Plateau State: Fifty Days
of State of Emergency
By
Jonathan
Ishaku
Monday July 5, 2004
, this week, marks the 50 days of the State of
Emergency (SOE) rule in
Plateau
State
. Fifty days is customarily regarded as a standard
timeframe to assess the performance of any new government. But for an
administration with a short tenure of only six months, as we were told
the SOE would be, 50 days is a quarter of its lifetime!
The
declaration of SOE in
Plateau
State
is perhaps the
most controversial decision President Olusegun Obasanjo would ever take
in his entire public career and for years to come it would define his
judgmental ability. That is for posterity to judge but there is no doubt
that, as the eminent Professor Ben Nwabueze stated at the time, this
action by the President “must rank as the greatest tragedy to befall
the rule of law in
Nigeria
.”
It
is quite a paradox that the state long reputed for its communal peace
and tranquility would become the test case for the SOE clause of the
Forth
Republic
constitution.
More so, the SOE was declared on the basis of violence in only one of
the 18 local government areas in the state. More ironic is the fact that
by the time the President made the pronouncement the violence, by his
own admission, had been curtailed. The suspicion lingers that either the
President is testing the political waters for some yet to be discerned
purposes or was acting a script whose source, given the events preceding
the act, is easily identifiable.
The
whole process also exposed the revolting debauchery of our democratic
institutions by the autocratic leadership of the President. The National
Assembly, long reputed as the President’s rubber stamp, once again
failed to rise to the occasion to defend
Nigeria
’s democracy in the face of this blatant rape. It
is a shame for which the law-making body will be long remembered but
that is hardly the subject of this article.
General
Chris Alli’s Second Coming
Another
paradox was the choice of General Mohammed Chris Alli as the
Administrator of the SOE in
plateau
State
. This must have surprised even the General himself.
For a man who departed the State 18 years ago in a huff of controversy
and scant popularity, he must have nursed considerable foreboding about
his present assignment. If as a military governor he drew public ire
because of his style of governance, he must have been wary of returning
to the same place at the height of a most unsavory political development
and during a civilian dispensation, too, when might has given way to
rights.
Alli’s
record 18 years ago would have hardly recommended him for his present
assignment. Firstly, he was accused, in a public petition, of favoritism
against the indigenous ethnic groups in appointments into public
offices. Signed by the representatives of 11 ethnic youth movements, the
governor was accused of lopsidedness in the appointments, which they
argued failed “to take into cognizance the political dynamics of the
state.”
In
one of the specific allegations, the petitioners accused Alli of
“appointment of non-indigenes as representing specific [local
government councils].” Now, one cannot forget that at the root of the
Plateau crisis, as indeed other communal crises in
Nigeria
, be it Shagamu or
Warri, is the unresolved constitutional issue of settler/indigene
relations.
Secondly,
it was under Alli that the strained ethnic relations between the Ebiras
and Bassas in Toto, in present-day
Nassarawa
State
, took the worse
turn with the outbreak of violence. It was probably the first time that
such large-scale communal violence was witnessed in the then
Plateau
State
.
Going
by these antecedents he was the ‘wrongest’ man (apologies to Chief
Zebrudeya, the decorated murderer of the Queen’s English) the
President would have chosen for the SOE job.
Yet again his experiences might have been the very stuff that
recommended him, for there is no better teacher than learning from
one’s own mistakes.
We
shall in due course see whether Alli has indeed learned from them. What
we have seen in the past 50 days is that the Alli of today is very
different from the Alli of 18 years ago. We shall return to this point
presently.
General
Chris ‘Dialogue’ Alli
One
of the most noticeable changes in the retired General is, of course, the
mufti. For most part of his previous assignment Alli’s preferred
uniform was the starched plain khaki with the ubiquitous peaked cap,
which he always ensured covered his eyes.
It
used to be a marvel to observers why a military officer would cover his
eyes behind the peak of his cap. One suspected, especially given his
legendary reticence, that deep down he was a shy man but knowing the
military mind and the perpetual quest for the macho image, one kept such
subversive thoughts to oneself.
Having
discarded his uniform, however, the Alli of today is an engaging
raconteur. Since he came to
Plateau
State
he has not stopped talking. The popular image of the
man, projected by one of
Nigeria
’s most obliging television stations, the Plateau
Radio Television Corporation (PRTV), is showing him behind a microphone
addressing one group or the other. There is hardly any ethnic,
religious, youth or interest group that has not been invited to
Government House and addressed by the Sole Administrator in the last 50
days. If the people of
Plateau
State
are not hard of hearing, peace ought to be firmly
established in the state in the next few weeks!
