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THE JOS CRISES AND THE NEED FOR A RESTRUCTURING OF THE FEDERATION. The recent unfortunate communal/religious crises in Jos has brought certain pertinent questions to fore and one of which is the urgent need toRESTRUCTUREthe country which was “cobbled” together by fiat by British Administrators in 1914. The incessant communal/ethnic crises masquerading as religious crises especially in the Northern part of the country, if not honestly tackled by convening an urgent summit of all ethnic nationalities to discuss the basis oftheir continued association as one country may eventually lead to the demise of the entity called Nigeria which could result in serious humanitarian crises that may make the Rwandan crises of 1994 look like a child’s play. The situation as it stands now in Nigeria is akin to a house where the inhabitants have succeeded in sweeping all the dirt in the house under the carpet for a period of time wh...Read the full article.

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Its is not about restructuring Nigeria around any sentiment. Nigeria is just a violent and collapsing nation (I hate to say this 'as a matter of factly'). If you follow the papers, Nigerians find every opputunity to kill themselves. Please read the following and tell me how you will stop the killing by restructuring:

12 Die In Clash Between Rival Football Supporters Club Members
Accident Involving Zamfara United Claims Six

From Willie Etim, Yenagoa, Isah Ibrahim Maru, Gusau
The Guardian - February 22, 2009

Rival cult clashes in Bayelsa State yesterday left at least 12 people dead. Among those feared killed in reprisal attacks were about 12 members of the state-owned Ocean Boys Football Club and the Bayelsa United Football Club.

At the Yenagoa clubhouse of the teams, the imposing building on the usually busy Imgbi Road was deserted, as all the supporters and back-up players had fled from the hostel for safety.

It was gathered that the clash between the rival cult gangs had started on Friday night when a member of the supporters club belonging to one of the rival cult gangs was shot dead around 8pm in the Opolo area of the state capital.

Later in the night, there was a reprisal attack at the popular nightclub in Kpansia, where another person was killed.

Several cars were riddled with bullets in the attack that took place shortly after midnight. Survivors identified a black four-wheel drive vehicle in the attack.

It was also revealed that the gun battle at the nightclub extended to the supporters who were on their way to Ughelli for a match between their clubs scheduled for yesterday afternoon.

Survivors said the Infiniti SUV car that the gunmen used at the nightclub incident was the same jeep from which armed men opened fire on the supporters at a village called Uwhru, near Ughelli.

A source, who cannot be identified for safety reasons, said Ocean Boys who were members of the cult gang, Green Landers, were attacked in a revenge attack by their rivals in the Icelanders over the incident on Friday night in Yenagoa.

There was gloom in the state capital as it was not yet clear how many of the supporters of the football cubs survived the violent attack.

The Nigeria Football Federation (NFA) had relocated the venue of matches in the Nigeria Premier League for the two clubs to Ohara and Ughelli in Delta State, as the Bayelsa State government is still renovating the state's sports complex.

The attack on the supporters club 18-seater Mitsubishi bus with Lagos State registration number XT 78 APP, occurred between 12 and 1pm on the Ughelli Patani road.

It was reported that the unmarked black Infinity jeep had trailed the bus to that point and opened fire at it, killing seven people on the spot, while the other three died at the hospital at Uwhru.

The corpses of the seven persons, according to one of the supporter's club members, who survived the attack, had been deposited at the General Hospital at Ughelli.

Two other persons who were also injured in the attack were said to be in very critical condition at the Ughelli hospital.

The secretary of the Bayelsa State Football Association, Mr. Braveman Wodi, who confirmed the incident, said what happened was a very sad situation. He said the football body was yet to be fully briefed on what really happened at the scene of the incident, hoping to get at the root of the matter.

The Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO) in Delta State, Mr. Charles Muka, who also confirmed the attack, said the information the police had gotten so far about the incident was still very sketchy.

He said the area command in Ughelli had already swung into action, by starting immediate investigation into the shooting on those that are responsible for the shooting.

Even though there is no clue to the cause of the attack, some observers are relating the shooting at the nightclub to the killing of the supporter's club members.

It was learnt that the recent shooting could be a spillover of the fight between two cult groups - the Greenlander and the Highlander in Yenagoa.

In a related development, six persons have been confirmed dead following a head-on collision between a bus carrying Premier League side Zamfara United FC of Gusau and a Toyota car along Jos-Bauchi road.

The accident occurred Friday night when the team was travelling to Bauchi to keep a Premier League date with Wikki Tourists.

Those who died were striker, Abdullahi Dio, and Ado Umar, the club's curator. Six other persons, including technical adviser, Rafiu Yusuf, and team doctor, Abdullahi Maru, reportedly sustained various degrees of injuries made up of simple and compound fracture.

