On Ajibola’s provocative report

This is because the renowned lawyer is a respected jurist of international repute and I never thought he would play the devil advocate in his most anticipated report. I have been personally concerned about any crisis in the north because recurrence of such has turned the entire north into the major problem or challenge facing Nigeria. That is why I always want to identify myself with any genuine efforts aimed at resolving, preempting or preventing any form of crisis in this part of the country in particular and Nigeria in general.

But the news report published in the Daily Trust Newspaper online edition of Monday, 15th February, 2010 shattered the high hopes I attach to the peaceful resolution of the Jos crises. The news report with the caption: “Jos Crisis 2008: Ajibola Panel indicts Hausa Community-Exonerates Jang”  revealed that the Ajibola Panel actually recommended the resettlement of Muslim dominated areas and acquisition of Hausa Fulani residential houses, I don’t know where to and by what means. The report also had it that the 339-page Panel report discovered that the crisis was not caused by the conduct of the election but by the economic domination of the Hausa-Fulani. The Panel was said to have recommended the police investigation of the activities of some prominent Muslims of the state only and even absolved Governor Jonah Jang of complicity!

The same Prince Bola Ajibola who was the Attorney General of the Federation in the IBB regime was said to have attributed the creation of Jos North Local Government by the IBB regime as favour to Hausa-Fulani “settlers” in his report. This is because, according to the report, the Hausa-Fulani community demanded that from IBB’ s regime!

I am not sure if this is the report Prince Bola Ajibola said would bring peace to Plateau State. It was clearly a provocative report capable of destroying further the fragile peace in Jos. I now agree with the Hausa community’s position that Governor Jang as an interested party should not have convened the Panel in the first place.

My take in the report, to say the least, is that it was lop-sided, biased against the perceived victims of the crisis and subservient to the interest of the state government and the Berom ultra-nationalists. For the report to have indicted only a particular group, when it is said that it takes two to tango, is quite unfair.

All lovers of peace and stability in Nigeria should look beyond the Ajibola Panel report in search of lasting peace in Plateau State. Such solution should be fair to all and the constitutional provisions of the rights of all citizens to live in any part of the country and pursue legitimate business should be guaranteed. These wanton destruction of life and property have got to stop anywhere in Nigeria.

Muslims and Christians, northerners and southerners and indeed all Nigerians need each other to build a strong, prosperous, stable and virile nation – Nigeria.

Abdulrahman Mohammed Alfa, Post Graduate Student PSMTP, Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration, Greenhill, P.O. Box AH 50, Achimota-Accra Ghana