The city of Jos
p. 23-24
Texte intégral
1According to Baba (1984-85) and Smah (1995a), the town of Jos was laid out in 1915 under two main sections:
- Jos Township, consisting of Tudun Wada, Zaria Crescent and the Government Reservation Area (GRA).
- Jos Native Town, which is made up of Ali Kazaure, Jenta Adamu and Abba na Shehu. These areas are still under native rule and are administered by the Jos town council, headed by a local chief, the Gbong Gwom. These two areas are separated by a light railway which leads to Bauchi. The discovery of tin in Jos, had significant effects on the growth of the city.
2The mining economy of the Jos Plateau was run by an essentially migrant population (Sha, 1994). The tin mines attracted large numbers of petty traders from Eastern and Western Nigeria. There was also an influx of northerners, some of whom came to utilize the abandoned mining pits for fadama or dry season farming. With the growing number of people in the city, facilities were established to meet transport and communication needs; for example, a rail line was extended to Jos from Zaria in 1913 and the Port Harcourt – Enugu rail line was extended to Jos in 1927 linking the coal and tin mining regions.
3Between the 1930s and the 1960s, many more social infrastructures were established, such as post offices, telephones, banks and other financial institutions, schools, modern markets and shopping complexes. While paid and money-generating employment made an impressive contribution to the growth of Jos in the 1950s, it was not until the 1960s that the post-colonial political development process of the country began to make an impact. The creation of Benue-Plateau state in 1967 brought many of the indigenes of the new Benue State to Jos for civil service jobs. It was during this period also that the indigenes, particularly the Birom, became interested in the political and economic development of the city.
4 During the 1980s, social and natural disasters forced many people to migrate to Jos and its environs. Particular reference is made to the rinderpest cattle epidemic and the Sahelian drought of 1983-84, in which many herds of cattle died; and two decades of religious conflicts beginning from 1980, e.g., the Maitatsine Movement (Sokomba, 1986). The drought sparked off an exodus of cattle rearers and pastoralists from the far north who brought their cattle to graze near the mining ponds. The religious upheaval was particularly disturbing between 1980 and 1996 and forced many people to migrate to places like Jos.
5In March 1986, violent clashes between Christian and Muslim youths in Kafanchan spread to some major northern cities like Kaduna, Zaria, Sokoto and Gombe. As most of these towns are close to Jos, a good proportion of the victims, mainly Christians and animists, added to the population of Jos by fleeing there. Bako (1994) has documented other categories of urban violence that have had an impact on the social landscape of Jos. These clashes included ethno-religious and inter-ethnic conflicts. Ethno-religious conflicts have taken place in Zagon-Kataf between Hausa Christians and Hausa Muslims, the Hausa and Seyewa in Bauchi, the Hausa and the Jukun in Benue and the Taraba, the Hausa and the Birom in Plateau State. These conflicts have had a considerable impact on the settlement of Jos and its environs. The growth of any city puts severe pressure on its social services and basic utilities such as water and light. With this background, the scope of juvenile delinquency and violence in Jos can be examined.
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