Igbo in Plateau protest at N'Assembly
From Isa Abdulsalami (Jos), Lemmy Ughegbe and Kelechi Okoronkwo (Abuja)
THE Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Sa'ad Abubakar III, yesterday submitted that there is a "ready-made army" of hungry persons in the country who can be mobilized en mass-with little inducement and at short notice -- to wreak havoc.
The Sultan spoke in Jos, the Plateau State capital, during a visit to the State Government House, accompanied by the President of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Archbishop John Onaiyekan. They were there to commiserate with the government and people of the state over the latest crisis during which hundreds of persons, including youth corps members were slaughtered.
"It is not just politics, it is not just religion, it is total hunger and poverty in the land that you have a ready- made army anytime, anywhere, in their hundreds of thousands with just only one or two thousand naira and they are ready to form an army for you," the Sultan declared.
Both religious leaders prayed fervently to God not to allow what they described as "madness" to occur again in any part of the country.
First to speak was the Sultan who said that to stop the kind of the November 27 and 28 Jos carnage anywhere in the country, the interest of everybody should be safeguarded.
According to Abubakar III: "When the Almighty God created us in different places and into different religions so that all of us can become one and we are all equal in the eyes of the Almighty. The best among us is he who is most pious. Nobody can claim he is better than another person. Only the Almighty knows who is better than the next man.
"And therefore, we cannot fathom how individuals will just get up one night and tear apart all that Almighty God declared holy and sacrosanct, claiming people's lives in the name of religion or in the name of ethnic background or whatsoever, destroying people's property in the name of religion, in the name of ethnic background. This madness must stop. I use the word 'madness' because that is what I see in the event of 27th and 28th November in Jos."
He thanked God that the crisis did not go out of Jos city and Plateau State, adding that they did a lot to stop the carnage from spreading outside "because we know how our people are."
The Sultan said they all believed in the unity of the country and its people, adding that they are too religious in the country.
He recalled he was in Anambra State to receive an Honorary Doctorate Degree by the Anambra State University on November 20, stressing that all the points he raised on the occasion addressed what happened in Jos a week later.
According to him, he called on Nigerians to be their brothers' keepers, praying that one day, a Yoruba man or an Igboman can be the governor of Sokoto State and a Hausa man can be the governor of Anambra State. He stated that he would want to see politicians who would win elections by being better-equipped to beat the other competitors and not where they come from.
"I never knew that a week later, we will have this madness in Jos and I want to assure you, our brothers and sisters, we as religious leaders, we want to make sure that this should be the last of this madness. Anywhere in this country, we are resolved and we will go to any length to make sure that justice is brought to bear upon whoever had a hand in whatever happened in Jos no matter how high or how low because things like that happened in the past and nothing was done.
"The culture of Nigerians is that when somebody has been fingered to be a culprit in a crisis, he is never punished and so tomorrow somebody will say, Mr. A did this and went free, why not me? After all, this is Nigeria where anything is possible. We want to challenge our political leaders that we should solve this problem squarely. It is not just politics, it is not just religion, it is total hunger and poverty in the land that you have a ready made army anytime anywhere in their hundreds of thousands with just only one or two thousand naira and they are ready to form an army for you," Abubakar III added.
He assured the governor of their total support to unravel the mystery of continuous riots in Plateau State, pointing out that if they do not play that role the God that gave them the position they now occupy would not be happy with them.
According to him, as leaders they must always stand by the truth anytime and anywhere they are, stressing that they always commend those who do the right things and chastise those who do wrong.
He told his host, Governor Jonah Jang, that he has a lot to do to pacify the aggrieved people as the crisis cut across everybody, urging him to be magnanimous enough to bring peace to, not only Plateau, but the entire country.
The Sultan said that they were in Jos to foster true reconciliation as temper had risen too high, adding that they want a permanent way forward to the logjam.
The CAN President, who said he had nothing to add as the Sultan had said it all, however, expressed belief that what had happened in Jos was man-made and self-inflicted, adding that since it was man-made, it can be solved.
"Nobody is proud of what happened in Jos. Everybody is in fact ashamed. We have come here as religious leaders and not as security agents. Both Christianity and Islam preach peace and reconciliation is not possible without peace. Play your role very well by embracing peace," Onaiyekan stressed.
In his remarks, Jang thanked the two eminent religious leaders for coming to talk to them on the importance of peace, noting that the two religions preach peace.
He pointed out that God has never delegated anybody to come and destroy others, explaining that the same blood runs through their vein no matter their religion. He said that it is because people have forgotten the history of creation of man that they regard other people as strangers.
