A Prayer for Jos, my Love

Fri, Nov 6, 2020
By editor
7 MIN READ

Opinion

By Anthony Akaeze 

THERE is something intriguing about Jos, “the tin city,” and capital of Plateau State, Nigeria. That’s a view many that I know, share about the city. It’s a view that some persons unfamiliar with the city probably wonder about. But if, like me, they were born and lived part or much of their life in Jos, it might seem less of a wonder why this is so; why the city occupies a deep place in the heart of many.

I refer, however to the Jos of pre 2001. For that was the year the serenity and peace of the naturally endowed town was shattered when an ethno-religious crisis engulfed the city.

Heartbroken as to what became of my darling city, I wrote a piece about it as a final year student of the University of Abuja which formed one of the short stories in my book titled Amuzia & Other Stories. The initial headline of the story was Damsel in Distress but I changed it to Troubled Marvel, after my lecturer, Cecilia Kato, who read the draft, suggested I do so. Both headlines, viewed from different angles, betray affection. It was an imaginary story by someone who though wasn’t living in Jos at the time, never lost sense of what the place meant and still means to him. The memories of my childhood days in Jos remain unforgettable. The Jos I grew up in was a uniquely beautiful and cosmopolitan town where people of diverse ethnicities lived close to each other in peace and harmony. My family’s house in the town, to this day, stands at Williams Street. From the house, one could point at houses/residences of Muslims and Christians alike, inhabited by Hausas, Igbos, Ijaws, Yorubas, Bwatiyes, Beroms, and others. Not once, in the 11 years I lived in the town before moving south east to live with my newly married sister, do I recall people of different ethnic groups or religions quarreling or fighting themselves. It was no surprise therefore to later see “home of peace and tourism” embossed as the state’s moniker on vehicle number plates.

But the situation changed sometime in 2001 when reports of religious violence between Christian and Muslim residents of the city began making the rounds. It was a sad moment that left me wondering about my family members and childhood friends in the town. Many lives were lost in that conflict. Years later, as a reporter for Newswatch Magazine working on a story on religious violence in Nigeria titled From Maitatsine to Boko Haram, I gave, from research,  conservative estimates of “human lives wasted in Jos and other towns within the state since 2001” to be “over 4,000.”

I quoted, in the story, a disappointed Nigerian who said that the fact that such violence happened in Jos showed that anything is possible in Nigeria.

The crisis in Jos, something once thought impossible by people like me, showed just how precarious human life is. It exposed the line between love and hate for what it is: oddly thin, flimsy. The consequence of the conflicts is that distrust and animosity between residents of different faiths in the city worsened, such that many residents were no longer comfortable living among people of other ethnic groups or religions. In fear, they  began to relocate from one part of the town to another or even outside the state, selling their homes in areas dominated by Christians or Muslims to go live among their people in places considered safe. That way, Jos began shedding its cosmopolitan nature and soon donned the toga of apartheid reminiscent of South Africa. As a Jos boy, it was distressing assimilating such tragic news as one heard or read about over the years.

But, suddenly, out of the blues, came cheering news. On October 24, a friend of mine and resident of Jos, Salim Musa Umar, who I met in 2005 through the InterAction Leadership Programme which we both participated in, shared a post on Facebook. It was about the latest crisis in Jos caused by the EndSARS protest about police brutality that exploded in some parts of the country. Though the write-up revealed that the protest in the town led to the death of some individuals and destruction of worship centers, it revealed something shocking: that some Christians shielded Muslims from death. The piece, titled MUSLIMS AND CHRISTIANS OF JOS: A LESSON FOR US FROM GYEL, JOS SOUTH,  states that the crisis in Jos took another turn when “hoodlums infiltrated and hijacked the genuine struggles of the protesters” leading to it sliding “into an ethno-religious crisis where places of worship were burnt and some individuals killed.”

Given that the violence was “spontaneous and unexpected,” some Muslims, who happened to be at Gyel, a  predominantly  Berom and Christian community, at the time, found themselves in trouble. The writer adds:

“For the fear that the Hausa Muslims might be lynched and killed by miscreants if they attempt to go back to their area at Bukuru,  some Elders at Gyel housed, fed and protected them for two days until things calmed down and the curfew was relaxed before they took them to their families yesterday. About 13 Muslims.  Mostly young children that are into street hawking got saved and protected by the Berom Christian community of Gyel.”

“That’s absolute display of  humanity and the Jos that we all desire. Where a Christian should not just be killed because he is passing through Bauchi road unknown to him some people are protesting or retaliating what IPOB(a separatist group) are doing (to) the Hausas in the South East.

“We have to deconstruct that inhumane artificial wall in Jos and environs. A Christian should be able to move freely with a relaxed mind at Unguwan Rogo, Zololo etc anytime.  Likewise a Muslim should not be afraid to be at Unguwan Rukuba, Rukuba road etc at any moment.

“Kudos to the Berom Christian community of Gyel. You have set a big example for all to see and reflect on.  An innocent life doesn’t deserve to die because of his faith or tongue.”

This seemed too good to be true, I thought. I decided to contact Umar to confirm the authenticity of the story. He confirmed that the story was from a reliable source and even went ahead to send me link of a story about the incident published by the Daily Trust newspaper.

The Daily Trust report, written by Dickson S. Adama, points out that following the outbreak of crisis from the ENDSARS protest, “Berom leaders (Christians) and Hausa leaders (Muslims) rescued and protected people of the other religions who were trapped within their areas at the time of the violence. As a result, over 25 lives were saved on both sides. Those rescued from each community by the leaders were handed over to the police in Bukuru Division, while others were exchanged between leaders of both communities. This was unprecedented, and for sure, a new trend and pointer to the restoration of lasting peace in the communities.”

As a resident of Jos, Umar knows too well the havoc violence has wrought on the city and its residents. His wish, like mine, is to see lasting peace return to the town. Umar, who today spends time mediating and seeking solutions to herdsmen and land owner or farmer crisis in parts of Nigeria, through the Farmers and Herders Initiative for Peace and Development Africa (FHIPD-AFRICA) which he heads, desires a return to the Jos of old where people, irrespective of ethnic, religious or political differences, lived among themselves in peace.

I can only say Amen to that.

Anthony Akaeze, an award-winning freelance investigative journalist, is an author of four books. He is currently working on a new book with the tentative title, “Where Strangers Dwell,” a story of hope, pain, accomplishments, migration, love and discovery.

Nov 6, 2020 @ 16:46 GMT

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