Terryima Andrew
A onetime governorship aspirants in Adamawa state, Dr Bala Takaya has said that the middle belt region of Nigeria has not felt the positive impact of Nigerian independence since over 50 years ago.
He said, “For too long, the autochthonous peoples of the middle-belt have lived under the illusion that it is well for them in the independent Nigeria.”
According to him, the practice of Sharia law gave birth to Boko Haram insurgents “declaration of Sharia by some governors in northern Nigeria shortly after the return of civil rule in 1999, took it upon themselves to brazenly violate the provision of the Nigeria Federal constitution turning their into Islamic states irrespective of the constitutional rights of their non-Muslim citizens. Then came the Boko Haram orgies of killings, burning and total despoliations of whole communities, making millions of citizens to flee in to neighboring countries as refugees.”
The former guber hopeful challenge Nigerian political leaders, particularly northern leaders to take a cue from the leadership style of the first sole administrator of the former Benue/Plateau state commissioner of police, Joseph Gomwalk.
Takaya, made the call Thursday evening in Jos, Plateau state, at the University of Jos, during the inaugural memorial lecture in honor of late Joseph Gomwalk, organized by a group “Plateau Trust Group.”
He said Gomwalk’s regime witness no violence, as the former sole administrator was constantly in touch with his counterparts in other state, according to him, it enable him ruled well.
“His frequent interstate tour and counter-engagement with governors.”
The guest speaker at the inaugural lecture Bala Takaya, revealed that the current and persistent insecurity in the middle-belt was an attempt by some people to occupy the region in all aspect of life.
“To my mind, the salient but silent motives behind starting these relentless internecine wars in the middle-belt, though waged on the wings and machinery of Islamic region, are part of the perpetual struggle for the control of the region’s political economy aimed at dehumanization of the region’s populace.”
He noted with dismay that Jihad in the middle-belt region, which literally means to convert other people who do not practice Islamic region, was aim at dispossessing indigents of their inheritance.
“Jihad invaders attempted to war against native middlebeltans at all, it was usually undertaken as a struggle, invariably initiated through a divide and rule strategy, principally aimed only at possessing the land of their host rather than to proselytize the non believers.”
Governor of Plateau star Simon Lalong, represented by the commissioner of health, Kuden Kamshak, said his administration will strive to meet the standard late Gomwalk set.
Lalong appreciated organizers of the lecture, and call on Sons and daughters of the Middle Belt to emulate the leadership style of Gomwalk.
Chairman of the occasion Prof Ochapa Onazi, who said was secondary school a class mate to late Joseph Gomwalk, also informed that Gomwalk was an upright person who stood against marginalization.
Onazi urge the younger generation to also emulate leadership qualities of the sole administrator of the Benue/Plateau state.
In his address, chairman “Plateau Trust Group” David Parradang, noted that late Gomwalk dedicated his entire life time to the liberation of the minorities of the middle Belt people.
Mr. Parradang said the lecture series will henceforth be an annual event, maintaining that the lectures will gradually expose hidden talents and qualities of the former sole administrator.
Some guests who spoke at the event suggested renaming of the university of Jos after Joseph Gomwalk, because he facilitated establishment of the institution and many other government institutions, including Plateau state Radio and Television with the state government owned weekly news paper, the Nigeria Standard.
