When the Governor of Plateau state, Rt. Hon. Simon Bako Lalong came into office with a plan to arrest the vicious cycle of violence that has become a persistent plight of our people for more than a decade, some people expressed skepticism over the existence and otherwise viability of such a plan.

Some never believed him. They wouldn’t give him a chance either. For the avoidance of doubt, the governor indeed had a plan. And I would argue that his open and sincere approach to issues of Peace and security has yielded the kind of result we have seen since he assumed the role of the chief security officer of the state.

Two years down the line, I think we can look back to assess the performance of the governor in the area of Peace and security.

In doing so, one important question readily comes to mind: Has Governor Lalong lived up to his campaign promise to arrest the orgy of violence he inherited from the previous administration?

In responding to this overarching question, one must not indulge in unnecessary criticisms, or give undue praise and adulation but proceed to appraise with candor and facts.

The latter speaks to what this article is all about.

While Peace is one of the most difficult concepts to measure, however for the purpose of this piece, I would rather conceptualize the term as merely the cessation, and or absence of high intensity violence. Here I am not referring to what is described as permanent Peace but a fragile Peace. Hopefully, I shall return to this point much later.

By way of a quick overview, ethno-religious conflicts have plagued Plateau state for almost two decades. The causes of which are varied and extensive in nature and yet the effect, in terms of loss of human lives and property can only be better imagined.

How to tackle the precarious security situation in the state was thus the first test of leadership for Rt. Hon. Simon Bako Lalong when he officially took over the reins of power as governor of Plateau state on 29th May 2015.

With the growing incidence of Gorilla war- like attacks in some local governments like Riyom, Barkin Ladi and Kadarko in Wase, the security situation in many parts of the state was already deteriorating to a point of no gravitation.

The grisly images of people, mostly women and children killed on their farms, schools or in their homes in the middle of the night and often with their brutally-mutilated bodies displayed on different social media platforms was clearly becoming the new normal.

How on earth could it have come to this? To what depths can one or a group sink? How, in God’s name, is this even possible? These and many other comparable phrases once expressed the despair of citizens few months before the advent of his administration.

It would appear that the previous administration was totally helpless and if not overwhelmed by the flurry of security challenges that saw homes, communities and small villages raided and pillaged by “unknown gun men.”

This occurred almost on daily basis.

You will recall, we lost a distinguished senator of the federal republic of Nigeria and a member of the Plateau state House of Assembly in one such attack. The social and psychological impact of these heart wrenching incidents left many of us befuddled. Today, there are many people still struggling with the psychological effect of that experience.

We are all very conversant with the story and I don’t wish to go into the gory details. But this was the reality, indeed one of the darkest moments of our history in Plateau state.

And we can’t afford to erase it from our memory. We must remember.

The response of the previous administration to this terrible situation was somewhat nonchalant, to say the least and reactionary at best. Their idea of conflict intervention was reduced to ad hoc security arrangements, strong worded press statements and sometimes, the setting up of commissions of enquiry.

Whether that approach has yielded positive results is indeed an open question.

However what is never in doubt is the fact that we have witnessed the recurrence of violence in 2001, 2004; 2008; 2010, 2011 and 2014 which to my mind is a clear indication that until the underlying issues of conflict are addressed institutionally and of course with a sincerity of purpose, then the dreams of a lasting Peace will remain, in the words of Haile Selassie, “a fleeting illusion to be pursued, but never attained”.

Although governor Lalong inherited a near anarchic security environment, yet he has resolved from day one to confront and turn the situation around for the better.

The relentless quest for Peace and security has not only become a progressive expedition for him but indeed constitute a major policy preoccupation of his administration.

Peace, Security and Governance is the first item in his five point policy agenda. The logic being that no social, economic and political development takes place in an unstable or fluid environment. And this can only be achieved through a strategy that goes beyond the usual reactionary approach to issues of Peace and security.

A gentle and a Peaceful man who albeit small in stature, yet graceful in form and novel in deeds. The task before him was never an easy one and the job of unifying a deeply divided society that is hard pressed on every side seemed impossible at the beginning. Yet against all the odds, he took the path his predecessors have failed to take.

With a strong political will and the zeal of an activist, governor Lalong set sail on a course that would ultimately redefined our Peace and security landscape.

His approach and efforts paid off and today we celebrate the return of relative Peace. This is a fact that no sane critic of the Governor can take away from him.

The relative or fragile Peace –means we are experiencing a lull in high intensity violence. The significance of this reality will even make more sense to you when you cast your minds back to where we were before His Excellency came into office in 2015.

The situation was stark and quite scary. We were actually sliding into the abyss.

In my view, the cessation of open hostility between warring communities across the state is not only an achievement but constitutes one of the most enduring legacies of the governor.
And as I have consistently argued, the return of relative Peace is not merely an end in itself but rather presents a golden opportunity for the government and all other stakeholders to engage the underlying issues of conflict with a view to innovatively transform them.

It is a window through which we can work together side by side to resolve old conflicts, prevent new ones from happening and to as well promote a peaceful society.

But this is not something we can achieve overnight, because Peace building is a process that must be carefully crafted and nurtured to succeed. It takes time to address and resolve root causes of conflict anywhere.

The return of relative Peace also mean, our people are now talking to each other with a view to build confidence and gradually repair the broken social fabric of the society through mutual understanding, tolerance and respect.

It means, an opportunity to break down barriers and build bridges across the divide. It means addressing structural and institutional lapses, and of course, it means an opportunity to address historical and social injustices underlying the conflict.

This is usually a painstaking and sometimes frustrating process and it doesn’t actually mean that we do not experience pockets of low intensity violence here and there, but that efforts are made to carefully facilitate the process in a way that minimizes the risk of a return to violence.

This is what a relative Peace means- An opportunity to resolve, build, sustain and consolidate on the gains we have so far recorded. We are indeed on a journey. We haven’t reached our destination yet, but at least the train has since left the station.

This shift or movement signifies a giant step in our transition from a state of war to Peace and we must not be seen to undermine this process by making incendiary and inciting comments capable of fanning the embers of mutual hatred.
We don’t want to go on that path.

Please, not again.

How his Excellency was able to achieve this feat remains a mystery to many and understandably so, some people tend to despise things they do not understand. Thus the somewhat nonsensical criticisms and sometimes incendiary comments they make on the state of our relative Peace.

I shall in the next volume share with you some of the concrete steps governor Lalong took upon assumption of office to arrest the vicious cycle of violence that once pervades our landscape.

Joseph Lengmang
Director General,
Plateau State Peace Building Agency.

count | 123

Gov. Lalong And Our Transition From War To Peace: The Journey so far Vol. I – Joelengs