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Jos crisis: several commissions of inquiry, no action

By Peter Nkanga


January 23, 2011 07:52AM


Plateau State, once billed the ‘Home of Peace and Tourism’ has steadily been receding into a ‘Home of Pieces and Terrorism’. This is because past and present Nigerian leaders have allowed the violence which first sprouted 16 years ago on April 12, 1994 to continue unabated. The remote cause of the recurring crisis on the Plateau has remained the same for over half a century — ethnic groups claiming superiority over the other, with the people all fighting for political, economic, religious, and social identity. Due to the ineptitude of governments at all levels, the issue has, between 1994 to date, led to thousands of Nigerians losing their lives in no fewer than 70 cases of communal violence in Plateau State, with 23 of these clashes occuring in 2002 and 2004.

The Fiberesima report

Ten days after the 1994 crisis, the then military administrator of Plateau State, Mohammed Mana, a lieutenant colonel, set up a Commission of Inquiry to “look into” the riots, “find out” its genesis, “recommend ways” of avoiding a future re-occurrence”, and “recommend appropriate action” against those found guilty of causing the mayhem.

Within several weeks, the seven-member commission headed by Justice Aribiton Fiberesima heard the oral evidence of 50 witnesses, admitted 66 memoranda and 44 exhibits. At the end, it was concluded that the immediate cause of the crisis was the appointment of a Hausa-Fulani man, Aminu Mato, as the Jos North local government caretaker committee chairman.

“While his kinsmen nodded approval to his appointment, the Berom, Anaguta, and Afizere tribes gave it an outright rejection. A battle line was drawn between the tribes,” the commission noted.

The remote cause was however traced to the 1991 creation of the Jos North and Jos South local government areas, under military ruler Ibrahim Babangida, which was “totally against the wishes of the Berom, Anaguta, and Afizere communities”, as they found themselves in Jos South LGA, “while the Hausa-Fulani community was left to enjoy numerical dominion in Jos North LGA where Jos metropolis is located.” “The communities saw this arrangement as a grand plan by the Hausa-Fulani to seize Jos town from them. They also resented the pattern of the newly-created LGAs because it left their paramount ruler, the Gbong Gwom, isolated in an enclave of the Hausa-Fulani in Jos municipality.”

On April 5, 1994, the aggrieved communities held a peaceful demonstration and made it clear that Mr. Mato’s appointment was “unacceptable to them”. But the next day, he was sworn as committee chairman. Further aggrieved, the three communities “vowed not to allow him assume office”, and on April 8 thronged the local government secretariat to disrupt the handing over ceremony. They were calmed only after a government order directed the local government’s director of personnel management to take over the running of the council.

Feeling the government had compromised at their own expense, the Hausa-Fulani people on April 11 slaughtered cows and other animals on the highway near the Abattoir to protest the government’s action, while stating “their action was just the beginning of things to come unless Mr. Mato was allowed to take over the administration of Jos North LGA.” By April 12, “chaos ensued” for over half of the day, leaving in its wake several dead, many displaced, and destroyed property worth N328,278,659.80.

The Niki Tobi report

The Fiberesima Commission made many recommendations to the government, including sanctioning “all individuals, groups of persons, and organisations indicted by our Inquiry”. They were never implemented. The government’s inaction led to sporadic communal clashes for the next five years, culminating in the September 7, 2001 violence, when all hell broke loose once again in Jos and environs. This time the crisis lasted a week and claimed about 1,000 lives, with loss in property valued at N3,369,716,404.95.

On October 18, 2001, the Plateau State governor, Joshua Dariye, during the civilian government of President Olusegun Obasanjo, inaugurated a 10-member commission of inquiry, headed by Justice Niki Tobi, who was then the presiding justice of the Court of Appeal, Benin City, and later the justice of the Supreme Court. Their mandate was essentially the same with that of the 1994 commission. During the next eight months while they worked, there were at least five more outbreaks of violence. In its findings, the commission declared “history seems to be repeating itself here”, noting that the 2001 and the 1994 crisis “are very similar”. It was glaring the government had failed in its constitutional primary role of ensuring the security and welfare of its citizens.