In
fact the Sole Administrator plans more talk shops including a miniature
Oputa Panel (a.k.a. Truth and Reconciliation Commission) and a Plateau
Peace Conference. Plateau people look forward to the guaranteed
entertainment of another ‘Oputa’ panel and peace conference. But
most importantly, what will happen after these activities?
The
question however is can dialoguing alone bring lasting peace to
Plateau
State
? His personal experience of the riots by the Mighty
Jets Football Club supporters who wreaked havoc on the Rwang Pam Stadium
on
July 20, 2004
must have given him a hint on the complexity of
peace in the State. His understanding of how an ordinary football
supporters club has consistently turned itself into a force with highly
combustible ethno-religious tendencies would give him inkling into the
genesis of the Jos crises, the burning of the Main Market, etc. The
investigation committee probing the riot would tell him more.
Furthermore
but for Alli’s diplomatic handling of the face-off with students of
the Plateau State Polytechnic, who were protesting the killing of their
colleague by his convoy on July 2, 2004, another round of communal
violence could easily have been triggered off in Jos that Friday
afternoon. It will be helpful to him to understand the nuance of this
statement.
The
Fire and the Smoke
Dialoguing
is good but the truth is that there can never be enduring peace without
justice. As painful as the process may be, Alli ought to go beyond
sermonization and delve into the root causes of the crises with a view
of doing justice. If Alli’s present advisers tell him the truth, he
would have known that since communal violence reared its head on the
Plateau on
September 7, 2001
, the suspended democratic government had held series
of similar peace dialogues. In fact there are hardly any ethnic,
religious, or interest group that had not been involved in these talks
in the past.
But
the fact that the crisis persisted in some few spots of the State,
necessitating the SOE, means that talks have their limitations.
If
it is the monotony of peace messages and jingles on PRTV radio and
television that he depends on to usher in peace, he needs to know that
most of them are a rehash from time past. It is arguable if they have
ever been of any value. If the suspended Governor Dariye could managed
only a marginal victory at the 2003 polls, the Administrator ought to be
circumspect of the efficacy of the rather primal and obtrusive peace
propaganda of this media. But the greater danger is the he could be
misled into beginning to believe his own garish propaganda.
While
he fine-tunes his information management paraphernalia and capacity for
genuine and professional communication of socially relevant messages, he
must tackle the substance of the crises. For a start he can begin by
looking at the various reports of judicial bodies set up by previous
governments to investigate the various crises that have erupted in the
State over the years. In some of his earlier utterances, Alli gave
assurances to that effect. However, his tone appears to be mellowing of
recent. Pronouncements that a peace conference body will be set up to
look into them suggest that the administration may be trying to find a
way around releasing the white papers.
Neither
the Administrator nor Governor Dariye, before him, should be blamed for
dillydallying with the reports. It takes political guts to implement
judicial reports of communal crises in
Nigeria
in general. The reason is that most of these crises
emanate from fundamental flaws in the Nigerian constitution. The
Nigerian state is an imposition on hitherto disparate entities. That is
why a sovereign national conference is inevitable if we really want
communal harmony. We must negotiate afresh the basis and raison d'être
of our national being at the confab.
For
example, President Obasanjo can complain about the Settler/Indigene
problematic from now till the cows come home, but it will not change the
fact that the Nigerian constitution gives justification for the
dichotomy. How else do we explain the insertion of the federal character
provisions in the constitution? How do we explain the constitutional
provisions for the selection of Federal Ministers? And from were do we
come about having government documents and forms asking citizens to
indicate their ‘state of origin?’
These
are not the creation of the people of
Plateau
State
. It is even an irony to accuse these peace loving
people, whose hospitality to visitors is widely acclaimed, of xenophobic
tendencies. Most of the crises in
Plateau
State
have as their root causes claims of a settler group
to ownership of towns and lands in
Plateau
State
coupled with a condescending attitude towards the
indigenes.
So
how can we establish peace on the foundation of justice in
Plateau
State
? The answer is simple: Give to Caesar what is
Caesar’s. That is what one courageous Alhaji Garba Mohammed of the
Hausa/Fulani Development Association told Alli during one of his
dialogue sessions.
“We
are settlers, we don’t want the chairmanship (of Jos Local
Government)…it should be exclusively for the indigenes,” so declared
Alhaji Garba.
If
Alli can dare the powerful vested interests in the country and follow
Alhaji Garba’s advice, he could as well pack his bag and baggage and
resume his well-deserved retirement in his serene Koton Karfe hometown
tomorrow because he would have accomplished his mission in
Plateau
State
.
A
truth and reconciliation or peace conference mechanism, if we go by the
Nigerian experience, may become handy only in skirting around the real
issues. And perhaps buying time, too, by giving a semblance of a
peaceful resolution.
