Let's Sheathe Our Swords
Being the Text of Radio and Television Broadcast by the
Governor of Nasarawa State, His Excellency, Alhaji Abdullahi Adamu, [Sarkin
Yakin Keffi] on the Ethnic Violence in the State, Lafia, July 2, 2001
My dear people of Nasarawa State
I address you at this moment with a heavy and bleeding
heart. The unfortunate events in our beloved state in the past few weeks
hardly news to anyone of you. On the 12th of June, the Chief of Azara,
Alhaji Musa Ibrahim, my special adviser for special duties, was assassinated
on his way from Azara to Lafia in the normal course of his duty. His killing
along with six other people, four of whom were traveling in the same car
with him, was the climax of a series of ethnic violence that has gripped
some parts of the state since December last year.
His sad death has exacerbated the inter-ethnic crisis and
led to what appears to be retaliatory measures between the Tivs and the
other ethnic groups in Awe, Keana and Obi local government areas in the
state. Consequently, our beloved state has been convulsed in an orgy of
inter-ethnic violence. Friends and neighbours have suddenly become enemies.
Men, women and children have been slaughtered in cold blood. Our state has
never witnessed this level of violence and savagery before. May it never
witness it again. People were not just killed; they were butchered. Movable
and immovable properties of our own brothers and sisters have been destroyed
or looted. None of us can claim not to have been affected by this spate of
mindless destruction of lives and property. Hundreds of people have been
turned into hapless and hopeless displaced persons in their traditional
homes. Some of us have lost members of our immediate or nuclear families.
Some of us have lost close friends and neighbours. Most of us are touched
and saddened by this unsettling development in our beloved state. Nasarawa
State mourns its sons and daughters. This crude and senseless violence has
neither rhyme nor reason. This explosion of bottled fury and frustration
threatens to set us back and retard our progress in the development of our
state. We must not allow it.
My dear people of Nasarawa State, death is painful, very
painful. The loss of personal properties is no less painful. Our hearts must
go to all the victims of this violence. On behalf of the good people of this
state, my humble self, my family and the government of Nasarawa State, I
send my heartfelt condolences to the bereaved families throughout the state.
We mourn with you. We share your anguish, your pain and your sorrow.
The state has lost some of its old men and women. We will
never avail ourselves of their wisdom and experience again. It has lost some
of its promising young men and women. Their senseless killing has deprived
us of their valuable contributions to the development of our state and its
people at various levels now and in the future. All of us are losers in this
crisis. For the death of one man in the Nasarawa family diminishes all of
us. We must never forget that.
I am touched by these killings. I feel a sense of personal
loss as governor of this state, as a brother to the old men and women and as
a father to the young boys and girls so cruelly cut down even before their
sun had reached the noon of their promising lives. May God grant all of us
the fortitude to bear the painful and irreparable losses. May their death
give us the courage to banish inter-ethnic hatred and promote ethnic harmony
and brotherhood so that ours will become a state in which no one would
suffer any personal privations by reason of tribe, religion or political
affiliation.
Permit me to pay a special tribute to Alhaji Musa Ibrahim.
He worked with me for two years as my special assistant on special duties. I
never found him wanting in the discharge of his responsibilities. He was a
fine and responsible gentleman. He was a man of peace who was committed to
peace in his domain. Ironically, he died a violent and painful death in the
hands of cowardly assassins. I extend my sympathy to his family and the
people of Azara district.
As painful as the death of our friends, families and
beloved ones is, we must accept the obvious. No lives lost can ever be
brought back. More violence can only mean more deaths and destruction. This
will serve no useful purpose. It will only increase our collective pain and
loss and retard the progress of our state. In my inaugural address on
assumption of office as the first elected governor of this state, I made a
passionate appeal to all warring groups wherever they might be in the state,
to sheathe their swords and embrace dialogue as a superior form of civilized
conduct in a democracy. I said that we could not afford to waste our energy
in a needless crisis. Let me repeat that appeal. We cannot afford the luxury
of inter-ethnic violence. Our state requires all the hands of its indigenes,
and those of all its residents to be on deck for its rapid development and
the meaningful empowerment of our people. In the two years of this
administration, we have made giant and incredible strides in the social,
educational and economic development of our state. Our state is poised for
the greater challenges ahead. It can only forge ahead in a climate of peace,
not in a climate of violence and mutual suspicion. We cannot afford to
squander current opportunities in pursuit of narrow and self-interests. We
must refuse to sacrifice the little gains we have made on the altar of the
gods of intolerance and ethnic aggrandizement.
