In This Biography

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P/ STATE NSECURITY: HOW FG, SG & LG GOOFED (By Shabul Mazadu)

Plateau State has witnessed tremendous genocides of different magnitudes and scopes, and they incessantly occur with no feasible end.
Hardly will a year passed without onslaughts on communities or skirmishes here and there. This has been the trend since 2001, making it 24 years of senseless bloodbath.

The governments at all levels goofed in some ways while tackling insecurity which led to its lingering posture to this day.
FEDERAL GOVERNMENT
The Federal Government, FG, has tried in some ways to ensure the full return of peace by imposing state of emergencies in 2004 on the entire state, and 2012 on the Northern Zone.
It also established Joint Task Force, called Operation Safe Haven, OPSH, which mans security in Plateau, Bau hi and parts of Kaduna states; but to no avail.
FG’S ERROR
It is said, “A problem known is a problem half solved.” Those sent by the FG to restore peace in the state made assertions giving hint as clues to causes of the insecurity, but failed to act appropriately.

Gen. Chris Alli, then administrator of the Emergency Rule said the crises in the state which started in 2001 were orchestrated in the state and not outside.
Then GOC 3 Armoured Division, Gen. Saleh Maina said the stakeholders in the state knew the cause of the crises but lack the sincerity to fight it. He said in an interview with Saturday Vanguard March 27, 2010, “Those who should know, know exactly what the problems are or what the causes of the conflicts are. And nobody, I repeat, nobody has made sincere effort to address any of the issues sincerely. That is why many of the conflicts keep recurring, that crisis keeps recurring.”
On his part, the former OPSH Commander, Major General Augustine Agundu said the causes of the crises were cooked in the city and tasted in the villages. He said in an interview with Sunday Vanguard December 31, 2023, “You have to understand the Plateau setting. The dirty soup is cooked in the capital city but the bitter taste comes out in the rural areas.”
From their statements, it showed they had clues into the causes of the problems. The FG should have pursued their clues vigorously and make arrests or unravel the perpetrators to the public. But overlooking such and treating the signs and symptoms of the disease has kept it growing and multiplying in different dimensions.

STATE GOVERNMENT
All the Democratic governors in the Fourth Republic experienced genocides on communities under their tutelage, and some of them in their own ways attempted tackling them, but to no avail.
The Jonah David Jang Administration introduced Operation Rainbow and advocated for state Police. The Simon Lalong administration introduced: Peace Building Agency, Peace Tower for early warning signs, lobbied for Air Force Base in Kerang, established Mobile Police Barracks in Gashish, introduced Inter-faith Council, moved for the creation of Mobile Barracks in Shendam and enacted Anti-Land Grabbing/ Anti-Kidnapping Law, but to no a avail.
Some of the governors kept saying they were helpless because they don’t control the Military, Police and Para-Military, that’s why it’s so difficult for them to secure the state.
Some of them claim that onslaughts on communities are geared towards land-grabbing making the greatest population to believe their rhetoric.
But unfortunately some of them use the skirmishes for political advantage which is not supposed to be.

SG ERORS
General Gaki Shipi, the Acting Commander of Operation Rainbow said after the Bokkos attack as reported by Weekend Trust Saturday April, 2025, “We are all aware that there are people who benefit from insecurity. The peace we have enjoyed all these while has put their business at a standstill. So, there is a high probability that they are the ones behind this sudden outbreak of this violence. Like you all know, previously, you could all lay your fingers on the cause, either farm destruction or rustling of cattle, but this time nothing happened.”
From what Shipi, a security expert said we can deduce some causes of the problems which are: illicit business, destruction of farms and cattle rustling.

Governor Caleb Mutfwang on his part said they are land-grabbers and cattle rustlers too. Jonah David Jang said it’s all about land-grabbing and the people are known.
These reasons given by Shipi, Mutfwang and Jang, have been there for a very long time, showing that all the democratic governors were all aware, but what measures have they taken?
There should have been laws enacted in consonant with Constitution of the Federal Republic against cattle rustling and destruction of farmlands. A task force should have been set in rapid response to SOS on cattle rustling and grazing of crops by herders, so that any herder caught grazing on farmlands should pay compensation and be severely dealt with to serve as deterrent, the same thing with cattle rustlers. Also, there should have been a law against inciting and inflammatory statements capable of leading to bloodbath.
Land-grabbing should have long be nipped in the bud than sparing it to this level, by setting up a commission for complaints, which after verification, the government would evict the occupiers.

The vitality of having laws is to get swift attention of security agencies as violators are already criminal suspects and confronters of the government who will not be spared.
Without laws prohibiting a thing, commanding security agencies to confront it might not be possible in fear of being offenders.

One of the major setbacks to fighting insecurity in Plateau, was the failure of prosecuting the arrested suspects by government. No suspect was ever prosecuted to serve as deterrent to others.
There should be swift prosecution of all suspects and if found guilty should face the full wrath of the law.
The governors didn’t setup early warning signs and response mechanisms to attacks on communities, nor mounted surveillance cameras, neither did they empower vigilantes and hunters like the civilian JTF in Borno State to secure vulnerable communities.
24 years was enough to have mounted surveillance cameras, set cutting edge warning signs and empowering communities to defend themselves in times of attacks before the arrival of security agencies.
24 yours was enough to have helped vulnerable communities with standard roads and solar lights for easy access by security agencies when called in times of attacks.
The Governors spent billions on constructing flyovers in the state capital when villages were exposed to attacks. Flyovers are not the paramount roles of the governors but security of lives and properties. No amount of money is too huge to secure lives. If the billions spent on flyovers were deployed to providing security in villages, by now all villagers would have been sleeping soundly.
Lives of the citizens are much better than flyovers.
What was the need of spending billions on uncompleted projects when there was massive insecurity in villages?
There is a charter that prioritizes projects to be executed by the executives on scale of preference, and the first acknowledged by the Constitution is the security of lives and properties. Which governor prioritized that above other considerations in Plateau? It is said that governance is continuum, if the governors had started and built on, by now Plateau would have been secured.
It’s time to prioritize security above everything, because it is the living that will enjoy the dividends of democracy and not the dead.

LG
Most local governments in the state appear helpless feeling there is nothing they can do, but they have the right to make certain laws prohibiting certain things that are potentially dangerous for security.
Every local government has its peculiar security threats, and they can take certain actions in stemming them instead of waiting on the state and Federal Government.
The Chairmen are Chief security officers of their jurisdiction, and any legit law enacted, shall be honored by the security agencies for security purposes.
Security is every one’s concern, and we must be alive to it. Then United Nations Secretary General, Kofi Annan said, “We all share responsibility for each other’s security, and only by working to make each other secure can we achieve lasting security for ourselves.”