Wednesday, August 31, 2011

JOS CRISIS: LET TRUTH BE TOLD

Another crisis erupted in Jos the Plateau State capital on Monday, 29 August, 2011 with the usual attendant random killings of fellow Nigerians. It’s now difficult to even keep a log of the number of the incidents of rioting in the city hitherto renowned for its peace and scenic beauty.

By 10:00 am all access roads to the University of Jos were blocked. It was at 1:00 pm that soldiers of the two-year-old Special Task Force in Jos managed to clear the congested roads. However, the Gada Biyu to Farin Gada axis remained inaccessible. By 3:00pm, thick black smoke was bellowing from the environs of the Jos Central mosque and Gada Biyu.

What was really happening in town? This was and still is the question on many lips. Probably only those who were at ground zero can accurately answer that question, provided they are willing to be honest to their consciences. I say if they are willing to be honest to themselves because of the deluge of conflicting reports that greeted us in the press on Tuesday morning, barely 24 hours after the carnage.

I was bemused by the conflicting reports in our national dailies and online papers this morning. I therefore, decided to take time to juxtapose the different stories and see if a meaningful picture can emerge. Here is what I found out:

Sahara Reporters is an online paper which has been very quick and fearless in its reportage on events in Nigeria but based in the US. They could only quote Associated Press (AP). What they obtained from AP actually came from officials of our own National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA). They claimed that the fighting began after Muslims began praying in a predominantly Christian neighborhood. Next, for no stated reason, the Muslims were suddenly attacked by unidentified persons using knives, machetes, bows and arrows. The aftermath was at least four deaths and over 50 burnt cars and 100 motorcycles burnt. The only mention of the presence of law enforcement agents in their report was that the Special Task Force soldiers and policemen “moved into the affected neighborhood late Monday.”

The Daily Trust newspaper reported that no fewer that ten persons were killed following an attack on the members of the JIBWIS Muslim sect as they filed towards a prayer ground along Rukuba Road to observe the Eid-el-fitr a day ahead of other Nigerian Muslims. Road blocks to the mosque had been mounted by youths in the area to stop the Muslims. All entreaties by security personnel to dissuade the youths from blocking the access failed. Other youths in their hundred later joined the protest, asking the sect members to beat a retreat. According to the report, “A fight soon erupted and shots rang out from all directions as security men tried to disperse the crowds….the security men were outnumbered.” Skirmishes broke out in other parts of town as the news of this fracas spread. Dr. Lass David of the Bingham University Teaching Hospital who treated the injured was reported by the State Commissioner of Information as saying that of the 35 casualties brought in all had bullet wounds while 2 were already dead on arrival.

The Daily Trust report contained a vital piece of information. 3 days earlier, JIBWIS youth had gone to the same site to prepare it for the Eid prayers and they had been confronted by youths in the area who told them not to hold the payers there. The Police Commissioner had earlier in the week marked certain routes for the Muslim faithful to use and areas to avoid. I wonder on which list Rukuba Road was. Why did the JIBWIS sect not heed the advance warning by residents of the area anyway?

The Sun News reported that the Rukuba Road area is the same area that was bombed by unknown persons on Christmas Eve last year for which Government has done nothing to date. According to the paper, youth in the area had vowed to make the Muslim sallah celebrations this year “unpalatable.” That means everyone had a prior notice of the impending danger. The paper said after the worshippers were trapped in the area for hours, skirmishes broke out resulting in the deaths of one Muslim of the Izala sect and 9 Christians, all from bullets fired directly at them by soldiers of the STF. The paper added that residents of the area confirmed the ten deaths.

Thisday Newspaper carried their report on the incident under the caption, “17 Killed as Sallah Turns Deadly in Jos.” They reported also that as many as 30 cars were burnt as well as several houses. They too reported that Apparently, the same Muslims had gone to the site on Sunday to prepare the grounds for the prayers and were warned by “indigenes” not to hold the prayers there. The Muslims insisted and contracted soldiers of the STF to convey them in their official Toyota Hilux vans to the ground. So the worshippers were escorted by security agents to the venue knowing fully well that civil unrest could result.

The Punch Newspaper titled its story, “20 Killed in Renewed Jos Violence.” It reported that the victims were allegedly shot by soldiers who escorted some Muslims to a prayer ground. It also said that the Muslims were chanting “Allahu Akbar.” A leader of the Gada Biyu youths, Mr. Yusuf Khadiya, later held a press conference in which he claimed that soldiers shot directly into the Kabong market where most of the casualties were recorded.

allAfrica.com reported that 10 deaths resulted from a Muslim-Christian clash on Monday 29 August, 2011 at the Rukuba Road area. The paper quoted Dr. Lass David of the Bingham Teaching Hospital as saying that 3 dead bodies were brought to the Hospital along with 50 injured persons bearing bullet wounds.

