WHY JOS HAS BECOME A HAVEN FOR TERRORISTS AND BANDITS

 WHY JOS HAS BECOME A HAVEN FOR TERRORISTS AND BANDITS

I was in Jos when the cannibal drama happened. After Islamists and bandits have worried the people for a long time they went traditional. It solved half the problem. It did. 

Today the road from Abuja to Jos, Bauchi to Jos, Kano to Jos, and all the routes to Jos are some of the safest routes to ply in Northern Nigeria. You can even leave Abuja at 12 midnight and drive to Jos. When all of Northern Nigeria became a no-go area as Fulani bandits tool over the routes, even the major Abuja-Kaduna highway, Abuja-Lokoja highway, the route to Jos was safe. Do you know why? Plateau people have a zero tolerance for bullshit. Like Benue they tolerated it for a while. I still have the horrible memory of Dogo Na Hawa massacre in my head. Fulani bandits descended on an innocent village and decided to massacre the villagers, women and children mostly. The cowards came at night to attack. Some group of people in this country then cheered them. They call them warriors. 

Then Boko Haram later would release statements after statements that they were bombing churches and areas in Jos to support their Muslim brothers. You see, the people who think they can use violence to intimidate people and get their ways or conquer through violence only teach the people who they try to intimidate and conquer violence. No one has monopoly of violence. When you think you are barbaric you must also know that all of us in Nigeria, all the tribes, were warrior tribes before colonialism. These tribes were not conquered like Hausas were conquered by Fulani warriors. They stood and fought all invaders. When they are pushed to the wall some of them pulled off the regalia of Christianity that tells to love your enemy and turn the other cheek and went traditional. That thing you refer to as cannibalism is traditional ways of war of some of the people of Plateau. That sight scared the aggressors so much that the fear of Jos becomes the beginning of wisdom. 

I believe people can live together in peace. We have been living together in peace before some people tried to use politics and power to manipulate certain things to give advantages to people they perceive as tribesmen and people of the same religion. That's the roots of the problem in Jos. And when people had and still have people in Abuja saddled with the affairs of the nation they feel entitled, try to manipulate them to give them certain advantages and privileges. That's the roots of the problem in Jos. 

Before you fix Nigeria we must tell the story accurately.

By George Onmonya Daniels