Nigeria: The Carnage In Jos

Plateau State has hitherto been one of the most pleasant places to inhabit in the Nigerian federation. What went wrong? What is to be done? It is obvious that there were security and intelligence failures. Those responsible for this must accept responsibility and do the honourable thing. In India resignations have been tendered by key Federal Cabinet Ministers, as well as crucially, the National Security Adviser. The Deputy Chief Minister of the State of Maharasta which has Mumbai (Bombay) as its capital has also resigned. As events unfolded, it is obvious that more resignations will follow. The acceptance of responsibility for administrative, bureaucratic or security lapses constitutes a central strategic imperative in the operations of modern democracies. Bucking this trend has not done Nigeria any good in the past and will not do so now.
Indeed, this attitude goes directly to the heart of the problem. The lack of the grace to accept responsibility goes hand in glove with the absence of deterrence. It is a glaring condemnation of the sort of society we have come to construct, that in contemporary times our country has had a succession of all manner of violence without a single suspect facing the full wrath of the law.
This emboldens others and conjugaison pouvoir present simulates copycat actions. In the case of the Jos North local government (LG) election, given the ethnic and english test present simple political volatility of that arena why were the security agencies not on full alert before and during the election? No one needs the powers of clairvoyance to know that given the political history and make up of that terrain as well as the absence of both national and local traditions of free and fair elections, that something was afoot.
That mercenaries and foot soldiers will migrate from neighbouring states to join in any possible mayhem does not need the powers of clairvoyance either. It is a clearly established pattern. In the events in Jos North, we have a combustible mixture of bureaucratic incompetence mixed with a marked and puzzling failure of intelligence. The events of the last one week should provide opportunity to reopen the discourse about the efficacy of community, state and regional policing system. Did the present setup live up to its billing? The empirical evidence is that it did not. Aligned with what is happening in the Niger Delta the time has come for a dispassionate, rational overhaul.
The price of incompetence has been horrific, the scars and education in the uae in the past and present the emotional wounds could take generations to heal. Since there is very little cost, violence has been made attractive. We must now get serious. The only way we can honour the memory of those who lost their lives, is to make an unambiguous departure from a dismal past. The culprits must be brought to book. The arrest of hundreds of people is a good start. Out of these arrests we must now filter out those behind the crimes. There was nothing spontaneous about this gory episode, it was well conceived and premeditated. If an example is made in Jos, then the fight back against organized crimeviolence would have started. In this instance we must emphatically say never again!