By Ezekiel Gosmos

From November 2008, when violent ethno-religious crises returned to Jos as a fall out of the local government elections in Jos North LGA after a six-year break (2002-2008),  the people of Jos and, indeed,  surrounding areas like Bukuru, Riyom, Barikin Ladi and, to an extent, parts of Bassa LGA, have  known no peace.

The last two years have turned out to be a period of counting and burying dead relations, scampering away from rampaging arsonists, hiding indoors behind locked gates/barricaded streets, enduring 24 hour curfews (January 2010, first time in the history of the city), dodging from and narrowly escaping stray bullets or swinging machete, stones, Molotov cocktails and lately bombs.

It has also been a period of endless prayer and fasting assemblies organised by different religious organisations, silent prayers in homes or loud ones in churches and mosques for divine intervention.

A building affected by the crisis

Within this period, we also witnessed countless condemnation of the endless violence by political, religious and communal leaders and even bold predictions by the then Acting President Goodluck Jonathan that the Federal Government would ensure that the January 2010 violence and the follow up massacres in Kuru baba and Dogo Nahawa  etc was going to be last.

Numerous delegations on sympathy visits poured into Jos carrying tons of assistance and hopes for an end to a problem that many commentators have begun to describe as “unsolvable”.

At the same time, several international organisations and donor agencies created special units or sections just to handle one intervention programme or the other on the Jos crises. I have even been told by an Internet buff that the word Jos is becoming among the most famous destinations for negative news on the Internet.

Naturally, the Nigerian media became awash with gory stories about Jos, with hardly any week passing without some commentaries, suggestions and recommendations on the way forward to solving the crises.

This has, unfortunately, become the lot of the city of Jos, a place once described as the most beautiful, peaceful and romantic travel destination in West Africa.

While all these were going on, the divide and the differences between communities, neighbours and even families in this once peaceful city was growing wider rather than narrowing. The people of Jos have become extremely suspicious of one another along religious and ethnic lines.

This state of affairs has become so dreadful that several parts of the city have now turned into deadly no-go areas depending on your religious and ethnic origin.

For instance, today, no Christian will willingly set foot in Angwan Rogo unless being conveyed in an armoured vehicle accompanied by a platoon of soldiers; similarly a Muslim Hausa Fulani dares not enter Jenta Mangoro because he may never come out alive.

Until January 2010, Christians used to worship in COCIN Church Angwan Rogo while Hausa Muslims including Okada riders could enter Jenta Mangoro.  Today, that is no more!

And the number of no-go areas is horrifyingly growing…especially after the very bloody clashes in the last six weeks that followed the December 24, 2010 (Christmas Eve) bombings.

Protest in Jos

This scenario reminds us of the famous green line in Beirut, during the days of the deadly sectarian crises in Lebanon.

In addition to massive human casualties of the crises which have been estimated at over 2,000 people dead from November 2008, the social and economic loss to Plateau State and the country has been conservatively put at over N50 billion. Commerce, especially of agro-allied nature, entertainment and hospitality services have become the worst hit while several other businesses and professionals have fled the city in droves.

This has happened within so short a time in the same city that has once upon a time been described as the most peaceful place to live in and was being positioned as investment destination.

The unending crises are traceable to deep-seated grievances that have economic, political, historical and social dimensions.

As a resident of Jos, and an indigene of Plateau State, I am severely and deeply hurt. As a top actor in Plateau State Government from 1999-2003, I feel a sense of pain and regret that we probably didn’t do enough to find long lasting solutions after quelling the September 2001 crises. It is obvious that whatever measures we took to enshrine peace didn’t go far enough because it lasted only for seven years.
The November 2008 crises shattered all that we put in place, coming as it were with so much venom. May be it was due to the fact that by the time democracy returned in 1999, the  underlying tensions in Jos from previous unsolved grievances whose roots went back as far as the history of the city were ready to burst out. Such grievances had been carefully kept under wraps by long years of military rule or conveniently left unattended to by other administrations, despite briefly rearing up their heads by way of violent eruptions in Jos town in April 1994 when the Jos ultra-modern market was first burnt and in 1997 in Gero-Bukuru.

When the violence returned in 2008 and, up to date, the regular response of the Jonah Jang government has been to send in the joint military task force, address a meeting of a few select elders in Government House, bemoan the violence as an attack on Plateau State, declare a curfew and allow things to sort out themselves.

Like in 2001, when the 2008 crises broke out, the state government also set up a judicial commission of inquiry under Justice Ajibola to determine the causes, the perpetrators and recommend the way forward.  Again, like in 2001, the findings and recommendations of this commission of inquiry were not released up to the time another violent crises broke out in January 2010 and was still not released up to the time of the January 2011 crises, showing that no lessons were learnt by the Jang government from the non-decisive implementation of the Justice Niki Tobi Report on the 2001 crises by the Dariye government.

In March 2010, the situation got so bad that a high powered committee headed by Chief Solomon Lar, first civilian governor of Plateau State, was set up by the Federal Government to work out solutions to the Jos crises. Up till now, the Federal Government has not said anything to Nigerians about the Solomon Lar Committee’s recommendations and its decisions thereon.

In the meantime, the killings haven’t stopped; sporadic attacks still occur across ethnic/religious divides, several press conferences – condemnations, accusations and counter-accusations – are going on. And as is typical of Nigeria,  prayer and fasting sessions are being held all over Jos and beyond, all just hoping that the situation would calm down and Jos will get back to its being the home of peace and tourism. We are all still talking  about what should be done….. while people are still dying, most of us living in fear, businesses are suffering and the city is gradually dying.
So what is the way forward?

(a) Urgent review of security response to early warning signals

It has been stated many times before that the Nigerian security system is more re-active than proactive, waiting for crises to break-out before rushing to put out the fires. This strategy may have worked in the past but we cannot use the solutions of yesterday to solve today’s challenges.

The practice of sending special military task force (STF) for internal security duties, even if it works in the most professional and  saintly manner, is only  meant to put out the fire. It should only be a short term intervention because, by their training and operational system, they are not in a position to find solutions to the civil crises. It is, therefore, illogical and, to an extent, ridiculous that people are relying on them to solve the crises.

Even if the military task force are pulled out of Jos in response to the current demands, can the proposed vigilante groups (which Governor Jang has promised will be put in place) solve the problems? If my elementary knowledge of Nigerian laws is correct, vigilante groups cannot carry arms; so one wonders how they will face the horde of attackers who have been variously described as carrying sophisticated arms. Unless there is something we don’t know about this proposed vigilante groups.

Ezekiel Gosmos was Secretary to Plateau State Government between 1999 and 2003