[allAfrica.com]  [allAfrica.com_Top_Headlines]


Anambrisation of Plateau State?

Vanguard (Lagos)
ANALYSIS
November 11, 2004
Posted to the web November 11, 2004

By Ochereome Nnanna

NOVEMBER 18, 2004 is a date the people of Plateau State and Nigerians are
looking forward to with tense expectation. It will be six months since the
state came under emergency rule ordered by President Olusegun Obasanjo after a
season of internecine bloodletting arising from communal conflicts. This was a
renewal of one of history's unfinished businesses in many parts of the minority
areas of northern Nigeria where there exists reasonably large settlement of
Hausa-Fulani Muslims.
The latter have permanently made themselves at home among these minorities, who
are mainly adherents of Christianity and traditional religions. The problem,
however, is that the differences in culture and faith, as well as the perceived
domineering tendencies of the Hausa - Fulani elements, made the original
inhabitants of the land wary and determined to maintain an indigene/settler
dichotomy.
From time to time, the conflicts between the two groups get out of hand,
resulting in large-scale loss of lives and property. Past examples include the
1987 Kafanchan riots (which eventually spilled into Kaduna City) and also the
1993/94 Zangon Kataf upheavals, which led to the complete sacking of the Hausa-
Fulani quarters by the Kataf indigenes.
The Federal Government, then under General Ibrahim Babangida, declared a state
of emergency of sorts in the local government. It was not until recent years
that the problem appeared to have been sorted out, with the local people
granted more traditional autonomy and the Hausa - Fulani refugees resettled in
the city.
For more than two years, Plateau State fermented in crisis between the
"indigenes" and "settlers" in a like manner. As usual, the problem acquired a
religious toga. The two sides raided one another until a final push led to the
complete flushing of the Hausa - Fulani residents of Yelwa and other
settlements in the State early this year. In the melee, most leaders of the
state had either openly or covertly taken sides.
The Presidency did take a number of steps to solve the problems amicably
through the setting up of several peace committees, but whether wisdom was
applied in going about it is another matter. For instance, many people wondered
how the nation's seat of power expected a committee with the Emir of Zaria,
Alhaji Shehu Idris as its chairman to solved a problem when he was rejected by
the Christian community for being a prominent Moslem leader and cleric. What
was the wisdom in making an interested party to the dispute the head of a peace
committee? Such positions are usually given to perceived neutral personalities
acceptable to the warring parties.
ON May 18, 2004, after a round of truculent exchanges between the President,
Olusegun Obasanjo himself and leaders of the Christian party to the conflict,
Obasanjo launched an emergency rule in the state. In a national broadcast,
which sounded much like a post-coup event, Obasanjo listed what he claimed to
be the failings of Governor Joshua Dariye. These included incompetence in the
handling of the security situation in the state. The President also accused him
of being insensitive to the plight of the victims in spite of the reality of
humanitarian disaster that stared the state in the face.
While many Nigerians were willing to permit the President a benefit of doubt
about the sapience of emergency rule as the clear-cut solution to the problem,
most rational people, however, took note of traces of a hidden personal
political agenda that transcended the security breaches. In going about the
emergency measure, Obasanjo brought his own personal complications into it and
rendered the entire exercise politically suspect. On his last visit to Jos on
Thursday, May 13 2004, the President involved himself in a demeaning verbal
assault on the Plateau State chapter of the Christian Association of Nigeria
(CAN), Reverend Yakubu Pam. Five days later, the emergency rule came on board.
THE state of emergency was rather sweeping. It involved the suspension of the
Governor, his Deputy and the State House of Assembly. Obasanjo promptly
appointed a sole administrator, retired Major General Chris Alli, to run the
state. No sooner had Dariye been suspended from his job under questionable
constitutional competency than security agents started dogging his every move
both at home and abroad. He was later caught in London with some foreign
currency. Some newspapers, particularly the pro-Obasanjo PUNCH, were alerted
within minutes to trumpet it.
