Jos crisis: One sad year after

The crisis followed the local government election that was held throughout the state. People were confused because some of them came face to face with death for the first time in their lives, while others saw how their breadwinners were shot to death and others stabbed to death with knifes by the rioters. During the […]

The crisis followed the local government election that was held throughout the state. People were confused because some of them came face to face with death for the first time in their lives, while others saw how their breadwinners were shot to death and others stabbed to death with knifes by the rioters.

During the crisis, hundreds of people were killed and properties worth billions of naira were destroyed, which included houses, schools, cars and shops. But one year after the crisis, the victims claim they’ve been abandoned by the three tiers of government – local, state and federal.

The Nigerian government has not arrested a single person for prosecution despite five panels set by the Federal Government, National Assembly, Plateau State Government and the Plateau State House of Assembly. Despite setting up the committees, the victims, especially widows and the people that lost their properties were left with difficulties and no one cared to come to their aid.

The victims say that their children were withdrawn from schools and some are roaming the streets while some are packed in one-room apartments in uncompleted buildings without knowing where to go or what to do. The widows are aggrieved, claiming that the state government has not assisted them in any way.

A year after the crisis, the refugee camp at Narkuta town in Jos North Local Government Area of Plateau State is bedevilled with problems as there has been no government intervention. Our correspondents who visited the camp met the victims that are mostly women engaged in different chores while children were busy roaming about the uncompleted building, which replaced their once comfortable homes.

25-year-old Idris Abdullahi Bayero was the spokesperson of the refugees in the camp. He told Weekly Trust how they have been faring since the crisis. “Life has not been the same, because we’re finding it difficult to meet our needs as we don’t have work to do. Since the relief materials we received from the Red Cross and JNI as well as other voluntary organisations finished, we are yet to receive any assistance from the government,” he said.

Bayero explained that there are about 50 to 60 people in the house from about ten different families. He decried the condition in which they are living, saying that they have been completely abandoned. “We don’t have electricity and there is no potable water. Look at the house we are living in; there are neither windows nor doors. We have been completely abandoned,” he lamented.

Bayero who told our correspondents that their father died after the crisis living behind 32 children said the rooms in which they are living contains seven to 10 people each as the rooms were shared among all the families living in the house. He therefore appealed to the authorities concerned as well as other philanthropic organisations to come to their aid as their condition is getting worse every day.

Weekly Trust further observed that despite the fact that it was during school hours, a significant percentage of the children were playing around at home. Bayero had this to say, “Most of us here cannot afford to pay for their school fees since the crisis.”

Speaking to our correspondents, an academic staff of one of the worst-hit schools during the crisis, Al-Bayan School, Malam Jibril Yakubu Ibrahim, said they are yet to receive any assistance from the federal and state governments, stressing that they have made their submission through Jama’ atul Nasril Islam (JNI).

Ibrahim who spoke on behalf of the school management further alleged that, “We have heard that the state government went round condoling with some people over the crisis, but nobody came here to condole with us despite the colossal loss of lives and properties that we suffered; not even a letter of condolence”.

He however stated that they have received donations from various philanthropists and organisations, adding that the school has now been fully renovated. “Even though we cannot completely regain what we lost, the school is now in full swing as you can see that academic activities are going on. Our mosque, library, guest apartment, the hall as well as all other basic facilities have been renovated,” he said.

One of the students of the school who survived when the school was attacked, Mubashir Hussain Baba, told our correspondents that he has fully recovered and is attending his classes. He, however, added that he is now in JSS II instead of being in JSS III as he had to repeat his last class due to the time he spent at home nursing the injuries he sustained during the crisis.

The Jos crisis has inevitably left many widows and orphans to fend for themselves as their breadwinners are no longer alive. How has life been after one year? Malam Khamis Isma’il is the Assistant Director of the First Group of JNI. He responded thus: “Most of the widows have left Jos for places like Bauchi, Kano and Maiduguri; some even to as far as Lagos to stay with their relatives, because they cannot cope with life without their breadwinners.”

Speaking on behalf of the widows, Malama Binta Aliyu decried the condition the widows are facing, saying that life has never been the same since the crisis. She added that most of their children don’t go to school as they cannot afford to pay the schools fees. She also said that the only assistance they got was the one from JNI and other philanthropists. “It’s now one year and we are yet to receive anything from the government,” she said.

Binta further stressed that one of the ways they strive to survive is by engaging in some menial jobs or selling items that do not amount to N1,000 in capital. She added, “Our major problem now is that the rent of the houses that we are renting which were initially paid for by JNI has expired. We have to find other means to pay our landlords as well as continue to find ways to feed our children,” she said.

Malam Isma’il on his part appealed to the government and well-to-do people to come to the aid of these widows who are battling to make both ends meet.

The story is similar when one looks at the other side of the coin – Christian widows whose husbands were killed during the crisis are equally suffering from the brunt of neglect as they too are not receiving support from any quarters. The Programme Coordinator of Stefanus Foundation, Engineer Mark Lipdo, whose organisation took care of the Christian widows and orphans during the crises, said they registered 103 people that were killed. He said out of them, 35 are men with their families.

Engineer Lipdo said the conditions of the widows and orphans are very pathetic, because none of the widows is married to another person because they want to be with their children, and after the crises, they were abandoned by the state and federal governments.

He said they rented apartments for some of the widows while some returned to their relatives in the villages. He said part of the major problems they have now is how they can get money to pay rents for those who cannot afford them, “but we encourage them to repair their burnt or vandalised old houses so that they can go back, but you know they lost everything and there is nothing they can do.”

The coordinator further said they received assistance only from non-governmental organisations like Red Cross, and that the only Federal Government agency that came to their aid is the National Emergency Relief Agency (NEMA) that gave them some items. “That could not go anywhere, because if you have a crowd of 5,000 people and you give them one packet of Maggi, that will not be enough for them,” he said.

He appealed to the authorities concerned to look into the plight of the victims and at least alleviate some of their sufferings and put smiles on their faces.

The chairperson in charge of Muslim widows during the crisis, Hajiya Khadija Gambo Hawaja, opined that the kind of help the widows need is not one that should be provided on a temporal basis, saying that it has to be replenished in a sustainable way so as to allow them to fully get back on their feet.

She added that such provisions will also integrate them back into the society by allowing them to have bases for living.  Hawaja added that there are roughly over 579 Muslim widows whose husbands were killed during the crisis, noting that 39 women and 14 infants were also killed.

Commenting on the crisis, the Special Adviser to the Plateau State Governor on Media and Public Affairs, Mr Dan Manjang, however, said, “It’s not true that government did not condole with the victims that suffered losses or who were affected during the crisis. We went round and condoled with the people over the unfortunate incidence,” he said.

On the area of assistance, Manjang said there are two ways of assisting the victims — the short-term and long-term assistance even though government will not be able to compensate all the victims over the losses they suffered.He said the government has completed the short-term assistance and that what remains is the long-term one, which will be given after government has released its white paper on the crisis.

The adviser said immediately after the crisis, the emergency relief committee and the committee set up by the government released relief assistance to the victims in all the refuge camps, saying they gave them food items, cows, blankets, medicine, buckets, cups and plastic rubbers. He also said government has received the report of the commission, and at present, it is still studying the report for the necessary action that will follow. He advised the victims to be patient as government is committed to compensating them over their sufferings.