A press release signed by the club's media officer Malam Imam Imam said all the four occupants of the Toyota car lost their lives in the accident.

The injured players were still receiving treatment at a General Hospital in Gombe as at press time.

Already, Governor Mahmud Aliyu Shinkafi of Zamfara State has directed that adequate medical attention be given to the players, while adequate arrangement be made to convey the bodies of the two persons who died for burial.

The late Abdullahi Dio joined Zamfara United during the last mid-season break from an amateur side in Kaduna.

These incidences are just a week's records. if we continue to only give significance to violence of religious connotions the space for discussions, then we are keeping our eyes off the ball. Just as the beneficiaries of the trend of deaths and destruction plan it.

May Allah (The Beneficient, the Merciful) save our nation. Ameen.

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From the Jos Crises and other crises that has occured in Nigeria, how many people have been brought to justice, innocent people have killed in the name of religious and tribal conflict.The real culprits who happen to be the tribalists, the nepotists that seek to keep the country divided permanently,those that have corrupted our society and put the Nigerian political calendar back by their words and deeds. Now we have another crises, please read:

Bauchi riot: Death toll rises Taken from the Sun
By ADESINA AYEKOTI
Monday, February 23, 2009


As the crisis that engulfed Railway\Morocco parts of Bauchi enters the second day, 11 people have been confirmed dead.
The riot has continued to escalate to other parts of the city even as residents register their displeasure with the state government for the ‘relaxed’ manner it is handling the crisis.

The Secretary of the Red Cross in Bauchi, Alhaji Adamu Abubakar told Daily Sun at the Shadawanka Camp on Sunday that 38 people were injured.
Adamou disclosed that so far almost 5, 000 persons have been displaced and are taking refuge in barracks and churches and other places they considered safe.
He said that the situation in the camp is not pleasant as most of the immediate need of the displaced persons including food, water and sleeping materials are unavailable.

One of the displaced person, James Eneche whose house was burnt but managed to escape with his wife and three children, lamented that life at the camp has been horrible.
“We sleep on the bare floor and we have not eaten anything since morning and this is 2 pm. I took refuge in the police station and escaped here because even at the police station our lives was not safe,” Eneche, a staff of Federal Government Girls College, Bauchi told Daily Sun.
Eneche, who lost properties worth N1.5 million said he has lost everything he worked for in the past 25 years. Eneche, like thousands of displaced persons scattered in different camps across the state capital said they have not received any form of government assistance so far.

However, the secretary of the Red Cross assured that the government through the State Emergence Relief Agency (SEMA) was sending help, adding that SEMA was treating the injured free.
“Even now, I am leaving to bring food. So far, they have been given 15 bags of rice, 25 litres of groundnut oil, 30 mattresses, 25 mats. They need cooking materials urgently and the children need drugs. We will start immunisation of under five tomorrow, “Adamu said.
Deeper Life Church in Bayan Gari was set on fire while Truth and Transformation Bible Church also located in the area was burnt down completely in the early hours of Sunday.
Bauchi State Police Command confirmed that 11 people lost their lives in the crisis while seven persons have been arrested in connection with the riot.

The Command PPRO, Mohammad Barau said that all the dead bodies have been deposited at the mortuary of the State Specialist Hospital in Bauchi.
Barau said that all those arrested are being detained at the Command headquarters while investigations are still going on.

Meanwhile, victims of the crisis have told gory details of their experiences, wondering when there will be an end to the constant religious crisis dogging the state.
One of them who was lucky to have escaped to tell the story is Ibrahim Yakubu, a father of five, who spoke to Daily Sun at the Shadawanka Army Barracks where he is currently taking refuge after losing all his belonging in the crisis.

Yakubu, who worked with the COCIN Church which was one of the many worship centres that was set ablaze in the milieu, has narrated how he was rescued miraculously from the hands of arsonists in Morocco area of Bauchi on Saturday morning.
“It started two weeks ago when the Muslims started parking their cars inside our church premises. We felt we need to stop them otherwise, one day they would try to come inside the church and to carry out their prayer,” he told Daily Sun in an interview.
Yakubu also informed that crisis was brewing over a mosque not far away from his church between two Muslim sects over the control of the mosque.

Yakubu, who received a deep machete cut on his left right eye, said around 2a.m on Saturday, some unknown people set the mosque on fire.
“They were many. They were carrying cutlasses, sticks, and guns. One of them hit me with the knife and I managed to run outside before a team of soldiers on patrol rescued me.”
Yusuf complained that as a result of the attack, he finds it difficult to chew while he could not see presently with his right eye which was hit.
Veronica Mark and Anna Isiaku are mourning the gruesome murder of their brother in the crisis.
The two distraught sisters were close to tears as they recount the circumstances that led to the death of Idris Elkana.

