Christian and Muslim youths in the area. The military said three people were killed in the riots.
The military is not spared from the rage of hate that has seized the once peaceful state. There have been reports of military personnel that were secretly attacked, especially in Berom communities. The Beroms have accused the military of complicity in the dawn massacre at Dogo Nahawa, although the allegation was denied.
Frantic efforts have been made, especially since January this year, to resolve the Jos crisis, but so far they don’t appear to be yielding results. Abubakar Sa’ad, the Sultan of Sokoto, has mobilised Northern monarchs to intervene and bring a stop to what he called the “senseless killings.” Several meetings were held in Kaduna and Jos.
Gbong Gwom Jos Jacob Gyang Buba also hosted a meeting of Hausa/Fulani and Berom leaders in his palace last month. The Sultan of Sokoto, Aliyu Gusau, the national security adviser, NSA, representatives of the military and the Plateau State government were all represented. The agenda of the meeting was to find out why the attacks were taking place, and the need for peace to return to the state.
Three weeks ago, the Northern Governors Forum, NGF, also met in Jos to brainstorm on ways of resolving the problem in the state. The governors were said to have encouraged Jonah Jang, governor of the state, to be actively involved in efforts to resolve the crisis. Most of the governors were said to be unimpressed by the way Jang handled the crisis.
The killings in the state are a spillover of the conflict over whether the Hausa/Fulani are indigenes of Jos or not. The Hausa claim that they have become indigenes of Jos because their forefathers settled in Jos since 1880. But the Berom, Anaguta and Afizere (the three major native tribes), say the Hausas are settlers and do not have any indigeneship right in the state. The Igbo and the Yoruba also settled in Jos about the same time with the Hausas. But none of these tribes are regarded as indigenes.
It was in an effort to prevent conflict between the Hausa and the Berom that the military regime of Ibrahim Babangida created Jos North Local Government in 1991 for the Hausa community and Jos South for the natives. But that intervention was resisted by the natives who felt that the Hausa were unduly favoured. Jos North is the commercial hub of the state.
That action by Babangida rather than resolve the problem added fire to the burning crisis.
Opposition to the creation of Jos North has continued till today. Local government election in the area is always problematic because of the ethnic tension. The crisis in 2008 was sparked by alleged attempt to rig the local government election in the area in favour of the natives. Properties worth billions of naira were destroyed in the riots.
Prominent Nigerians and groups have urged the warring parties to return to the roundtable and find ways of living together. David Mark, the Senate President, said last week that the way forward in Jos is for the stakeholders to talk and agree on how to live together like other Nigerians. In a statement issued last week by the Arewa Consultative Forum, ACF, the association condemned the killings in Jos and described it as “barbaric.” It also called on all the groups concerned to embrace dialogue.
While the stakeholders continue the search for solutions at the roundtable, the National Assembly is also brewing a legal cure for the Jos malaise. Two bills are on the table in the nation’s legislature to address the problem of settler/indigene dichotomy in the country.
A bill to provide for residency rights is due for second reading at the Senate. The bill, sponsored by Abubakar Sodangi from Nasarawa State, would make it compulsory for every Nigerian citizen who has lived in any part of the country for five consecutive years and has paid taxes to the local government where he lives to have a residency certificate. Such certificates shall also be issued by the Federal Ministry of Interior, instead of the state or local government councils.
Sodangi told the magazine last week that the bill, when passed, will rest the issue of settler/indigene dichotomy and prevent crisis resulting from such conflict.
A similar bill is also on the table in the House of Representatives. Sponsored by Samaila Mohammed representing Jos North, it is for an “Act to provide for the right of Nigerians to be indigenes of any local government area in Nigeria and for connected purposes.” According to Mohammed, the 1999 constitution is silent on the issue of who an indigene of a local government or a town is. He said the constitution only talks about citizenship of the country.
Section 5 of the bill describes an indigene of a local government area or area council in Nigeria as “he or she or any of his parents belongs to a tribe indigenous to the local government in which they reside or is a migrant from another local government and has resided in the new local government on or before the October 1, 1960 and continues to reside there; or is born in that local government area and he subsequently continues to reside in it.”
Also included in the definition of indigene is any person who was born in a local government and continues to reside in it; and any person who has resided in the local government for a period of at least five years. The bill prescribes a fine of N100, 000.00 and jail term that could extend to 15 years for individuals, organisations or governments that breach provisions of the bill.
The bill also says: “The government of a state in which any inter-ethnic violence has occasioned the death, displacement, disablement and injury of persons, groups or community, loss of property, shall in addition to any other punitive measures that shall be applied under section 13 of this Act, be liable to pay adequate compensation and resettlement to the affected persons, groups or community.” Funds of the state would also be used for reconstruction of properties destroyed.
Jang; Criticised
Mark; Calls for stakeholders meeting
Babangida; Could not resolve the impasse