Tony Ailemen
9 February 2010
Lagos — Federal Government Monday last week, took a bold step towards finding a lasting peace to the recurring crisis in Jos, the Plateau State Capital, setting up a special 15-member Committee charged with the task of working out the way forward.
Before setting up the Committee, the Vice President, Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan had met with stakeholders at the State House, Presidential Villa, Abuja where he sounded it clear that the federal government will henceforth not look the other way while Nigerians are slaughtered like animals in any part of the country.
Vice President Jonathan, who told the gathering that "enough was enough," said the federal government this time is fully committed to find a lasting solution to the perennial violent ethno-religious crises that have rocked the state and other parts of Nigeria noting that the development has been quite embarrassing and must not be allowed to degenerate beyond the level it is now.
The meeting which was well attended had the Plateau State Governor, Chief Jonah Jang; and his deputy, Pauline Tallen; former governor, Joshua Dariye; National Security Adviser, Sarki Muktar; National President of Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), John Onaiyekan; and Sultan of Sokoto, His Eminence Sa'adu Abubakar 111 in attendance.
Others include former Deputy Senate President, Ibrahim Mantu; Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Yayale Ahmed; and prominent citizens of Plateau including Solomon Lar, Yahaya Kwande, Jeremiah Useni; Gbong Gwom Jos, Buba Gyang; and a host of others.
According to Dr. Jonathan, "Plateau as a middle belt state has served as a link between the North and the South, the Christians and the Muslims. Although there were minor social conflicts even in the time past, what we are witnessing recently is quit embarrassing and we all will collectively see how we can bring this to an end."
He stressed that against the background of "what we have witnessed in 2008 and what has just happened last month, we will all collectively today resolve to make sure that they don't happen again, because the world is not just waiting for any sector or any part of the country.
Adding that "If Plateau continues to boil the way it is boiling, the local economy would be completely destroyed. If you move to some part of the Niger Delta, areas that used to bubble before are now shadows of themselves and we pray and believe that the situation in Plateau does not get to that level."
The Vice President who recalled that in the olden days Plateau was a tourists state, pointed out that "we must realize and come to the fact that after all the maiming the people will still come back to re-establish their bonds of social solidarity defined by symbiotic relationship.
He urged the participants at the meeting to fearlessly and freely express themselves "because whenever crisis happens, government sets up panels, commission of enquiry and so on but we believe that while the panel and commission of enquiry will go on we should come in this informal ways to really talk to ourselves and agree on what we must all do."
He urged the committee to come up with proper recommendations on the roles to be played by the federal government, the state government, and the ordinary residents and indigenes of plateau "to make sure that we don't get to this level again that is becoming a major embarrassment not only to the people of Plateau state but to the whole nation."
Elder Stateman and the former Plateau State governor, Chief Solomon Lar, was appointed the Chairman of the Committee while Amb. Yahya Kwande will serve as co-chairman.
Other members of the Committee are: Mrs Hannatu Chollom, Mr. John Samci, Prof. N. Gomwalk, Ibrahim Dasuki Nakande, Amb. Fidelis Tapgun and Sen. John N. Shagaya.
Sen. Ibrahim Mantu, Hon. Leo Dilkon, Most Rev. I.A. Kaigama, Sheikh Dawud Balarabe, Mrs. Fati Kyari, AVM U. Abbas and Alhaji Saleh Hassan are also members of the committee.
The Committee is to, among other terms of reference, critically examine the issues surrounding the recurrent violence in Plateau State and work out how various institutions and levels of government can interact to ensure that the crisis is resolved once and for all.
Governor Jonah David Jang of Plateau State who also spoke at the meeting described it as "timely and good" to bring not only Plateau people but other Nigerians who we are all stakeholders in Nigeria.
Governor Jang called on leaders not to act hasty but be patient to wait and hear two sides of a story before they make statements that will help solve the problem and not to inflame the problem. This is just as he took a sweep at a section of Nigerian Press for the roles they play to inflame passions during such crises.
"I also want to say that I have had the privilege as a Nigerian to travel to so many countries, the press as free as the press is free in developed nations they have the interest of their nations and there are certain things they don't just published because they want to protect the interest and the integrity of their nation, but our press think the way to do journalism is to bastardize the whole country in the face of the whole world, calling leaders by all sorts of names.
He therefore pleaded with Nigerian press to report the truth fairly and objectively noting that "this nation is our nation and we have no other nation, whether we are pressmen, we are governors, or president, traditional rulers, we have no other nation."
He noted that "If this nation burns, it will burn all of us. And I think the press should play an important role in bringing unity to this nation and know that certain things should be discuss within us as a nation and not just selling it to the whole world because we want to say we are the freest press in the whole world. Free, as long as it doesn't set our own country free then we are doing more harm to our own country."
The Sultan of Sokoto His Eminence Alhaji Saad Abubakar 111 who urged participants to be opened minded also rejected the religious coloration being attached to the Jos crisis.
"One thing I want to bring up here, as a religious leader, I keep on wondering when I hear people making comments about such crisis being religious, I refuse to accept that because as a religious leader I know it is not true."
Also speaking the former Governor of Plateau State Chief Solomon Lar noted that Plateau was once adjudged as the most peaceful and accommodating state in the federation in the second republic. According to him there the 52 tribes in the Plateau and the different ethnic groups have been living together peacefully until recently. Plateau, he said is still a good state and will continue to be accommodating to all from all over the federation.
Amb. Yaya Kwande who also spoke at the meeting stated that the 52 tribes in the plateau, where brought together by God declaring that no one should lord it over one another.
"We need each other, we have to be friends, and we have to be brothers to be able to live there. We haven't got the problem of one tribe standing alone and dominating each other and for us the only language that links us is the Hausa language. All these 52 if we are to be put in a room and locked up we would all be dammed and we would be talking to each other using signs and talking with our body, which means that we have been living with your brother hausa-fulani peacefully all these years," he said
Religion, he said has never been a problem adding "and if you go into the mosque and churches, the Hausa language is what we use, in even communicating and begging God to forgive us and to give us salvation.
He urged people to stop using religion as a platform to access their selfish interest. "You use religion if you are weak and you want to lord on the other side of your opponent as soon as something happens the only way you can get support easily is to make use of your religion and shout in the street and there are people in the street looking for food and therefore it is easy for you to recruit them to fight your case. You know yourself that it is not religion but only religion will promote your interest. Now I speak with experience, I know for certain that there has never been any quarrel between the Muslims and the Christians in the sixties and seventies or tribes until of recent."
President of the Christian Association of Nigeria Arch Bishop John Onayekan also urged the leaders to broaden their minds so as to find a lasting solution to the Jos crisis
"I think we should broaden our mind and we should not be afraid to do that. Which means also that we should go beyond the recent crisis to the previous ones too which are still festering and waiting to be addressed and if we have the political will to do that and may God grant us also the sincerity to talk frankly for the good of our people, out there who eventually are at the brunt of the blows, then we might really be able to make this gathering worth while."
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