Over time, I have come to realize that the crises bedevilling Jos and the Southern part of Kaduna have little to do with religion than with politics, land dispute, conspiracy, herder-farmer clashes and sheer act of criminality. Unfortunately it has been hijacked, manipulated, panel beaten and given religious coloration.
The Jos crisis of 2008 that consumed over 700 lives and properties worth billions of naira was as a result of outcome of local government elections. The Muslim -dominated APC believed that they were robbed of their victory because the candidate of the ruling party, PDP, was allegedly said to have defeated that of APC, the opposition party.
Ironically, Plateau is an APC state now with a Christian governor. A purely political issue was transformed into religious tussle. In Nigerian democracy, the ruling party almost always has its way in local government elections. However, the only problem with that of Jos is because the two candidates came from different religions. If the candidates were from the same religion, I am sure there wouldn’t be any crisis.
Furthermore, what we failed to understand is the fact that politicians will always remain politicians. The candidates over whom the bloodbath occurred by now might have defected or realigned with their political friends of the other religion or party in pursuance of their common goal.
The Berom and Fulani have been living together for over 100 years and have inter-married. When a Berom farmer and Fulani herder had altercation that led to loss of life or property the underlying cause is mostly not reported in the media.
The jobless bigots took advantage of the situation and what we get to hear next is reprisal attacks. Roads are blocked as miscreants take to the streets to avenge the killing of their kinsmen.
Sometime in 2018, about 55 people were killed in Anguwan Magani of Kajuru Local Government Area of Kaduna State. The immediate cause of the crisis was that a Muslim young man who was dating a Christian girl was waylaid by the girl’s jealous senior brother in his effort to terminate the relationship.
The religious warriors escalated a purely relationship dispute into a full blown religious crisis that claimed the lives of many innocent traders.
Why the crisis kept repeating itself is partly because the perpetrators are not reprimanded and partly because of conspiracy theories being propagated by bigots which has over time affected our thought process.
The crux of matter is that people’s brain had been rewired to believe that their next door Muslim or Christian neighbours are their problem and source of predicament instead of the endemic corruption, unemployment and failure of leadership in the land .
Why is there religious tolerance in some states and regions where there are substantial number of Christians and Muslims living peacefully Kogi. The protagonists in Plateau and Kaduna states should answer this.
Abdullahi Sadiq Mohammed [email protected]
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