This is how I usually know that something bad has happened in Jos again. My stat counter starts showing new readers coming in after searching for phrases like “Jos killing” or “Jos crises” or “fight in Jos” or “hausa and fulani”. It’s heartbreaking. Every day, new figures of people killing each other makes it even harder to grieve without asking if there’s not much more we can do to prevent future occurrences.Government won’t solve it either so we’re here wringing hands.
I have written a few posts on my thoughts on Jos, my visit to the town in July 2010, and a conversation I had with a few citizens while there. We have even raised money to send to the victims of the first major wave of attacks last year. Now, all of it seems so grossly inadequate to deal with a deteriorating state of things in a once peaceful place. Security officials are complicit and nothing seems to be working. Greedy politicians are busy slugging it out with themselves for the ticket to the next election while compatriots reduce themselves to ruins. Plateau has turned into a state of nature, and yes, it does have fanatical religion tied to its root cause.
So what needs to be done? Another state-of-emergency? A dialogue among all stakeholders so that they find a permanent solution to the conflict? A UN intervention? More guns, so that when each side is armed, there will be no monopoly on violence? Or a continued preaching of love so that everyone gets along? Do we need the African Union? I’m open to ideas because I haven’t come up with a satisfactory one.
