By Augustine Ehikioya
A top stakeholder in Plateau State, His Royal Highness Yakubu Chaimang, Ataa Aten of Ganawuri, of Riyom Local Government Area of the State, has revealed the factors that have made it difficult to resolve the crisis in the State.
One of the threatening challenge, he said was some political leaders in the State taking sides.
He said that some of them take sides to support the people of the same religious backgrounds with them, even though they are obviously at fault.
The Royal Father spoke in an exclusive interview with Security Watch Africa (SWA) crew in Plateau State.
Commending the Armed Forces of Nigeria’s interventions in the State, he pointed out that the State would have gone into oblivion without the role of the Operation SAVE HAVEN.
He said “I think it is only the security chiefs that have been left to handle the matter. Political leaders, some of them, are even taking sides over these things, and they are worsening the situation, not really improving anything at all.
“Truly, here in Riyom, I want to trust that if the Operation SAVE HAVEN was not here, I’m sure that Riyom wouldn’t be what it is today, because the problem would have been very, very much.
“In fact, it was worse when they were not here. It’s better now that they are here, because they are containing most of the problems that we are facing on the Plateau.” he stated.
He went on “Whenever you tell them that there is an incident that is happening, they don’t waste time. They are always available to do something about it.”
But the Royal Father regretted that the military can’t prosecute even the most criminal cases as they have to handover the suspects to another government agency.
He also observed that all the past committees set up to ensure peace in the State have not been effective.
“Nothing out of those committees, Nothing has come out of it. No one has looked at any white paper or brought any white paper to come and tell us where we go from there. Nothing.” he said
Tracing the genesis of the Plateau crisis, he said, “In fact, up to the year 2000 we didn’t have any problems here on the Plateau. But I recall that around September of 2001, it was a Friday, a day that the Muslims go to the mosque. And I recall that at that time, they would block all roads until the Sallah was finished.
“So nobody was allowed to come very close to that place. And coincidentally, there was that lady who was coming in from opposite of the mosque, but she had to pass the road which was blocked and where the Muslims were doing their prayers.
“So they stopped her. The woman insisted that she would have to pass. So what happened was that some youth came out from among them that were praying and started beating the woman, and in fact, she was killed. I think that was the beginning of the lack of peace on the Plateau.” he said .
Before then, he recalled that everyone was living peacefully.
“Life was really very good among the Christians, among the Muslims. Because whenever they had any party in their homes, we go to them as Christians. Whenever we had any parties in the Christian domain, they would also come to us, to come and eat and drink with us and do everything with us.
“We inter-married, we lived together. In fact, there was virtually very peaceful atmosphere all over the place, all the time.”
But since the crisis started, he said a lot of lives and properties have been lost.
“A lot of people have died, have been killed because of this misunderstanding. The slightest thing that happens, people suspect something different.
“The slightest movement, people suspect that something is wrong. In the night or the daytime, there’s no time when these things do not happen.”
Giving another factor behind the crisis, he said “We used to hear about this Jihad, something that somebody, Dan Fodio, we used to hear it those days, and we were very small children then. But we were told that actually they wanted to come and grab the lands in these areas where we had very peaceful weather, particularly on the Plateau here.
“So sometimes they will come to our communities and come and request that we give them land, and even if we give them, sometimes they try to force themselves on other pieces of land, going beyond what we’ve been able to give to them. And so this was suggesting to us that maybe it was something more serious than actually what they asked for.”
According to him, his people are craving to have back the past peaceful days.
“We will really appreciate it because we are living in total fear all the time. Living in complete fear, because at night, in the day, you are not sure about what is going to happen to you”.
He admitted that most offenders go scot free when they commit one offense or the other.
“Truly, when sometimes they catch people who have been able to do this, nothing happens to them at the end of day. Sometimes they even come to you and say, you got me and you said they were going to do this and that, but nothing has happened, I’m back here, and you will see. They will continue to threatening you.
“Even when we go to report to the people in charge. Nobody does anything about it.”
Stressing that the youths from the two sides are involved in cow rustling, he said, “The Fulani boys and our boys are doing all these things, the rustling of the cows. So you can’t be too sure who has done what and at what time, whenever there is a thing like that.”
The Royal Father noted that the ban on illegal mining in the State is not effective at all.
“They still go back to mining, illegal mining, mainly affecting the farmland. It’s rendering the farmlands useless, because you can’t cultivate anything after this thing has been done.” he said .
On the continuation of stakeholders engagement in the area, he said “I think the people themselves should be able to understand themselves better. Otherwise, all these meetings, I do not think, are going to solve any problems at all, because they may end up worsening the whole thing.
“Because even with such meetings, you hear what people are saying, they are still insulting each other, making comments that are even unsuitable, like that, and one day, maybe somebody is going to lose his life in a discussion like this. It’s not going to be easy.”
As a way forward for peace, he said, “Let us in our communities know each other very well, let us know our problems, let us discuss our problems. Once we are able to discuss our problem and know what we can do about them, then we take them to places where engagements like this are going to take place.
“I think it’s going to help us better there, because more civilized language will be spoken, and I’m very sure that people will be able to appreciate it better.”
Giving advice to the leaders, the Royal Father said, “Let them stand in the middle. Stand in the middle, not stand on either side. Because if you say I’m Muslim, something happens to a Christian, and you take very drastic action. When it happens to your Muslim, you take another different type of action, it’s not going to be the best for us.
“Let them be neutral. Let them handle things the way they should be done. Let the truth be the truth, because if we mix it with other things that are not going to make things to work, then it’s going to make things worse. It’s not the best at all. They’re just making things worse.” he noted.
For the troops leaving their families behind and coming to put their lives at risk in the state, he said, “They leave their families, they do whatever, and if you see the way people behave towards them, very, very annoying. The truth is that I must say that they are doing a very, very good job in Nigeria, and only God is going to reward them for that.”
