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| Prof Atu, 3rd from right with other members of Plateau Scholars and Research Forum during the press conference today in Jos |
PLATEAU STATE HAS RECENTLY WITNESSED
A FORM OF TREACHERY- SCHOLARS AND RESEARCH FORUM.
TEXT OF PRESS CONFERENCE BY PLATEAU
SCHOLARS AND RESEARCHERS FORUM HELD
IN JOS ON THURSDAY, 19TH JULY, 2018
Gentlemen of the Press,
We the
representatives of the Plateau Scholars and Researchers Forum have decided to
convoke this press assembly at a time the State is once again, in sober and
sorrowful moments in her life-cycle. Our hearts bleed profusely with the orgy
of blood spillages and gruesome attacks on Citizens of the State and even those
outside the State. In very categorical terms, we condemn this dastardly act
from whatever quarters it is emanating and or manifesting itself.
We wish to
commiserate with the affected families, government and the entire people of
Plateau State over these irreparable and devastating losses. May the good Lord
comfort us all and may the Souls of the faithful departed through the mercy of
God rest in peace, Amen.
Our prayer
for the injured, the traumatized, and those who suffered some material losses,
is that God in His infinite mercies should intervene in their plight, and
provide healing and succor. We use this medium to appeal to well meaning
individuals, groups, communities, and organizations within and outside the
State to assist our displaced brothers and sisters in whatever way possible to
enable them come out of this traumatic doldrums to a stable life regime.
It is
needful to remind ourselves and the whole world, that Plateau State is blessed
with both physical and human resources, strategically placed to make sufficient
contribution to the development of our dear country, Nigeria. She has of course
lived up to that expectation as envisioned by its founding leaders. The
production of mineral resources such as tin and Columbine, the sacrificial role
of its people to keep the country one, and the receptive posture to visitors
and tourists, all attest to these realistic claims.
One striking
feature of our strength as a people lies largely on the commonalities of our
cultural values and practices. Indeed, all the fifty four (54) ethnic
nationalities have been cohabiting peacefully in this territory since the
pre-colonial era as polynomial communities with none so assertive enough to
overwhelm the others. This arrangement subjected them to imbibe the culture of
interdependence and progressive inter-group relations. Therein lies the omnibus
of our strength in diversity. It is this philosophical stand point of the
Plateau people that made our early leaders of pre and early post colonial era
to harness for deontological and formidable threshold of a viable and organic State.
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| Cross section of Journalists at the event |
Unfortunately,
the geometric magnitude of the growth and development of the State so
experienced was being thwarted by intermittent and sporadic violent conflicts
of different forms in the past two decades. These sporadic upheavals witnessed
between 1994, and 2018 retrogressively took us backward on the ladder of
progress. This trend saw many sister and younger States overtaking us in
realistic terms of development.
With the
coming on board of this administration, we had thought that we have overcome the
challenges posed by these sporadic violent conflicts in view of the measures
put in place by the present administration to address the issues headlong.
These include, running a government of inclusiveness, fair and equitable spread
of projects and instituting veritable platforms, for peace building in the
State to promote peaceful co-existence etc.
The
resurgence of these ugly and dreaded violent conflicts again after three years
of lull and abyss calls for deeper and sincere reflections by well meaning Plateau
people. These reflections made us to raise the following concerns:
(i) The trajectory of farmer-herder
conflicts?
(ii) The ‘reprisal’ debacle?
(iii) The internal political conspiracy?
As concerned
labourers in the temple of pedagogy from the State, providing answers to these
questions would basically require an objective analysis of the trajectory of
the conflicts this time around. This, it is hoped would help us locate where we
were, where we are and where we ought to be as a people.
(1) THE TRAJECTORY OF FARMER-HERDER CONFLICTS
There is no
doubt, Farmer-Herder relationship is a core factor in discussing the wide range
of conflicts in the middle belt in particular and other parts of the country in
general. Discussions on this have been on the front burner and the factors well
articulated to include climatic change, urbanization, desertification, etc. We
are therefore compelled to appeal to various levels of government particularly
the Federal Government to expedite action on coming out with realistic
solutions to this menace. This is because a lot of criminalities are being
carried out under the guise of Farmer-Herder conflicts. This includes armed
banditry; settling of personnel scores amongst groups and individuals, cattle
rustling, land grabbing, security impersonation, etc. All these have further
become the drivers of the conflicts.