Under the caption, “Casualties As Christians/Muslims Clash Again in Jos”, the Vanguard Newspaper reported that Jos, which has enjoyed relative peace for some weeks was engulfed in bloody violence on Monday, leaving 20 people dead and over 50. “A witness said Christians involved in the clashes spoke of preventing Muslims from marking their holiday in revenge for a string of bomb explosions in Jos on Christmas Eve last year”.

The Vanguard report went on to say that eye witnesses gave conflicting versions of what led to the clash. One version has it that members of the Izala Islamic group were attacked by youths along Rukuba Road, a Christian dominated area, while going for prayers at an abandoned mosque located in the area. Apparently, the mosque had been abandoned years ago in the wake of sectarian violence as the town became polarized along religious divides. However, another version has it that the Muslim youths going for the prayers, contrary to the directive of the Police that they must not carry dangerous weapons to the praying ground, brandished daggers, knives and other dangerous weapons at the residents of the areas as they drove past. This infuriated the residents. Youths who reside in the area approached the mosque for a showdown but were fired upon by the STF men causing death. In retaliation, the youths stormed the mosque, torched parked cars and motorcycles inside and even killed some of the worshippers.

From all these reports, one can pull out some facts:

(1) That no one is sure how many human lives were lost in the mayhem.

(2) That Hausa/Fulani Muslims do not live around that Rukuba Road mosque anymore.

(3) That Muslims were warned of the impending danger should they attempt to use the mosque in question.

(4) That security agents perceived the inherent danger but decided to give the Muslims cover against the Commissioner of Police’s directive days earlier not to use that route.

(5) That dangerous weapons were taken along to the prayers by Muslims.

(6) That the Rukuba Road residents were out to exact revenge on Muslims Christmas Eve 2010 bomb attack in the neighborhood.

(7) That while Christians have been forced to abandon their Churches in Muslim dominated areas, Muslims are insisting on using mosques grounds in Christian dominated areas.

(8) That Jos city is highly polarized along religious lines with known no-go areas for Muslims and Christians.

(9) That security personnel of the STF could have prevented the clash but perpetrated most of the killings themselves instead.

Still, the truth of the matter has not yet been told. These are all just symptoms of the cancer in Jos. No one has yet placed a finger on the sore point. The bone of contention should be clearly identified if we are ever to solve the problem. In the rest of this article I will attempt to pin-point key issues in the Jos crisis as fairly as I can.

The Hausa/Fulani Muslims in Jos are migrants who have settled there for any period from the time of the Dan Fodio jihads of 1904 up to one or two years ago. Their claims to ownership of land in Jos have been proven to be baseless by competent authorities. All the land they occupy is an Anaguta, Afizere and Berom inheritance. Their large numbers today in Jos can be attributed to their practice of polygamy and fresh continues migration from elsewhere. Though they occupy up to 10% of the heart of Jos today, they don’t even have traditional burial grounds.

One major problem with them is that they have not integrated into their host community the way the Igbo and Yoruba settlers have done. These other tribes, Muslims and Christians alike, have intermarried into their host communities, whereas no indigene has ever married a Hausa of Fulani Muslim girl. A few Christian girls have married Muslims men and have even been Islamized.

Peaceful coexistence between the Hausa/Fulani and their host communities has never happened. When their numbers were small, they tolerated their hosts. However, now that their numbers are large, they have declared a full scale war in order to take over whole territories by force. What their ancestral Uthman Dan Fodio jihadists could not do, they would want to achieve.

The Federal Government’s seeming insensitivity to the Jos crisis is because it has since taken side in the matter. The Babangida administration knew exactly what it was doing when it totally disregarded the rights and wishes of the indigenous peoples of Jos and went ahead to create a Jos North Local Government Area covering exactly the area settled on by the migrants. The request of the indigenous people at the time was for a split of the defunct Jos LGA into Jos East and Jos West instead the Jos North and Jos South that was eventually done. The people’s protest letter is still on the President’s table according to former President Babangida’s submission through his counsel to the 2010 Justice Ajibola Judicial Commission of Inquiry.

Bloody clashes commenced in 1994 and several even deadlier ones have occurred since then. Today, murder takes place daily affair in Jos and environs without retribution. Four Reports of Judicial Commissions of Inquiry, a Plateau Peace Commission, a House of Reps investigative Commission and other parley reports are gathering dust in Government vaults unimplemented. Whenever the truth about the Jos crisis is told, nobody in Government, State and Federal, takes up the courage to implement it. Why? Because the forces behind the Hausa/Fulani forceful takeover over of Jos always intimidate Government officials and matters are swept under the carpet. Compromise, lack of political will and outright cowardice are always at play. This was the situation in Southern Kaduna too until the people took up arms and chased away even the Military Administrator when he attempted to reach them.