Surrender
of Arms
One
of the most laudable decisions of the Administrator concerning the
search for lasting peace, so far, is his decision on illegal arms.
Mopping up weapons may not necessarily create peace but it will
definitely curb violence especially of the nature we witnessed in Yelwa
town.
The
creation of incentive for those who voluntarily return their arms as the
Administrator has done is wise. However, the public response to these
has been lukewarm. Only a handful of the illegally held arms have been
allegedly turned in so far. Indeed the administration displayed some
arms at Government House recently and claimed that they were turned in.
It went on to organize an elaborate and well-publicized ceremony to
reward the (arms) returnees but no one turned up!
As
laudable as the exercise and the gestures are, the policy has some
flaws. It has been well established that most of the invasion of
villages in the south senatorial district of the State came from some
neighbouring States. A few weeks after the arrival of Alli to Plateau
State Bakin Chiyawa in QuanPan local government area was invaded by
marauders from the neighbouring
Nassarawa
State
.
This
means that the indigenes of the State feel threatened by these armed
criminals from the surrounding States. So long as these threats persist,
people would be unwilling to disarm. It is also well known that many
refugees from the area escaped to the surrounding States with their
weapons. Therefore, some people may consider it foolhardy to
unilaterally disarm in such circumstances especially when the strategic
plan of the administration is to repatriate all the refugees.
For
this kind of exercise to succeed the whole sub-region should be
disarmed. There has been, for too long, an accumulation of arms in the
northeastern zone owing to the infiltration of armed militias fleeing
the protracted Civil War in
Chad
Republic
. Not
only are such arms used for robberies but are also fed into the illegal
weapons market that has developed within the zone. These arms have also
found their way to the northwestern and north central zones due to the
general deterioration of security and the upsurge of ethno-religious
strives, especially after the crises precipitated by the introduction of
Shari’ah law in some States of the North.
These
are the arms that ought to be mopped up. But it will be an uphill task
to do so in one State alone while being threatened from outside its
boundaries.
Secondly,
the administration ought to have benefited more from research findings
about the arms black market before drawing up the incentive package. The
incentive package the Administrator is offering those who return arms
voluntarily cash rewards ranging from N45, 000 to N100, 000. For example
a foreign manufactured shotgun will fetch N100, 000.
Good
intentioned as the gesture may be it could lead, ironically, into a
renewed gun running. Consider this: If the black market value of a
foreign made gun is, say, N30, 000, it means that one can trade in his
shotgun and have enough from the bargain to buy three guns and still
have spending change of N10, 000 to boot! In the end, the policy, if is
not based on solid research, would prove to be counter-productive.
The
Refugee Politics
Another
preoccupation of the Administrator is with the refugees scattered we are
told in Bauchi and
Nassarawa
States
. The General has made visits to them and relief
materials have been delivered. There is no doubt that the crisis in
Plateau
State
had produced many refugees. They ought to be taken
proper care of by the government. However, there is a controversy
dogging this issue.
First,
if we still believe that charity begins at home then it is curious that
the General chose to begin his tour of refugee camps in Bauchi and
Nassarawa states when thousands of refugees are languishing in several
local governments within the state.
Second,
there have been controversies over population figures of refugees in the
Bauchi and Nassarawa camps. From the figures being peddled around, it
would appear that the population of the displaced residents of Yelwa in
these two states far exceeds the total population of Shendam local
government where the town is located!
The
Administrator appears to have addressed these two issues by the setting
up of the committee to conduct a census of all the refugees. This is
commendable. However, it ought to pursue with the same zeal the
provision of relief materials to the internal camps. Rehabilitating and
resettling them should also feature prominently on the priority list of
the Administration. So far all we hear is efforts to repatriate the
refugees from the surrounding States.
Payment
of Salaries
The
prompt payment of salaries, and the clearing of outstanding arrears,
must rank as one of the greatest achievements of General Alli. He
inherited salary arrears ranging from two to three months depending on
the ministries. He has cleared them all in a matter of 50 days, except
that of political office holders, which appear to be a deliberate
punitive measure but more on this later.
The
payment of salaries had always been a sore point in relationship of the
suspended Governor with workers in the State. In spite of several
assurances the government always felt short of meeting this obligation
promptly. The government’s income from the federation had been on
steady decline since the Supreme Court judgment on the
off-shore/on-shore dichotomy, which severely impacted on the Federal
allocation formulae.
Plateau
State
happens to be the
second highest foreign indebted State in the whole federation after
Anambra (?). Internal generated income had been virtually wiped out with
the burning of the Jos ultra-modern main market, reputed to be the
biggest covered market in the West African sub-region, and the
disruptive effect of the crisis in the south senatorial district,
arguably the food basket of the State.
