“A kingdom can endure with unbelief, but it cannot endure with injustice.”
–Utman Dan Fodio
By Daniel Kanu
No doubt, Plateau State governor, Simon Lalong, has been dazed by the flurry of outrageous killings in the state of late.
Granted that the state of insecurity is the problem of the country, which citizens are facing at this time, but the case of Plateau has taken a dangerous dimension.
Even Governor Aminu Masari of Katsina State has asked his people to defend themselves against bandits as their actions are becoming intolerable.
Only recently there was the killing of travellers at Rukuba, near Jos, aside from other violent clashes on the Plateau.
The University of Jos chapter of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) also raised the alarm lately as it decried what it called consistent attacks and killing of students and members of staff of the university during most civil unrests in Jos, where it is located.
The state known for its beautiful splendour, calm and tourist haven has gradually become a killing field.
The last salvo of the gory situation in Plateau State has been so emotional as a result of the dastardly killings and blood bath that mourners from Yelwa Zangam, for instance, could no longer endure the carnage and had to take the corpses of their loved ones killed in the Tuesday night attack to the Plateau State House of Assembly.
Yelwa Zangam in Jos North Local Government Area of the state, like other areas, was said to have been attacked by hoodlums who reportedly killed not less than 40 people in Yelwa Zangam alone.
Violence was let loose and there was anarchy.
Expectedly, in his response, the Speaker of the state House of Assembly, Ayuba Abok, who was on the ground immediately called for calm as he condoled with the families of the victims. He equally appealed to them not to take laws into their hands, saying such an act would only aggravate the already bad situation.
His appeal ostensibly calmed frayed nerves at least before the curfew order was imposed, but commentators point to lack of good intelligence in the Plateau debacle.
Although the governors are said to be the chief security officers of their states, they are without real powers to take security actions or power to change the probability of security actions.
Critics say Lalong must learn how to be more proactive in tackling such crises as what is being witnessed may not be the last.
Governor Lalong has also assured during a meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari that his government is doing everything possible to end the killings, just as he confirmed that the president has pledged that support would be given to victims of the violent clashes in the state. It can only be a cheerful promise if it is kept and if all concerned benefit from it.
Lalong said the situation is getting better and that very soon the curfew in the state will be relaxed, but he needs to ensure that there is proper investigation and prosecution that must guarantee that all culprits must be made to face the law.
One of the critics who would not want his name mentioned told Sunday Sun that Lalong has not allowed justice to reign in the state as he has expressed bias in some of his key decisions.
There have been calls on the government and the security agencies to intensify efforts toward ending the circle of violence in the state, particularly in the rural areas even as violence is still raging on despite the curfew imposed by the state government.
It is sad that Plateau State at the moment under the leadership of Lalong is at its low as his state has become a murderous zone, not minding the army of internally displaced persons already on the ground.
Like in Plateau, what Nigerians are witnessing is a country that is gradually and steadily slipping into the Hobbesian state of nature where life has become “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.”
Following reports from security experts, there seems to be an unmitigated disaster in the security apparatus of the state today.
This is the reality Lalong must face.
What is evident is that shedding of human blood no longer means anything as these orgies of killings continue to spread unabated.
Plateau is tensed and the only laws that exist there now are principles based on self-preservation.
Going by the ease with which terrorists struck at the country’s premier military institution, the Nigeria Defence Academy, on Tuesday, killing two officers and abducting one, many have come to the inevitable conclusion that even the security architecture of the country itself seems to have been compromised as no state is safe any longer.
Lalong has promised his people that peace and hope will be restored again and that he has the capacity, only time will tell.
Simon Lalong was born on May 5, 1963 in Shendam, Plateau State.
After his elementary and secondary schools education in Shendam Local Government Area he proceeded to the School of Preliminary Studies (S.P.S) Keffi, passing out in 1986.
He continued at the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, graduating in 1990 with a bachelor’s degree in Law. This was immediately followed by the Law School in Lagos, where he was also called to the Bar. He later obtained a master’s degree in Law from the University of Jos, in 1996.
In 1998, Lalong temporarily discarded legal practice to go into politics.
He is today the governor of Plateau State.