JOS: HOME OF PEACE AND TOURISM OR VIOLENCE AND MASSACRE

JOS: HOME OF PEACE AND TOURISM OR VIOLENCE AND MASSACRE?

For every Nigerian state, there is a sobriquet attached to it. There is the ‘centre of excellence’, .pacesetter state’ and even ‘food basket of the nation’. Have they lived up to their names? That is a discourse for another day.

The crux of my writing is on Jos. This is a city that has become more popular than the state housing it. There are many towns in Plateau state but Jos has been grabbing the headlines and refusing to let go for a while now because of the prevalent violence for which there seems to be no end in sight.

Plateau state has the nickname ‘home of peace and tourism’ but that has been substituted of recent for ‘home of violence and massacre’ or how else will you describe the huge volumes of lives and properties that have been lost to the unending spate of senseless fighting ( ethno-religious).

Jos had been peaceful until some people ignited a sizeable chunk of gun-powder that sent the whole peace into a huge inferno in 2001. The violence of this year led to the brutal killing of Christians and Jos indigenes not dwellers on infamous roads like Bauchi road and Angwa –Rogo. Only an irresponsible head is not around when the house is on fire, unfortunately, that was the tale of the political head of government in Plateau state, he was out of town and didn’t return until many lives had been lost and properties ruined.

I was an ‘ear witness’ of the 2001 crisis but in 2008 , I became an eyewitness and it was God and mother luck that prevented me from being a victim. In August 2008, I was posted to Plateau state for the compulsory national servitude. After the orientation, I was posted to the Jos north axis of the state for my place of primary assignment. Initially, I struggled to get a peaceful accommodation but after a while owing to God’s favor, I was able to get a place to share with a big brother friend. The only ‘but’ in the place was that it was a predominantly Hausa and by implication Islamic environment. I did not see this as a fuss until after the crisis. What crisis? You might want to ask, I will be telling you about it shortly.

In November of the same year, the state Government organized local government elections into Jos north and the day after huge crisis erupted. I awoke not to the usual hustle and bustle that should characterize a new day but to pandemonium, people running helter skelter for their lives. I owe mine to God and a big brother friend that persuaded me to run away fast since I thought it was just a harmless riot that would soon be put out. How wrong I was, that so-called harmless riot cost people their properties, took lives including three from the NYSC.

After the crisis, the government of the sate vowed to prevent any future occurrence and even the federal government said it would never happen again. In 2010, when every other person was saying happy New Year, residents of Jos metropolis had to scamper away from their homes to places of safety. This time around, the crisis was not limited to Jos north but it got to Jos south and neighboring villages. The loss of lives and properties was colossal.

The whole of Nigeria is still grappling with that when just some few days back, we heard that some Fulani herdsmen went to a village murdering innocent people in their sleep, women and children. I did not know the full import until I saw some gory pictures of some slaughtered women and children. A child’s head was slashed into two equal halves. Having given you a compressed download of events in that state, I will like to ask some pertinent questions.

1. Are Jos residents vampires ( I mean blood thirsty)?
2. Are security operatives in the state paid for doing nothing or how else do we explain recurring bloody crises occurring in the same location three times in a space of 10 years.
3. Is the federal government happy seeing blood on the television screens and pages of newspaper, if the state government is negligent and the state governor inefficient should the federal government and the presidency follow suit?

I would really appreciate it if someone can give answers to my questions. They are not so tough, are they? If things continue like this in Jos, tourist might only remember and visit the place when they want to watch Nigeria’s version of horror movie.