One reason for the Hausa/Fulani expansionist tendency is to spread their religion, Islam, whether they openly accept this fact or not. To ‘dip the Quran in the Atlantic’ is their agenda numero uno is the way some put it.

Another cogent reason for the expansionist tendency of the Hausa/Fulani is hardly ever discussed. It’s the loss of their ancestral lands to desert encroachment. While the residents of the periphery of the Sahara Desert long ago saw the danger posed by draught & desert encroachment (plus global warming today), the rest of us are just waking up to that realization. Desertification is fast eating up their ancestral homes.

The Hausa/Fulani know that their land is as good as gone and so they must migrate. They have a discriminating religion - Islam, a rich language – Hausa and they don’t mix up with others. These three elements put them on collision course with every other group of people.

Their migration southwards is a natural survival instinct. However, their claim to their hosts’ homes is unnatural and always a source of conflict. To succeed in such nefarious claims, they have to be in governance perpetually, hence their insistence on a North-South zoning instead of a rotation between our 6 administrative geo-political zones.

This is the reason why they deceived Gowon into jettisoning the beautiful ‘Aburi Accord’ in 1967. This is also the reason why IBB promulgated the most retrogressive piece of legislation ever called the Land Use Act 1978.

The Land Use Act in force today has 8 parts and 51 sections. Part 1A, S.49 takes away all rights to land & vests same in the State Governor who must issue you the most-difficult-to-obtain Consent to Mortgage, which is required for the creation of legal mortgages. Oil communities, cocoa plantation owners, Nigerian Institute of Surveyors, property developers and others have been demanding for its abrogation. Nigeria's huge housing deficit today is largely due to the un-workability of that obnoxious Land Use Act.

The Act authorizes a Local Government to allocate up to 50 hectres only for developmental purposes, but up to 500 hectres to a cattle owner for grazing purposes. Benue, Nassarawa and Plateau States are today experiencing funny attacks from Fulani herdsmen that defy reason. Here is the secret. They are deliberately making a nuisance of themselves so that they will be allocated grazing land. Once they have secured that legal document, then that large chunk of land in Nigeria becomes theirs in perpetuity while the farmers who originally inherited it from their forefathers would have lost it forever. So, cattle owners who have had no fixed address for millennia can easily acquire Rights of Occupancy from LGs while serious investors have to slog it out through Government House red tape to get our power-drunk Governors to personally assign such rights to them.

The Hausa/Fulani want that piece of legislation in place because it will gives them access to ALL lands in Nigeria. I assure you, it will be easier to break up Nigeria than to abrogate the Land Use Act. There is rumor right now as we speak that GEJ's constitutional amendments might include a provision to grant rights hitherto reserved for indigenous peoples to any Nigerian who stays for just 6 months in any locality - rights like ministerial appointment. The Tiv were smart decades ago when they quietly adopted the policy of never allowing settlers to acquire title to land or have direct market stall allocations. Let the Hausa/Fulani remain perpetual tenants in Tiv land, they decreed. Even at NTA Makurdi, the Tiv did not allow the news to be read in Hausa language from inception.

CAR (Central African Republic) did something similar to what the Tiv did. Being a very small land-locked country and having hoards of rich Fulani nomads criss-crossing their countryside, they passed a law to the effect that CAR does not have a Fulani tribe. CAR thus secured the future ownership of her lands. No history book will ever tell you that Plateau State had Fulani people at any time. However, that history is about to be re-written according to the Land Use Act when Local Governments in the State are coaxed under duress to allocate Fulani people grazing land between Barkin Ladi, Bokkos Riyom and Bisichi so that there will be in the land. Arise oh compatriots!

Monday, August 29, 2011

KILLINGS CONTINUE IN JOS TODAY 29 AUG 2011

14 feared killed in fresh Jos violence

By Ugar Ukandi Odey, August 29, 2011 06:25PM


At least fourteen people are reported dead as fresh violence broke out in Jos, Plateau State capital Monday afternoon.

Trouble started early in the morning when some members of a Muslim group went for Eid el Fitri prayers at a mosque in Gada Biu area of the town and were resisted by Christians living in the area.

By Mid-day, the skirmishes had spread to Dogon Karfe, Massalachin Juma and Unity Junction areas of the town.

While security sources are yet to confirm the number of casualties, early reports indicate at least four people were fatally shot by operatives of the security task force in the town at Unity Junction. More than 50 vehicles and 100 motorcycles were also burnt.

Plateau State Commissioner for Information, Yiljab Abraham, assured that security operatives were working to bring the situation under control. He also said the state governor, Jonah Jang, had directed the state Ministry of Health to release drugs to hospitals to respond to the emergency. (Culled from 234nesxt.com)

Saturday, August 27, 2011

UN HOUSE ABUJA BOMBING: A PLATEAU INDIGENE HURT

I received the following email from a friend in Abuja shortly after the bomb attack on the UN building.

