The madness that has decimated Jos since early this year continued unabated and even assumed a more frightening dimension at this tail end of the year. Latest reports showed that last weekend, demented sadists in Jos, the Plateau State capital, again, employed explosives to swell the number of hapless and innocent Nigerians dispatched to their untimely graves by more than 30.

We have focussed on this madness earlier in this column. Since the next victims of the seeming endless and senseless carnage are still in the dark about their pending catastrophic end, it is pertinent to reiterate our candid view on the madness as reproduced below:

The resonant killings in Jos, the Plateau State capital and the suburbs have become a national embarrassment, not only to the state governor and the peaceful people of the state, but also to all Nigerians. No fewer than 1,000 innocent people and properties worth billions of Naira had been consumed by the senseless carnage. The savagery has attracted international attention. Many Nigerians are, however, of the view that the carnage must have been sponsored by some elites who, for quintessentially ulterior motive, view every problem in the country with prejudiced ethnic and/or religious lenses.

I guess that the alleged veiled sponsors of such malady themselves must by now be embarrassed by the level of wanton destruction of lives and properties of hapless and innocent Nigerians resident in the once peaceful and highly attractive environment. Some of the residents who had managed to survive the mindless killings had lost their means of human survival.

It was on the platform of this malady that Libya’s life president, Moamar Ghadafi, who is incurably contemptuous of anything Nigeria and even black Africa, suggested the balkanisation of the country, ostensibly along religious lines.

Although many panels and committees have hitherto worked and still working on the resolution of the Jos crisis and related ones elsewhere, the problem has become seemingly intractable, because it appears that the focus has always been on only the symptom rather than the cause of the problem. At the end of the day, an appeal would go to the feuding parties to embrace peace by seeing themselves as compatriots. But their orientation or upbringing is quite antithetic to this meaningless socio-political sermon. Thus, after each crisis, a repeat of the carnage would just be waiting to be unveiled. This has been the pattern over the years in the country as obviated by the seemingly unending Jos intermittent madness.

It is pertinent to emphasise that Nigeria is a conglomeration of more than 200 divergent and often discordant ethnic groups.

Unfortunately, since “the mistake of 1914” (as Sir Ahmadu Bello, the late Sardauna of Sokoto would want everyone to see the amalgamation of the Northern and Southern parts of Nigeria), there has never been any conscious effort by any of the past leaders towards national integration in the country.

The socio-political surgery done by the British imperialists was meant for mere administrative convenience for the maximum exploitation of the emerging nation. In other words, British imperialists had no concern for a stable polity beyond the years of imperialists’ plunder of the country which, of course, was also part of their neo-colonial strategy during the days of colonialism.

Thus, the issue of national integration was never part of the agenda of the colonialists.

Therefore, the seemingly intractable problem of national integration in Nigeria has become glaring even to the blind. This has created very potent centrifugal forces within the polity over the years. These forces became very active and glaring in the various political crises that culminated in the 30 months fratricidal civil war which almost put an end to Nigeria as a corporate entity.

The awareness of this by the nation’s decision makers reflect in various palliative measures put in place which, however, have not only been underscoring the problem of national integration, but often added some complexities that exacerbated it.

Take for instance the issue of federal character, which is one of the palliative measures aimed at addressing the symptoms of the problem of national integration. It is a truism that this measure has created more problems than it tried to solve. It has been the source of some inter-ethnic acrimony in the country. In some cases, the federal character phenomenon had sidelined merit (if not totally sacrificed) for the ascendancy of mediocrity.

In Nigeria for instance, because of the accident of birth place, a student from Imo State, for example, may not be admitted into the Nigerian university for not scoring enough marks, while his counterpart from Sokoto, who scored the same or even lower marks may be admitted. The truth of the matter is that the two young men cannot see themselves as true compatriots.

This same problem explains the reason some-body with a degree in Islamic Studies could be employed as a banker on the platform of his place of birth, while another Nigerian with a degree in Accountancy or Banking and Finance, because of the accident of birth place, would be denied such opportunity and would be made to roam the streets hopelessly. How do we expect such two people to see themselves as one? This is part of the roots of acrimony, mutual distrust or even arrant hatred, especially on the platform of ethnic leaning.

The solution to this problem lies in conscious efforts towards national integration by Nigerian leaders. People from the Northern, Eastern and Western parts of the country should be able to live and work together in any part of the country without seeing themselves first as Hausa/Fulani, Ibo or Yoruba, but as Nigerians.  This is the only thing that can end mutual suspicion and arrant hatred based on ethnic or sectional leaning. This is the only way to avoid the senseless killings in Jos and such madness elsewhere in Nigeria.

Comments (3)

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we no more one nigerian-killing of jos
written by nigeriagal, January 01, 2011

kindly seperate christian from the muslim north, they should give them there own pure muslim state,that later become there own country pls.build wall like the isreal do to seperate them from the paelistine bomb,now they are more save,u can not stay together with people they belive killing other religion will make them go to heaven.enough is enough of living together under the name of one nigeria.

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Jos madness again!
written by Edwin Etim, January 07, 2011

It is not only in and around Jos that the Hausa-Fulani
muslims are showing their obsessive predilection for ethnic
and religious xenophobia and their compulsive readiness to
slaughter defenceless people.In Jos are Edos,Ibibios,Igbos,
Ijaws and Yorubas who live in harmony with indigenous people
of that region.In Jos there are attempts to cleanse the Beroms
and others from their ancestral land by the muslims

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Killings in Jos
written by Okobi Chika, January 07, 2011

It seems as if Mr.Sam Adesua is ignorant about the problem
in Jos.It was initiated by IBB who created a Loccal Gover-
nment Area on the land of the Beroms and settled Hausa-
Fulani herdsmen there.Igbos or Yorubas working together with
the Hausa-Fulanis won't tame them.Leopards don't ever change
their spots.It is Jihad and land grabbing that is going on in
Jos.Maummar AL Gaddafi's advice is the best solution for us.

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