April 05, (THEWILL) — President Bola Tinubu’s visit to Plateau State last Thursday has sparked a lot of issues, just as many residents of the state have asked why he undertook the visit in the first place, if not for political reasons.
The duration of the visit, its restriction to the airport vicinity and the issues discussed during the President’s meeting with the stakeholders in Plateau have also resulted in an open criticism of the President and his team by some groups and well-meaning individuals, who expressed the view that they mismanaged the visit and ended up turning what was actually a humanitarian crisis into a political show- off.
A cross section of those who spoke to THEWILL expressed disagreement with reasons the Presidency gave as to why the President could not visit the scene of the Palm Sunday’s shooting and killing at the Angwan Rukuba area of Jos North Local Government Area of Plateau State. About 30 persons died from the attack.
In defence of the President’s short visit, the Presidency advanced administrative and logistical reasons, which has also been dismissed as baseless and a further confirmation of the condescending manner he treated the people.
According to Presidential spokesperson, Bayo Onanuga, Tinubu’s Thursday itinerary was tightly packed, beginning with the reception for President Mahamat Idriss Déby of Chad scheduled for the Presidential Villa in Abuja.
The Nigerian leader had initially planned to proceed to Iperu in Ogun State after the meeting, but following a security briefing from Plateau State Governor Caleb Mutfwang, he suspended the Ogun trip and redirected his attention to Plateau State.
Despite swift overnight preparations and the deployment of presidential logistics, Onanuga noted that the President could not reschedule his engagement with the Chadian leader.
“The bilateral meeting focused on strengthening security cooperation between Nigeria and Chad, and it extended longer than anticipated, delaying the President’s departure for Jos,” the statement explained.
Onanuga further disclosed that upon the President’s arrival in Plateau State, further logistical challenges emerged.
“While the drive from the airport to Jos metropolis typically takes about 40 minutes, the airport runway lacks the navigational aids necessary for night operations. Officials determined that proceeding into the city would have prevented the President from returning before dusk.
“As a result, the engagement was relocated to a hall near the airport, where representatives of affected communities were brought to meet the President,” he explained. The visit was attended by top security officials, including the Minister of Defence, the Chief of Army Staff and the Inspector- General of Police, all of whom had earlier conducted assessments at Rukuba, the epicentre of the recent violence.
Still the critics say the President’s failure to go into town and visit the scene of the attack robbed the visit of the real essence and purpose of showing care and concern for the victims. Restricting himself to the airport indicated that the idea to go to Plateau on a commiseration visit was an after- thought. Accordingly, the visit and stakeholders meeting has been dismissed as make-believe as the severity of the attack could not be represented or captured by the airport environment.
Critics also fault the visit and meeting for its duration which was barely 40 minutes. Given the enormity of the subject matter, besides the fact that insecurity is yet to be tamed by the Bola Tinubu Administration, the time allotted to either the victim or bereaved to speak wasn’t enough to allow them to sufficiently speak their minds and ventilate emotions and sentiments underlying the recurrent Plateau crisis.
Analysts thus cite the request by the Chairman of the Plateau State Traditional Rulers Council and Gbong Gwom Jos, Jacob Gyang Buba, which was re-echoed by Governor Caleb Mutfwang and Senator Simon Lalong, that President Tinubu could arrange and grant audience to the Plateau stakeholders in Abuja on a later date as 40 minutes was grossly insufficient for the business of the day.
On the President’s agenda or issues raised during the meeting, many are not impressed, as they underscore his remarks about time and his claim not to have money “to give to anybody” as ill-prepared and insensitive. To this, analysts say his visit to Plateau may have been a hurried package after a close aide possibly reminded him of the severe electoral implications if there is not as much as a semblance of concern or empathy with the victims of barbaric and dastardly attacks on Palm Sunday in Plateau.
To that extent, the President’s announcement of installation of five thousand CCTV cameras is, admittedly, a welcome deployment that has impressed many, but many people show indifference and are unimpressed. The greater concern among the majority in Plateau is to end the crisis and terminate misery rather than to trace and track the perpetrators who may end up escaping the wrath of the law and circumventing justice.
History is bountiful and witness to Instances in the Plateau crises when arrests were affected, the arrested get moved to Abuja and eventually released, courtesy of ‘orders from above’.
More than CCTV cameras, the people of Plateau are yearning for justice, a recovery of their heritage, and respect for their value system by those who seek accommodation within.
As at the time the President came, the Angwan Rukuba attack was only the latest incident in a series of painful enemy aggression and assault on the cultural dignity of the people of Plateau State. There are backlogs and accumulated background of cases of land grabbing, displacement of natives from their ancestral homes and the flourish of the wry and uncanny institution known as Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) camps in different locations in the State.
Statistics indicate that between Barkin Ladi, Bokkos, and Riyom local government areas of the state, no fewer than 640 villages have been annexed by blood-thirsty land grabbers, while the consequential humanitarian crisis keeps swelling the population and demographics of internally displaced persons.
Beyond the CCTV cameras, a world bewildered by the gory advertisement that Plateau has been in almost three decades of genocide and religious assault wants to hear President Tinubu address the subject of justice for Plateau people – recovery of their land and heritage, return and resettlement of the natives in their ancestral homes and an enforceable government policy or programme that will put a final stop to open grazing in the state. These are the issues on the way to enduring peace which can show the way forward if the government can also guarantee a demilitarisation and disarmament of the annexed areas and false inheritors.
Many analysts, commentators and stakeholders have demanded and are demanding a disbandment and dissolution of the over two decades-old military peace keeping mission in Plateau and its environs. Their reason is that their mission has proved ineffective in this circumstance.
