PEACE:O TARABANS! WHO HAS BEWITCHED US?

PEACE:O TARABANS! WHO HAS BEWITCHED US?

I have encountered several people whose view about Taraba is that they are always fighting. I have tried on several occassions to disabuse the minds of such people, but all to no avail. Taraba State often than not appeares in the news for the wrong reasons and it is mostly communal/tribal crisis. While states like Kebbi are creating a niche for themselves as leading producers of rice, Taraba State, endowed with even more potential is still embroiled in identity crisis. Of recent, the Tiv/Jukun crisis has taken another unenviable and pathetic dimension. Shomo and Jole are fighting over a pond. The Fulani/Herdmen crisis has taken a dangerous twist where bandits and kidnappers and rustlers and killers and ritualists have taken advantage of the situation to open shops and run their businesses with reckless abandon. 

All these makes one relate the current happenings in the state with what was obtainable among Galatians when Paul, in his writing referred to them as foolish. This outburst was occasioned by the act of turning away from what they were taught and have come to know and believe. Tarabans, I can say with equivocation or fear of favour, that ye are like the foolish Galatians. If not, how can one sensibly explain the wanton destruction of lives and properties going on in the state for no justifiable course? Who has bewitched you/us?

One of the slogans of the Governor Darius Dickson Ishaku is “Give Me Peace and I will Give you Development”. I won’t dabble into the argument of whether or not the Governor has brought needed development. But I am forced to ask, have we created the atmosphere for the governor to give us the development he so promised? Suffice it to say that we are our own problem.  Yes, wise men said; peace is not the absence of war. But I dare say that war is not the only pre-requite of finding peace. Peace has no alternative especially in the modern society. But we can’t say same of war. 

Taraba State is a state of very small means and is operating with very limited resources. It will be foolish to create situations where the scarce and limited resources will be further decimated to carter for the needs of victims of multiple crisis. Because when a town is overran, lives and properties will be lost. The remaining people will run to find refuge in IDP camps. IDP camps are often than not, Schools. Once a school is turned into an IDP camp, students or pupils will be robbed or denied the freedom to learn under a conducive atmosphere. The economy standing of that community, no matter how small has, will be further incapacitated.  

Governments do not always budget for crisis. Why should they? But people affected by crisis will need relief materials. And government is to provide these relief materials. That will mean extra budget or budget cut. That is like collecting a walking stick from a cripple. The people whose homes are ravaged will need to re-build. It takes a lot to rebuild. It takes time to get back on your feet even if you have the ability and the courage to get back. 

War/Crisis has no positive consequences. It has cost us a lot and is still costing a lot. We know the disadvantages of crisis, but like the foolish Galatians, we take crisis as the only means to solve our problems. We must see ourselves as brothers and Taraba our home. In the words of Abraham Lincoln; “We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory will swell when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.”

 Tarabans let’s sheath our swords and embrace peace. “We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools.” 

Epemilo Kundila writes from Jalingo