Commentators on the intractable crisis in Jos, capital of Plateau state, amazingly including those who come from the state, all seem to fail in getting to the roots of the matter and analysing the situation as dispassionately as humanly possible. While it is understandable, as things go in Nigeria, that nearly all those who come from the state base their arguments for or against the protagonists on primordial sentiments, other commentators are either academic or simplistic in their analyses.
The genesis of the Jos or Plateau state crisis dates back to over a centuary a go (as many commentators have rightly observed) when the socalled Hausa/Fulani, among many other tribes now known by the natives as ‘settlers,’ were drafted or drafted themselves to the Jos area to work? where Europeans, especialy the British who eventually became colonisers of the region as a whole, were engaged in massive tin mining.
I am joining the debate on the Jos crisis because I believe it is a means by which a lasting solution to it could be found. Jos town, where I lived as a reporter in the early 1980’s, occupies a special place in my heart. I came to love the town not only because of its fine weather but because it was such a serene and peaceful place. Having lived there for about three years I came to realise that the tension caused by the simmering dispute between the ‘settlers’ and the natives which was palpable to anyone who lived there was bound to explode one day.??
This is because no matter how friendly and peaceful the people were with us, there were times when they wouldn’t hesitate to let us know how bitter they were with us for merely being? members of a tribe that they considered, rightly or wrongly, as their eternal tormentors! For instance, one day we were on our way to Pankshin area to attend a wedding ceremony that I was invited to by a friend. When we got to Mangu (there are two Mangus; one predominently occupied by Hausas and the other by natives), one of the occupants of the car I was driving faced me and said: “This is the town you people call Mangun Arna, whereas it is the original and authentic Mangu that we know.”
I was flabbergasted! For some time we drove in silence; I nursing my shock and they their bitterness. Arna is a Hausa word meaning unbelievers (in Islam), but which the natives regard as abusive and deragatory. This word is actually at the centre of the bitterness between the two antagonistic groups because, to the natives, to call them arna is akin to depriving them of their dignity, and even humanity.
But actually, and as a matter of fact, the real genesis of the frosty reletionship between the Hausa/Fulani and their neighbours in Jos could be traced to the historical reality that was in existence as at the time they moved to the area to work in the tin mines. Most of the natives were then living in caves and on hill tops. It was these new settlers who kept urging them to come down and live normal lives.
It took several years before these natives reluctantly came down and started living in small hamlets.
Now, as it is wont to happen among human beings, as these people came down to live among them they were naturally looked down upon and made ridicule of. And as the Hausa/Fulani were the predominant tribe, the natives consequently developed hatred for them for doing so and they handed down this legacy of discord to their offspring.
Over the years, the offspring of these hitherto cave dwellers kept vowing to any Hausa/Fulaniman or woman that has ears for them that they would? one day avenge their forefathers. The common pledge among some of them was: “Kakannin ku sun ba kakannin mu tsakuwa sun ci, to mu dutse ne ma baku ku ci!” Meaning, “Your forefathers gave ours gravel to eat; well, we’ll give you stones to eat.”
Stories abound of this kind of encounters between the natives and the settlers, and even among those of us who for one reason or the other found ourselves living in Jos.
Personally, what I kept wondering was why anybody should blame me for the sins of my forefathers. And what is most annoying is that even if you do not come from Jos once you are Hausa/Fulani you are as guilty as the original settlers.
The political dimension of the misunderstanding however started after the creation of states in 1967 when Mr. Joseph Gomwalk, an Assistant Police Commissioner, was appointed as governor of Benue-Plateau state by the then Head of State, Lt-Col. (later General) Yakubu Gowon.
Gomwalk, while trying to ensure that the area belonged only to the natives, promoted ‘state-ism’ which gave impetus to the desire to exclude non-natives from all ramifications of governance. It was this exclusivist policy that made him to divest from such legacies of the Sardauna as the NNDC and NNN, and to set up a radio and television house and STANDARD newspaper.
And when Gomwalk, who was thus regarded as a hero, and several military officers from Plateau state were executed as a result of their involvement in the abortive coup of February 13, 1976 in which the head of state, Gen. Murtala Mohammed, a Hausa/Fulani, was killed, the mutual suspicion and discord became even more deeply-seated. If you knew the consternation and bad blood that the executions caused on the Plateau, as some of us did not too long afterwards, what is happening today would not surprise you.
This feeling of bitterness got more boost in the late 1970’s during the election campaigns that ushered in the Second Republic. Chief Solomon Daushep Lar, who was seeking to become the first civilian governor of the state, unfortunately added the religious dimension to the crisis. In his effort to win the election, Chief Lar used the pulpit as his soapbox. He allegedly used several clerics to campaign in churches, such as Rev. Christopher Nwagba who was later rewarded with the commissionership post. The campaigns, naturally, used base sentiments against the settlers who are mainly Muslims.
If Lar was such a major actor then, you might wonder why President Goodluck Jonathan appointed him as head of a federal government committee to investigate and offer solution to the recent crisis. Well, if truth must be told the problem is actually deeply embedded in the psyche of the natives as a whole; the leaders and the led alike. Few could claim in truth that they are unaffected by it. That it did not happen under Fidelis Tapgun was only happenstance.
Besides, Chief Lar could be said to be a moderate as he even had an education programme for the nomadic Fulani children that was run by his late wife. Nevertheless, since the Gomwalk days and even under Lar and up to this day, the problem of Hausa/Fulani children not being offered places in secondary schools, not to talk of places in the state civil service, has expectedly defied solution.
The charge by those in government, then and today, has always been that the settlers have dual citizenship because they send their children to schools in their home states. But the settlers say they are forced to do so because they are refused such opportunities in the state. Those of them who by some accident find themselves in the state civil service are discriminated against and made to perpetually suffer psychological trauma. Many of them either quit or struggle to transfer themselves to the federal service.
This bleak picture was the reality in Plateau state when I lived there from 1982 – 1984, and I have no reason to believe that it is any better now. In fact, if this was the situation when there was relative peace and harmony among the people, how could it be any better now that the leaders are hawkish? Even though I averred that the problem is embedded in the minds of the people as a whole, there is no doubt about it that a responsible leadership could always make a difference.
What then is the solution to this problem, especially in a situation where the leaders and the led are not willing to change; if changing means accepting the settlers as citizens and treating them as such? Yet that is the ultimate solution, as the natives cannot wish the settlers away just like that having lived there for well over a century now. In a democratic setting justice must be seen to be dispensed to all as enshrined in the constitution.
The Hausa/Fulani insist that since their population is strong enough to enable them produce? members of the state assembly, House of Reps and all the councillors in the area, they can’t see why anyone should begrudge the chairmanship of Jos North. But I personally suggest that a power-sharing arrangement, may be as senior and junior partners interchangeably where necessary, be mutually agreed upon by the warring parties.
The Jos problem is not an accident. An accident happens because you do not have foreknowledge of it before it occurs. True, it is not easy for a people to free themselves from a complex that has developed for ages. But with courage and determination a people can always succeed in getting rid of their prejudices and what fear and suspicion have implanted in their minds. I wish Plateau people best of luck.
Mohammed, wrote in from Hotoro, Kano and can be reached on: aumo21@yahoo.com