DR. IBRAM ROGERS - 27 YEAR-OLD PROFESSOR

Dr. Rogers kindly permitted me to reproduce his article in this blog.

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Five Hundred Nigerians Massacred Over a Political, Not Religious Divide

March 10, 2010 by Dr. Ibram H. Rogers

Dr. Rogers can be reached at ibramrogers@aol.com.

Mass burial in Nigeria (Source: latimes.com) (picture missing)

When I heard that almost five hundred Nigerians were massacred over the weekend in Jos, Northern Nigeria, my heart dropped in silence. For over three hours Sunday morning, hundreds of Nigerians were hacked to death with machetes in their homes. Those that were able to flee were caught in large animal traps, and murdered.

After it took me a while to re-center myself emotionally, the next line of thought was WHY? Why did this happen? Why? Why did five hundred people get massacred like this? Why?

Most of the American news stories did not answer this question, as they rarely do. They briefly presented the notion of religious strife, saying Christians were massacred by Muslims. But to me, that is not saying anything. That does not provide any answers. For most Americans, who have this idea that Muslims are barbarous, ruthless, natural killers, who murder to murder, and hate just to hate, that explanation provided an answer. But to me, who see Muslims as people, I still did not learn the reason behind such a massive tragedy.

So as usual, I had to leave the American media, and start searching in obscure places for answers. From reading a variety of foreign sources, I realized the massacre seemed more about power politics than religious tension. In human history, merely religious tension has rarely if ever caused massacres of this magnitude. I knew something else was up.

I came to realize that Nigeria’s former military president, Gen. Ibrahim Babangida created in 1991 the Jos North local government bringing together this rival under one political banner and he ultimately empowered the Hausa Fulani, who actually requested the government be created.

As Nigerian columnist Charles Kumolu wrote, “It all began with the creation of Jos North Local Government Area through States Creation and Transition Provision Decree No 2 of 1991. Unknown to those who conceived the idea and gave concrete expression to it, it has now become synonymous with the recurring decimal now known as the Jos crisis with high toll in human lives and property. In the process, the bond of brotherhood that used to exist appears to be permanently broken.”

In effect, it appears that this local political structure brought together rival ethno-religious groups under its jurisdiction. One group, the Muslim Hausa Fulani, was empowered by the federal government to rule in the early 1990s, and ever since they have sought to assert their power over the other Christian groups in the local government.

The governor of the state where these atrocities occurred set up a commission last year, which investigated the tensions that previously have resulted in deaths of lesser numbers. The commission recommended in a 339-page report that the present Jos North Local Government be sliced into three local governments with the state government giving “due consideration to all ethnic groupings in appointments, nominations and promotions with the state.” It made a series of other recommendations to eliminate the power struggle. None were instituted.

Therefore, the blood and the stench from the corpses are on the hands of state officials who through instituting some of the recommendations of the commission could have prevented this massacre. But even more blood has stained the hands of former president Babangida, who snatched these religious rivals from separate political rooms, threw them into one room, handed the Muslims machetes, and closed the doors.

Violence has reigned ever since in that room. And it may continue. This may not be the last massacre we hear about until the door is opened and they are allowed to reside and operate in their own political rooms like they did pre-1991 when this area of Nigeria was a beacon of peace.

MINORITIES RIGHTS ADVOCACY GROUP EMERGIES IN NIGERIA

The CONGRESS FOR EQUALITY AND CHANGE (CEC), a group comprising of all the perceived minorities of Nigeria was formally inaugurated in Abuja on Thursday August 05, 2010. Chairman of the Board of Trustees of CEC is no other than the untiring octogenerian, Chief Edwin Clark, an Ijaw man from Delta State. I must say, this is the best thing that has happened to the political landscape of our country since Lord Lugard's 1914 amalgamation of the Southern and Northern Protectorates that created the entity alled Nigeria. The Hausa/Fulani nation, Yoruba nationa dn Igbo nation have dominated the rulership of the country to their favour and to the detriment of the remaining 250 smaller tribes.

