We’re Jos indigenes, Hausa-Fulani tell Jonathan

Posted on Friday, August 10th, 2012

•Reject probe reports

By Chesa Chesa, State House, Abuja

Representatives of the Hausa/Fulani community who met with President Goodluck Jonathan on Wednesday night over the intractable inter-ethnic crisis in Jos, Plateau State, have advised him to ignore the reports submitted by past panels of inquiry commissioned by the state government on the conflict.

They insisted that they are indigenes and not settlers in the state.

Wednesday’s meeting came two days after representatives of Berom ethnic group in the state led by the traditional ruler of Jos, the Gbong Gwom Jos, Buba Gyang, similarly met with the President.

The meeting held behind closed doors at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, from 10 p.m. into the early hours of Thursday.

Emerging from the parley, leader of the Hausa group and former Minister of State for Information and Communications, Ibrahim Dasuki Nakande, noted that the conflict affects mainly Jos North and Jos South local government areas, saying reports of the commissions of inquiry set up by various Plateau State Governments, which the Beroms want implemented have become obsolete and sub-judice.

“The discussion was on how best to tackle the crisis in such a way to enhance tolerance, accommodation ad respect for one another so that at the end of it all the conflict would have been put behind us.

“We also discussed mechanisms which government will help to put in place so that each time there is conflict, ways and means of resolving it amicably would be used.

“We discussed and agreed to a larger extent that most of the commissions of inquiry, especially those set up by Plateau government; we said all those commissions of inquiry have lost contemporary relevance.

“But we are confident that the one set up by the Federal Government, especially the General Abisoye report as well as the Advisory Committee on Jos Crisis, headed by Solomon Lar; we are comfortable with that.

“But the rest are in fact sub-judice and therefore, cannot be implemented,” Nakande told newsmen.

He disclosed that government was expected to hold further meetings with other communities that are involved in conflict in Plateau State “so that we can jointly find lasting solution to the problem.”

In his own remarks, head of the Fulani delegation and Protem National Secretary of Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders of Nigeria, Sale Bayari, said a chunk of the solution lies in resolving the issue of grazing rights between cattle rearers and farmers in the area and which “we have appealed to Mr. President to address.”

While blaming the Plateau State Government for not adopting the strategies used by neighbouring states to solve similar conflicts, Bayari insisted that the affected Fulani are indigenes of Plateau State, and not settlers, as widely believed.

He stressed that Federal Government’s intervention was imperative.

“For the cattle rearers in Plateau State, especially problem areas like Jos South, Barkin-Ladi and Bassa, the Federal Government should try and ensure that the conflicts are resolved because we have the grazing reserves in those areas and there is conflict between cattle rearers and farmers.

“But with the intervention of government, it will be reduced to a minimal level, and when that is done, we are sure that the issue of people alleging reprisal attacks will be reduced also,” Bayari said.

According to the Fulani leader, “The issue of saying that some people are regarded as not belonging as if they just sprang from another planet and landed where they are now is an issue that should also be looked into.

“We have given the history of the cattle rearers, it is not as if they came from somewhere else, they are as indigenous as any other people.

Asked if he thought the President would come up with a final solution, he replied: “Yes, with this Presidential intervention, from the way the President has given us time and the way he listened to us like children listening to their father: you know that when you see your father in a pensive mood, you know that the matter must have touched him so much.”

http://dailyindependentnig.com/2012/08/were-jos-indigenes-hausa-fulani-tell-jonathan/