We must rise with one voice and condemn, in no uncertain
terms, those who are fomenting this crisis and those whose hands drip with
the precious but wasted blood of the innocent. They do not mean the state
and its people well. The police and other security agencies have made no
arrests so far since the crisis began. But the perpetrators of these heinous
crimes and their sponsors, whoever they are and wherever they are, must not
think for one minute that they can go Scot-free. The long arms of the law
will surely catch up with them sooner than later. They will pay in full the
prescribed legal penalty for their crime against the state and its people.
To me, Nasarawa State is more than a state. It is a
family. For the past two years, I have tried to build a happy and contented
family from the rainbow collection of ethnic groups, united in the cause of
their collective progress as a people and committed to the ideals of
democracy and democratic governance. The events of the last few days have
sorely tested my resolve but they have failed to shake it. Indeed, they have
strengthened my determination to build a strong, united and prosperous state
forged from the anvils of our collective pain and losses. I am encouraged in
this by the tremendous show of support from the entire state and from our
friends and well wishers within and outside the state. Our state calls on
all of us at this hour of its pain and loss to rise up now and reject those
who erroneously believe that their political stars will be polished with the
blood of the innocent. They will be happy to see the state burn. We must not
give them that sadistic joy.
We warn anyone or a group of persons who would wish to try
the will of this administration to desist in their own interest. We are
fully committed to the rule of law in the best tradition of democracy in
this state. Anyone who mistakes this for weakness on the part of this
administration can only blame himself for butting his head against granite.
We are resolved to protect the lives and properties of everyone in this
state. We are determined to ensure that disgruntled elements in our midst
are not allowed to court cheap political popularity at the expense of the
state and its people by perpetrating and perpetuating a needless
inter-ethnic crisis. Let it be heard loud and clear that this administration
will spare no efforts to uphold the rule of law and ensure the reign of
peace in every nook and cranny of Nasarawa State. We will fish out the
troublemakers, no matter where they hide, and subject them to the rigours of
the law of the land. Those who have murdered sleep have lost their own right
to sleep. We warn those who seem bent on capitalizing on this crisis for a
cheap political gain to desist forthwith. They will be given no such chance.
Nasarawa State occupies a unique position in this country.
It is a strategic state in the north-central geo-political zone. The unity
of this zone is crucial to the unity of the nation itself. The current
political leaders from this zone have worked tirelessly together since the
return to civil rule, to forge and promote this unity. Inter-ethnic crisis
such as we are now witnessing in our state does not augur well for the
much-needed unity in the north-central zone. It is clear, therefore, that
the sponsors of this crisis in Nasarawa State are so blinded by their
political ambition that they ignore the larger interests of this very
important geo-political zone. This zone has always been recognized as the
vital link in the chain of Nigerian unity. We will be the great losers if we
allow the termites to eat into the plank of our unity.
We have always taken pride in the fact that our state is a
replica of the old Northern Region. Almost every tribe in that vast region
of blessed memory is found in the state. We have the Fulani, the Hausa,
Igala, Igbira, Tiv, Kanuri, Nupe, and Gwari in the state. Many of these
tribes have lived in their present settlements in the state for hundreds of
years. Some of them have established their own monarchies and kingdoms. The
Tivs were together with us in one administrative unit in the old Benue
Province since 1926. We were in Benue-Plateau State together from 1967 when
the state was created until 1976 when Benue-Plateau State was split into
Benue and Plateau states and the northern part of the old Benue Province was
merged with Plateau State. They too were part of this arrangement. Can we
now deny them the right to be indigenes of Nasarawa State? We cannot. They
have been part of us and they remain part of us. No one can deny them that
right as indeed, the other tribes cannot be denied their right to be part of
this state. The Tivs have intermarried with some of the other ethnic groups
in the state.
Admittedly, there have been occasional hiccups in
inter-tribal relations such as disputes over farmland and grassroots
traditional leadership between the Tivs and some other ethnic groups in the
past. Such minor flare-ups were always amicably resolved. No violence on
this scale we have just witnessed has ever occurred between the Tivs and the
other ethnic groups in the state. Something must have gone badly wrong
somewhere to give rise to these brutal and savage killings. It is a
degeneration of our collective sense of moral responsibility.