"Bomb blast happened at about 10:30am. Vehicle laden with Bomb had Kano
registration Kano AV 38 NSR. AIT showing scenes now. A Plateau Indigene
Physician is one of those injured and receiving treatment in National Hospital.
Lets pray for all of them including families of bereaved. This will have a ton
of consequences internationally for Nigeria Development Assistance programs
Lets pray on and be vigilant. If they can get into UN Building with 3 gates then
entering churches………………… God help us." PD

Friday, August 26, 2011

SIX MORE KILLED ON THE PLATEAU

SIX persons have been killed as Kwi and Jol villages of Riyom Local Government of Plateau State came under attack around 3 am yesterday, 21 August, 2011. With yesterday’s attack, the number of people killed in similar attacks in the last one week has risen to 20.

Disturbed by the spate of renewed killings in the state despite the peace efforts of government, Governor Jonah Jang has called for the withdrawal of soldiers from the state. Jang said, “The Nigerian Armed Forces were being unnecessary “over-dragged into politics.”

“The involvement of the military in the internal affairs of this country in the name of security is high and by implication we are over dragging the military into politics, they would be forced to eat “the forbidden fruit.”

Women and youths in the state have been calling for the withdrawal of soldiers following the alleged failure of soldiers to prevent attacks on innocent citizens.

Jang said, “I am convinced that the armed forces are being polluted with this religious crisis in the country. Before now, the military personnel used to stay in the barracks, but today the Armed Forces have started taking sides in religious crisis and if they are not called to order, it will be dangerous for the country."

Jang said owing to the situation in Jos, soldiers have abandoned their primary duty posts and instead, ‘’escort Fulani to the bush in search of cows.”

The Governor said, "There are deliberate attempts to discredit the state’s Security outfit, Operation Rainbow, by the military from taking off. The military is saying that the Operation Rainbow cannot cope with the security challenges so that instead of disengaging from the streets, they plan to continue. I used to be against the establishment of State Police, but with the current situation, there are many dynamics into state security which has made me canvass for the creation of one. It is not that Mr. President has wrongly used the state security apparatus”, but that, the call was “necessary considering the Plateau State example.”

(Culled from THE NATION, 22:08:2011)

UN HOUSE ABUJA BOMBING

The shocking news came in that at about 10:30 am this morning, the building housing the United Nations offices in the Nigerian capital, Abuja, was attacked by a lone suicide bomber using a car laden with explosives. The reports say that the attacker rammed through the two gates leading into the compound and detonated two bombs at the foot of the building seriously damaging it and killing several people. Last death toll was put at 18 with 60 others hospitalized. no one has claimed responsibility yet.
What a sad day for Nigeria and the world at large. My sympathies go the injured and the relatives of the dead.

Sunday, August 21, 2011

ZONKWA ATTACKED

I received the following email from a friend today Sunday 21 Aug. 2011. Zonkwa is in Kaduna
State, about 2 hrs drive from Jos where Fulanis are waging a relentless guerrilla warfare right now. What is really going on with our Hausa/Fulani neighbors?

"The family compound of the District Head of Fadia, near Zonkwa, Zangon Kataf Local Govt, was attacked in the early hours of today by Hausa speaking marauders. Information has it that two people were killed. As has been the case in the Plateau, the Attackers escaped before the 'alert' JTF arrived the scene."

PLATEAU KILLINGS: MILITARY COMPLICITY - HON. B. KAZE

Hon. Bitrus Kaze is the only legislator in the NASS from Plateau State worth his title. He has proved himself over and over that he cares for his people and that he is fearless, to the shame of his other 7 colleagues and 3 Senators from his State. This is not the first time that attackers of innocent Plateau indigenes will leave behind evidence that they are Nigerian military personnel. Yet nobody in Abuja has deemed it fit to investigate further. The Federal Government is now clearly complicit in the genocide on the Plateau. May God come to our rescue. Amen. Thank you, Kaze, for speaking up in such a mature and gentlemanly manner.

Jos Attacks: Lawmaker Laments Military Complicity

THISDAY LIVE, By SERIKI ADINOYI, 21 Aug 2011

The representative of Jos South/Jos East Federal constituency in the House of Representatives, Hon. Bitrus Kaze, has decried the alleged complicity of soldiers in the recent Jos attacks, describing it as very unfortunate.

He added that “it has done incalculable damage to the image of the military and particularly the Special Task Force (STF) on the Plateau.”

Kaze, who was addressing the press in Jos, lamented that “in the recent attack in Barkin Ladi Local Government Area, no less a person than the chairman of the local government came out to say they found three ID cards and a military barrette; this is not the first time military ID cards have been found at the site of crime. It is a very sad testimony of the STF.