For the first time, the minority tribes in all States and Christians in some northern States have created a forum to express their hitherto oppressed opinions and to demand for their rights as citizens on Nigeria to rulership. I congratulate the pioneers of the movement and wish them God's blessings.

They should please remember the case of Jos North LGA. In 1991 IBB's administration surreptitiously and secretly curved out a Hausa/Fulani settlement in Afizere/Anaguta/Berom land in the old Jos LGA and gave it to these settlers as an LGA called Jos North. This has resulted in over ten thousand deaths since then and the loss of billions of Naira worth of property. The injustice done the owners of the land needs to be reversed for their to be peace on the Plateau.

FOR THERE TO BE PEACE IN JOS

Commissions of Inquiry, Commentators, stakeholders and observers have gone full cycle on the Jos crisis. After the debates, peace conferences, Military interventions and myriads of suggestions as possible solutions to the perennial crisis on the Plateau, one remedy is finally staring all of us in the face. Decree 2 of 1991 which brought the Jos North LGA into existence is the problem. The indigenous peoples of the area were not consulted, the LGA neatly curves out only Hausa/Fulani homesteads in Jos metropolis, it was General Ibrahim Badamasi Babaginda's personal contribution to the expansionist moves of the Hausa/Fulani Muslims granting them what they could not achieve via the 19th Century Dan Fodio jihad, it pitted the settlers against the indigenes in a very costly war that will never end except the enabling Decree is reversed, it insulted the indegenous peoples' intellect and forebears, it tore traditional Districts into pieces reducing the jurisdictions of traditional rulers while some indigenes were assigned traditional rulers from other tribes. There is everything wrong with the manner in which the Jos North LGA was created. All the issues that have been problematic in Jos will be taken care of in one fell swoop by this solution. It is the abolition of Jos North LGA and reverting to the pre-1991 JOS LGA until the indigenous peoples decide where the boundaries of their new LGs should be. Please watch out for the 'ABOLISH JOS NORTH LGA' campaign soon to b e launched.

CONGRATULATIONS TO JONATHAN

I congratulate Dr. Goodluck Jonathan on his ascension to the position of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. The Bible teaches us that there is no one in authority who has not been permitted by God. It has therefore pleased God to make Jonathan our 14th President which event took place on 6 May 2010. I wish him a successful and peaceful reign.

I have one urgent request to make of President Jonathan immediately. Kindly set up a Truth and Reconciliation Commission to look into and advice you on the recurring crises in Plateau State. Several State Government Judicial Commissions of Inquiry have investigated and made recommendations, but no solution seems in sight after thousand of human deaths and loss of billions of Naira.

I plead with you to please give the Plateau crisis priority. Thank you.

TRIBUTE TO YARADUA

As a patriotic Nigerian I must pay my respects to the our last President, Umaru Yar'adua, who passed on to the great beyond on Wednesday, 5th May 2010.

He was an honest man who always called a spade a spade. He did not amass wealth for himself and even publicly declared his assets. His regime made the doctrine of the 'rule of law' popular. He was a gentleman per excellence. We will surely miss him. I wish to use this medium to condole his wife, children, immediate family and all Nigerians.

We should have faith in God Almighty. He who gave us a good leader like Yar'adua is well able to give us another good leader.

REPLY TO TIMMAUS MATTHIAS

RE: FOR THIS TO BE THE LAST COMMUNAL CRISIS
Your article of Wednesday, February 03, 2010 in the Nation Newspaper on the above subject matter refers. Your write-up was informative and appeared to have been written in good faith. However, your penultimate sentence did you a great disservice, in my opinion. You said, “The truth is that the so-called Jessawa are bona fide Plateau citizens with rights to aspire to all political offices.”

You are quite right in saying that it is every bona fide Nigerian citizen's inalienable right to move and settle in any part of the country he or she wishes. However, I would like you to realize that there is a rider to that provision which you quoted elsewhere in your article. That rider is to the effect that that right may be enjoyed only if mobile citizens respect their host communities and also abide by the laws of Nigeria.

