Notable commentator Colonel Abubakar Dangiwa Umar yesterday lamented the insecurity situation in the country, especially the lingering ethno-religious crises ravaging Jos, Plateau State. “Nigeria is on the brink,” said the former military governor of Kaduna State in an exclusive interview with LEADERSHIP.
The crisis in Plateau State, said Umar, is a smokescreen manifesting out of religious and political manipulations of the elite who derive political and economic benefits. “The situation in Jos is bringing a lot of issues to worry about, particularly the escalation of the violence. This heartlessness has shown that both sides are not reflecting their religion in their actions; where someone takes a weapon and slaughters innocent souls, it has gone contrary to the teachings of Islam and Christianity,” he said.
The crises are not religious, he said: “I fairly believe that it has nothing to do with religion. If it were religion, then, look at the situation in south-east or south-south or even south-west: when last did you hear Christians and Muslims fighting and lives being lost? They are accommodating and you don’t hear them fighting. In Birnin Kebbi where I hail from, I cannot recall any day that a church was burnt, or Christians murdered. So, the situation in Jos defies any explanation from the point of view of religious disharmony.
“I tend to attribute this one to the level of poverty. You know, since the crises started in Jos, all economic activities have been almost grounded; therefore, the level of polarization is too high. And, of course, you cannot rule out the possibility of political manipulation. There is a deliberate policy of divide-and-misrule. Politicians are divided and they are also dividing people along sectarian and ethno-religious lines.
“My worry today is that people have turned a blind eye to the very dangerous, escalating situation in Jos. By now, I expect religious leaders, traditional rulers and all governors to convene an urgent peace parley.
People feel there is nothing to be done and so turn a blind eye; unfortunately this is a cancer that is life-threatening. People are saying that Nigerians are the most religious people in the world; going by what is happening, you wonder if Nigerians are not misreading their scriptures. We know Jesus talked about turning the other cheek, and Islam means peace. So where did we get the ideology of killing innocent souls?”
Challenging the nation’s leadership to rise up and stop the escalating violence, he said: “The leadership at all strata must be up and doing. The gap between the rich and the poor that is widening by the day is providing an atmosphere that people are cashing in on; this must be rectified by tackling poverty.
Unfortunately, public officials are not bothered; you see them globetrotting in foreign countries, flying first-class, while the country is burning. Hospitals are out of reach of the commoners, talk less of sending children to school.”
Meanwhile, the security network of Borno State was disconnected yesterday as another bomb blast suspected to have been planted by members of the Boko Haram sect killed many people along Baga Road in Maiduguri.
Although security agencies could not confirm the exact number of casualties in the bomb blast, LEADERSHIP gathered that many people were killed in the incident.