Prof. Dakas to Plateau Leaders: Are You Part of the Problem or the Solution?

• Says Unity and Good Governance of Minerals are Key to Plateau’s Future

Our Reporter

Professor C.J. Dakas on Wednesday challenged stakeholders in Plateau State to confront “inconvenient truths” about division and take responsibility for building a united state, warning that unity without justice and good governance will not deliver peace or development.

Speaking as keynote speaker at the ongoing Plateau Initiative for Development and Advancement, PIDAN, retreat in Jos, Dakas said the theme “Building a United Plateau, Harnessing Our Diversity and Mineral Wealth for Sustainable Peace and Development” was a call to action, not a celebration.

“Building is a verb. It requires sacrifice, a plan and resolve. You don’t build by complaining or by sitting on the sidelines,” he told traditional rulers, religious leaders, government officials and civil society actors.

He then asked two direct questions: “Are we prepared to make the effort to build a united Plateau? And what exactly are we prepared to sacrifice?”

Dakas said the choice of the word “building” in the theme implicitly admits that Plateau is not yet as united as it should be.

He listed ethnicity, religion, identity politics, competition over land, and the manipulation of differences as factors dividing the state, but added that the deeper problem may be “a failure to develop a sufficiently strong sense of Plateau citizenship.”

He posed what he called the most uncomfortable question to the audience, “Are you part of the problem, or are you part of the solution?”

The legal luminary urged them to “look at the man in the mirror before you start blaming other people,” citing recent violence in Mangu, Riyom and Bassa as proof that indifference to attacks in other communities eventually affects everyone.

Quoting the Bible’s account of the Tower of Babel, Dakas said unity is powerful but not automatically good.

“People can unite around corruption. People can unite around exclusion. The question is: what will Plateau unite around?”

Prof Dakas said Plateau must unite around sustainable peace and development.

“We do not want the peace of the graveyard. We want peace where farmers can farm, children can go to school, and investors have confidence. Peace is an enabler of development.”

With 56 ethnic groups in the state, Dakas said diversity should be treated as social capital, not a weapon.

“How do we move from merely tolerating one another to actually valuing one another?” he asked.

On the economy, he described Plateau’s mineral wealth as both the state’s greatest challenge and opportunity.

He asked who owns the resources, who grants licences, who benefits and who bears environmental costs.

Citing reports of over 4,000 abandoned mining ponds in Plateau and allegations of unregulated extraction in Wase, he warned that without good governance, minerals will bring conflict instead of development.

“The objective must be to convert mineral wealth into human development,” he said.

He also addressed the livestock debate, saying Plateau must position itself to benefit from the value chain while ensuring there is no forceful acquisition of land.

Using his own experience as former Attorney-General, and that of his wife and younger brother in politics, Dakas illustrated how identity is manipulated.

He said he was simultaneously claimed and questioned by Mangu, Jipal and Pankshin communities when appointed, and that his wife was asked which LGA she was “running for” during a senatorial bid.

“The lesson is not that ethnicity ceases to matter. It is how we manage it, whether we deploy it as an asset or as a weapon,” he said.

Dakas urged PIDAN to establish a Peace and Development Programme for research and advocacy, work with the University of Jos to set up a Centre for Middle Belt Studies and to honour the late J.D. Gomwalk, create a standing inter-ethnic dialogue and reconciliation council, launch a Youth Leadership and Entrepreneurship Programme, and promote an annual cultural and economic festival.

Dakas concluded by calling for a “renewed covenant” to build “one Plateau, united in purpose, prosperous in opportunity and secure in peace.”

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