We are aware of the vicious propaganda being mounted by
the enemies of this state who are busy spreading the rumour that the present
crisis is ethnic cleansing directed against the Tivs. This propaganda is
wicked, malicious and mischievous. There is no truth in it. There is no
basis for it. The Tivs, like all other tribes in the affected areas, lost
people and property in the violence. I appeal to the Tivs to ignore the
wicked propaganda. It is the handiwork of those elements who are intent on
destabilizing the state. The state will fully protect them and their
property, as it will protect the lives and the property of the other ethnic
groups. They must not allow themselves to be used by those spreading this
propaganda. More violence will solve no problems. It will only lead to a
vicious circle of vengeance and more violence whose end no one can predict.
There should be no further raids and sporadic invasions as were carried out
at Agaza and Owena in Keana local government area and at Adudu and Tudun
Adabu in Obi local government area.
All the tribes in the state are bound together with the
cord of common destiny. No tribe can be uprooted from here. The Kanuris
cannot. The Fulanis cannot. The Eggons cannot. And the Tivs cannot. The
sooner we all realize this the better for all of us. We are all indigenes of
this state, not settlers. As far back as 1947, a Tiv man was elected into
the then Lafia Native Authority. He was councilor for police and prisons.
Many other Tivs were in the employment of the same Lafia Native Authority.
There were also six village heads of Tiv origin long before Nasarawa State
was created. In one or two traditional institutions in the state, the Tivs
are among the kingmakers. This shows quite clearly that we have been
interwoven as a people for a long time. No one can, therefore, just wake up
one day and demand that we be separated. It will not happen. It cannot
happen. Those who advocate separation are merely looking for what they
believe to be a quick fix and not solutions. The sad and painful events we
are experiencing today show beyond doubt that their quick fix is not cheap,
but is dangerous and totally unacceptable.
We are aware that this administration has been accused of
favouring the Tivs. This mischievous accusation stems from the appointment
of just two persons, two persons of Tiv origin, one as a Special Adviser and
the other as a Permanent Secretary into the public service of the state.
These appointments appear not to have gone down well with those who accuse
the government of favouring Tivs. We crave for your understanding, for what
we have done. This administration was not the first in the state to
acknowledge, as any responsible government should, the glaring fact that the
Tivs are part and parcel of this state. Those of them who have lived in the
areas that now constitute Nasarawa State are undoubtedly indigenes of this
state. We cannot, in clear conscience, ignore them. Every ethnic group in
this state has a stake in it. All of them must be given their due. No one
can take that away from them. As indigenes, the Tivs are and must be fully
entitled to their dues like other tribes in the state.
I admit that this was not an easy decision for me but I
know it was the right decision. I took it in the interest of the state. I
stand by it. As a responsible and committed leader, I must take the
difficult decisions, however unpalatable they might be, provided I am
convinced, as indeed I am in this case, that they are fair, just and right
for the state and its people.
We must find a way forward. That is the challenge all of
us now face. In the past two weeks, I chose to work quietly round the clock
to find solutions to this sad conflict. I resisted the urge to rush to make
a broadcast with uncertain messages that offer no way forward. Today I am
pleased to report that I have had extensive consultations with traditional
rulers, the leadership of the civil society, political office holders,
legislators, and local government chairman particularly from the areas of
conflict, and with my colleague and brother, the governor of Benue State,
Mr. George Akume, accompanied by the Tor Tiv, top government functionaries
and community leaders from Benue State. These consultations have been very
fruitful and helped chart a course out of this crisis. I am happy to say
that the consensus of opinion from these consultations is that there is room
for dialogue. Killings and violence do not end crisis. They exacerbate them.
Yet in the end, people must come to the round table to sort out their
differences. It is better, therefore, to accept the round table as the first
rather than the last option. As a first option, it will prevent killing and
destruction and the hardening of positions and emotions.
In all these series of consultations with our community
and opinion leaders and with the Government and opinion leaders of Benue
state, it was unanimously agreed that for any meaningful progress to be made
along the path of peace and reconciliation, all the warring communities must
ceasefire and sheath their swards. The ceasefire is to be observed in all
the feuding communities immediately and without exception. All illegal
roadblocks in the affected communities and along the highways are to be
dismantled to allow free flow of persons and goods. Law enforcement agencies
have been directed to mount joint patrols to monitor the observance of the
ceasefire and cessation of all forms of hostilities and vengeance.
We have set up an inter-state peace and reconciliation
committee to monitor the process of reconciliation and resettlement of
displaced persons. The committee comprises their Royal Highnesses the Emir
of Lafia and the Tor Tiv; the Commissioners of Police of the two states; the
Commissioners for information; Local Government Chairmen and the Chairmen of
traditional councils of the affected local government areas in both Nasarawa
and Benue States. The Committee will be inaugurated tomorrow Tuesday 3rd
July 2001 and shall commence work immediately thereafter.
