When things go awry or fall apart, we rue the present. We long for an idyllic past.We become nostalgic and we beckon unto the past, in which things seemed to have worked in harmony, to succour and comfort ourselves. Such previous tranquility contrasts sharply with the racous dysfunction of the present.
This sense of nostalgia played out a few years ago in Plateau State. It has most recently replicated itself in Kaduna State.
After duly beholding and reflecting on the sorry pass Plateau State had arrived at, one of its notable technocrats, Chief Samai’lla Danko Makama, a former Chairman of the National Population Commission(NPC), launched what he referred to as MAKE JOS GREAT AGAIN(MJGA). A parody of Donald Trump’s MAGA, he tried to recruit his peers across political, ethnic and religious divides to propagate the cause of restoring Plateau State to its old glory.
In a recent WhatsApp chat, a yet to be identified person(s) had canvassed for bringing back Kaduna to its old glory using #BRING BACK MY KADUNA. The champion(s) of this uplifting cause recalled, with graphic nostalgia, how Kaduna citizens hitherto lived in amity and how:”Our Christian brothers will follow our Muslim neighbours to Mosque and join them in Hawan Idi(Eid prayer) during Sallah. Our Muslim friends too will follow us to Church most Sundays or during Christian & Easter festivals”.
Verily, once upon a time, Jos-Plateau(Tin City) and Kaduna Kaduna(KD), were havens of peace and tranquility. In fact, and indeed, because of Jos-Plateau’s peaceful disposition, its cosmopolitan peoples, its exquisite weather and exotic fruits, it was a tourist destination of the first rank. Its mantra, on account of these ennobling attributes was, and is: HOME OF PEACE AND TOURISM.
By the same token, Kaduna, the former regional capital of Northern Nigeria, was noted for its calm. It was home to educational institutions, the textiles and the military. Most bigwigs of Northern extraction preferred Kaduna for their retirement. From the safety of their unobstrucive retirement, such bigwigs influenced the course of governance at the centre, hence their being referred to as the Kaduna Mafia.
Both Jos and Kaduna were paradises, beloved by tourists, visitors and business persons. Consequently, the economies of the two States enjoyed a boom. This coincided with Nigeria’s finest hour, namely the 1970s, when the national economy was sturdy and the Naira was stronger than the US Dollar. This was a time when the textiles hummed unceasingly and the automotive assembly plants rolled out cars, trucks and tractors.
Enter the late 1980s and everything went haywire. Paradise for both Jos-Plateau and Kaduna were lost. From the 1987 Kafanchan Riots to the 1992 Zangon Kataf Conflict, Kaduna became a boiling cauldron and a killing field. The crisis of 2001 consumed Jos-Plateau and heralded other acts of mayhem.
Most of these crises were occasioned by intolerance, lack of forbearance and brazen inequity. Worse, our selfish elites latched onto them in order to feather their political nests. Politics of identity and religion became the fad. And those adept at them thrived to the detriment of the people. Divisive characters, with abysmally low emotional intelligence and empathy quotient, bestrode the political firmament like collosi in the two States.
With “leaders” whose minds were set in medieval antiquity, the fortunes of the two States took a nose dive. Matters were, subsequently, not helped by terrorism and attempts by land grabbers to chase hapless farmers from their ancestral lands.
The outcome of all these are the frayed nerves and the deep distrust in the manner citizens of the two States related. Where in the past they co-existed peacefully, they are now sundered along religious lines. It is a measure of this division that Muslims are ensconced in Northern Kaduna town while Christians are in hunkered down in their laagar in the Southern part of the city.
Thankfully, and with the hardwork of persons of genuine goodwill, the citizens of the two States are coming to terms with the folly of division and are embracing the inevitability of peaceful coexistence. Religious leaders and communities across the aisle visit and celebrate with each other during festivities. They also condole with each other in their moments of grief. During the recent ten days of rage protests, Christians in Jos protected their Muslim compatriots as they said their prayers. These salutary steps have brought considerable thaw in a hitherto cold and frosty relationship.
Thankfully also, the two States, Plateau and Kaduna, are now governed by gentlemen who set great store by inclusion and carrying all their citizens along. They have demonstrated these in their pronouncements, actions and body languages. Never again should, and God forbid, that we witness another nightmarish situation in which a Governor drives a whole section of his State to the margins based on religion or contemplates relocating a centuries-old community at whim and by diktat.
Even then the task of restoring these two States to their glory is an ardous and uphill one. It cannot be anchored on prayer and wishful thinking alone. The citizens of the two States must continually vote in persons who will enthrone good governance, who are responsive to the yearnings of the people, who genuinely respect the people and who are determined to foster inclusion, development and equity. They must reject primeval politics of religion and ethnicity. They must opt for gravitas and competence.
On their parts, the two governments must sustain the gains they have so far made. They should also work assiduously with stakeholders and persons of goodwill to ensure that their people live and work amicably. These are the ony ways that the glory of the two States can be restored. And these are the ways that paradise, once lost, can be regained.
MJGA, BBMK are possible!