In the highlands of Jos, where the breeze once carried songs of peace and cattle bells danced to the rhythm of daily life, a heavy silence now reigns. The hills have witnessed too much. They have drunk the blood of the innocent, swallowed the cries of children whose mothers now sit in mourning, draped in dust and disbelief. Jos, the heart of the Plateau, beats slowly today, choked by smoke, shattered homes, and the shadows of Fulani herdsmen whose bullets and blades sowed sorrow where millet once grew.
This is no longer just a communal clash. This is ethnic cleansing—an unspoken war declared upon a people whose only crime was being born on the land of their ancestors. Churches burned. Villages emptied. Graves dug too fast for names to be carved.
But Jos must not be forgotten.
This is a call not merely for sympathy, but for justice. For humanitarian intervention, for urgent shelter, food, and medicine. For world leaders to acknowledge the genocide that hides beneath euphemisms. For Nigerians to remember that no region should bleed alone.
Let us rise before the hills fall silent forever.
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Poem: Cry of the Plateau
Oh Jos, thou cradle of cloud and stone,
Where laughter once rose like morning dew,
Now echoes weep in fractured tone,
As blood and ash paint skies once blue.
The herds came not with peace this time,
But iron, flame, and ruthless hand,
And now your fields—a funeral rhyme,
Your children scattered, your soil unmanned.
Where drums once called to wedding feasts,
There’s only grief, no song, no sound,
Except the wails of mourning priests,
And silence buried in sacred ground.
What god condones such vicious rain?
What law ignores the farmer’s plea?
When justice sleeps and men are slain,
The hills must rise and shake the sea.
Stand, O people, with Jos in pain,
Share your bread, your voice, your fire,
Till peace like rainfall comes again,
And mercy crowns this land entire.
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Call for Action:
We urge the global community, humanitarian agencies, and the Nigerian government to treat the situation in Jos as a national emergency. Send food. Send medical aid. Send peacekeepers. Demand justice. Let the world not wait for another Rwanda to repeat in slow motion. Jos weeps—and we must not turn away.
By : Jide Adesina
1stAfrika.com
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