PLATEAU: BEYOND THE JOS KILLINGS

Chris Gyang urges the authorities to go beyond the surface in order to stem the recurring crisis

The Bassa and Rukuba Road killings have once again brought into sharp focus the tenuous nature of the prevailing peace in Plateau State and exposed the high level of suspicion and hatred its citizens harbor against each other.

To shed some light on these gory events of the last few weeks, it is important to start with a trip down memory lane. In the process, we should keep in mind the sobering fact that in September 2020, the Global Terrorism Index rated Nigeria as the third most terrorized country in the world – after Afghanistan (which has now been taken over by Islamist terrorists – the Taliban) and Iraq.

In the wake of the 2018 horrific massacres of more than 200 people in Barakin Ladi, Riyom and parts of Bokkos and Bassa local government areas of Plateau State, Rev. Dr. Soja Bewarang, the Chairman of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Plateau State, at the time issued a press release on behalf of the Christian Denominational Heads in the state. The church leaders appealed to President Buhari to stop the killings to “avoid a state of complete anarchy where the people are forced to defend themselves’’ as a result of the “ongoing Fulani herdsmen pogrom.’’

The clerics declared that the orgy of killings, which lasted from June 22 to June 24, 2018, were “aimed at ethnic cleansing, land-grabbing and forceful ejection of the Christian natives from their ancestral land and heritage.’’ They bemoaned a situation where government was hiding the true figures of casualties as “They keep navigating from 11, 86 and 100 figures which in actual sense has a death toll figure so far of 238.’’

They condemned the misleading narrative about ‘farmers’/herdsmen’s clashes’, saying, “The federal government has been so immersed in this false propaganda and deceit while forcefully pushing the policy idea of establishing cattle ranches/colonies on the ancestral farmlands of the attacked communities for the Fulani herdsmen as the only solution to the problem.’’ The ecumenical fathers queried why the killings were being described as ‘clashes’ “when one group is persistently attacking, killing, maiming, destroying; and the other group is persistently being killed, maimed and their places of worship destroyed?’’

And commenting about governments’ consistent, deliberate policy of refusing to pointedly name the Fulani herdsmen as the aggressors, the church leaders advised: “Until we call a disease by its real name and the causatives, it would be difficult to properly diagnose the disease for the right curative medications.’’

And on June 23, 2018, the Church of Christ in Nations (COCIN) issued a statement in which it said the horrific violence “certainly amounts to genocide” aimed at eliminating indigenous Christian populations “for the purpose of creating grazing reserves for local and foreign Fulani herdsmen” as the federal government had deliberately refused to rein in the Fulani militia. The church emphasised that “we have had enough of the government’s insensitivity” and took a swipe at the STF “who have failed in their responsibilities of protecting lives and properties.”

We have presented the above sketch in order to, first, give a little background into the Bassa and Rukuba Road killings. Second, to demonstrate that such unfortunate carnage and willful destruction of lives and property have a long history that cannot be wished away; these were not a one-shot affair that suddenly materialized within a few days and from nowhere.

The state and federal authorities are presently making very commendable efforts to fish out the perpetrators of the Rukuba Road killings. They should not forget to also go back to Irigwe land and indeed all other flashpoints in the state with the same speed, resources and determination to unravel the forces that have ravaged those societies for so long so that justice would also be extended to them. Peace is well entrenched only when justice is equitably dispensed.

Let us consider the attacks on the Irigwe people of Bassa LGA of Plateau State, spanning July 23 to August 3. As the violence eased, two umbrella bodies representing the Irigwe people, the Irigwe Development Association and the Irigwe Youth Movement, in a press conference held on August 1, 2021, stated that they had been under consistent attacks by Fulani herdsmen from the beginning of this year. As a result, “over 40 Rigwe people have been killed by Fulani nihilists in Bassa and Jos North LGAs, over 20 houses razed down, several farming implements and household items carted away, over 500 cultivated crops in different farmlands worth over N1billion destroyed and many unbearable losses.” They listed the names of the victims and the areas where the crops were destroyed.

Obviously lending support to the Irigwe people, Lt. Gen. Jeremiah Useni (rtd.), who is the Chairman, Board of Trustees of the North Central People’s Forum, was reported by thenationonline (August 1) as advising “farmers to defend themselves and crops following the incessant destruction of crops in Plateau and parts of North Central by suspected bandits.” While expressing anger over the spiraling insecurity in the country, the former Military Governor of old Bendel State and former Senator representing the Southern Zone threw this challenge to both citizens and farmers: “You should not allow anybody to attack you, guard yourselves and your farms. You should defend yourselves from anybody who want[s] to attack you.”

Of all the tit-bits that have emerged from the Bassa mayhem, the one that confounded citizens the most was the one told on August 3, 2021. During a breakfast show on Jay FM Radio Station, Jos, Hon. Musa Agah, member representing Irigwe/Rukuba Constituency in the Plateau State House of Assembly, revealed what happened when he and some members went to express the concerns of Plateau people about the desperate state of affairs to Governor Lalong.

• Gyang is the Chairman of Journalists Coalition for Citizens Rights Initiative

He said: “Let me tell you what happened yesterday…. Rising from a meeting that we held in the State Assembly, it was obvious, based on the comments that people made, especially from the security outfits, that the only person, as boiling as the situation is at the moment, that can talk to the high command in Abuja is the Governor. We couldn’t even hesitate, we drove ourselves, led by the Speaker of the House of Assembly to Government House to see Mr. Governor so that I as the person that is in the eye of the storm should speak to tell him, in case he has not been fully briefed, to tell him about the true situation on the ground.
“But we waited for more than an hour and much later we were told that the Governor was sleeping. Yes, that was what happened yesterday…. It happened in our presence. That was what we were told.” As the people of the state were looking up to their leaders to pull them out of the quagmire, their governor was having a snooze!

The indigenous peoples of Bassa, Jos North, Jos South, Riyom, Barakin Ladi and parts of Bokkos and Mangu local government areas are not barbarians, as it is being portrayed in certain quarters. In them and their ancestral lands lie the true embodiments of that beauty, love, hospitality and good neighbourliness encapsulated in Plateau State’s sobriquet – Home of Peace and Tourism. But they have been left, abandoned, at the mercy of deadly, murderous land-grabbers for too long that they are sometimes forced to resort to self-help in order to cling to what is left of their ragged lives and parched ancestral lands.

Gyang is the Chairman of Journalists Coalition for Citizens Rights Initiative