It
would appear that all the civilian administrations that have ever
governed
Plateau
State
have had problem
with payment of salaries. The explanation for this could be that most
democratic Governors see their responsibility as extending beyond the
civil service. Having come to power through popular votes they feel
obligated to provide amenities for all the people in both rural and
urban areas. In the process of doing so they overstretch their limited
resources making it difficult to meet the prompt payment of salaries.
The
various military governments that have ruled the State, on the other
hand, faced no such responsibility. As long as they paid civil
servants’ salaries and painted a few city roundabouts, they could
pocket whatever remained in the kitty and yet be rated as achievers.
But
the truth is that payment of salaries is a basic duty of any government.
Some of the most popular Governors in
Nigeria
today are those
who pay salaries promptly and do nothing else till the next payday. Was
it erstwhile Governor Fidelis Tapgun that once lamented that governors
had been reduced to glorified salary cashiers? Governor Dariye must
learn to be one when he returns!
In
the meantime, it is kudos to Alli. Now that the Federal Government has
approved a concessionary grant of N2.5 billion to execute the SOE as
well as the budget of about N200 billion, civil servants are surely in
for a good time!
Eschewing
Negativism
A
Hausa saying, literally translated, says ‘there are no bad leaders but
advisers.’ Most of the disastrous missteps Alli has taken in the past
50 days have the telltale signs of the typical slapdash advice of
self-seeking political jobbers. In the days of the military, whenever a
new governor is posted to a State, career lobbyists would swamp on him
seeking for his attention by the display of all manners of obsequious
posturing.
It
would appear that Alli forgot that this is civilian era. Rather than
identifying credible political personages to advice him, he allowed
these old-styled military-era political leprechauns to crowd him. In
spite of the winds of democracy blowing across the country, these
throwbacks of the military era are as mischievous and self-seeking as
they come.
The
decision of the Sole Administrator to remove the signboard bearing
“Governor’s Office” is as jejune as it is embarrassing. It
smacked of the old-styled military takeover during which names of
predecessors are deleted from all official records and school children
are penalized for mentioning their names.
General
Alli should not dent the relative success he has achieved so far with
such pettiness. He certainly has no personal grudge with the suspended
Governor and should not allow room for those who want to use him for
their malevolent scheming.
Secondly,
the Administrator’s seemingly disdain for political office holders in
the State is deplorable. This is manifested in his refusal to pay their
salary arrears at the time he was clearing that of civil servants. These
people are also workers as the others. If they had been a privileged
group he would have met them being owed arrears of salaries.
This
discriminatory action portends danger. Antagonizing such a vast group of
political activists is an unwise move by a peace-making administration.
How far can he go without their support? He certainly does not have to
keep them in office but he can ill-afford to alienate them.
Alli
ought to know that these are the same activists who made it possible for
President Obasanjo, who appointed him, to return to power in 2003. He
ought to resist following the advice of people who probably worked
against the bid by his boss and may be seeking their political pound of
flesh.
This
pettiness is also reflected in the manner attempts were made recently to
retrieve the official cars of principal members of the Plateau State
House of Assembly, who are also on suspension, the temporary withdrawal
of police security to the Speaker and the general tinkering with the
structure of government.
Keeping
to the Timeframe
The
appointment of Alli to
Plateau
State
is for a specific
assignment. He seems to know this very well but ought to resist the
advice of those who see in this an opportunity to form a government they
couldn’t form by democratic means. He should politely tell them to
make more efforts towards success in 2007 and allow him get on with his
assignment.
As
a General, who was also a one-time Army Chief, Alli knows too well the
prestige associated with keeping targets. What would be his worth if he
cannot restore order within six months in only one rural local
government in the state in which, even before he received his orders the
Commander-in-Chief had informed the nation, actual violence had ceased?
If his successor as Army Chief, General Victor Malu could superintend
over the cessation of the protracted Civil War in Liberia within one
year and get them organise an election, or Nigeria’s General Khobe
restoring President Teejan Kabbah to power in Sierra Leone within a
shorter period, how would it reflect on Alli’s military integrity that
a low-keyed internecine conflict in a local government of democratic
country would require more than six month to contain?
His
professional reputation is at stake here. It will be heartrending for
him to allow political bounty hunters, with an eye on the SOE’s N2.5
billion grant and the N200 billion State budget, to cajole him into
seeking an extension of the six-month period.
That
is why we believe that General Alli deserves the cooperation of all who
mean well for the state and for him to succeed within the timeframe.
From every indication he is succeeding in his main task and Plateau
people are looking forward to the restoration of their democratic
structure and re-admittance into the
Fourth
Republic
.
Mr.
Ishaku is President of Information for Democracy and Development (IDD),
Jos.
Email: jishaku2@yahoo.co.uk
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