The mild, montane
climate on the plateau and the picturesque hills of Jos offer a sharp
contrast to the gory massacres and bloodletting Nigeria has witnessed
in the past years. Jos presents the typical vignettes of sectarian
killings, like in Northern Ireland. The city is reminiscent of Belfast
– each stroke of violence is followed by revenge.

Inappropriately,
such barbarism gets classified under the microscope of religion –
Catholics against Protestants; in the Nigerian case, Muslims versus
Christians. Many of us have even forgotten the origins of the perennial
fighting between Israelis and Arabs. Conflicts always have causes and
consequences beyond the boundaries of religion.

The Jos carnage
could have been prevented if governance in this country was of the type
permitting introspection, analysis, conflict resolution, and
restitution.

When violence is naively forgotten and forgiven, everything is postponed.

South Africans
instituted a ‘Truth and Reconciliation Commission,’ not so much
designed as a punitive campaign to dredge up and hang tormentors of the
apartheid period, but to get to the roots of what had happened, and
learn lessons for the future.

Most conflicts are
over land and the inequity in holding it, the stronger forcibly
hijacking the communal cake, which they hardly helped to bake. Such
injustices are straight from the Jungle Book – lionesses make a kill
and a hefty, passive male ambles in for the first bite.

Land appreciates
with time and lays the foundations for economic growth and military
might. But Nigeria’s land tenure systems encourage a perverse model of
capitalism where wealth continues to circulate within small, corrupt,
indolent and well-connected elite. Weaker people and communities are
routinely pushed aside and into inhospitable and unproductive
ecosystems and occupations by stronger cabals, under the common pretext
that they are lazy.

The corporate
existence of Nigeria is a function of two sharply contrasting and harsh
ecological systems – the sea and the desert.

Christian
missionaries arrived by boat. Islamic scholars and Jihadists galloped
from the Sahara into the north of the country. While the former
suffered immensely under the attack of anopheles mosquitoes, the
latter’s horses succumbed to the tse-tse fly and failed to penetrate
the forest zone.

The blurred fault
line separating both religions lies in Nigeria’s middle belt on which
the city of Jos is planted. A collision of religions is often a clash
of cultures, land use systems, legal interpretations, economic
activities, and political aspirations.

The problems of Jos had been lying latent for a long time.

The Senate, on Tuesday, summoned the Army to explain its role in the latest violence in villages near the city of Jos.

Ibrahim Ida (PDP
Katsina State), the chairman of the Senate Committee on Defence and
Army, in a press conference after Tuesday’s plenary explained that the
Senate is not oblivious of the grumbles over the military’s inactivity
in the crisis.

“We have already invited them to appear before us to tell us what they are doing,” Mr. Ida said.

He, however, told reporters that the invitation given to the Army will perhaps be to commend its actions so far.

“It is natural that
some people will criticise here and there,” he said. “That should not
becloud the objective. These people need to be commended. When the
military are sent on assignment, they have rules of engagement and they
abide by that rule.

“I think the bottom
line is that we should really commend them for the job they are doing.
I want to use this medium to commend the armed forces and the police
for the very good job they are doing. We need to encourage them by
understanding the terrain and the circumstances under which they
operate,” he added.

Mum on Yar’Adua

When asked to
comment on President Yar’Adua’s health, Ayogu Eze (PDP Enugu state),
the Senate’s spokesperson who accompanied Mr. Ida to the press
conference, could not clearly state current health status of the
President.

Rather, Mr. Eze chose to discuss about the Acting President.

“The Acting
President is conducting the affairs of the country admirably well,” he
said. “We are very pleased with the steps he has taken so far and we
are standing with and behind him. That is why all communication coming
from him is treated expeditiously.

“And we don’t feel that the Acting President has performed below
expectation. As an institution, we are very pleased with the acting
president for now.”