Jos Crisis And the Challenge of Nation Building

**Tunde** · 3rd May 2010

I must commend The Companion for providing this forum for a dispassionate discourse of the recent unfortunate Jos violence which erupted on March 7, 2010 resulting in the killings of a large number of innocent Nigerians mainly women and children. This was not an isolated incident. Indeed, for nearly a decade now, Plateau State once a haven of peace and climatic serenity has been turned into a theatre of mindless and destructive violence, earning Nigeria a bad name in the comity of Nations.

We must first ask why has peaceful Jos of old suddenly become synonymous and notorious for communal violence. Hitherto most commentators have tended to mischaracterize the incidents as religious, describing them as products of Muslim-Christian conflicts and tensions. This was a wrong diagnosis of a serious pandemic disease.

In consequence wrong prescriptions were put forward from time to time. Alas, the terrible disease lingered, increasing in intensity as the years rolled by.

Perhaps many people especially foreign media correspondents covering the crises were misled by certain patterns of destruction, as combatants went for religious symbols burning Mosques and Churches, attacking and killing frightened citizens who took refuge in these places of worship. However, in-depth study of the incidents would have revealed that religion was no more than an opportunistic virus of a larger disease that had afflicted the people of Plateau.

Indeed, far more deadly viruses were at work which had eaten deep into the corpus of Plateau State; these include struggle for local resource control (agrarian versus pastoral demands), ethnicity (Berom versus Hausa/Fulani), poverty, misgovernance, and legal collusion that apparently sanctions settle/indigene dichotomy.

It would seem clear from the discourse so far that the perennial Jos crisis is rooted in economic and political factors. Jos people are fiercely competing for dominant positions in the political space, as well as access to economic opportunities. Indeed, in the religious sphere, the leadership of the two dominant faiths, Christianity and Islam are not at loggerheads, rather they are in continuous dialogue through the inter-faith structures they have put in place. There is, therefore, no violent struggle between Christians and Muslims to win souls in the Plateau.

In effect, it is the resolve of the dominant ethnic groups which happen to be respectively Christian and Muslim to either maintain or reverse historic economic advantages, or retain their dominance in the political sphere that has continually precipitated clashes of claims and demands resulting in communal conflagration on the Plateau.

What then is the way out? Additionally, is there a political will to achieve a permanent solution in the Jos imbroglio? If the answer is in the affirmative, then we must look for the solutions not only at the local level of Plateau State, but also at the national level. The solutions must be holistic, traversing socio-economic and political spheres:

1. Abundance of opportunities must be created in Education, as well as provision of jobs for the youths, and wealth for all sections of the Plateau Community.

2. Access to socio-economic opportunities must be fair and equitable. Divisive policies and structures such as settlers and indigenes dichotomy must be demolished. Similarly quota system and even the principle of federal character which tend to compromise merit must be re-visited in the ongoing efforts to review the Nigerian Constitution:

Our new ethos should be Equal Opportunities for all Nigerians.

3. Federal and State Authorities should support inter-religious dialogue and co-operation through generous funding. In this regard, comparative religious study should be made compulsory at all levels of education so that every Nigerian student would know the fundamentals of his or her religion as well as those of others. This policy would promote mutual understanding, respect and tolerance among the adherents of the various faiths.

4. The Nigerian State should be true to the Rule of Law for only this doctrine can guarantee our present and future as a Nation. Equality before the law should replace ethnic bias and favours. Equal laws should provide the last line of defence and security for every Nigerian, no matter where he or she is resident. Only in this way can the Nation displace tribe or ethnic origin in the consciousness of the people.

My thesis is that the Jos crisis calls for an empirical solution that would be applicable to any part of Nigeria for virtually every section of the Country is a candidate for violent eruption, if any policy goes wrong or a particular group feels cheated. Therefore the Constitution and the Law should come to our permanent rescue.

The United States of America is what it is today because US Constitution and the Laws make it so. You cannot violate the law with impunity in America. Every American has the right to seek to be what he or she wants to be. This is what has made it possible for a black man to aspire to be the President and first Citizen of the wealthiest and most powerful Nation in the world; he emphatically succeeded in his ambition. The secret behind this historic audacity and emergence of President Barack Obama is the full reign of the American Constitution and Laws.

Dr Adegbite, CON, the Seriki and Baba Adinni of Egbaland is Secretary - General Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs made these remarks at a recent forum in Lagos.