Jos

Heyy blogsville,

I am sure you are all impressed by how accurate my oscar nominations were, I was really happy! I guess I have impeccable/critically acclaimed view of movies! I am feeling myself right now!

Anyway onto grimmer topics, I am sure you have all heard about the unfortunate events that have been taking place in Jos. About 500 villagers were massacred by Muslim herdsmen, revenging the killing of about 200 Christians that happened earlier in January. I was at work yesterday when it came on CNN, and as soon as I saw Nigeria on the news, a feeling of dread swept over me, What have my people done again ohh!

I was saddened by the news, but I was more angry. These days, most news about Nigeria tends to anger me.

My friends no better than to mention the word "Yaradua" in front of me, because I will get so upset. A country without a visible leader, who has supposedly been in the country for weeks now, but whom NO ONE, not even the V.P has set eyes on or even spoken to, shit like this only happens in a country like ours, where the people have no say in the affairs of their government.........arrrghhhhh, am already getting worked up....

I read this article called Jos:A Crisis triggered by inequality, which I think explains the orgins of the crisis really well. Jos is apparently an acronym for “Jesus our Saviour" representing the origins of the Plateau capital as a Christian state.

"the origins of the Jos — a former enclave for colonial missionaries, and its geographic location — aptly described by some as a de facto fault line separating Nigeria’s mainly Muslim north from its mainly Christian south, is partly responsible for the mishaps"

Firstly, I think the governor should be suspended, because he has clearly shown his inapptitude and inability to perform deal with this crisis. It has not even been 8 weeks since the last conflict. Curfew, military and all that crap are obviously not working, so unless he can come up with more constructive short term solutions, he should resign.

But this is just a short term remedy. The conflicts will never stop unless the whole issue of original indigens vs settlers can be solved. I have been to Jos before and have a number of friends from there, and it seems the Hausas are the elite there, and hold most of the power, while the original Jos christians have no say in the running of the government.

Or at least this is how it is percieved. This inequality or its perception, have to be solved for there be to be any hope of peace. This will take years of socio-economic adjustments and more importantly promotion of a sense of unity amongst both ethnic/religious groups. Making them realise that its been too long for any of them to try and claim a separate sense of identity. This will all come with education and poverty alleviation, but that is something that we cannot obviously wait for at the pace we are going.

This solution can be applied to the whole of Nigeria. The way so much is based on your "state of origin" will continue to divide us. We are divided into so many niche groups based on states, religion, language and the million and one sub-cultures. Until we all realise that we are all Nigerians first, and then everything else later we will never move forward as a country.

Or fuck it, maybe like my dad has been saying, its time for us to all divide, cut our losses, know that we have tried this whole one Nigeria thing and it has failed miserably.

You guys decide.

But I wonder how many more people have to be massacred before we get our act together.

xoxo

Miss B