Nigeria Content Online

It is the nightmare
of every security planner. But the low intensity, tit-for-tat killings
and despoliation that has been going on in Plateau State for months now
is exactly the kind of situation that unmakes even the best laid
security plan.

Locked in a vicious circle of violence and
insecurity, all that patrolling security officers are likely to see are
smiling (or scowling) faces of the people seemingly going about their
business, and after the patrol is gone, these same people launch
attacks on their neighbours in a fit of misapplied rage.

It is opportunistic. It could be unplanned. But it
is no less effective in sending terror and despair into the ranks of
perceived opponents. With the deployment of more troops to Jos and
outlying districts, this appears the only form of action that is safe
for the aggressors in the conflict.

Early last Tuesday, a horrific example of this
form of attack was carried out on a community in the state. A murderous
gang creeps on a community already asleep by 1am, rouses the people by
unleashing guns and arrows on them and creeps back under cover of
night. At the end of the killing frenzy, about 18 people – men, women
and children – lay dead.

It has also been going for far too long and the
inability of security agencies to have fashioned out a response to it
is a pointer to the fact that the crisis cannot be resolved by military
means alone. A people intent on killing one another need higher
incentives than the threat of a Spartan whiplash to make them desist
from their self destruction.

You can dispatch the entire contingent of the
Nigerian Army into the state and the killings would not stop unless the
political leaders summon the needed courage and sincerity to tackle the
underlying issues. Sadly, this political leadership has been missing at
both the local and national levels.

It is not as if the unfolding tragedy was
overlooked by government officials. President Goodluck Jonathan visited
the area about two times last year; several senior military and
civilian leaders have also been there.

Following the last major outbreak of violence in
the area in 2009, the government, both at the state and at the federal
level, constituted two panels of enquiry. Even though the last two
panels were a reflection of the sectarian trouble on the ground – the
state government expressed a lack of trust in the federal
administration then led by the late Umaru Yar’Adua – the panels managed
to collate a large body of evidence on the perceived injustices by the
two major sides in the conflict and what they expect government to do
to resolve the crisis.

It is a tragedy of leadership that no action was
taken on this until the latest outbreak, which started last year. It is
trite to mention that the longer this continues, the harder it will get
to resolve the crisis. Unfortunately, our political leaders are
distracted now. Some watchers of the cycle of outbursts say it is no
surprise that this is happening at this time, when politicians are
focused on reelection and governance has taken a back seat in their
minds.

By this weekend, some of the madness of the
campaign frenzy will have subsided with the completion of the party
primaries. The Plateau State governor has won the ticket of his party,
the Peoples Democratic Party. His estranged deputy, Pauline Tallen, and
her supporters have ensconced themselves in the Labour party. They
appear set to face off at the general election in April.

Neither would command any respect – or the right
to ask their people to vote for them – if they refuse to show
leadership in seeking a resolution to the crisis destroying their
homeland. The two politicians and the constellation of interest groups
and politicians swirling around them need to shed partisanship on this
matter for the sake of the people they seek to govern.

Of course, Mr. Jonathan also needs to be more
hands on in this case. Jos is like a tinderbox that should not be left
to smoulder for too long else it will explode and suck in other parts
of the country. He should put politics aside and tackle the crisis in
Plateau with the decisiveness it deserves. The national shame and
tragedy must be stopped.