“And what worries me is that in spite that grievous allegation, it appears to me that STF has not come out, at least to deny it. It is really very strange and worrisome to me that in a scene of such a heinous crime, where a family of seven was wiped out, and an allegation of this nature was leveled against the military, it says nothing about it. It appears to me that the story surrounding the complicity is being given some genuineness”.

He, however, said there were commendable traits in the Chief of Army Staff, Lt Gen Azubike Ihejirika and the General Officer Commanding, 3, Division, Jos, Major General Sunday Idoko, “for the different approach their regime has given to the Jos crisis”.

This, he added, was unlike in the days of Lt Gen Abdulrahman Danbazzau and Major Gen Saleh Maina. “Now, there is an improved response; the response is quicker and more effective than what we’ve seen in the past. In those days, criminality will be perpetrated for hours under the watchful eyes of soldiers, and nothing would happen.”

Kaze also said he was encouraged by the recent decision of the Defence Minister, Dr Halilu Bello, and Chief of Defence Staff, Air Chief Marshal Oluseyi Petirin, to investigate the conduct of troops in Maiduguri.

But “if the killing of one pregnant woman has triggered the Defence Headquarters to investigate, I wonder why we have not heard the Ministry of Defence or the Defence Headquarters call for investigation of the massacre that have taken place on the Plateau.”

“As if we are not in the same country; hundreds of people were killed in Dogo Nahawa and other places on the Plateau, nobody has bothered to institute an investigative case on the matter. It seems to me as we are being treated differently,” he submitted.

Saturday, August 20, 2011

JASAWA A FALSE CREATION

The following article appeared in This Day newspaper. It should be disregarded as the said petitioner, JDA, is a highly discredited socio-cultural group in Jos which has been indicted by several Judicial Commissions of inquiry for fomenting disharmony among Jos residents. See extracts of Plateau State Govt. White Paperon the 1994 Jos crisis below.

Extract of WHITE PAPER ON THE REPORT OF THE COMMISSION OF INQUIRY INTO THE RIOTS OF 12TH APRIL, 1994 IN JOS METROPOLIS
SEPTEMBER, 2004 - PART TWO (2)

3.2.0 The Jasawa Development Association
3.2.1 It appeared to us from evidence received that for many years, Jos had been and is subject to pressures and forces of ethnicity which work against its development, governability and stability. A problem of policing Jos metropolis may be attributed to the rise of Jasawa Development Association, which seems to attract recognisance by force, harassment and intimidation, a conduct which has logically eroded the legitimacy of its operation, thereby creating problems of policing. Hear what witnesses say:

3.2.2 Berom Elders Council (BEC) told the Commission that about 1991, “Federal Government created two Federal Constituencies in Jos Local Government Area. Jos metropolis, which is predominantly inhabited by settlers, was carved out as one constituency, while the rest of the Local Government was left as the other constituency. Because the traditional seat of our people is in the metropolis, this action purportedly alienated our traditional ruler from the majority of his people. Since then, we have continued to have provocative utterances from the Hausa-Fulani settlers to the effect that the Gbong Gwom should leave to Barakin-Ladi and vacate Jos for them”. BEC produced reported statement, credited to Alhaji Saleh Hassan, in which he urged Jasawa Youths Association to endeavour to recover the Jos traditional rulership, which dramatically slipped off the hands of their people in 1945. This is because the traditional title of Jos belongs to the Hausa and not other tribe. See Exh. 5.

3.2.3 Berom Educational and Cultural Organisation (BECO) stated that the Hausa-Fulani settlers grouped in an association called “Jasawa” an adulterated Hausa synonym for the Hausa-Fulani settlers in Jos, way back in 1987, pioneered by Saleh Hassan, urged the community in Jos to take over the rulership of Jos. Since their public pronouncement, and their activities have not only been provocative, inciting and a threat to peaceful co-existence, but have now imported the whirlwind culture of violence, which led to, the destructive riots of April 12th, 1994, they should be proscribed.

3.2.4 Jos North indigenes said, “...in contrast with our earlier protestations which were entirely peaceful and devoid of any lawless acts, the incidence of April 12th brought to the fore the true nature of the leadership of the Jasawa who took to the streets demanding that Mato must be reinstated....” The activities of the Jasawa and their patrons, as well as the riot of April 12th, which were clearly planned by them, suggest that it is unwise to allow them remain as a registered association. The rights and freedom of association must not be used by any section to deny other sections the requisite peace which is essential in fostering unity and development.

3.2.5 Plateau State Youth Council in their evidence accused Jasawa of playing clandestine role in the riot of April 12th, 1994.

