UNRELENTING VIOLENCE ON THE PLATEAU
Security agencies could do more to stem the bloodshed
Unrelenting violence across the North central has slid into chaos and forcing many out of their homes in droves. In the past three months dozens of innocent people have been killed in eight local government areas in more than 6000 households in Plateau State. A human rights organisation, Gideon and Funmi Para-Mallam Peace Foundation, stated in its report last week that killings and sustained attacks, summary executions and burning of homes have been on for weeks in Bokkos, Barkin Ladi, Riyom, Jos North, Mikang, Bassa, and Mangu, and in the aftermath creating huge humanitarian problems.
President Bola Tinubu has directed security agencies to fish out the masterminds of the killings, following last week violence in Vwang district of Jos South local government. “It is most unfortunate that in this orgy of violence, an innocent eight-month-old baby died in a conflict she knew nothing about,” he said. Not many people will be comforted by the presidential directive. Armed violence and brutal killings have persisted on the Plateau, and indeed elsewhere, despite similar promptings by the immediate past government. Violence in Plateau State now constitutes one of Nigeria’s major security threats.
Communal clashes and reprisal killings over scarce grazing land and water resources have plagued Nigeria’s central region for decades. Since 2001, the once peaceful Plateau State with a glorious climate, has been embroiled in ruinous and costly communal clashes which has consumed thousands of lives and displaced tens of thousands. At the last count, more than 12,000 lives had been wasted while the local economy is bleeding. Benue, and to extent Nasarawa States, are also impacted badly by cattle grazing and bloody disputes between herders and farmers, and in the process laying waste the country’s food basket. The clashes are also fuelled by the dichotomy between those who consider themselves “indigenes,” and the Fulanis, who are regarded by many as “settlers”.
Plateau State has many ethnic groups, but the clashes are mainly between Muslim Fulani herders and Christian farmers. In August 2021, an attack on Muslims travelling through Jos for a religious event led to the deaths of more than a dozen people. As a measure of resolving the crisis, a local special task force, codenamed Operation Safe Haven, has been deployed to the state since 2001, but it has remained largely ineffectual. Government effort at both the federal and state in resolving the crisis has also been half-hearted. They have been unable to decisively address the unfortunate situation by their persistent refusal to confront reality. Nor have security forces provided much cheer as they often arrive scenes of violence after the damage had been done. Indeed, some have been implicated in the past for taking sides. Even community leaders as well as religious leaders who ordinarily should help in bringing peace and order are mostly often the ones leading the rhetoric of hate which fuels the cycle of violence.
As we have repeatedly said, the solution to the persistent violence on the Plateau lies in addressing headlong the problem of open grazing. It is time to end indiscriminate grazing of farmlands by cattle in Plateau State, and indeed across the country. Many countries in Africa like Botswana, South Africa, Mozambique, Kenya and Ethiopia have long embraced ranching and it is paying off. It is the trend across the world. There is a crying need for the nation to promote ranching which would allow pastoralists access a large expanse of land for grazing without encroaching on farmers’ land.
In addition, the country’s new security chiefs must take the directive of the President seriously and stop the cycle of violence on the Plateau, and indeed elsewhere in the country.
