JUDE OWUAMANAM recounts how the anger of Jos women made soldiers to lose their nerves over the recurrent violence in the state In the months of November and December 1929, thousands of Igbo women gathered at the Colonial Native Administration centres in Calabar and Owerri to protest the taxes being imposed on them by the colonial government through the warrant chiefs. The women attacked shops and native courts owned by colonial officials. They attacked banks and government buildings and in the process, razed some of them. The angry women broke into prisons and released many of the inmates. In the frenzy, the colonial officials mobilised troops, who fired into the crowds, probably to show the rioters why it was wrong to have carried their demonstration too far. More than 50 women were said to have been killed, while another 50 were wounded. That protest became known as the ‘Aba Women’s Riots’ and it was a turning point in the history of colonial administration in Nigeria.


That scenario was re-enacted in Jos on Monday when women in their thousands trooped out to protest the killings in the city and its environs. The women were particularly angry at the soldiers, who they accused of complacency as they watched the merciless killings of children and their fathers by some gangs suspected to be marauding Fulani herdsmen. The women stormed the soldiers’ camps as some of them were said to have even abandoned their guns and fled.


This is not the first time that women have come out to protest the killings on the Plateau. In the wake of the November 28, 2008 local government election crisis and the killings that followed, thousands of women, all in black attire, had gathered at Riyom, on the outskirts of Jos to protest the incessant attacks on their villages by suspected Fulani herdsmen. They had marched through the streets of the city, blocking the major Abuja-Jos highway. Also, in the wake of the Dogo Na Hauwa killings, the women had carried their protest to Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory.


That was not all: the women rose in protest against the killings at Wareng in Riyom, Fan in Barakin Ladi and K/Vom in Jos South. In a surprising and unprecedented move, the women had swooped on soldiers deployed in the areas after accusing them of complacency and complicity in the spate of attacks in the state. The soldiers, who were apparently caught off-guard, had to use horsewhips to fight their way through the thick wall created by the surging women. In the ensuing melee, most of the soldiers, who were probably sleeping inside their tents, scampered to safety. The women ransacked the tents and scattered the soldiers’ belongings.


They also showed their anger over the K/Vom killings, when authorities of the National Veterinary Research Institute were alleged to have offered to shelter the soldiers, who were driven away from K/Vom by thousands of women, who protested the presence of soldiers in the area. They had accused the soldiers of aiding and abetting the invaders. They carried placards and chanted war songs against the military presence in the area. They queried the situation in which soldiers led a search for missing cows or escort traders to the market.


During the riot at K/Vom, even the commander was said to have been held hostage by the women and it took a reinforcement from the other sectors before he could be rescued.


But what could be described as the mother of all protests was seen on Monday when women in their thousands marched through the streets of Jos, demanding the removal of soldiers and their commanding officer. In a number not yet witnessed in the history of protests by women in modern Nigeria, the women defied the heavy presence of riot policemen and marched to the Government House at Jishe. They brandished placards with different inscriptions, but with a common message to the soldiers to stop aiding the killings in Jos.


Mr. Gyang Dareng, a Berom elder, who commented on the development, said that it was a bad omen for women to lead any protest, especially when they do so bare-chested. He said, “The riot against soldiers is a bad thing for the military. When it comes to the stage that women ask soldiers to leave the streets of Jos, then you know that things have really gone so bad. Remember that the Aba Women’s Riot of 1929 led to some drastic changes in the policy of the colonial government. In Berom land, women have been used to remove high-ranking traditional rulers.”


A Jos-based psychologist said that the protest by the women signified a loss of confidence in the military institution. He expressed dismay that if the Nigerian military could excel in operations outside the shores of the country, they had no reason to fail at home.


The university teacher said, “What the military is reaping now is the fruit of its long incursion into politics. Because of the prolonged military rule, the soldiers have not been able to distinguish between their roles in peace times and their functions in times of war.” He added that the image of the military had been further dented by the attitude of its men, especially in Jos.


“The army has always seen itself as ‘the pride of the nation,’ and so, one can begin to imagine what becomes of that image when a soldier begins to see himself as not being a member of the Nigerian Army, but a Hausa or Fulani or Igbo soldier or a Christian or Muslim soldier,” he added.


The chairman of Barakin Ladi Local Government, Dr. Fom Dakwak, said that the action of the women was a spontaneous reaction to the attitude of the soldiers in Jos.


“Can you imagine a situation where soldiers would stay aloof while citizens they are paid to protect are massacred in their numbers? How can a soldier lead a search for missing cows? Is that the job of a soldier? Or how can a soldier escort a trader to the market? These are not the functions of a soldier. The soldiers in Jos showed open bias in their operations and that was why the women responded,” the chairman said.


The University of Jos branch chairman of the Academic Staff of Union of Universities, Mr. Timothy Namo, while commenting on the calls for the withdrawal of the soldiers, said, “Over the years, military personnel have been deployed to quell riots. Increasingly, however, their effectiveness and partisanship are becoming obvious and this has resulted in loss of public confidence in the Nigerian Army as the hostility towards members of the Special Task Force and calls for their dissolution and redeployment mount.”


Namo said that the government seemed to have failed to recognise that violent conflicts caused by political, economic and sociocultural grievances could not be solved by reliance on military repression without attending to the root causes of the crisis. He asked the government to take a second look at the use of the military for such internal peace operations as “the recurrence of conflicts in Jos after the imposition of a state of emergency in 2004 attests to the need to take far more appropriate and effective measures towards the resolution of the grievances.”


The Plateau State Commissioner for Information, Mr. Gregory Yenlong said that the soldiers got themselves where they were. He said, “The action of Vwang women was a direct response to the activities of the soldiers in Jos. If not, why would the women be so bold to the extent of burning the tents of soldiers? These are not good times for the image of the military and it will take a long time to repair it.”


But the man at the centre of the storm, Brig.-Gen. Hassan Umaru, denied ever being held hostage by women. Umaru said that soldiers found culpable would be dealt with. “The five soldiers, who were at Wareng when that attack took place have been arrested and will be made to face the full wrath of the law if at the end of the day, they are found to have in any way aided or abetted the attack,” Umaru said.
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