Lagos — Recently, the famed serenity of Jos was disrupted when sectarian violence erupted in the Plateau State capital. Once again, the nation's psyche has been assaulted by yet another round of upheaval ignited by religious bigots.

The Jos riots are coming on the heels of religious skirmishes in Bauchi State. The destruction and loss of lives left in the wake of the riots will take some time to be fully fathomed. For several days, arson, murder and looting overtook the city. Houses, cars, shops and even human beings were set ablaze at random. Over 100 people have been confirmed dead in the riots. The carcasses of burnt cars and houses, including churches and other buildings still litter the city.

It took the drafting of soldiers and the imposition of a dusk-to-dawn curfew in the city and its environs to restore some semblance of normalcy. The presence of soldiers notwithstanding, another round of fighting erupted in the Kongo area of Jos last Wednesday. Whatever the cause of the disturbance in Jos, we condemn this descent to fratricide at the slightest provocation.

Weeks before the riots, ethnic tension was thick in the air with verbal exchanges between the indigenes under the auspices of Plateau State Youth Council and the Hausa-Fulani on the platform of Jasawa Development Association, over the appointment of one Alhaji Muktar Mohammed as the Chairman of Jos North Local Government National Poverty Eradication Programme (NAPEP) whom the former claimed was not an indigene.

But reports of the immediate cause have it that a woman who tried to exercise her right of passage while Muslims were observing their prayers along Congo-Russia road sparked off the riots. Whatever the story is, it appears that some politicians are once again playing on the gullibility of religious zealots to settle scores. Religious intolerance in all ramifications is unacceptable. Nigeria remains a secular state. We abhor all forms of ethnic zealotry in the country. The idea of differentiating between indigenes and so-called "settlers" in the dispensation of privileges in any part of the country needs to be reviewed and addressed on the basis of justice and within the confines of the rule of law. Many ethnic conflicts in different parts of the country have been rooted in this kind of distinction even when citizens and their forebears have lived in such places for hundreds of years.

Elsewhere in more advanced countries, citizens' rights and privileges in any part of the polity are based on residency rather than indigene status. The National Assembly must look in this direction in future constitutional amendments if the nation hopes to forge the much desired national unity and harmony.

Tempers have been on the edge since the introduction of the Sharia legal system in many states in the North. Now and again religious disturbances have erupted in major cities. President Olusegun Obasanjo's assertion that the Sharia saga will fizzle out has not been the case. The President may have to summon a consultative meeting of all governors, past leaders and religious leaders to deliberate on the spate of religious upheavals which has given Nigeria the image of an unstable country since the return to democratic rule.

Prominent leaders who fan the embers of religious hatred by their utterances have not helped matters. Worse, is the failure of the Plateau State government and the security agencies in the state to pre-empt the crisis. For weeks the rumour was rife in the city of a brewing crisis waiting to explode, yet the government and the Police could not nip it in the bud.

But more fundamentally, the government must get to the roots of the Jos crisis. Reports of investigations into past religious disturbances have remained in the shelves with no culprits brought to book. The Jos crisis must not be allowed to go the same way.