“For some reason which is not altogether clear to us or for no reason at all, the government neither issued a white paper on the (Fiberesima) report nor implemented any of the (Fiberesima) Commissions recommendations,” the commission declared, while further contentions were “that if the recommendations of the Fiberesima Commission had been implemented by government, the crisis of September 2001 would have been averted.”

Like in 1994, the appointment of another Hausa-Fulani, Mukhtar Mohammed, on June 20, 2001, as the Jos North local government coordinator of the National Poverty Eradication Programme (NAPEP), a federal government agency, rocked the boat.

Mr. Mohammed’s appointment was “greeted by written complaints, petitions and protests, calling for his immediate removal” and he be replaced with an ‘indigene’ of Jos North local government. For the next few months, the tension created by his appointment boiled until finally on September 7, 2001, the crisis erupted. The final straw appeared to have been precipitated by a Christian woman, Rhoda Nyam, who, while returning to her working place, was prevented from passing through a road at the Congo-Russia area of Jos where a Muslim congregation had gathered for their Friday Juma’at prayers.

The Hausa-Fulani account was Miss Nyam came back immediately with a group of youths who “descended upon the Muslims worshipers with matchetes, bows and arrows, sticks and other dangerous weapons”. This account was disputed by Miss Nyam who said upon pleading that she be allowed to pass through the footpath reserved for pedestrians and cyclists during the Friday prayers, one of the three men who refused “slapped and kicked her. She then ran to her house and the same man who had assaulted her pursued her, now holding a pistol”.

“The rest of it is now history,” the commission noted, “a very pathetic history”. With supporting evidence, the commission accepted Miss Nyam’s testimony as “the true and correct state of affairs”, due to disparate accounts of the events by Muslim witnesses, while a key Muslim witness on two occasions “failed to make himself available” for cross-examination; and yet another witness who claimed to have worshiped at the Congo-Russia mosque on that day saying he never saw Miss Nyam as he “could not see what was happening”.

A question of credibility

But Bawa Wase, a representative of the Hausa-Fulani community and who has testified at the inquiries, discredits both Commissions of Inquiry, as biased and discriminatory in their process.

“First of all the composition of the panels were discriminatory. With the Fiberesima commission, there were seven Christians and only two Muslims, so of course the balance of probability is defeated, “ says Mr. Bawa, while adding “Justice Fiberesima lives in Jos. I even know his house, and before his appointment to head the commission he was with the Plateau State High Court. So it is a case of a worker answerable to his employer.”

The spokesperson for the Ulama/Elders Council, a group that promotes the interests of Hausa Muslims in Plateau State also said the Niki Tobi Commission was more sensitive to other tribes by virtue of their minority status.

“Both the chairman and the secretary are both from minority groups having similar crisis of identity. The report was biased. It was not a fair process because sides had already been taken from the onset,” Mr. Wase added.

Adding to the credibility debate is which tier of government undertakes the commission of inquiry, as explained Etannibi Alemika, a professor of Criminology and Sociology of Law at the University of Jos.

“The general perception is a commission of inquiry from the state government will be pro-indigene Christian, but if it is by the federal government, then it will be pro-Hausa Muslim. This has accounted to the Hausa people many times boycotting some of these things involving the state government,” Mr. Alemika said.

Unpublished reports

Between 1994 and 2010, there have been at least seven commissions of inquiry into the resurging crisis in Plateau State, four from the state government and three from the federal government. Of the Plateau State-instituted commissions, only the Fiberesima and Niki Tobi reports have been published, while the Plateau State peace Conference report (2004), and the report of the Justice Bola Ajibola Commission of Inquiry (2008/2009) are yet to be released. It is evident that no past and present Nigerian leader has any respect for the sanctity of life. Our government’s continued showmanship of continually instituting commissions of inquiry with no result to show, has ensured actors, murderers, and perpetrators of crimes remain unpunished, leaving thousands of innocent victims to have died in vain.

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It's disheartening that the reports have not been implemented.