The gruesome killing of over 50 residents in the Bokkos Local Government Area of Plateau State and the burning of scores of houses by daredevil marauders has renewed conversations on the volatile security situation in the North Central state. The continued attacks, the worst in the wave of mayhem that has befallen the state since over 100 people were killed in the same local government area remain concerning for many. Rev Joseph Hayab, the Chairman of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) for the 19 northern states and the capital city Abuja, Nigeria, called for a lasting solution to the protracted crisis. He was a guest on Channels Television’s The Morning Brief programme

Excerpts:

What’s your interpretation of what played out?

The trouble on the Plateau is virtually in most communities in the Middle Belt. The challenge is that every day you wake up, some strange people come and attack; they come in their numbers to attack women, and children, and wipe out an entire community.

What exactly are they looking for? That’s why the interpretation is land grabbing because when you create fear in the minds of the people, you chase them away from their ancestral land, take what rightfully belongs to them, and probably after some months or years, they cannot come back because they are not certain if things are well. Then, strange people will come and take that place. That’s where land grabbing comes in.

I’ve been in development work for some years and I used to argue a lot with people who say that our crisis is farmers-herders. I grew up to know farmers had that conflict. I know the farmers or the herders do not have guns. I don’t know them for killing women or children, just because someone encroached on a farm or an animal is killed. They may exchange words angrily but they have a way to settle it.

But we have criminals who have taken over our land, who come with sophisticated weapons, who come in the night, who kill women, kill children, kill husbands, destroy everything and you still call them herders or farmers? This is where the use of those terms becomes quite complicated and continues to extend this evil because until we begin to call a criminal a criminal, unless we begin to call someone who does something evil, that what he’s doing is wrong, we are not going to go after them.

The challenge is multi-faceted. We have the criminal part of it and we have the land-grabbing part of it. We have also the issues that sometimes people think that we shouldn’t say exist, the manipulation of politics or the joblessness of young people, and so on. These things keep going on but why the Middle Belt?

You all know that the land is fertile. You all know that the land is good for whatever those who are interested want. But I don’t think you need to kill people to benefit from the land. You can come peacefully, you can live peacefully because I grew up to know that our people are accommodating and they have accommodated a lot of people for decades.

But when you go after people’s lives, destroy their farmland, destroy their homes, and kill them, that’s evil. And sometimes, to make it look big, they destroy their places of worship. That’s why you have so many versions and you have so many things. But the most important thing I want to dwell on is these people are criminals, and when we call them criminals, we know what to do with them. We cannot continue to fold our arms and allow this evil to continue.

Is there a religious angle to this?

Whether we say it or we don’t say it, the criminals have a certain identity. When they come, they chant religious expressions and so the religious angle comes in. A larger number of the farmers are of certain religious identity but as someone who has been around, I understand some of these things very well and I sometimes downplay the religious angle because it’s a diversion. It’s deliberately to divert attention because criminals want to hit on Christians so that it becomes a Christian versus Muslim thing. Muslims and Christians are suffering while the criminals have a field day. When we concentrate on this religious angle too much, we divert attention from going after the criminals. I quite agree that the criminals use religious cover, they use tribal cover but they are criminals because they don’t represent the faiths they profess.

How do you reprogramme these killings from being religious to criminal in nature?

That’s where we come in, in finding a solution because in finding a solution, we have to carry every stakeholder along. We have Christian clerics. This attack is one too many. Every time we wake up to a new attack in another community, can we begin an honest and transparent discourse about it? When we come to the table as equal partners, as people who feel the pains of what is happening and begin to find solutions.

Security agencies alone cannot tackle this. They have tried and we commend them for what they are doing. I must say that the Governor of Plateau State, Caleb Mutfwang, and his team have done an excellent job since this unfortunate incident happened. But we need to carry everybody along so that people will begin to see it as their responsibility, not just government. I have a role to play in securing the community. You have a role to play in securing the community. We all have roles to play.

When you look at the number of security men we have around Nigeria, with a large population, they cannot cover everywhere. What can I do as a faith leader? What can you do as a faith leader? And in coming in doing this, we need to win the love and trust of one another. When we come to play the blame game, we cannot move forward. We need to give that opening so that Muslim clerics, Christian clerics, traditional rulers, women, youths, and every stakeholder will see it as a fight against us all.

We are members of one family. Why should we allow a tiny division to destroy our joy, peace, and togetherness? The progress that would have been made in Plateau for many years, the progress that would have been made in Kaduna, in Benue, and other parts of Northern Nigeria is not visible now because of these attacks. It is like we build today, and we destroy it tomorrow. We build and probably allow it for one week and we destroy it again and start rebuilding.

So, many things are wrong. What we need now is to speak to each other genuinely, and sincerely to find solutions. We want to find a solution and we are willing to speak with Muslim clerics in the Plateau. Let nobody use our faith or give our faith a wrong name.