I urge all those who are committed to a peaceful
resolution of the crisis not to feel frustrated by the actions and
pronouncements of the enemies of peace. I promise here and now that I will
go to any length to achieve an amicable resolution of the crisis. I will
work to bring the displaced persons back to their homes. We will re-unite
families separated by the crisis. We will give homes and farms back to their
owners. Peace will reign again by the grace of God. We will all become our
brother's keepers once more.
Indeed, you would recall that the government had set up a
judicial commission of enquiry into the lingering ethnic crisis before the
eruption of the spate of violence. The commission is continuing with its
work. I urge all those who have grievances and solutions to proffer to go
freely before the commission so that together we can chart and walk the path
of peace.
Some of you must have felt disappointed by the apparent
inability of the state police command to respond decisively to the crisis to
prevent it from assuming the dimension it did a few days ago. We must,
however, appreciate the position of the police command here. It is a young
police command in a young state. And because of the spontaneous nature of
the violence, the officers and men of the command were over-stretched and
were not able to fully protect lives and property in all the hot spots. But
the situation has drastically improved. Following requests I made to the
Force Headquarters, the Command has received reinforcements in men and
logistics. It is now in a position to enforce law and order. Let me warn
that anyone who chooses to stand in the way of the law enforcements agents
will be dealt with in accordance with the laws of the land.
In the wake of the crisis, some vigilante groups have
sprung up. While some of them are genuinely out to help uphold law and order
in their communities, others appear to be operating as ethnic militias. Some
of these groups were reportedly hired from outside Nasarawa State. This
administration does not recognize ethnic vigilantes and mercenary gangs
hired from outside the State to escalate violence.
I commend the efforts of genuine groups which have tried
to maintain peace due to inadequate police presence. But such genuine
vigilante groups must submit to the police and work purely under their
guidance and instructions. Only the police, under our constitution, have the
right to protect lives and property. The police have clear and unambiguous
orders to arrest and deal with hired gangs or mercenaries who are here to
turn our dear state into a battlefield. We cannot allow this state to
degenerate into a state of anarchy. Anarchy is anathema to democracy. Our
individual freedom can only flower in the garden of collective freedom. Let
it be so. Communities or groups who set them up purely ethnic militia or
hire soldiers of fortunes from outside are urged to disengage them
immediately. Those who fail to do so stand the risk of prosecution.
A truly frightening dimension to this violence is the
incredibly large cache of arms in the possession of these groups. The civil
society appears to be even better armed than the security agencies. We find
this alarming and most unsettling. It poses a challenge not only to the
security of Nasarawa State but that of the nation as a whole. Law
enforcement agencies are under instruction to curb this dangerous arms build
up. A militarized society is a dangerous society prone to perpetual violence
and crime. We cannot allow this in our state.
I wish to conclude this address with an appeal to all
community and opinion leaders, and indeed every citizen of Nasarawa State to
help government end this crisis by returning to the path of dialogue and
peaceful coexistence.
Barely two months ago I undertook an extensive tour of all
the Local Government Areas of this state and was overwhelmed by the
outpouring of joy and friendship between the various ethnic groups in the
affected parts of Nasarawa South Senatorial District now engulfed in violent
hatred. Not only that, I presided over the People's Forum in each of the
three senatorial districts which were attended by all the ethnic
nationalities along with their cultural troupes which came to entertain the
crowds.
All community leaders, traditional rulers, local
government chairmen and opinion leaders of all the ethnic groups were in
attendance, and all of us discussed issues of common interest and community
development. What a beautiful rainbow the people's forums were. Every group
was present and Nasarawa State looked great and ready to march forward to
meet the challenges of development and progress for our communities and our
state.
You would also recall that the recurring theme in my
speeches throughout the tour and at the People's Forum was the need for
peace and peaceful coexistence and inter ethnic accommodation.
I was and, in spite of this crisis, I am convinced more
than ever before that we all need each other and we all must accommodate one
another to be able to maintain the needed peace and solidarity without which
it is impossible to achieve development and progress in a multi-ethnic state
like ours. Hatred of neighbour will be the beginning of our downfall as a
state.
