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Plateau: Old war, new rules
Senan John Murray
In Jos, the Plateau State capital, which also doubles as the political headquarters of the Middle Belt, everyone has a pet theory that offers an explanation into why violence has moved residence to the region. Some observers like the respected cleric, Rev. Fr. Hassan Kukah think the bloodletting in the region is a deliberate long-term policy by persons who feel threatened by the sudden boldness of the slave demanding his rights. Threatened, the theory contends, the master who no longer needs to ride out on horseback wielding a sword, devises another means to keep his disillusioned distracted.
Perhaps, it�s a clash of economic interests. But Chief Solomon Lar, Plateau's first civilian governor (1979 - 1983) thinks it is a mixture of both. There lies the heart of his "emancipation" philosophy. To him, the region was in the life-threatening grip of the hegemonists and needed to be emancipated. This was also the view of late Senator Joseph Tarka.
So, this new battle, with Lar as the Middle Belt's commanding officer and the former President of the Newspapers Proprietors Association of Nigeria, Mallam Ismaila Isa Funtua as his opposite number from the "core north" is not new. It is an old war being fought with new rules. Funtua, who shares the same name with his village is from Katsina State. The Hausa like to trace their history to Daura, where Bayajida, aka Abu Yazid, was recorded as having killed a mythical snake that had taken over a local well, preventing the poor rustics from drawing water whenever their throats wanted.Of course some historians think this is a rather simplistic record of the origin of an imperial race like the Hausa.
But that is not the issue here. The issue is that the snake who shared a home with the porcupine can no longer bear the pain of the rodent's spikes. And since it was the rodent that burrowed the hole in the first instance, there is hardly any doubt about who among the too gets the quit notice - credit for this theory must be given to the suspended Governor of Plateau State, Chief Joshua Dariye. Arrogant and irresponsible, this theory may seem, it remains the most precise explanation of the problem with Nigeria's Middle East.
Thus, the feeling on the streets of Jos- and even the remotest of villages in the state - on May 18, when President Olusegun Obasanjo slammed a state of emergency in the state was that the hegemonists had won. Won what? The battle for the soul of the Middle Belt, a concept that stands as a loud query to the moral correctness of an ideology that accords blue-bloodedness to one person over the other. The Middle Belt, it champions insist, symbolizes the desire of a people to take responsibility for its destiny.
Of course, Lar and Funtua who are, clearly politicians, would prefer to mask their ethnic prejudice, the truth remains that they are engaged in fundamental war that must be fought and won before the entire north (this time including the Middle Belt) would know true peace.
The Punch, Friday July 16, 2004
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