While we
anchor our voice on need to review the security architecture of the country,
Governors need to be empowered constitutionally to oversee the security agencies
of their respective States, particularly the Nigerian Police Force and Nigerian
Security and Civil Defence Corps. They are the political leaders and Chief
Security Officers that come face to face with the emergent conflict signals in
their various States but lack the capacity to take urgent steps to stem the
tide early enough.
(2) THE “REPRISAL DEBACLE”
We are yet
witnessing another wave of attack in the name of ‘reprisal’ and counter
reprisal attacks. By simple conceptualization, it is supposed to mean attacking
someone for the injury or pain caused the other party. It is retaliation. This
practice is condemnable because the laws of the land do not permit taking them
into our hands with sole aim of reprisal. The curious concern here is that
beyond the legal and ethical imperative, who is attacking and who is counter
acting? Is it the herder or farmer or vice versa? It really hits our
imagination that innocent people are being attacked in the name of reprisals
who are neither farmers nor herders. For us, this is a classical form of
treachery hatched and targeted at innocent individuals; some of the affected
are shown below:
S/N NAME COMMUNITY LGA DATE AND LOCATION STATUS
1.Bitrus Kundu Rukuba
Bassa
24/6/2018 Farin Lamba Killed
2.Philip
Michael Sayawa Tafawa Balewa – (Bauchi State) 24/6/2018
Tahos Killed
3.Danjuma
Musa Agwom Afizere Jos East 24/6/2018
Shen Killed
4.Arin Ali Afizere Jos
East 24/6/2018
Shen Killed
5.Ja’afaruGarba Pyem Mangu 24/6/2018
Shen Killed
6.Abdulfatai
Aderemi Olagunju Yoruba Jos North 24/6/2018
FarinLamba Killed
7.DaudaBarde Afizere Jos
East
TIC Chairman 24/6/2018
Anguldi Vehicle Damage
8.NanzingSauri Tarok Langtang
South
TIC Chairman 24/6/2018
Anguldi Vehicle Damage
9.Boniface
Gwotbit Tal Mikang
TIC Chairman 24/6/2018
Anguldi Vehicle Damage
10.PhilimonDyokos Mushere Bokkos 23/6/18
Bethnany
Academy Killed
11.Jeremiah
ZakkariyaGuya (Staff of Plateau Polytechnic Mushere Bokkos 23/6/18
Bethnany
Academy Killed
12.Amang H.
Agyawal Daffo Bokkos 24/6/18
Anguldi Killed
13.Dr. N. Danfa Tarok Langtang
South 24/6/18
Anguldi Vehicle Damage
It is even
more worrisome to listen to the travails the survivors of this carnage went
through. It includes asking them to speak a particular language, or dialect,
cultural or religious background, etc.
Gentlemen of
the Press, with these multi-faceted hostilities and contradictions glaring on
our faces, there is no blinking at the fact that our people, our State and our
common wealth are indeed in grave danger. For the past weeks, we have been
appealing to our students and community members to be law abiding to allow the
security and other agencies of government do their jobs of going after the
perpetuators of this barbaric assault against our people. This, we are doing so
as not to compound the already tensed atmosphere in the State. As peace loving
people therefore, we are advising these conflict merchants to desist from
further deliberate attacks on our people in the name of farmer-herder
upheavals. We are calling on our
security agencies to intensify efforts at fishing out the perpetrators of this
evil and dastardly act so as to serve as deterrent to others in future.
(3) THE INTERNAL POLITICAL CONSPIRACY OF THE
CONFLICTS
We are
deeply concerned that the fall out of the Farmer-Herder conflicts has now taken
a political dimension. Two incidents lent credence to this:
(i) Harassment of government officials,
civil servants and visitors at new Government House Little Rayfield in the name
of a peaceful protest.
(ii) Direct assault on the Executive Governor
of the State, Rt. Hon. Barr. Simon BakoLalong and his entourage including his
Deputy, Professor Sunny Tyoden. They were on official assignment to Internally
Displaced Peoples camp (IDP) for and on behalf of the Government and people of
the State. Although, so many official vehicles were damaged and some wounded,
the Governor in his wisdom prevented his security officials from counter attack
for purposes of defence, so as not to compound the scenario.
For us, it
is disheartening that the number one citizen of the State duly elected by the
people to be assaulted in this manner is unacceptable. An assault on the
Governor and his Deputy is an assault on the people of Plateau State who voted
them into office.