PUNCH actually took on Dariye personally. What the papers reported was a far
cry from what Dariye later disclosed when he told his own side of the story.
Before long, the Presidency sponsored Dariye's prosecution for allegedly
operating a foreign account, a step which was seen as part of the Obasanjo
government's moves to forestall his return to office after the expiry of the
mandatory six months of emergency rule.
Analysts have blamed the President's perceived partisan execution of the
emergency measure in Plateau state on his open political romance with the
Deputy President of the Senate, Alhaji Ibrahim Mantu. Mantu, a smooth political
operator, whose permanent strategy is to promote the political interests of
every president in office, is the most visible pro-Obasanjo senator from the
northern part of the country. He belongs to the minority Moslem section of
Plateau State. Moreover, the larger Moslem community in the north, irrespective
of their political leanings, have applauded the emergency rule, just as the
Christians have tended to see it as an unnecessary overkill.
Most Nigerians are willing to take the emergency rule in their stride, more so
as it appears to have restored security and created conditions to enable to
refugees to return to their places of abode as free Nigerians. Also, the finer
points of the rights and privileges of all Nigerian citizens in Plateau State,
whether residents or indigenes, have been spelt out.
After six months of emergency rule, most rational Nigerians believe that
Obasanjo and the supporters of emergency rule in Plateau State have made their
point. During his 70th birthday celebration in Jos, former military head of
state and Obasanjo's former boss, General Yakubu Gowon, pointedly pleaded that
the restoration of democracy in his state would be the greatest birthday gift
to him. The father of Plateau politics and former National Chairman of the
People's Democratic Party, Chief Solomon Lar, has also called for the end of
the emergency rule. So also has the current chairman, Chief Audu Ogbeh. The
Northern States Christian Elders Forum (NSCEF) of which Gowon and retired Lt.
Gen. Theophilus Danjuma are members, has also made a similar call.
A great majority of the elite of Plateau state and Nigerians as a whole feel a
further extension of the measure will not serve any useful national end. It
will only help the selfish political purposes of a few people. The feeling that
the Obasanjo administration is not yet done with Plateau and Dariye finds
justification in the President's actions. A committee set up by the President
under the headship of Ogbeh to review the state of emergency did not bother to
interview Dariye, even though it called for the handling of the matter
"democratically".
Before he launched the emergency rule, the President in vain had lobbied the
Plateau Sate House of Assembly to impeach Dariye as his only condition to
forestall emergency. Just this week, the lobbying was renewed in Aso Rock, with
the Deputy Governor, Dr. Michael Botmang and later the Speaker of the Plateau
House, Mr. Simon Lalong, being offered Dariye's job if they cooperated. But
like the honourable gentlemen they are, both men declined the offer.
Advisers should go to work on the President to leave Plateau be, if he is
really interested in peace and has respect for the feeling of Plateau people.
The issue has gradually grown bigger than Dariye. It is now a matter of
Plateau's right to their dignity and democracy. If Obasanjo ignores this
reality and either extends the emergency or continues to engineer the
impeachment of Dariye, the likes of Gowon, Lar, Danjuma, the Plateau Christian
community and the greatest majority of Plateau citizenry will feel slapped in
the face. Nobody likes to be slapped in the face.
The President will be seen to be pursuing a personal mission using the crisis
as a camouflage. His legendary "unforgiving enemy" image will come to the fore.
Nigerians will be further reminded of his exploits in Anambra State, where a
similar pandering to the political interests of his in-laws has left Governor
Chris Ngige under siege and without police protection. If that is so, we can
expect Dariye to also be denied of his constitutional rights until (and if) he
is finally brought down at Obasanjo's feet.
Democracy should be reinstated in Plateau. The people should be restored their
right to decide the fate of their Governor.

   

  =============================================================================
   Copyright © 2004 Vanguard. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica
                         Global Media (allAfrica.com).
  =============================================================================