JOS: ...HOME TO KILLING FIELDS
By Sunday Dare

My primary and secondary school days were bright and simple. I had friends, many of them and their religion was never an issue. My friends and I, though of different religions and tribe bonded like brothers and shared almost everything. It was a relationship that involved our families. We were never far away from home that is Jos. Wherever we travelled to, we always made it back to Jos to hook up with friends, family and the places we love to hold those picnics.
That was then. This is now. Now in full adulthood, our friendships still remain though pushed into the realm of uneasiness because we all have suffered loss from the several conflicts that have engulfed the State. We have all failed to find an explanation, nay justification for what is happening. When, why and how did Jos lose it? What changed that turned friendly neighbors into bitter enemies and near savages? The answers do not come easy, yet the government is in the best position to provide answers. In Jos, peace has been murdered. The peace of Jos is now soaked in the blood of thousands of innocent lives slaughtered in fits of rage and religious fanaticism.
The most recent outbreak of violence is a wound too deep and from which Jos may never recover. When the November 2008 riots occurred it blew open the depth of distrust and the desperate level certain groups were willing to go to settle scores. The fact that it was a religious war laced with tribal hatred was established for all times. But our leaders could not agree on something as commonsensical as fishing out the culprits and enforcing punishment. Our leaders failed to seize the opportunity to deal with the root cause and fashion out a strategy to nip in the bud such conflicts. Rather than do the reasonable, Abuja chose to take sides.