Jang recalled similar incidents that occurred in 1994, 2001, 2004 and now 2008. He said one of the biggest failures of the leadership is sweeping under the carpet white papers on judicial commissions of inquiry, emphasizing that decisive action would have to be taken this time around.
He reiterated that he was going to exhume all the former unimplemented reports of commissions of inquiry and compare them with the new one that would be set up.
Jang said that the Hausa/Fulani extraction in the state have been dubbing him as a governor who has hatred for Moslems passionately, adding that he did not know what he had done to deserve all the antagonism and crucifixion.
He urged religious leaders not to back any political leader in their campaigns, stating that they should not turn their mosques and churches into political arena.
The governor called on his counterparts in the country to establish inter-religious committees in their states so as to curb the religious violence and move the country forward democratically.
He presented the Justice Niki Tobi reports on the 2001 crisis, Peace and Reconciliation Committee Reports to the two religious leaders.
Meanwhile, the community of the Igbos in Plateau State has taken their protest to the National Assembly over what they called "happenings in Jos since September 7, 2001."
The group led by its chairman, Mr. Chudi Ndu, said that Igbos, Yorubas and Urhobo communities in Plateau State had known no peace as minority groups in the state.
In a statement by Ndu, the Igbo group said they believed in democracy and were happy when democracy was enthroned in 1999 after a long military rule but added that they were taken aback by devastating violence that has remained in Jos, Plateau State since 2001.
"We are here to let members of the National Assembly know about the political happenings in Jos since September 7th, 2001 when the Jos ethno-religious conflict broke out on Friday around a mosque at Congo-Russia settlements in Jos, a conflict that left several Igbos dead with their properties worth billions of naira destroyed by the Hausa-Fulanis whom we thought were good neighbours in Jos.
"As a people who are law- abiding citizens of Nigeria, the presence of Igbos in Jos and Plateau State just like in other states of the federation wherever we are found , we only concern ourselves with the businesses that brought us to Plateau State and have lived for decades on the Plateau contributing our quota to the development of that state.
"We have been taken aback since 2001 on the Plateau why the Igbos, the Yorubas, Urhobos and several other minority ethnic groups in Jos have known no peace as a result of the political differences between the natives of Jos and our fellow Hausa settlers who are desperate to get a foot hold in the politics of the state.
"As Nigerians, we believe in the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria which gives every Nigerian the right to participate in politics wherever he resides, but we believe that the best approach towards exercising that democratic right is to respect others right to participate and be voted for during elections not making winning an election a do-or-die affair as was witnessed in the just concluded Plateau local government in Jos North Council.
"Except one is now being forced to believe that the Igbos in Jos have become targets of some groups of people who might be pursuing an ethnic agenda against the Igbos, we don't believe that an election that was peacefully conducted and its results were yet to be announced could compel some self- styled politicians who were pretending to be active players in the politics of Jos North to sponsor tens of hoodlums to kill, maim and destroy the houses of Igbos of Jos North, including their shops which are scattered all over Jos metropolis.
"We suffered similar fate in 2001 ethno-religious crisis in Jos, 2004 and now 2008 in the state despite the fact that we have nothing to contend with the Hausa-Fulanis over the power play in the politics of Jos North.
"I am afraid if something urgent is not done to arrest the open display of rascality in Jos North by the Hausa youths that uses every available opportunity to launch attack on the Igbos in Jos North, loot their shops that are located within the Hausa settlements in Jos, the Igbos may be forced to take the option of defending themselves in the face of this unprovoked attacks.
"To us, politics should not be seen as a do or die affair in Jos North because from our understanding of the composition of the ethnic groups that makes up the local government , both the natives of Anaguta, Beroms and Afezere and their rival, the Hausa-Fulanis need the votes of the Igbos, the Yorubas and other groups that are found in the locality and as such , we want to advise here that political dialogue and collaboration among the political class in Jos should be taken by those who have interest to provide leadership for the residents of the local government", it read.
The statement added: "Towards bringing a lasting peace in Jos and its environs, we are demanding that the reports of the previous judicial commission of inquiry into Jos civil disturbances should be made public by Governor Jonah Jang government and those found to have played any role in sponsoring these crisis should be punished or dealt with in accordance with the provisions of the law.
"We believe that those who are sponsoring Jos crisis from year to year and one time to another are hell- bent on trying to toy with the unity of this country and by extension trying to get at the government of President Umaru Yar'Adua in order to truncate the present nascent democracy.
"We call on the Presidency to give the Plateau State Government all the needed support to bring a lasting peace to a state that is seen as a miniature Nigeria as a result of the assemblage of Nigerians from different ethnic backgrounds that have taken the state as their second home."
