Plateau State is the twelfth largest Nigerian state. It is located in the center of Nigeria and is characterized by a range of hills that encircle the Jos Plateau, the capital of the state. The state is popularly known as "The Home of Peace and Tourism" because of its natural sites that include rocks, hills, and waterfalls. Plateau State has a population of about 3.5 million people.
This home once called PEACE has been in a state of unrest for the past two decades due to various ethno-religious clashes between locals, mainly concerning the indigenous versus settler's issue.The historical communal clashes in Plateau State are often triggered by disputes over land, water, and grazing rights between the Fulani herders and the indigenous farmers. The clashes have also taken on religious and ethnic dimensions, as the Fulani are mostly Muslim and the farmers are mostly Christian and belong to various ethnic groups, such as the Berom, Irigwe, and Tarok.
The situation is dire, as there seems to be no solution in sight, with one round of violence breeding another, creating a vicious cycle of revenge killings. This makes the condition worrisome. The local economy has crashed, and local businesses are folded up. No investor in her right thinking mind would invest in a land filled with violated agitations, and a land that breathes perfection now slums in death of its own offspring.
The Plateau State massacres are not an isolated incident, but rather a symptom of a broader problem of injustice and violence that has plagued Nigeria for decades. The country has witnessed several episodes of ethnic, religious, and political violence, which have claimed thousands of lives and displaced millions of people.
The government has failed to protect the people, prevent violence, and prosecute perpetrators, while security agencies have been accused of corruption, incompetence, and human rights violations. The justice system has been slow, ineffective, and biased, with the victims of violence being denied their rights, dignity, and peace. What a country!
While the most recent attacks on some communities in Plateau State, Nigeria, have shocked and saddened the world, raising the death toll from the massacres to over 200, with more than 500 people wounded. The attackers have been identified as "bandits," indicating no solution in sight and exposing the weakness of the Nigerian government, which claims that the attackers are from outside the state.
Central to many disputes in Plateau State is large-scale inter-communal violence that began in 2001. The turning point was the massive violence in the state capital Jos in September 2001 (commonly referred to as the Jos crisis), which claimed around 1,000 lives. Most of the violence that followed from 2002 to 2004 can be seen as directly or indirectly connected to the events in Jos. According to Human Rights Watch, between 2,000 and 3,000 people were killed between September 2001 and May 2004.
The situation may be worsened by climate change, population growth, poverty, and insecurity. Like other parts of Nigeria, Plateau State has a large population of unemployed youths from poor backgrounds who may not have strong ideological beliefs but can easily be persuaded to take part in acts of violence with the promise of money. "Merchants of violence" in Plateau allegedly fuel this crisis and include politicians and ethnic and religious leaders who feed on poverty, illiteracy, and, most importantly, sentiments of their followers to instigate them to violence to achieve popularity, acceptance, and economic gains.
The Plateau State crisis mirrors the situation in the Bible, the wars between the Israelites and the Philistines, who worshiped different gods and fought over territory and resources (Judges 13-16; 1 Samuel 4-7; 17). However, we can only hope for a decisive "David" to end the long-suffering of Christians in Plateau State with a sling and a stone in a state and country where no value is placed on human life anywhere in the country at the moment, and we have become a nation beyond shock.
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