Jos, the tin city that was once a peaceful haven for Nigerians of various ethnic groups, political and religious persuasions, has become the latest victim of the  former  president Olusegun Obasanjo’s politics of do-or-die. The irony of it, though, is that not even this war veteran would have sanctioned the senseless killings that took place last week in Jos in the name of politics.

Jos, it will be recalled, lost its virginity and innocence when militarised and vengeful politicians who took the reins of office in the early days of this so-called nascent democracy, used the powers of their office, not to promote the development of the state and of their people, but to instigate sectarian violence in the name of settling age-old score.  The 2001 violence occasioned by this hopeless misadventure snowballed into a state of emergency that lasted a whole of six months. The state has not quite recovered and I doubt if it will for a long time to come. The serenity of this plateau town of temperate climate has been shattered. Despite its cool clement weather, the place has become a hotbed of ethnic chauvinism, politico cum religious intolerance. It is like the devil has taken charge.

There was no reason for last week’s madness. Security and intelligence agencies, if they were alert to their responsibilities, ought to have sensed that trouble was knocking at the door when local government elections were fixed, postponed, refixed, shifted and postponed again. When the state government led by Jonah Jang of the Peoples Democratic Party eventually decided that the coast was sufficiently clear for the election to hold, I am sure his calculations were that whatever happened, in the spirit of do-or-die, his party would sweep all the 17 local government councils. All seemed to be going well for the party until the Jos North Local Government Council decided to go against all the permutations and throw up ANPP candidate as the front runner. Counting was suspended. Venue was shifted. Counting resumed again and was again suspended.  

Those who know how these things work knew well enough that there was some mago mago and  wuru wuru going on and the object of it was to deny the ANPP candidate victory. And apparently they did. Supporters took the law into their hands and the rest has become history, the history of an orgy of violence, if not genocide. Was it necessary? Those who had vowed not to give peace a chance, worked assiduously to entrench violence and disorder of unimaginable magnitude. To them it was necessary. For them it was a task that must be done. But it is a big shame.

All this happened in Nigeria, a country that was recently celebrating the victory of Barack Obama, a black American that made history by beating all the odds on his way to the White House as president. Even if it took so long in coming, there is no denying today that America has come of age; it has imbibed the culture of tolerance and accommodation and is now ever ready to make room for its best and the brightest no matter his colour or his race. In the year 2008, majority of politicians are still talking of settlers, indigenes and strangers. As others are moving forward and embracing the new technology of globalisation, many of the so called political elite are retreating rapidly into their various ethnic cocoons, promoting rabid ethnicity and religious bigotry.

 And they do so not for the love of their people.  Not for the love of God either. God does not sanction cheating and manipulation to deny somebody what rightly belongs to him. He does not promote violence and ask people to burn churches and mosques in the name of religious intolerance or political differences. What have the churches and mosques got to do with local government elections? God does not cheat and does not rig elections.  But that is what politicians do at collating or allocating centres. It is all about ego, money and power. 

Elsewhere people seek public offices to do good for their country and their people. Even in Nigeria, that was what it was, once upon a time. But not anymore. And the evidence is all over the place today. Anybody who is desperate enough to get to public office and he has to spend millions and even billions of Naira to realise his dream, cannot be said to be doing so for the love of the people. He is investing in his future. The more he spends, the more he will wish to reap.

 Is it any wonder therefore to see ambitious young men with doubtful means of livelihood spending so much money for marabouts, false prophets and prayer warriors of various hues and colours to help them to persuade God or the mammon  to install them in government houses come 2011? The way we are going,  the 62.18 billion Naira that  EFCC said it was seeking to recover from corrupt ex-governors  will be mere chicken change or some other  people’s pocket money if those who have already  mastered the art of helping themselves to other people’s money buy or steal their way to public office  now or in the future.

The Jos crisis is nothing but the symptom of a mad and irresponsible urge to gain access to public office by all means to steal   and pillage public funds. It is clear to the perpetrators, as it is clear to many of us, that the most profitable industry in Nigeria today is politics and public office. Those with inordinate ambition do not bat an eyelid before they kill, maim or destroy to gain power and lay hands on the public till. No more. No less.