Jos Crisis: Ibb`s Seed Is Bearing Fruit Rapidly

[Robot]

...Read the full article.

[Olamide]

Well, with people like you holding views like this, Jos will continue to burn for some time to come. What is the meaning of 'settlers'? Did this so-called settlers bought the land from the indigenes? How long does a person have to stay somewhere before he or she is accepted as an 'indigene' of that particular area? Can you call the people who have lived in Plateau state for more than 100 years and have no other place to call home strangers or settlers?
Most of you are not being realistic if you think the Hausa-Fulani and other tribes who are living inPlateau state will just pack up and abandon their properties so that indigenes can take them over. The problem in Plateau state has nothing to do with religion and you know it. The indigenous Plateau people are farmers and what has been happening in Plateau on a sporadic basis is the outcome of the short-sightedness of your elders who did not think of the generations to come when they took some decisions in times past. They sold their lands cheaply to the Hausa-Fulani Nomads/business men and women who have become more powerful economically and politically and have been able to build up enough poplulation to have a local government dedicated to them. Instead of fanning the embers of division and hatred as the Plateau 'elites' are doing, why not go back and empower your people through quality education, vocational skills and employment opportunities so that they are able to do other things apart from joining the police and army and farming.
It is nice to grow Irish potatoes and tomatoes but you can train them to add value to these products so that they do not work for the middle-men who take these products to the major towns and make all the money.
Lastly, it will also be nice to sensitize them on the evil of spending their days drinking 'burukutu', 'Pito' and 'mbal' while their mates are in school or learning trades that will make them contributing members of their communities and not coveting other peoples' properties.

[machiavelli]

@ Olamide

Reading through your comments one is left wandering if you are not one of the so-called 'Hausa settlers' the writer referred to in this article.

Your attempt at portraying the Hausas settlers in Jos as the victim lacks any credibility. A good student of Nigerian history will know that the Hausas have a penchant for trying to displace the indigenes wherever they are settled.

Kwara is a very good example. It was the same in Lagos state when they tried to claim Ketu and Idi-Araba. But, unfortunately for them, they didn't have enough support from their Northern kinsmen because of the distance and hence they were driven away with their tails between their legs.

Nobody is saying they cannot settle and do their business like every Nigerian, but when you start imposing your religion, cultures and values on the indigenes then you are calling for big trouble. Nigeria is treading dangerously on a path that leads to destruction and disintegration.

[nijalaw]

@Olamide
Hundreds of thousands of southerners(who are lucky to be alive) have packed up & left properties in Kano, Bauchi, Kaduna & other areas in the North after realizing they are non indigenes.
There was a story I remember reading about number of child/teenage Yoruba orphans who lost their parents after a bloody mayhem in Kano, they had no idea where they were from & a charity had to come to their aid & had a very difficult task of trying to locate where they were from & those who relatives could not be found were adopted by the charity.
When a stranger who has been welcomed/accepted with open arms & hospitality begins to enroach on your livelihood & freedom, you are not a fool for doing so but you will be if you succumb to the take over.

[M. Akosa]

@ nijalaw,

I don't know why and how? But I have so much respect for you, over the years on NVS. Though I can't even push the buttons that you do with ease.

Every civillized society tries their best to advance beyond indigenes and settlers obsessions, at least on papers. Maybe only those who have intentions of genocide still harbours those plans or thoughts of indigenes this or settlers that ???

And yet, in Nigeria, even after 50 years of marriage- supposedly understanding that we are our brothers keepers. And yet you still see people who are notoriously known all over sub sahara Africa and beyond for a nomadic lifestyle and philosophy, ambush, fight and hurt others, just because of ownership of land or properties. Only in Nigeria.

There is NO, will Not Be and can Never Be any saviours for us all (Christ or Mohammed) in that Nigerian entity.

At least we should by now have learnt to do away with all that cheap domination politics, social engineering, ferderal character and so on , and start asking what people do where they were born or settle (in terms of contribution to that society) ?

[Olamide]

@ Olamide

Reading through your comments one is left wandering if you are not one of the so-called 'Hausa settlers' the writer referred to in this article.

Your attempt at portraying the Hausas settlers in Jos as the victim lacks any credibility. A good student of Nigerian history will know that the Hausas have a penchant for trying to displace the indigenes wherever they are settled.

Kwara is a very good example. It was the same in Lagos state when they tried to claim Ketu and Idi-Araba. But, unfortunately for them, they didn't have enough support from their Northern kinsmen because of the distance and hence they were driven away with their tails between their legs.

Nobody is saying they cannot settle and do their business like every Nigerian, but when you start imposing your religion, cultures and values on the indigenes then you are calling for big trouble. Nigeria is treading dangerously on a path that leads to destruction and disintegration.

I am not a "Hausa settler' and neither am I a 'Northerner'. I am a Nigerian who want to proffer an opinion and I am entitled to my opinion based on facts and as a participant observer because I spent 12 years of my life in Northern Nigeria where I had the privilege of mingling with Northern Christians and Muslims and could comment with some authority on their behavioural attitudes. The relationship between both groups has always been very tense and based on mutual suspicion and contempt and this has its roots in ancient grudges passed down through generations, of perceived betrayals and injustices suffered by both groups in times past which they have decided not to forget about.

I maintain that we cannot continue to dwell on issues of 'settlers' and indigene and non-indigenes in Nigeria if we want to live in the same country as this is what is causing most of the problem of tribalism. Tell me this, why should an Igbo person who has lived in Abeokuta for fifty years, worked hard to buy land there, build a house and educate his children in schools in Abeokuta be considered a 'non-indigene'? Look at where the issue of non-indigene took countries like former Yugoslavia, Chekoslovakia etc?

Our tribal affiliations or religion is not our problem but our attitudes towards each other. Have you ever lived in Jos? Ask those who have and they will tell you exactly the same thing I said in my first post. You wake up in the morning and you meet majority of the indigenous youths at the local burukutu shacks getting drunk when their contemporaries are either going to school, going to work or going to learn trades that will make them useful. Not having skills that could make people productive in their communities is like the proverbial match to the already existing gunpowder of the tense relationship between those who are economically better-off and the have-nots in Plateau and everywhere and the envy is directed at reducing those who have worked very hard to acquire properties honestly ( I am not talking about politicians) to the level of poverty of the idlers.

I am not exonerating the Muslims neither am I blaming the Christians because both groups have equal share in the regular upheavals in that state. Let us move beyond primordial sentiments and be objective in our analysis. Until the government take a tougher stand (Not on pages of newspapers or on prime time TV) against the perpetrators regardless of their religion or political affiliations, the issue is not going to be laid to rest.

I will like to see those found guilty of inciting tribal or religious conflits including participating directly or indirectly through funding, providing logistic or intellectual supprt hanged publicly.

[Harmonious]

Nijalaw makes a good point. The Hausa Fulani Muslims are not as welcoming to settlers in their native communities as they expect to be welcomed in other communities. It is give and take. By their sheer number if they practice what they preach they will eradicate these types of crisis from Nigeria.