For decades, the North Central Nigerian state of Plateau has been a flashpoint of intercommunal violence for decades. Once known as the “Home of Peace and Tourism,” Plateau has become synonymous with recurring cycles of bloodshed that have claimed thousands of lives. This crisis represents one of Nigeria’s most persistent security challenges, with root causes that seem to be complex and multifaceted.
Looking through the context of history, the violence in Plateau State stems from a complex interplay of factors. The region sits at the convergence of Nigeria’s predominantly Muslim north and predominantly Christian south, creating something of a religious fault line which should naturally not be a challenge if we in these climes adhere to their true teachings. However, reducing the conflict to only religion alone is an attempt to oversimplify a more nuanced reality.
At its core, the Plateau crisis revolves around competition for scarce resources, particularly land. The indigenous ethnic groups of Plateau—primarily the Berom, Afizere, and Anaguta—are predominantly farmers and Christians. Over generations, Fulani pastoralists, who are mainly Muslims, have migrated to the region in search of grazing land for their cattle. Climate change has exacerbated this migration, as desertification pushes herders further south.
Political marginalization also plays a significant role. The concept of “indigeneship” in Nigerian governance gives preferential rights to those considered original inhabitants of an area. This system has created tensions between those classified as “indigenes” and “settlers,” despite some families having lived in the region for generations.
Thus the grim weaponization of ethnic and religious identities by political elites has further inflamed tensions. Politicians often exploit these divisions for electoral gain, deepening societal fractures rather than healing them.
Since 2001, Plateau State has experienced numerous episodes of mass violence:
– September 2001: Over 1,000 people were killed in Jos during riots triggered by political appointments and religious tensions. Apparently, what kicked off the riots was the appointment of a Muslim, Alhaji Mukhtar Mohammed as the state coordinator of the NAPEP poverty alleviation programme. By
May 2004, more than 700 people were massacred in Yelwa-Shendam, with churches and mosques destroyed in retaliatory attacks, the attack was to then spread to Kano before President Olusegun Obasanjo declared a State of Emergency in the state.
By November 2008, Following disputed local government elections, approximately 700 people were killed in Jos.
Other timelines of such repeated orgies of blood and carnage include:
January 2010: Ethnic clashes in Jos claimed over 300 lives within days.
-March 2010: The Dogo Nahawa massacre saw over 500 people, mostly women and children, slaughtered in a night raid.
December 2010-January 2011: Bombings and subsequent violence in Jos killed more than 200 people.
July 2012: A funeral for victims of earlier attacks was ambushed, killing a federal senator, Gyang Dalyop Datong and a state lawmaker, Hon. James Fulani among dozens of others. That same year, the state witnessed coordinated attacks on rural communities resulting in hundreds of deaths.
2021-2023: Attacks intensified with dozens of mass casualty incidents in rural communities, including the Christmas Eve massacres of 2023 that claimed over 100 lives.
2024- Present Date: The violence has continued unabated with several deadly attacks on farming communities, with the recent killing of 52 people by gunmen and the displacement of about 2,000 others.
The reason for the attacks in six villages in Plateau’s Bokkos district last week was not immediately known but it is the worst outbreak of violence since December 2023, when over 100 people were massacred.
These statistics represent not just numbers but thousands of individual tragedies—families destroyed, communities uprooted, and a societal fabric torn apart by sustained violence. Such statistics represent a grim failure of the Nigerian state and it’s security apparatus.
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The blame for Plateau’s persistent violence must be distributed across multiple actors with the Federal Government bearing significant responsibility for its failure to address the crisis effectively. Two vital takeaways from this bloodletting drama is the fact that successive administrations have reactively deployed security forces rather than doing such proactively, often withdrawing them prematurely, the other is the fact that our insisting on centralizing our security architecture will forever remain inadequate whilst addressing and seeking to end localized conflicts. This majorly points to a failure of intelligence despite the billions sunk into such agencies on an annual basis, it is even worse to note that on a number of occasions, security agents received sizable evidence off such attacks but failed to act on such until after the attacks were carried out.
The government has failed to prosecute perpetrators, creating a culture of impunity and there are allegations that fifth columnists in the nation’s security apparatus are also aiding and abetting these criminals.
State and Local Governments have often exacerbated tensions through discriminatory policies that favor certain ethnic or religious groups. Political leaders have exploited identity politics rather than promoting inclusive governance. In addition, community leaders on all sides have sometimes inflamed tensions through inflammatory rhetoric. Religious leaders have not always used their moral authority to promote peace and reconciliation.
There is also the talk about the involvement of transnational criminal networks as also playing a heavy role in financing and arming the locals, thus exploiting the tensions and fueling such conflicts for economic gain.
There are fears that should the killings in Plateau not cease, there is a tendency that the nation could be sitting on a keg of gun powder and such a crisis could escalate or help trigger another civil war or major disturbance. It is thus for this reason that the nation must begin to search for that elusive path to a just and sustainable peace.
This would surely require a hands on approach and a sincerity of purpose. A
A thorough reform of our security architecture which would include restructuring its security architecture to improve response times and intelligence gathering as well as encourage responsible state and community policing initiatives that involve local stakeholders could enhance security at the grassroots level and help prevent or deter such attacks from occuring again.
The establishment of special tribunals to prosecute perpetrators of violence would help break the cycle of impunity. The government must demonstrate that there are dire consequences for the participation in such mass violence, long jail terms or even the death penalty could help reduce or deter such attacks on the innocent people of Jos.
The setting up of ranches within the state could help the state reduce farmer-herder conflicts. The introduction of modern ranching techniques should be promoted, encouraged and enforced as alternatives to traditional pastoralism.
While the indigene settler mentality may not abate for the next fifty years, successive state governments should run an inclusive government for all and help blur the indigene-settler dichotomy. Governance structures should ensure representation for all ethnic and religious groups irrespective of where they come from or in what deity they believe in. These successive governments must remember that a majority of us neither chose our ethnicity nor form of religion from birth, to now marginalize one because he is a Muslim or a settler is akin to punishing one or more people for choices they did not make themselves.
Furthermore, the successive administrations including the present one must address the twin evils unemployment and poverty through targeted development initiatives. This way, the recruiting pools for such violent acts would steadily dwindle. Extras could also include the inclusion of peace education into the curricula in order to promote tolerance and peaceful coexistence. Inter-faith and inter-ethnic dialogue forums too should be encouraged helping build bridges between divided communities.
The path to peace in Plateau State is challenging but not impossible. It requires political will, community engagement, and a commitment to addressing root causes rather than symptoms. The people of Plateau, regardless of ethnicity or religion, share common aspirations for security, prosperity, and dignity, we therefore should not allow a few brigands rob them of such God given rights.
The persistent violence has extracted an unbearable human toll and threatens Nigeria’s national cohesion. When will the killings stop? They will stop when all stakeholders recognize that sustainable peace serves their long-term interests better than cycles of vengeance. They will stop when governance prioritizes justice over expediency, inclusion over division, and humanity over narrow identity politics.
The question is not whether sustainable peace is possible in Plateau, but whether there is sufficient courage and commitment to make the difficult choices necessary to achieve it. The bloodshed can end when Nigerians decide that no political, religious or ethnic difference is worth justifying the senseless slaughter of men, women and children, that time is now.