3.2.6 Du Elders Council stated before the Commission that, although the riot took place on April 12th, 1994, it was merely a product of accumulated tension, which had been mounting sequel to an attempt by a group of Hausa-Fulani settlers in Jos to exercise dominion over the indigenous tribes in Jos. This dates back to 1987 when one Alhaji Saleh Hassan, the pioneer and founder of a group tagged “Jasawa Youth Association, told Hausa settlers in Jos to wrest the rulership and ownership of Jos from the indigenous tribes in Jos, that Alhaji Saleh Hassan at the launching of Jasawa Youth Association Development Fund in 1987, told the Youth that the Jos rulership belonged to the Hausa and not any other tribe. They stated that the Commission that Alhaji Saleh Hassan’s statement was an incitement which generated tension and created unnecessary sentiment in the minds of the Hausa settlers, thus a seed of discord was sown.

3.2.7 In his evidence, Ezekiel Choji said that “Jasawa, the militant wing of the Haus-Fulani settler stock, organised and directed Almajirai and hooligans who went to town on a violent demonstration on Tuesday, 12th April, 1994, chanting Islamic war song, emptying garbages on the street, harassing pedestrians and motorists, destroying everything found on their way, burning tyres on the tarred road”.

3.2.8 Mr. G. G. Bot said “...it is of great interest to observe argument among non-traditional owners of Jos as regards claim of ownership. These challenges are believed to have been caused by those who do not wish Jos well by inciting trouble i.e the Hausa-Fulani slave settlers, the so-called “Jasawa.”

3.2.9 In the course of his evidence, one Joseph Azi Nyako stressed thus, “specifically, I am referring to the activities of the group which operates under the dubious umbrella of Jasawa.” He added, “it was common knowledge that the Jasawa contemplated a violent demonstration following the peaceful protest by the host communities. The hoodlums had a field day harassing motorists, littering streets with garbage and causing breach of the peace.”

3.2.10 The four Districts Action Committee described the composition of Jasawa Association as questionable because it belongs to only the Hausa settlers. They said it was led by Alhaji Saleh Hassan to foment trouble in Jos and to recover the Jos rulership.
Government View
Government notes.

Fulani community petitions ‘Operation Rainbow’ over armoured tanks

THISDAY, Written by Mahmud Lalo, Jos Friday, 19 August 2011 05:30

Jos Hausa/ Fulani socio cultural organization known as Jasawa Community Development Association (JCDA) has petitioned the Commandant of the Plateau state owned security outfit code named “Operation Rainbow” over the acquisition of armoured tanks provided by the State governor, Jonah Jang.

In the petition which was also copied to governor Jang, Speaker Plateau State Assembly, General Officer Commanding 3rd Div, Commander Special Task Force, Commissioner of Police as well as the State Security Service said the acquisition of armoured tanks by the state government for the outfit “lacks sincerity of purpose.”

According to the petition which was signed by the President of the Association, Alhaji Shehu Ibrahim Masallah “this community which has hitherto watched the formation of this outfit with keen interest, is now vindicated that from its design and intentions.

Tuesday, August 16, 2011

JOS ATTACKS OF 15 AUGUST 2011

14 Killed in a Gale of Attacks in Jos

220311Tjonah-jang.jpg-220311Tjonah-jang.jpg
Governor Jonah Jang of Plateau State.
Fourteen persons were reportedly killed by yet-to-be-identified assailants in a fresh gale of violence that erupted in Jos, Plateau State, at the weekend.
This brings to at least 25 lives that have been lost in the city in the past few days, with the most recent of them being the killing of 11 persons on Sunday night in a simultaneous attack on Heipang and Korut villages of Barkin Ladi Local Government Area of the state.
This also forced Governor Jonah Jang to cancel a one-week retreat at the Obudu Cattle Ranch planned for members of the State Executive Council.
But Chairman of Barkin Ladi Local Government Area, Hon. Emmanuel Lomang, who confirmed the killing of the 11 in Heipang and Korut, has pointed accusing fingers at some members of the armed forces.
He said: “Four military identity cards and a military cap were found at the scene of the attack,” adding that the natives were alleging that the soldiers were responsible.
Lomang also said: “The attackers began to shoot at about 12:30am to scare the villagers, and later attacked a house at Heipang, where the assailants macheted and killed seven members of the family of one Mr. Nnaji.”
Another victim, Mrs. Margaret Deme, whose husband, Deme, was gruesomely shot in her presence, while recounting her ordeal said: “Those who killed my husband came in black attires and were escorted by soldiers.”
She said when they knocked on their door, her husband who was in the village for the weekend, opened the door and was subsequently shot and killed, leaving her with five children to cater for.
When the assailants left, she further said, they went to their next door neighbours, where they met two brothers, Samuel and Adamu Gwom, and killed them also. Their mother, Ngo Chang, who was in tears, said: “Some wore army uniforms while others were in black attires.”
But the spokesman of the military Special Task Force (STF) on Jos crisis, Captain Charles Ekeocha, who also confirmed the attack, however said: “On August 11, there was an attack on Heipang area of Barkin Ladi Local Government Area. A house belonging to Mr. Nnaji, an Ibo, was attacked and seven members of the family were killed.
“My troops went to the area to repel the attack. In the process, the vigilantes in the area opened fire on our troops. In retaliation, one of the vigilantes with AK47 riffle and 30 rounds of 7.62mm (special) was shot. He later died on the way to the hospital and his remains have been deposited in a mortuary at Jos University Teaching Hospital (JUTH).”
Ekeocha said the youths in the area staged a demonstration demanding the withdrawal of the troops from the area.
“In the process, the youths stoned our vehicles and ransacked the soldiers’ accommodations. To avoid more casualties, troops have been withdrawn to Mararaban-Jama’a area of Jos. However, the general area has been beefed up with troops of STF.”
The STF added that no arrests had been made.
Tension has again returned to the city as everyone has become mindful of where to go. Armoured tanks have been rolled out by the security operatives.
Meanwhile, Governor Jang has condemned the Sunday night’s attack on the “peaceful” communities of Heipang and Heipang in Barkin Ladi Local Government Area of the state, “which left 11 people dead”, describing it as unprovoked.
In a press statement signed by the Commissioner for Information and Communication, Yiljap Abraham, the governor has directed the commander of the STF, the state Commissioner of Police and the Coordinator of Operation Rainbow to take all operational steps to investigate and bring to justice “those who are bent on bringing grievous harm to the peaceful people of Plateau”.
The governor further said in the statement that: “Government has the will, capacity and unbreakable commitment to keep the hard-earned peace in the state and safeguard the security of the citizens. Nevertheless, communities are also advised against taking the laws into their hands in the face of such incidences, but are to work hand in hand with security forces.”
Reacting to the development, the Special Adviser to the Governor on Media and Publicity, Mr. Pam Ayuba, said government was making frantic efforts to unravel the brain behind the attacks, which he described as heart-rending.
He said Jang was “really pained” over the incident, as “a security meeting is on the way and the outcome would be made known”. He advised the people to give peace a chance.

