…Urges governments to return citizens’ ‘captured lands’ back to owners in Plateau.
by Christiana Gokyo, Jos
JOS – An analytical conference on politics and land has recently been hosted in the capital city of Plateau State, having been convened by Yusufu Turaki Foundation (YTF).
Tagged, ‘Politics, Land and Ethnic Nationalities in Nigeria: The Plateau Experience,’ the conference was held at ECWA Theological Seminary, Jos, on Thursday.
While expatiating on the theme of the event, one among lead speakers at the occasion, Prof Aboi Madaki, disclosed the ‘Politics, Land and Ethnic Nationalities’ to “a set of activities depicting the way and manner that people living in groups make decision with respect to governance, power, status and deployment of resources.
“These also include how political parties are formed, make their policies and get engaged in political activities. Politics and Power: the struggle for power has mainly been the reason for war and occupation of land in many climes globally.
“The quest for more power has been the bane of fighting among brothers, nations, communities and settlements. Politics, as earlier defined, encompasses the power to lead and deploy resources for the goodness of the people.
According to him, “Whoever has land means has the power to influence who stays and who uses the land. Acquisition of land gives the owner power and influences who governs the place; and politics can largely determine who occupies which land, where and how, he stressed.
Prof Madaki noted that, “Land is earthly part as pronounced by God , in Genesis 1: 10 where God instructed man to occupy and multiple to fill, but humans have fought over its occupation for several years and are still fighting for it.
“The Plateau Ethnic Nationalities we often refer to are groups of people characterized by common language, ancestry, culture and geographical location. They are commonly known as autochthones by virtue of the fact that they have lived in a place long enough for the land to be known in their names.
“There are 58 of such autochthones with 56 of them registered and operating under the PIDAN umbrella in the state,” he stated.
Prof Madaki recalled that, “Uthman Dan Fodio Jihad of 1804 that swept through the Northern part of Nigeria was about power and subjugation. He essentially killed and ransacked villages, taking over lands and imposing his ideology on those who chose to remain on the lands. Wherever he conquered, he imposed his religion and forced the people to do as he wished.
“Those places where he conquered, up to today, are governed by his philosophy and ruled by those whom he appointed as leaders in such places.
“Permit me to refer to his approach as the Uthman Dan Fodio mentality of leadership and governance. About thousands of Plateau indigenes were killed and over 100 villages taken over as a result of Othman Dan Fodio approach to leadership and governance.
“Correctly or wrongly, most of the Hausa and Fulani groups and their followers in Northern Nigeria have come to believe in this approach of leadership and governance and have tried to impose such ideology and practice on most people, mainly in northern Nigeria,” he noted.
He said, “An unpleasant addition to this style of leadership has been the massive corruption in most political administrations in which political leaders cajole the natives into giving lands for projects that are either non-viable or were designed in a manner that led to taking over ancestral lands.”
Prof. Madaki explained further that, “The Plateau and its Ethnic Nationalities in Plateau State have had their fair share of the influence of Uthman Dan Fodio mentality of leadership and governance by our leaders and those non-native citizens among us, who have found themselves in the position of power.
“We have had leadership that took the native lands under questionable guises for projects that were never implemented, or shabbily implemented, without returning such lands to the natives when the projects failed,” he stressed.
“The President of PIDA recalled that, the BARC Farms Zallaki, which were later re-acquired by the last administration, is a case in point; and take the case of grazing reserves such as Wase, which was later on converted into full settlement with limited access to parts of the land by the natives.
“Also recalling the case of cattle routes, which cut off vast expanse of arable lands of the native as cattle routes – at a time that the natives had no cattle.”
He observed that, “The State has equally had stark aggression by militia mainly of the Fulani extraction in the last two decades, who have renewed the advancement of the Uthman Dan Fodio style of governance.
“They have systematically been killing the Plateau natives, ransacking the natives from their ancestral lands and occupying the lands.
“In one such attacks in two days, in June 2018, 233 persons were killed and 8,520 persons were displaced as shown: June 23-24 attacks leading to killing of 233 persons and IDPs of 8,520 as distributed below. As at 2020, we had lost 102 villages to such conflicts.
“Both the political approach to governance and the aggression by the militia have combined to place the Plateau Ethnic Nationalities at the receiving-end of what could be referred to as the ‘unpleasant dividends’ of democracy.”
He said, “Instead of seeing the progressive development of Plateau land, we have witnessed the progressive loss of land, lives and property by the natives, with little efforts from the government at all levels to stopping it.
“This is what I will refer to as Failure of Political Leadership – villages being occupied and the dates of commencement of occupations.”
Prof. Aboi Madaki further observed that, “Again, in the last two decades, elections in Plateau State have most often been marred by violence, loss of lives and property, largely due to the struggle for power and influence between the natives and those deploying the Uthman Dan Fodio leadership mentality.
“The 2008 Jos-North LGA elections is a case in point. It can be said that the autochthones in Jos North have largely lost their right to govern their people in their land and, by extension, control over their ancestral lands, while the Plateau Ethnic Nationalities now looked forward to any round of elections and governance with trepidation – which should not be so.
He noted that, “There is the need to change our approach to politics and land use administration; we equally need to deal decisively with corruption.
“PIDAN Efforts Advocacy with Government and its organs: this culminated in the enactment of the Anti-Land Grabbing Law of Plateau by the Plateau State House of Assembly, and signed into law by His Excellency, Rt Hon Simon. B. Lalong, on the 24th day of December, 2020.
“However, the law has not been able to recover or return any piece of land to the ethnic nationalities, strengthen unity with the PIDAN in governance strategic document put in place in 2018.
“It had helped to shape the face of politics in Plateau State. The last elections were a case in point in which the plethora of candidates was from the Central Zone.
“We hope it will help in reducing electoral cost and improving political understanding of the people and hope to continue to work with Governments at all levels to make people-oriented policies that will protect the ethnic nationalities lands, recover occupied lands and progressively develop the lands for the benefit of all citizens of the state,” Prof Madaki stated.
Also in his paper, ‘Politics, Land and Ethnic Nationalities in Nigeria,’ Prof. Yusufu Turaki urged President Ahmed Bola Tinubu to implement the long awaited 2014 National Conference Report, which was initiated by Goodluck Jonathan administration.
The Founder of Yusufu Turaki Foundation (YTF) says, “Implementation of the 2014 National Conference Report will go long way in addressing social, economic and political challenges confronting the Nation.”
According to him, “There is the need for the urgent implementation of 2014 National Conference Report to guarantee sense of belonging to every citizen of this country, taking into cognizance the way things are going on now.”
He acknowledged that, “The conference is a reunion of those, who have passed through the foundation and making remarkable impact their various fields of endeavours for Nigeria and the world at large.”
Other papers presented were, ‘Theology of Land,’ by Rev. Dr. Charles Ekweozor and ‘Indigenous Land Rights,’ by Suleman A.D. Sukukum.