I grew up in Jos & I remember how every time we were on the phone to our family outside Jos, we would say to them ‘Jos is so peaceful, you can sleep with your doors open’. This was true, this was the Jos we knew, everyone lived in peace and harmony for years. There are many brilliant things about Jos, one of them is the spirit, when you meet someone from Jos, they end up telling you about it less than ten minutes into the conversation. We all seemed to know each other growing up.
September 7, 2001 , Jos as we knew it changed- forever. I had gone to grind pepper in a compound nearby and must have started day dreaming because until today, I don’t remember hearing anything, when I came out of the compound, the streets were empty and everyone was quiet, I heard someone telling to me run home, I think I did exactly that. The compound I was in was burned down that same evening. That evening my father returned home with our family friends, after that people just kept arriving. By the next day we were over 20 in our 3 bedroom flat. We brought out all the mattresses and everyone slept in the living room, my dad and the other neighbours went out and made a bonfire at nights to keep watch. We were young and my cousins and their dad ended up being stuck in ‘peaceful Jos’ for another 2 weeks.
Every day, we heard tales, ‘they killed 10 people’, ’50 dead Christians’,’20 dead Muslims’, every day for 10 days. I was too young to understand what happened but I know that 10 days later we all returned to our normal life. It wasn’t so normal, many people left, especially my Igbo friends. Everything seemed normal but we were all apprehensive. You would hear ‘an fara’ and begin to run as fast as you could to get home.
Even if my family and I remained in Jos, it was obvious that was not our Jos. My father ended up being killed in our house, for some reason, we still stayed. I believe it was in the riots in Bukuru 2009/2010, that our close family friend and 2 of his sons were slaughtered. I mean, we know so many people that have died in the crisis but that one hit home. People think it is a joke when we say we know so many people who have died violently but it is not. When the ‘We Jos Want Peace’ campaign started, I never thought we would still be on it many years later.
We became so accustomed to the killings and riots, some years ago, my very close friend and her sister were in the market where a bomb went off, my mum was close by too and speaking to them afterwards broke my heart. Many people ask why we remain, but where do we go? This is the only home we have known, our house is a house we all built. All of us loaded bricks into our parents’ car when we were building it, my mum & dad drove the bricks to the site and offloaded. All of us, my siblings, my parents and I built that house with our hands along with the labourers, that is where my father died too, how do we just get up, sell the house and leave? We have all moved out and my mum remains there but that is still where are referring to when we say home.
This past weekend, hundreds are reported to have been killed in Barkin Ladi, no names, just numbers, but what is more painful is hearing these attacks described as clashes, are they really clashes when we are talking about human lives in the same way we are talking about cows? Is it fair that our people (the people of Jos) continue to be violated? The deceased were people, they were not protected and that is why they are dead. They deserve some justice, the thousands of people who have lost their lives deserve active justice. I agree that cases like this should not be politicized but how can we stay quiet when we have a government and yet no peace for almost 17 years. For years we have had 6–6 curfews on and off, it affects everyone. Some people want us to believe that it is not in every part of Jos so it isn’t serious enough; ask them if there is anyone that is sure that their area is not the next place where something may go wrong. Can we know where they are getting such weapons to carry out massacres to that degree?
There is something happening on the Plateau, please do not ignore.
