RE: JOS`

JACOB KWAGA: I must say that you got this one really very wrong. There may be a virus that infects Trust columnists. I mean they start so objectively and then drift towards primordial instincts. Your piece under consideration is clearly set out not only to justify the horrific killings of Berom women and children, but to argue that they did not go far enough. Again you showed contempt for the northern minorities by talking about so-called Middle Belt. Northern minorities are looking for a voice because of decades of marginalization and strangle-hold of the so-called Hausa-Fulani feudal lords. Do you think without the Middle Belt the North will be able to maintain its hegemony over Nigerian politics? Therefore the call by some Southern elements for convocation of a national conference may be the only way to save Nigeria. Thank you and keep writing those satirical pieces!

ABBATI DANKANTI GUMEL: ‘What is good for the goose must be good for the gander.’ Hausa dressing, food, language and culture were aggressively borrowed, yet what do we get from these borrowers? We must remember that the ‘rejected’ always rise: Prophet Yusuf (peace be upon him) met persecution at the hands of his blood brothers, but see what was bestowed on him as a settler. Similarly, ethnically-biased minds should recall what President Obama reminded his audience on the day of his swearing in: “…why a man whose father less than sixty years ago might not have been served at a local restaurant can now stand before you to take a most sacred oath”.

SANUSI MUSA: Your piece couldn’t be more apt. But painful as the actions and inactions of Plateau State government are, we should not lose our sense of reasoning in ventilating our anger against them. Of course the attack was due to the way Jang and his gang have been displaying the highest form of how not to govern. However, should we now on our part begin to utter words similar to what they have been saying? My stand is that two wrongs will never make right.

MANGA MUHAMMAD: I think Jos should be rebranded with the creation of a ‘Sabuwar Jos’. Let those areas of Toro, Magamar-Gumau etc with the same terrain as Jos be expanded to become a neo-city with all the basic amenities, and let all those rejected from ‘Old Jos’ relocate there. There then should be a road from this Sabuwar Jos by-passing Old Jos up to Saminaka. This will give room to a new city with all the goodies the so-called ‘yan-kasa’ are so jealous about. Nobody will be forced to pass through Jos to anywhere and vice versa any more.

ALIYU BAGOBIRI: Going by history, the Hausas were able to move southwardly for many factors, chiefly commerce. The Hausas, like the British, were only hungry for commerce and, where they found themselves as leaders, it was either a call to serve by the ‘indigenes’ (as in Ashanti-land in today’s Ghana and) or an opportunity that presented itself in virgin territory (as in many unpopulated areas of the so-called Middle Belt.  I am myself a ‘settler’ in Yobe, and do not know what will happen if other states start to flush out ‘non-indigenes’.

ABDULLAH JIBRIN: I want to thank you sincerely for saying it as it is. What you penned were exactly my sentiments. I was born in Jos and most of my life was spent there. I however want to tell you that discrimination and dislike for the settlers was long before 1994. 1994 was when the brazenness and outright dislike couldn’t be hidden any more. As it is said, the rest is now history. May the Almighty continue to guide and protect you.

DANABA KAKAKI: Where are all the Hausa-Fulani elite when others are telling lies and trying to change history using the biased Southern press? Where are all our so-called leaders who can’t open their mouths and defend us? I just don’t understand what is wrong with the Hausa-Fulani leaders who will not come out into the open and defend their own people when others are doing just that.

RABIU HAMZA: I am so full of joy that you remembered to remind us of that Palestinian/Israeli joke. ALLAH will surely do justice in this matter whether in Nigeria or in Palestine. May he also reward you abundantly.

ABUBAKAR SULEIMAN ABUKHALID: Jang and his government have failed woefully! How could he now turn around and blame the military when he never did such thing after the earlier massacres. Equity, justice and fairness must be respected. Culprits in all massacres MUST be brought to justice!

YA’U ISAH: If the Federal Government wants a lasting solution, they must fish out and bring to book the perpetrators of all the criminalities in Plateau State, not only those involved in the recent mayhem, but all those that participated in past crises. And if they want us to believe the number of those killed in the recent mayhem, they should equally be ready to accept the casualty levels of the other massacres. For what is good for the goose is also good for the gander. In recent African History, only the Hutus of Rwanda have shown so much hatred and mercilessness to fellow humans as Beroms have shown.

UMARU WAKILI: Allah dala en lawol Dangol Pulaaku…Now that the tunes are changing…all Fulbes from Futa Jallon to Harare are raising their hands in unison…Allah jabo do a!

MUHAMMAD LAWAL ISHAQ: Thanks for all the objective analysis of the problems in Jos and Plateau State generally.

USMAN ALI: Though not condoning reprisals, the so-called indigenes should very much know that the ‘wrong’ they committed and was not corrected will definitely lead to another ‘ wrong’, which the Anglican Diocese of Jos is advertising on its site as ‘the despotic cravings of Moslems in Jos.’ Where were the Jos Anglicans when ‘Christian despotic acts’ where perpetrated on even Church asylum-seeking Muslims in Kuru Karama? And, to the Muslims, where is your website showing the pictures of your own massacred people?

DANDOKI IBRAHIM: You have really caught the irony of Jos! Years back, the late Beko Ransome-Kuti was in Jos after one of those crises. As he was one of those who always instigated the ‘indigenes’ against the Hausa-Fulani, he famously called on the indigenes to stop using the Hausa language and stop eating tuwo (and stop wearing babbar riga!) What a laugh!