In Jos North Local Government Area, respect of the host communities means respecting the traditions and cultures of the Beroms, Anagutas and Afizeres. These nationalities are predominantly Christians while Hausa-Fulanis are mainly Muslims. They also have traditional administrative structures and traditional rulers. By demanding for the removal of the Gbong Gwom Jos and the creation of an emirate council, renaming themselves Jasawas, blocking city centre streets during Friday prayers, siting mosques in predominantly Christian areas, demanding for a district to be curved out of Du District purely for the Hausa-Fulani settlers, quarrelling with the Jos North Local Government Council authorities for relocating the headquarters of the Council in 2009, demanding for the post of Deputy Governor of Plateau State as of right, claiming that the land they bought to built residential houses on illegally is their ancestral possession, imagining that no one owned the land when they arrived Jos around 1930, the Hausa-Fulanis have shown that they do not have an iota of respect for their hosts.

Please note that the Igbos, Urhobos and Yorubas came to Jos along with British tin mining prospectors before the Hausa-Fulanis. Descendants of these people are still here and are very law-abiding. They have never demanded for anything special. They contest for seats in general elections. Many of them are also Muslims. Street names in Jos like Vandapuye, Akpata, Olayiwola and Otunkon bear testimony to this fact.

Recently, one of the settlers tabled a request before the Federal Government’s Abisoye Panel currently sitting at NIPSS Kuru, to the effect that they should be donated the position of Deputy Governor of Plateau State since they have been here for so long. But the Ogbomoshos and Urhobos have been here longer than the Hausa-Fulanis. Do the Hausa-Faulanis have more rights in Nigeria than all other nationalities or what?

I would like you to realize that no tribe in this country has ever demanded for political positions to be allocated to them as of right. Every body contests for these positions in elections. They have also demanded for things like 5 Commissioner positions, LG Council seats, State scholarship for higher education, dual-State citizenship, etc.

I am very sure that the Igbos who have been in Kano for over 50 years still do not and will never qualify for Local Government Chairmanship till. I also believe that a Yoruba man has zero probability of ever becoming a Deputy Governor in Sokoto State. An Ibibio hasn’t the minutest chance of becoming the El-Kanemi of Bornu no matter the longevity of his sojourn in Borno State. I therefore wonder why you are of the opinion that the Hausa-Fulanis of Jos should be treated differently.

Inordinate ambitions, disrespectful demands, feelings of superior ancestry and the like can only annoy others and lead to the sort of crises this country has witnessed in Tafawa Balewa, Ife, Zangon Kataf, Jos, etc. No one has ever successfully taken over the God-given geographical demarcations of any ethnic group in history. Attempts of this have resulted in some of the longest hostilities around the globe. It is the recipe for genocide, ethnic cleansing, and segregations of all sorts.

The Hausa-Fulanis who have settled in Jos will never, never succeed in foisting themselves as rulers over the Beroms, Anagutas and Afizeres. There will be unending crises in Jos North Local Government as long as they do not drop their wicked ambition. Please tell them to save Nigeria the waste of material and human resources.

The solution to the Jos crisis? Abolish the Jos North LG and revert to the old Jos LGA. Alternatively, adjust the southern boundaries of the Jos North to take in parts of Jos South LG so that they Hausa/Fulani tribe never becomes the largest single tribe in Jos North anymore. Ibrahim Babangida’s administration created the present Jos North LG in 1991 without consulting the indigenous tribes and they curved it in such a way as to ensure that the Hausa/Fulanis were almost exclusively the only ones in it. The creation of the Jos North LG was insincere, criminal and intended to give the settler Hausa/Fulanis undue advantage. It amounted to planting a time bomb which exploded within 3 years in 1994 and the fires and deaths have not abated since. Someone should please to help the feuding in Jos.

