PLATEAU STATE AND THE RETURN OF KILLERS

The resurgent wave of killings that has swept through Benue State and Southern Kaduna appears to have spread in Plateau State. There is every cause for alarm.

It Is not for nothing that Plateau State is called the “Home of peace and tourism.” Called home by an inherently peaceful people, nature’s bounty in the state simply takes the breath away. The state’s rocks and green rolling hills have soothed generations of people yearning for nature’s touch.

But it is also a state stained with the blood of many innocent people. There has always been tension too. In 2001, this tension boiled over when Jos the State Capital, was engulfed in what has come to be known as the “Jos Crisis”. Well over 1000 people were killed and properties worth billions of Naira destroyed.

The crisis has echoed over the years, with disturbances spilling into other parts of the state from time to time. It is doubtful that the state would know any true peace soon.

But the average Plateau indigene is far from reactionary. If anything, they are a people who respond, taking charge and shaping circumstances around them as they charge to their fate.

As a battle has been waged in the past two decades for the soul of the state, the people have remained largely peaceful, banking on the instruments of the state to save them from the connoisseurs of chaos. These instruments of state have been far too slow in coming.

As the 2023 general elections approached, the storm of insecurity whipped up by terrorists and exacerbated by the ineptitude of the Buhari administration seemed to quieten, quelled in part by heightened security measures and by the desperate desire of Nigerians to see that their votes count.

The votes of Nigerians may not have counted in the presidential election of February 25. But in the election of March 18, 2023 in Plateau State, a surging Caleb Mutfwang of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) took down Nentawe Yilwatda of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in elections widely celebrated in the state as a mark of democratic maturity.

With the elections done and dusted, and matters moving to the courts, it appears the killings have resumed forcefully around the country, with the killers desperate to make up for lost time.

In Benue State and in Southern Kaduna, the reign of terror has long resumed, encouraged in part by the government’s inexplicable reluctance to meet the terrorists on their turf.

Like a cancerous tumor, the killings have also spread to the Plateau, where for years a peace of the graveyard has prevailed in parts of the state overrun by violent conflicts.

 Innocent blood has continued to flow in Plateau State where more than 30 persons were killed in coordinated attacks in  Mangu, Bokkos, Barkin-Ladi, Riyom, Jos South and Bassa Local Government Areas of the State. The attacks which largely started on 12^th April 2023 have also seen properties worth millions of Naira destroyed

It Is anyone’s guess how much development anyone can ever hope to attain without basic guarantees about security and stability. That the charabanc of death which often rolls through Plateau, Benue and Kaduna States has not been stopped says a lot about the government’s tepid response to insecurity.

It Is clear that there are those who sponsor insecurity in Nigeria. What is even clearer is that their identity is known. But what does the government do to check their deadly activities? Absolutely nothing.

The government’s response, often enfeebled by politics and incompetence, often feeds the mistrust and resentment running through targeted communities. This in turn complicates the entire peace process.

As President Buhari prepares to leave office, it is rather unfortunate that his administration would be remembered for its blood-soaked years, during which many Nigerians were forced to question what if they were gaining anything from being citizens of Nigeria.

Such an odious legacy would have been easily delible but for the fact that it has proven infinitely costly to Nigerians.

For the good people of Plateau State, peace remains an indispensable ingredient of a peaceful and progressive existence. It is critical that the work for peace should never stop.

Ike Willie-Nwobu,

Abuja