ATTACK AT HEIPANG: SOLDIERS SUSPECTED

I received the following email from a friend:
"From very competent sources close to our neighboring district of Heipang, the attackers were the very soldiers deployed to the area to ensure protection of the people. The theory behind the resurgence in attacks is built around on-going plans to drastically reduce the number of men and officers of the STF, to allow for a smooth take off of the Operation Rainbow. Last week it was Bisichi, the Ratsa in Foron and now, Heipang.The STF did same during the ignominious reign of Gen. Saleh Maina. It is an old trick of the soldiers to resist redeployment from Jos. Looking at the geography of the invaded area, there is no way an attacker will from outside penetrate into the spot and carry out an attack. One of the victims received a call from the STF men in the area to come out and assist only to get gunned down as he stepped from his house, of course, by 'unknown' assilants."CG. August 15, 2011 4:24 pm

Monday, August 15, 2011

ACADEMIC FRAUD

Bait-And-Switch Publishing: New Face Of Academic Fraud By Farooq A. Kperogi


Michael Atovigba
By Farooq Kperogi

A new kind of insidious, Internet-enabled academic fraud is sprouting in the world. It’s called “bait-and-switch publishing.” And it’s already infecting the Nigerian academic community very badly. So what is this new fraud and why should you care?

First, in general, “bait-and-switch” scams are kinds of confidence tricks where unsuspecting customers are lured into (or “baited” to) an attractive, often too-good-to-be-true, offer. Once the customer’s interest is sufficiently piqued and sustained, the terms of the offer will often change (or “switch”). For instance, a car that was advertised for $1000 might end up costing three times the advertised price after additional, hidden costs are added. This kind of scam takes many forms.

In academic publishing, bait-and-switch scams wear academic gowns. They typically happen this way: A cute-sounding but actually fraudulent “academic journal” sends out an unsolicited email "call for papers" to individuals whose email addresses are scouted on the Internet using email-harvesting software, the kind that 419 scam artists use to get your email addresses. The software specifically targets email addresses that are listed in academic conference presentations and on university websites.

In the email solicitations, the egos of unsuspecting victims would be artfully stroked. They would be told that the papers they presented at conferences have been found to be superb and potentially earth-shattering. The cute-sounding but fraudulent journal would then inform the suckers that it would be delighted to publish their papers. Since promotion to the next rank in academia is usually dependent on number of publications, many naive academics are often overjoyed when they get these email solicitations. (I have received and continue to receive quite a few myself).

Nigerian academics are often particularly delighted by these solicitations because the National Universities Commission (NUC) now insists that for lecturers to be promoted to the status of professors they must publish some of their work in "international" academic journals. But the email solicitations are just the bait.

The switch occurs after the paper has been purportedly peer-reviewed and accepted for publication. The authors would then be asked to pay a “service fee” for the reviewing, editing, and printing of the paper. In Nigerian academe where the culture of paying fees to journals for the publication of articles is already a tradition, this switch raises no eyebrows.