JTF MESS IN JOS

On April 22, 2010, THISDAY reported as follows, "The military Special Task Force (STF) in Jos has described as horrible, barbaric, unfortunate and condemnable, the killing of innocent travelers in Tahoss village, Riyom Local Government Area, along Abuja/Jos highway by suspected hoodlums, after all its effort to restore peace in the area. It has also condemned the incessant attack on some military men, warning the youths not to take the military’s restrain for granted.

"Addressing the press in Jos, the Operation Commander of the STF, Colonel Kayode Ogundele, said while investigations are still on to unravel the perpetrators of the barbaric act, four persons are already in their net in connection with the killings. He said “on Monday four corpses were discovered in a village near Rim, the bodies were partially burnt, and the locals were agitated. More troops were deployed to the area to trace the assailants. And in the early hours of Tuesday morning, the reinforcement decided to comb the entire area of the village. While they were on this, some irate mobs occupied the Abuja/Jos highway to unleash terror on commuters, and in the process seven people were killed and buried in three shallow graves: four corpses were found in one shallow grave, two in another shallow grave, another corpse which they were about burying when we got there”.

The above-quoted report says that four corpses were discovered near Rim partially burnt. We now know that the Fulanis kill and burn their victims. Why burn corpses is hard to understand. A COCIN pastor and his wife were murdered and burnt in Tafawa Balewa, Bauchi State, last week by suspected Fulanis on a revenge mission. Most of the slaughtered women and children at Dogo Nahawa on January 17, were also burnt. (See the pictures if you care)

What angered the youths in Tahoss, if I may ask? Did they just wake up that morning and decided for to start killing innocent people along the Jos/Abuja highway without provocation? Of course, not. Some assailants killed four of their brothers overnight and the JTF operatives were nowhere to be found. The Rim/Tahoss axis is now so vulnerable to Fulani attacks that the villagers have lost all confidence in the JTF. It is actually suspected that JTF men could be responsible for some of the killings while the innocent Beroms observe Jang's curfew hours.

Consider the following: Unknown assassins attacked the residences of Timothy Pwajok, his brother, Markus Pwajok, a former Commissioner and the father of the Jos South LG Chairman, Da Dalyop Zi at Kuru Karama at 1:30am two Sundays ago. While the attack was going on, 5 JTF operatives, made of 4 Muslims and 1 Christian, were just 100 meters away and did nothing to stop the attackers till they fled into the bushes. Also, the only Christian JTF personnel had lost his riffle by the time time the attack ended. The rumour is that the JTF personnel disarmed their Christian colleague as he wanted to shoot at the attackers.

in another incident last Sunday, the JTF personnel claimed they were alerted by Muslims in Bisichi in the dead of the night that there were suspected attackers in the nearby bushes. The JTF personnel killed two Berom men only to discover that they were security men at a their duty post. Beroms in Bisichi were enraged but controlled themselves.

Again, about a week ago, a 19 year old Muslim youth. Abdullssamad Mohammad detonated what was most likely a German made grenade in his hands and had both arms from the wrists blown off. While he was receiving treatment at the Plateau Specialist Hospital, JTF personnel arrived the hospital with a letter addressed to the hospital authorities permitting them to convey the houng victim to Abuja for further treatment. Of course, the Medical Director objected in writing saying the boy's condition was too unstable for such a long journey.

Who is doing the killings in Jos now? who is trying to suppress facts now? Who is angering the Beroms now? Are the Beroms really being protected by the JTF anymore? No wonder, they have asked for the withdrawal of the JTF and the removal of the curfew imposed by Jang so that they can better protect themselves on their own. Newspapers must learn to report objectively and not just carry whatever Government officials dish out.

We understand that the Fulani women and children have now been safely cordoned off near Military barracks and are protected with armored tanks while their men attack Beroms nightly from different fronts with the tacit connivance of the Nigerian military.

It is obvious that a solution to the Jos crisis is still far away in view of recent happenings and the taking of sides by some military personnel.