Jos Crises, Ten Years On

Daily Trust

7 September 2011

Jos Crises, Ten Years On

Ezekiel Gomos

analysis

As I write this article, sporadic gunshots are still being heard in some parts of the once peaceful city called Jos, Plateau State capital and elsewhere, there are reports of continued and non-ceasing attacks and counter attacks on some villages in Barikin Ladi and Riyom Local Government Areas with varying number of fatalities.

This has been our lot in this city and to some extent, the entire State since 7th September 2001, when the first in the series of violent crises broke out in Jos.

September 7, 2011 will therefore mark ten years that the city of Jos commenced its descent into an ogre of ethno-religious violence, hostility, and mutual suspicion (interrupted by a brief period of relative peace between 2004 and 2007).

For residents of Jos and to millions of people that have come to love the city, Sept 7 2011 will mark what has become our worst decade; ten years of madness, ten years of lost opportunity and for many people, ten years of suffering and pain.