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Dec. 16, 2008 Jos is under attack by Al-Qaeda. Jos was the center of tin mining activity by the colonial British and the tin it is said helped turn thw tide of World War 2 in favor of the Allies. Jos has been under this attack since 1994, 2001 and 2004 when under the guise of religo-ethnic civil unrest terror, havoc and mayhem was released and unleashed on an unsuspecting populace, attacks which continued progressively culminating in the destruction of the main source and ultra wire of the state’s economy, the Jos Ultra Modern Main Market. The tragedy of the 2001 experience was that government at the Federal level and the state government of the day failed to see beyond the ‘trivial’ labelling of ethno-religious unrest and continued to bicker on and bandy unhelpful arguments while the situation brewed and finally again exploded on Thursday, November 28, 2008 with parallel if not rival level of mayhem, death and destruction. The temptation to dismiss the Al-Qaeda connection in the Jos Crisis is the crux of the problem as one maybe wont to overlook the intricacy and sophistication of the planning and subsequent execution. If the forensic evidence of the destruction of the Jos main market, erroneously referred to as a 'fire incidence', were to be available, it would show that no mere fire was responsible for the structural compromise which led to the eventual collapse of the ultra modern concrete and steel structural edifice. A masterpiece reputed to be one of its only kind in the West African region, that is of course before its destruction by Al -Qaeda type operation. The writer of the article may not be a security expert but citing the example of the probable causes which led to the collapse of such a contemporary engineering structure, that is namely the targeting of pillars ( and beams) and the furious fire that followed points to a saboteur with a modicum to excellent grasp of structural engineering and or architectural expertise. Independent experts would corroborate the fact that no mere fire alone would weaken the concrete cover enough to cause the high tensile reinforcement bars embedded to a depth of 25mm to suffer such temperature rise enough to give way causing a collapse of the structure. Simply put no average hoodlum or thug (political or religious) from the said area - Jos North would poses that intellectual capability. The Al-Qaeda in Nigeria theory may not sound so laughable or preposterous as argued in many quarters especially those who deemed it a ploy by the West ( specifically the USA ) against members of a religious persuasion. Not too long ago HIV AIDS was said to be an invention of the CIA. Whether true or false the consequences of failure by governments all over Africa to treat the threat seriously is very obvious today, the grim reality. The grim reality is that Al-Qaeda does not discriminate in its choice of victims be they Muslims or Christians. Government at the Federal level is toying with the issue of a global terror network deploying feelers in Africa's most populous democracy and allowing the sentiment of religion and other trivial, at the moment, but important issues cloud its judgment. It is as with most issues of national concern – government will not attempt move until the situation threatens to completely slip out of control. Test the theory of an Al-Qaeda cell or operational base setting up Nigeria and see how well the supposition bears scrutiny: the nation has porous borders with neighboring states in various levels of unrest, the nation’s security forces are still under equipped and under motivated ( armed Police are still extorting money from motorists on the highways), security operatives can be bought or compromised for as ‘much’ as twenty naira ( less than fifty United States cents). Unfair and harsh criticisms have been leveled at the present government ( who inherited the problems ) as having failed from preventing the November 28, crisis but the moot point is that it was not just a ‘normal’ area boy outburst of frustration as common in Lagos which gets quelled in a day and life returns to normal. It was not just a simple civil unrest – it was a well planned and co-ordinated terror attack pure and simple. For the record even the State of Israel which boasts one of the most formidable security and intelligence apparatus in the world has not been able to completely stamp out suicide attacks on its populace, what more a State Government which has inherited a security issue a previous government failed to deal with and a Federal Government which failed to call the state to account for eight years. What has continued is the standard Al-Qaeda field operations manual to conduct physical terror attacks and in the aftermath continue propaganda attacks to fuel suspicion and fan continuous revenge - an aspect picked on and further disseminated by hither to well respected media and foreign news outlets and reportage.
For some reason we Nigerians may have been spared the trauma of suicide attacks but it may only be a matter before the indoctrination is complete and we shall begin to witness conflagrations that may eclipse that of Jos in both magnitude and scale.
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