photo: Jos Main Market. Courtesy PlateauStateGov.org.
Jos, the city I grew up in, is fighting. Again. No one is sure why the fighting started and already, 149 people have died. One story says the fighting started when residents opposed the rebuilding of a Mosque that had been destroyed in the 2008 riots. Another report says angry Muslims went to St. Michael’s church and started shooting people as they left church. None of these stories makes heads or tails. The Muslims I know are not angry people, so where exactly is this coming from?
Why is no one asking?
- How were people so readily armed? I know the parts of the city where this fighting is happening. Those guys can’t afford the kinds of specialized weapons and uniforms that all of a sudden appear as if on demand when a fight breaks out.
- Who is supplying the weapons being used to terrorize my city? One friend theorizes that it’s the surplus from army reserves being sold by dirty officers on the black market. That’s a theory. The truth would be nice.
- This started in 2001, again in 2006, and 2008. Why has the governor not investigated the previous riots and come to the bottom of it?
- Yes it’s a safer response to leave the city entirely. But what is the best response? When those who can afford to relocate do so and leave the city in the hands of people who don’t mind burning it down. What then?
Read the story here (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100118/ap_on_re_af/af_nigeria_violence)
You know the strangest thing is that Plateau State isn’t even dominated by Muslims. The Christian to Muslim ratio should be around 7:3. I was born in Jos, and schooled in Jos till 2007, and i can’t even give an accurate answer for this meaningless violence.
The most i can come up with is that there is a wide spread idleness amongst the youth, and that there are not enough jobs to keep individuals alert and protective of their interests in the State.
From 2001 till now, the city has not picked up economically. Yes it is a wonderful place to raise children and to nurture a family (because of the relative peace that was its major characteristic, and the fact everything is accessible – the market, the schools, the road-insofar as the problem of hold ups is almost non-existent, the churches – everything). But it is not, as it is presently, a place of opportunity. And the sad thing is that it has the potential to be.
Who/what do i blame for this stagnation?
1. Bad governance for the past 10 years
2. The lackadaisical youths
3. Rich extremists and
4. Ignorance
I sincerely pray that this is the last time that this nonsense happens in Jos, because honestly, i have had the privilege of staying in some other cities in Nigeria, and there is still no place that i can sleep as peacefully as I do in Jos.