According to her, everyone was just running helter-skelter that Staurday morning and Idris somehow got lost in the confusion as he tried to escape.
“They came to our house around 6 in the morning and set it on fire. We all rushed out. We couldn’t take anything with us. Everything was burnt down completely,” she said.
Anna said that it was in the heat of the confusion that someone told them that their visiting brother had been killed and thrown inside a dry well near the ancient city wall.
Mrs Earnest Asouzi, who resides in Gombe road said she ran with her three chilren and her husband to the Army Children School at the Army Barracks for safety.

Two years ago, we were almost killed. Our house and all our properties were burnt. This time we are afarid so we have been staying here for two days. It has been tough. I have spent almost N3, 000 on buying foods from the canteen,” she said.


If a the official government cannot provide security for its citizens throughout the whole of the state's territory that is a failed state.

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we need divine intervention and it will come this year

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I think Nigeria actually need this conflicts and if possible a war to define its future fate.

I will be very happy to fight against Northern islamist mujahideens if the ensuring reult means the regions will be divided as a result.

We don't realise it but Nigeria may become a better place once a civil war has been fought to define its borders its future.

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=allaccess;328907>I think Nigeria actually need this conflicts and if possible a war to define its future fate.

I will be very happy to fight against Northern islamist mujahideens if the ensuring reult means the regions will be divided as a result.

We don't realise it but Nigeria may become a better place once a civil war has been fought to define its borders its future.

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I say a very BIG AMEN to the above statement.

However, this can only be possible if the western and the eastern Nigerians could sink their differences and come together as a one united front.

Enough is enough of these incessant senseless Islamic jihadists killings in northern Nigeria.

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Dear Mr. Babs Iwalewa, what is the point of you writing this hogwag article if you cannot call a spade a spade?
Instead of to lay the blame at the door step of the real culprits of all these incessant killings by the northern Islamic Jihadists, you wrongly blamed the ruling class.

You sound like a south western Nigerian with an Islamic background, hence your diversionary tactics of being blinded by your Islamic faith, about the true picture of the religious intolerance of the northern Nigeria Jihadists, who sees the rest of us as 'infidels' i.e. 'unbeliever' or probably for the fear of your location, i.e. being a resident of Kaduna State.

Why can't you be honest and speak the truth and let the devil be ashamed?

By the way, you forgot to mention the recent religious riot in Bauchi, between christians and your Islamic Jihadists neighbour, where some innocent people lost their lives as usual.

Why do we have to put up with all these nonsense from these backward and inward looking northern Islamic Jihadists?

When next you want to write an article, please always be honest to pinpoint the problems and suggest a solutions, instead of misleading people with some half bake truth.:yawn::yawn::yawn:

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Having lived in Northern Nigeria most of my life, their mentality is well known to me, they know southerners love life too much and are always willing to turn the other cheeks when attacked. Although we have small packets of revenge and reprisals, we are still too passive for Northerners. We have to meet their threats head on.

Now, with all that has happened in Nigeria; with the initial border arrangement that ended the north and south as one nation called Nigeria, with the initial maitasine attacks, with the introduction of sharia law in the secular society, and now the daily murderous attacks, most northerners will be wondering why we have not done anything about their constant abuse.

I dare say there are hardly any Southern organisations directly taking the Islamic northern leaderships head on in the national and international arenas.

I am yet to see organisations compiling southern members, informing the world of the atrocities and using such as a big mouthpiece in direct engagements of the northern leadership and the Nigerian government. no one is taking these animals to task so it is still a free for all massacres if packets of us don't defend themselves when the attacks happen.

What we need is an serious Southern organisation with global presence, with daily updates of atrocities, information of northern policies like sharia that cause friction, terrorist attacks, and propaganda on how to rile Southern people to counter these attacks and behaviours.

We need non Government voice with serious clout and of course a way to organise ourself in case it comes to war with these people at the end result.

A civil war is imminent but we have to be ready and so far we are not.

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He who is spoiling for war should send his first son to the frontline...

Another civil war in Nigeria will make Rwanda look like child's play. I don't know how the Nigerian "problem" will be solved, but i know do know that eventually, Nigeria will change, either peacefully or violently, its just a matter of time. Its very obvious that we are sitting on a simmering volcano.

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I expected a fearful answer in typical Nigerian fashion, even people dying of AIDS and those living under 3rd mainland bridge with the shortest lifespan in the place are still scared to place their lives on line for betterment of their future generations and for their nation. I am willing to give my life for Nigeria if I see millions doing the same. I really don't care because I just want to help remove mallams for good and whatever it takes I will do it. Enough is enough.

We might as well make the volcano erupt and end it once and for all...