Sectarian Violence Tarnishing Nigeria’s Image Even Further

Op-ed, West Africa  |  02.04.10   By Adaora Mbelu

Flipping through the daily newspaper, my eyes are having a sad day browsing through pages and pages of heart gripping images, stone cold faces void of emotions, fear of the unknown.

There is a photo of a little girl staring straight at the camera lens: Her eyes vividly conveying fear and truth.

Will tomorrow ever come? When will this violence end? The underlying message spelled out by these pictures – “Deliver us from HELL.”

“Hell,” being the once beautiful city of Jos, situated at the northern edge of a pear-shaped upland known as the Jos Plateau in Nigeria.

Jos was established in 1915, as a tin transportation camp and its early history was closely linked to the prosperity of the mining industry.

As the capital city of Plateau state, Jos has become an important administrative and commercial centre, drawing multitudes of people from diverse backgrounds.

Jos with its many foreign missionaries, is regarded as one of the most cosmopolitan cities in Nigeria. It has subsequently been dubbed the “Home Of Peace,” and is one of the safest cities to reside in.

However, in recent years, the city of Jos has suffered very violent religious clashes between its Muslim and Christian populations.

Religious wars that have seen houses, churches, mosques, and vehicles set ablaze, leaving hundreds of people dead, and thousands homeless.

As the indiscriminate murder continues to plague this city, the next funeral is not too far off in the minds of the people.

The Jos crisis is a situation that has left the world clueless as to what caused the volcanic eruption.

The undetermined cause, has left the populace to deliver opinionated, biased versions of different stories that have been passed around by the media.

In a report issued by the state police commissioner, the riots began after Muslim youths set a Christian church ablaze.

Other members of the community tell a story that began with an argument over the rebuilding of a Muslim home in a predominantly Christian neighborhood that had been destroyed in the November 2008 riots.

So how did this city that once blossomed with happy faces, turn into a city of darkness, hatred and wicked sin?

As human beings, we sometimes tend to apply double standards when judging religious views and practices other than ours.

We are seemingly uncomfortable with beliefs that we are unfamiliar with and are often intolerant of religious differences.

While doing some research on the Jos crisis, I bumped into a discussion board where people were engaging in an online war of religious hatred.

Whose religion is best, whose is more believable, and finally one highly irritated individual called for an illogical, barbaric religious cleansing of the once peaceful city of Jos. Unbelievable.

The Nigerian government must bear a large share of responsibility for this tragedy.

They did not act quickly enough on the previous occasions during which the killings began, as this act of madness is not new to the city of Jos.

In November of 2008, sectarian clashes resulted in the deaths of almost 400 people and wounded many, and forced thousands to flee their homes.

The reason? The result of a local election.

Did the government take measures to prevent future occurrences of the same crimes or did they allow the city to become a safe haven for radicals?

They refused to call a spade — a spade, by referring to these crimes by their rightful name: Barbaric genocide.

Media reports playing down the role of religion in the riots, relayed a quote by an anonymous professor at the University of Abuja.

He said, “I don’t see anything religious. Wherein religion could be the difference between the two warring factions, fundamentally it’s a manifestation of economic alienation. So social apathy, political frustration, economic deprivation and so many factors are responsible.”

Several political activists and members of the community, after thorough analyses, have given in to the school of thought that views the Jos crisis beyond the religious box in which it is being placed.

In a private interview, a state senator, Dan Tom was quoted as saying:

“Though the violence manifests along religious lines with Christians and Muslims fighting–a majority of those killed in the latest violence were Muslim; mosques and churches were burned–the unrest is driven by political tensions over power and resources.

“It is more a question of ethnicity than religion…a struggle for political control between the indigenous Berom ethnic group, [mostly Christian], and the Hausa, [predominantly Muslim].”

Further investigation into the issue paints a picture of a discriminatory government with a personal bias that is applied in governing practices.

In recent times, Plateau state has been noted to operate within a structure that excludes “settlers” from state politics, and policies are created based on the religious orientation and ethnic prejudices of the people in power.

A draft bill has been issued to bring an end to the practice of favoring indigenous groups but it has made no progress in parliament thus far.

I remember a quote from a statement made by an Afghan local during the initial stages of the war in Iraq.

“We do not have airplanes like you do; however, we have one thing that you do not have principles and morals. They might win some fights, but we have already won the big fight, the moral ground.”

In the case of Jos, such a comment should be directed to the partisans of these political agendas who use the force of the state to attack people and institutions that do not agree with them.

What Next ?

The sooner the root cause of this recurring crisis is realized, admitted and curbed, the more realistic our hopes of “Re-branding” Nigeria will be.

Because in reality, unless the government takes measures to hold the perpetrators accountable for their savage actions, the hope for a new Nigeria is a utopia that the we will all be dreaming about for decades to come.

We cannot change the past, but we can create the future

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