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About three hours before 10.27pm on
Christmas eve, bombs exploded in Jos North local government area of
Jos, Plateau State killing scores.

At about the same time,500km away in
Maiduguri, Borno state, North east Nigeria, another set of people
launched attacks on two churches, killing seven people. Four days after
the killings, a group (Jama’atu ahlus sunnah lid da’awati wal jihad)
known as Boko Haram claimed responsibility for the bombings in Jos. The
same group was identified by the Borno State police commissioner, and
the Borno State Governor as responsible for the killings in Maiduguri.

These two well coordinated incidents could however have been averted if security agencies had been effective in their duties.

The Borno governor, Ali Sheriff told
the media after the attacks that “prior to these attacks and killings,
I alerted the police and other security agencies in the state to take
no chances of any reprisals from the outlawed sect members. Yesterday’s
attacks and killings could have been prevented if the police had heeded
to my security advice.” A similar report was also before the security
forces before the Jos bombings.

All these were happening two months
after the independence day bombing in Abuja, for which the Movement of
the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) has claimed responsibility.

After Christmas

Three days after Christmas, suspected
members of the Boko-Haram, eager to further show their strength in
Maiduguri, attacked a hospital; killing three people including a police
officer.

The post Christmas horror moved from
the northern part of Nigeria into the south four days after Christmas.
This time around, the perpetrators chose a different location; Bayelsa,
the home state of President Jonathan, over 600km from Jos. The
explosion occurred during a rally by a governorship aspirant on the
platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP.) While several people
were injured, no lives were lost. This was not the first time that
Bayelsa state would witness bomb explosions in 2010, previous ones
including the explosions at the home of a former deputy governor of the
state had happened. No group claimed responsibility for any of the
Bayelsa bombings and no one has been punished for them.

The ‘Boko Haram’ members however
continued their onslaught against security operatives on Wednesday,
December 29, killing more police officers and innocent residents while
setting police patrol vans ablaze. A day later, exchange of gunfire
between two factions of the PDP in Ibadan, Oyo State killed three
people,including two aides of a serving senator and senate leader,
Teslim Folarin; and a factional chairman of the transport union, Lateef
Salako (Eleweomo).

Political violence

While the crisis in Oyo and Bayelsa
States clearly had political undertones and could easily be likened to
political sponsorship, that of Jos and Maiduguri cannot be so easily
labeled.

Intelligence sources say although the
impact of the Jos attacks might have political implications,they were
not really a product of politics.

“It is really just another aspect of
what has been going on in the past,” a senior military intelligence
officer serving in Jos said at the weekend.

“Unless government is bold enough in
resolving the underlying issues, then things will continue like this
for a while more,” he said.

Another security officer said crises of
this kind will continue, and perhaps only get worse, as long as
security at airports and ports remained lax and borders remained
porous. He also called on government to work with religious leaders to
rid preachers of ignorance and intolerance.

The military officer, who said officers
are mostly professional in their response to the crisis, said there is
often times trouble securing the confidence of the locals because they
often believe that security officers are partial to either of the two
sides in a conflict situation. ‘

Bringing culprits to justice

Following the statement by the Borno
State governor that the perpetrators of the violence in this state will
be brought to book, Oluseyi Petinrin, Air Chief Marshall and Chief of
Defense Staff (CDS) promised that the federal government will make sure
that the perpetrators of the Jos crisis are brought to justice. Mr
Petinrin however called for restraint, saying the violence is being
promoted by rounds of tits-for-tats.

“The way you can help government to
quickly get to the bottom of this thing is to be calm, go about your
normal business and do not try to retaliate. When you retaliate, you
will be retaliating against innocent people. You do not know the people
who did this thing. It is possible they are not even from Jos, so let
us get to the bottom of it first and I know you can help,’’ he said.

Partial Troops

Some residents of Jos believe that the
reason the violence in Jos continues is the partial disposition of the
military task force.

However, the spokesperson for the special task force for Jos, Charles Nweocha defends the impartiality of the troops.

“A lot of sacrifice is involved in
keeping the peace. The security men are doing their utmost best; the
allegation of bias against them is most unfair,” he said.

“I have a wife and kids with whom I
should normally spend the Christmas, but I have been in this cold since
December 24. I should be in a hurry to see that the crisis is over and
not taking sides to worsen an already bad situation.”

He added that it was not possible for the soldiers to take sides in view of their training in the handling of such situations.

“At each of the military check points, you will have Christians and
Muslims; you have all Nigerian tribes mixed up. So, you cannot take any
side under such circumstance. Where you have an Igbo man as team
leader, for instance, you will find that the members of the team
comprise Hausa, Yoruba, Ijaw, or Tiv speaking soldiers; so, whose side
will they be taking?”