Secondly, if
some disgruntled personalities and groups would have the guts to unleash terror
on numbers 1 and 2 citizens of the State, then who is free from these callous
and wanton conflict merchants. Our security agencies must convince us without
any iota of doubt that we are safe and secure in this State.
Thirdly,
this condemnable episode is a clear pointer to the fact that some highly placed
politicians are bent on making the sate ungovernable as some of them have
claimed. It further affirms the narration that some political leaders have
taken advantage of this ugly trend to perpetuate their political agenda. This
is highly uncivilized, unpatriotic and treacherous of the highest order. We
view this action as a wild goof attempt to torpedo the ship of State for
selfish political reasons.
CONCLUSION
While we submit to the trajectory
thesis that there is an external wave of tsunami to wreck the ship of State and
further re-subject its people within the cobweb and grip of oligarchic
imperialism, we make bold to categorically posit that there are internal
collaborators and conspirators who feel that they are born with superior blood
running through their veins. To them therefore, it is they that should be on
the pedestal of power, dictate the direction of the State apparatus and its
future. This is manifested in their deliberate push through every means to
perpetrate this nefarious and inglorious political agenda even to the extent of
sacrificing innocent lives of their kits and kin and those of others as
demonstrated in the inherent contradictions in the table above.
It
is disheartening to note the emergence of mercantile clergy from the two
dominant religions groups on the Plateau. They have engaged themselves in
weeping sinister and parochial sentiments along religious, ethnic and even
denominational lines. The result of this sentiment building by these mercantile
clergy is that we now have Plateau citizens who are no longer bound in the
fabric of brotherhood, values of interdependence, communalism and common
vision. What now plays out is a “Pearl Harbor” people fragmented along
different polynomial societies. We further view this as an orchestrated grand
design to weaken our organic existence as a people without common vision and
resilience. These are assets of our strength painstakingly enunciated by the
founding fathers of the State.
This condemnable episode is a clear
affirmation of the narration that some political leaders have taken advantage
of this ugly trend to perpetrate their parochial political interest as they are
poised to make the State ungovernable.
It is not a fallacy to point out
that the facts of yesterday and today speak for them. As a people therefore we
need to remind ourselves that we have navigated the rugged sea hills, and have
reached the epicenter of the high sea in our successful journey to our
developmental destination, we must not allow this ship of State to be capsized.
We are passionately appealing to our dear people of Plateau State that we need
to trace our steps in retrospect to the days of Late Joseph Deshi Gomwalk (may
his Soul be blessed) to locate where we got it wrong. We cannot afford to hand
over to the next generation a belligerent and fragmented Plateau.
As religious as we claim to be, let
us find in our hearts the desire to forgive each other, embrace one another,
rally round our leaders since we are the ones that elected them and pursue
common goals as a people. We all need each other in this crusade of nation
building.
Prof. Danladi Atu Dr.
Jurji Nengak Gomos
Chairman Secretary
Director Dept. of Sociology
APUDI Institute for Peace Studies Plateau State University
And Social Rehabilitation Bokkos
University of Abuja
For and on
Behalf of Plateau Scholars and Researchers Forum
Annexure I
PLATEAU
CENSUS
S/N LOCAL GOVERNMENT POP 2006 POP 2016
TOTAL 3,206,531 4,200,400
1. BarkinLadi 179,805 235,500
2. Bassa 189,834 248,700
3. Bokkos 179,550 235,200
4. Jos East 83,301 115,700
5. Jos North 437,217 572,700
6. Jos South 311,392 407,900
7. Kanam 167,619 219,600
8. Kanke 124,268 162,800
9. Langtang North 142,316 186,400
10. Langtang South 105,173 137,800
11. Mangu 300,520 393,700
12. Mikang 96,388 126,300
13. Pankshin 190,114 249,000
14. Qua’an Pan 197,276 258,400
15. Riyom 131,778 172,600
16. Shendam 205,119 268,700
17. Wase 159,861 209,400
Source: National Population Commission of Nigeria
(Web).
National Bureau of Statistics (Web)
• The above table further demonstrates
the earlier assertion that no ethnic nationality has the over whelming majority
to be very assertive on the others. This is because no group could boast of 80%
over whelming population in more than three Local Government Areas of the
State. This further calls for team spirit and co-operation to move the State
forward.
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