That is why a Benue State University lecturer by the name of Michael Atovigba is psyching up the Nigerian cyber community by claiming in a July 28 Guardian interview to have solved a 262-year-old mathematical puzzle based on an article he published in a bait-and-switch Pakistani journal.

Mr. Atovigba’s claims to unparalleled mathematical genius might very well be true, but we have no way of knowing this for certain because he chose to publish his “record-breaking” findings in the “Research Journal of Mathematics and Statistics” owned by a bait-and-switch publishing company called Maxwell Scientific Organization. By Atovigba’s admission, he paid $150 (about 23,000 naira) to get his article published.

In the proper protocols of academic journal publishing in Europe and North America and, I guess, elsewhere, academics don’t pay a dime to have their articles published. That is why the bait-and-switch publishing scam will find no suckers here. A Canadian lawyer by the name of Antonin I. Prebetic was almost suckered into the fraud by a different company called David Publishing Company until the scammers demanded a “service fee” (the kind Atovigba paid to Maxwell) before his article would be published. He recounted his experience in a widely read blog post. In the comment section of the article, many other people shared their tales of near misses with other bait-and-switch publishing scams. The "service fee" is always the red flag.

But bait-and-switch publishers are not bad simply because they demand illegal “service fees” from authors; they are bad because they flagrantly circumvent the time-honored protocols and quality control of the academic peer-review process. First, legitimate academic journals don’t send out random, unsolicited emails to individuals, flattering them and requesting that they submit their articles for publication. They rather send out calls for papers on their websites or on academic listserves. Authors can also seek them out.

Second, after receiving submissions from authors, editors of legitimate journals in Europe and North America send out the articles to two or three experts for a blind peer review. That means the reviewers have no idea who the authors of the articles are nor do the authors of the articles know who the reviewers are. This makes assessment reasonably detached and fair-minded. (Bait-and-switch journals advertise the names of their "reviewers" on their websites).

One of four things can happen to a peer-reviewed article: it may be recommended for publication without revision (which is very rare). It may be recommended for publication with minor revisions. It may be recommended for publication with major revisions. Or it may be rejected outright. For an article to be published, at least two out of three reviewers should recommend it.

As you can imagine, the review process is often time-consuming because it usually entails several back-and-forth exchanges among authors, editors, and reviewers. It takes anywhere from six months to two years for the review process to be completed. Rather perversely, in academia, reputable journals are often those that have a high rejection rate. Journals at the bottom of the totem pole usually have a high acceptance rate.

In bait-and-switch journals, no real peer review takes place since the ultimate goal of such journals is to extort money from unsuspecting authors; they are not interested in knowledge production and dissemination. Similarly, the journals have a hundred percent acceptance rate and a zero percent rejection rate.

To give an example with Atovigba’s self-proclaimed earth-shattering article, it was submitted for review on January 8 this year and it was accepted for publication on February 03. That is less than one month of review! There clearly was no review. I was managing editor of an academic journal for four years and have myself published articles in academic journals and reviewed for others. The shortest peer-review time I have ever experienced or heard of is one year.

I am innumerate and can’t sit in judgment over the quality and claims of Atovigba’s article, but one clear evidence that the article was never truly peer reviewed can be found not just in the unusually short time span between its submission and its publication but in the fact that of the seven references in the article, a whole four are from Wikipedia, the usually helpful but occasionally error-prone and unreliable online collaborative encyclopedia. No respectable journal will allow Wikipedia references to form the majority of the bibliographic references for a scientific inquiry. Many university teachers, in fact, don't accept Wikipedia references in their students' work. Wikipedia is not a scholarly source; it can be changed, manipulated, and vandalized by anybody with an Internet connection!

So Maxwell Scientific Organization (why, by the way, would an organization based in Pakistan be known by the name “Maxwell”?) scammed Atovigba who, in turn, inadvertently scammed the Guardian newspaper, which ultimately scammed a Nigerian populace that is thirsty for heroes. But the problem is even deeper than that. Most of the suckers for this bait-and-switch publishing scams are Nigerian academics. For instance, in the volume where Atovigba’s article appeared, the two other authors in the journal are Nigerians.

This is also true of many other well-known bait-and-switch journals that I have looked at for this article. For now, I have no clue where these scams are originating from. I can only surmise that they have a Third World provenance because they can’t possibly find takers in Europe and North America. But it is interesting that Nigeria that has notoriety as the headquarters of 419 scams is disproportionately the victim of these emergent publishing scams.

Whatever it is, the NUC and university administrators (HODs, deans, vice chancellors, etc) need to act fast to stop this scam before it matures into an intractably hydra-headed epidemic. Our universities’ problems are already bad enough; we can’t afford to have a bunch of “bait-and-switch” lecturers and professors strutting around our campuses inebriated with a false sense of their academic prowess.