Inter-ethnic solidarity is a must in our state because the
opposite will wreck the basis of our existence as a state, and disrupt all
our development efforts and jeopardize the future of our children and
generations yet unborn. I call on all our leaders and communities to take up
the olive branch and embrace each other because there is no viable
alternative to tolerance and good neighbourliness. We must all seek to be
our neighbour's keeper. This is a precondition for our progress as a state.
We all struggled for decades to achieve autonomy and to
have a state of our own dreams and aspirations. Our efforts and sacrifices
will all be in vain unless there is peace. We did not fight to have a
Nasarawa State that will be embroiled in turmoil. We did not fight for a
Nasarawa State in which our children will live in fear. We did not fight for
a Nasarawa State that will be embroiled in ethnic or religious intolerance.
We wanted a Nasarawa State that can compete with other
states of the federation for advancement in all fields in order to improve
the condition of living of our people and ensure prosperity for all our
children. We wanted a state which will be dedicated to progress and
committed to placing our people among the very best in Nigeria. These were
the goals of our founding fathers.
It will be a great tragedy and a shame for all of us if we
fail to appreciate that each time we raise the banner of ethnic separatism
and hatred we diminish the prospects for progress and happiness in our
communities. Each time we raise the cutlass against our neighbour we
diminish the human spirit and promote chaos and disorder. We cannot afford
this. Other parts of the country and the world will leave us behind.
It is already shame enough that whereas other people are
in space hoping to conquer the universe, we are embroiled in village
quarrels and clannish hatred. NO, this must end, and very quickly too,
because our children need peace to go to school, to compete with their
counterparts in other parts of the country for a space in the future of
Nigeria and the world. I call on our elites to rise beyond the confines of
the village and of the clan to join hands with their neighbours and with the
government to promote peace and development. There's absolutely no
alternative to peace.
May I stress that democracy is about the rule of law, and
unlike other systems of government it demands the strictest enforcement of
the due process. The freedoms democracy promises are not realizable outside
the rule of law, and must therefore be exercised with the greatest sense of
responsibility. No citizen has a right to take the law into his own hands.
The spate of violence which we have been witnessing shows that our citizens
are yet to embrace the rule of law and due process. No one has the right to
engage in revenge attacks or to assume the role of the police and the state.
I call on all community leaders to report all those in their domains who
sustain this circle of violence through lawless acts.
Democracy is not a license for anarchy. Those who wait in
the wings to promote destruction and looting in the name of vengeance are
enemies of peace and will be dealt with within the full rigours of the law.
We cannot tolerate the wave of arson and banditry by irresponsible elements
who pose as sympathisers. The police and other law enforcement agents have
been ordered to investigate recent cases of arson and looting in the State,
and all those found guilty will be dealt with within the full rigours of the
law of the land.
The present situation is a challenge to all of us to rise
in defense of peace. Government has taken firm and irrevocable measures to
end the violence. I appeal to community leaders at all levels to do their
part by preventing violence in their communities. I urge you all to work
hand in hand with government and law enforcement agencies to restore law and
order, and to embrace the path of dialogue.
Let me sincerely thank state governors, foreign embassies,
top government functionaries at federal and state levels, legislators and
numerous friends of the government and people of Nasarawa State for their
messages of sympathy, condolence and solidarity with us in our great hours
of loss and pain. We appreciate their sentiments. We are touched by them. We
are encouraged by their clear messages of support for our peace efforts. We
assure them that with the support of the majority of the peace loving people
of Nasarawa State, we will spare no efforts or expenses to put this horror
and the pain behind us and continue with the race towards the Promise Land.
We thank the press for the interest shown in the crisis in
our state. We commend the maturity of their reporting so far but we ask them
to guard against inflammatory reports that will only compound the delicate
situation facing us. We urge them to maintain this level of objectivity as
we enter the crucial stage in the restoration of peace in the areas torn by
the crisis. They must not allow duplicitous elements to use them to mislead
the people with false reports. My office is open twenty-four hours a day. So
is the office of the state commissioner for information. We urge reporters
to cross check their facts with responsible authorities at all times.
My good people of Nasarawa State, let us resolve here and
now to put the ugly events of the past few days behind us. Let our pain and
our collective losses from this spate of violence be constant reminders that
there is no alternative to peace and peaceful co-existence in our
multi-ethnic state. Our resolve to be one happy family again, to learn from
the mistakes that gave rise to this violence will defeat the forces of evil
and disunity and thus move our state forward.
Finally, let us all turn to God almighty in prayers for an
end to this violence and for peace perpetual to reign in our dear young
Nasarawa State. Thank you and God bless our State.
|
