Still No Respite in Plateau

Plateau State that was known as the oasis of peace in Nigeria, has been desecrated with mindless bloodletting and raging insanity. Seriki Adinoyi writes that the events of the next few months will reveal if the present administration at the federal and state levels have the political will to confront the mindless killers who have been invading the state since 2000  

It is common for all to see that for over two decades now, Plateau State has not known peace. For a state that prides itself as a Home of Peace and Tourism, this is an irony. Peace has long eluded it. It has repeatedly suffered from all shades of crisis – ethnic, religious, political, militia and herders’ attacks, conflicts, banditry and many more.

In the aftermath of each, lives have been lost in droves, properties worth billions of naira destroyed, hatred is bred, reprisal and counter-reprisal conceived and executed. This is the harrowing story of the state.

Successive governments have tried and failed to unravel the solution. Elder statesmen like former Head of State, Gen. Yakubu Gowon (rtd); first civilian governor of the state, the late Chief Solomon Lar, and many other reputable sons of the state have also failed in their efforts to take back the state from the grip of violence because of the hydra-headed nature of the crisis.

When the first major crisis hit the state in the year 2000, many people blamed the then Governor Joshua Dariye.  He was perceived as an unserious young man that could not carefully manage the delicate fabrics of the state. It was more of an indigenes/settlers’ crisis that snowballed into a religious one.

During his tenure, Jos North and Yelwa-Shendam Local Government Areas were shattered into pieces as a people that had lived together for years in harmony suddenly turned around and dealt deadly blows to one another as if bewitched.  

During the crisis, ‘Terminus,’ an international market that played host to traders from across the West Africa region was reduced to rubbles. Up until date, no one has been able to rebuild it. Jos, the state capital literally went up in flames with churches and mosques burnt. Former President Olusegun Obasanjo had to take out time to personally visit the state to call for calm.

But it soon emerged that the problem was not Dariye. It was hoped that his successor, Jonah David Jang, a dedicated retired military officer that had successfully ruled two states of Benue and Adamawa, would use his wealth of military experience to tackle the problem. But it didn’t work as the crisis festered and nearly consumed his administration too.

Jang was the first to identify that the protracted crisis was actually fanned from outside the state to weaken it for sinister motives.

According to him, the enemies of the state that were unable to use Jihad to conquer the people had not rested yet.

He accused the invaders of attempting to weaken the state from the villages by chasing the villagers away, and taking over their homes.

He further stated that their plan was that when they were done with that, they would close in on Jos, the state capital.

He succeeded in arresting some of the assailants, some of whom came from Niger Republic. Curiously, the assailants were soon taken to Abuja and allegedly freed.

During Jang’s tenure, Dogo Nahawa, a quiet community in his Jos South LGA was violated with over 200 persons killed in one night. At Kuru-Karama, another settlement in the same local government, over 150 persons were massacred and dumped in wells by unidentified persons. Several other killings were perpetrated, with the governor’s kinsmen, the Beroms, as the prime targets. He was blamed for being too rigid and unyielding as his tenure arguably witnessed the most turbulent moments in the history of the state.

Governor Simon Lalong’s administration, having understudied the situation from the sidelines, came in with a strategy that only paid off for a moment. He operated an ‘all-inclusive government’ by carrying along people that are believed to be perpetrating havoc. By his strategy, Lalong tried to appease the merchants of crisis in the state. To be fair to him, he achieved a tentative peace.

But after a while, the merchants of death soon realised that the gains in being part of the ‘inclusive government’ was far less than what they could achieve with the crisis. They soon parted ways with the government and returned to the trenches.

Lalong’s administration, which had witnessed a level of peace, became more turbulent than any other. In one attack in Barkin Ladi LGA, over 250 were massacred; pastors and their families were killed and their churches burnt. Lands were grabbed. The attackers’ identities were more or less no longer unknown. After killing, maiming, raping and dislodging their victims, the attackers went ahead to occupy the homes and farmlands of their victims.

It is bizarre to note that known gunmen still occupy the homes and farms of their victims in Plateau State, yet they are referred to as “unknown”. Ironically, their victims have become refugees at Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camps in their own ancestral state. The victims have repeatedly called on government to come to their rescue by providing security cover for them to return to their abodes, but no response yet. The ones that dared to return met death on their way. So, others retreated.

It is therefore generally believed that government has not yet shown enough political will to resolve the crisis in the state, and this has emboldened the assailants and encouraged more violence. The situation in Plateau State is indeed a pathetic one.

Killings in Bassa LGA became a daily episode as it is no longer news to hear that people were killed and burnt in their homes and farms. The security agents became overwhelmed and were tired of confirming death tolls to journalists.

In the twilight of Lalong’s administration, during election campaigns, on a Sunday morning, hundreds of bandits, in broad daylight, rode on motorbikes into a market in Wase and massacred over 100 persons. Villagers who survived the attacks simply packed their belongings and vacated the place. To them, it was better to be displaced and stay alive than to be dead. It was in that despondency that Lalong left the stage.

Then, came the new administration of the current Governor, Mr. Caleb Mutfwang. His eloquent manifestoes on the strategies he planned to adopt to tackle insecurity in the state was probably one of his selling points.

Mutfwang soon won the people’s hearts and was overwhelmingly voted for in the recent elections. With that, the people’s expectations were high.

As expected, the governor raised the hope of the mammoth crowd that besieged the Rwang Pam township stadium to receive him in a colourful inauguration ceremony.

One could see that he was determined to muster the political will to end the crisis at once. He vehemently declared that the era was gone when criminals held sway in the state.

But as if to send a warning signal to him, Mutfwang’s community was massively attacked before his inauguration, with no fewer than 85 persons killed. That became his first assignment after taking the oath of office. He went straight, after rising from his first security council meeting, to reassure his community that evil would not continue to thrive as he was determined to end bloodshed in the state.

But the adamant marauders won’t rest; they attacked adjourning communities the following week, and moved over to neighbouring Barkin Ladi to wreak more havoc, killing scores of persons almost on a daily basis.

That they have chosen to confront the governor right from his own community was an indication that certain foreign invaders were determined to take over the state.  Perhaps, it was a strong message to tell him that they were also prepared. Since the first attack, the assailants have sustained the senseless killings in Mangu, Barkin Ladi and Bokkos LGAs with the death toll estimated at about  300 persons since May 29.

Just recently, eleven members of the home of a community leader were burnt alive in their sleep in an overnight attack.

The question is: With Tinubu bringing the era of nepotism in the appointment of security chiefs to an end, can the new administration muster the political will to send back the invaders to where they came from?

The good news is that the governor has said that he is not ruffled as he is determined to see an end to bloodletting in the state.

Time will tell if he will match his encouraging words with actions.