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Jan. 28, 2010 I am sitting here on the living room rug. It's almost 8:30 pm. I am writing this piece in the light of the news reports of ‘150 bodies of Muslims found in wells in a small village outside Jos…’ It is shocking, condemnable, it is horrific it is all you can think of –but what I would like to say here is I am not surprised. Please do not misconstrue that statement, let me explain but before I do let me quote an article I wrote in 2008 which I believe was published on Uselessknowlegdemagazine the same year. The article was tilted ‘Jos under Attack’. I stated quote “…the tragedy of the 2001 experience (on the 7 of September a spate of terror was unleashed on Jos, 4 days later 9/11 happened) was that government at the Federal level and the state government of the day failed to see beyond the ‘trivial’ labeling of ethno-religious unrest and continued to bicker on and on and bandy unhelpful arguments while the situation brewed and finally exploded again on November 28, 2008 with parallel if not rival level of mayhem, death and destruction.” I further observed “The Al Qaeda in Nigeria theory may not sound as laughable or preposterous as argued in many quarters especially those who deemed it a ploy by the West against members of a religious persuasion… 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 move until the situation threatens to completely slip out of control…” In a sister article titled “As Jos Goes’ I warned “Nigeria is once again tempting fate as the government at the highest level is playing games with the Jos issue. Let it be noted that this Jos issue is bigger than even the Presidency, for as Jos goes so goes the rest of the country…” I further stated “enough to this let Jos North 2008 be the last, let President Musa Yaradua show by singular act of courage his foresight , his strength of character , his astuteness in presiding over a nation of live people ; most importantly let president Musa Yaradua show his neutrality in this matter. As Jos goes so the rest of the country …enough is enough.” At risk of being called a serious fool I would like to state that there seems to be some level of Federal connivance directly or indirectly in this Jos issue – for since 1994 when the first pangs of civil disturbance began to 2001 when open terror was unleashed on the innocent and hapless people of Jos to 2004 when Yelwa Shendam incidence occurred to 2008 when it was alleged that the state government ‘stole ‘ the election victory from a certain Muslim candidate to now 2010 when for no reason people were attacked during a Mass in church! The point I had been trying to make all along has been this is this My Jos fear – my Jos fear was that the seemingly docile, lazy, drunken stupor (as one uninformed writer put in an article published in an incitive and biased Northern Nigeria daily) would one day in the face of numerous, unwarranted and teasing provocations throw off all such perceived labels of docility and become monsters. No one bothered to listen and now the radicalization of the Plateau man has begun. I say begun because the man has been pushed to the wall, and unless the sponsors of the years of violence are publicly named and the foot soldiers deceived into burning and looting and ‘expanding’ territory are brought to heel, until the these culprits publicly renounce all claims to lands not their own, until they seek genuine forgiveness and reconciliation from the Plateau man then it is just beginning. I have deliberately refused to drive through the streets of the second city in Jos – Bukuru so that I do not get impassioned and write with such emotion and passion but one cannot just begin to imagine the kind of nonsense being passed for news reportage by many news outlets both print and electronic. One Daily Trust – yes the perennial Daily Trust of Nigeria I have always had issues I feel should be investigated by the United Nations for the kind dissemination they conduct and by the courts of the land for possible link to Al Qaeda. Apart from the crass near stupidity of their reporting this was a paper where a columnist categorically denied the holocaust but the same paper and columnist are busy screaming blue murder on the so called ‘genocide’ of a particularly troublesome group of people in Jos. I would not care to mention the gruesome and exceptionally matching nature of the retaliations by many youths in Bukuru and some parts of the state, but the here is the trend I feared, warned about and is beginning to appear- the government has refused to own to its responsibilities and the people are taking not only the law into their hands but are going a step further in trying to outdo the aggressors in the ferocity and conduct of their revenge. These are youths who have gone out of their way of safety and sense of self preservation to confront AK 47’s – what would happen when they acquire such weapons of sophistication themselves?
I strongly advise that all and sundry should disabuse their minds from the very very untrue notion that what is happening in Jos is an ethnic issue or a religious affair or a political – it is all of these issues with expansionists tendencies, with the survival of a people at stake, with a federal government either in collusion or content to allow the situation continue status quo for what reason one cannot understand.
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