Plateau State Governor, Caleb Mutfwang, has declared that the state has been “under siege” for nearly three decades, stressing that the insecurity ravaging the area goes beyond farmer-herder clashes.
Speaking at the New Government House, Jos, during a courtesy visit by the Chairman of the Board of Governors of the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS) and former Senate President, Senator Ken Nnamani, Governor Mutfwang said the crisis was driven by orchestrated banditry with underlying motives of land grabbing.
“Our state has been under siege for almost three decades. This is not a mere farmer-herder clash, but orchestrated banditry with undertones of land grabbing. Several of our communities have been displaced. When we mischaracterize the situation, we proffer the wrong solutions. But if we see it as a threat to national sovereignty, the dynamics will change,” he said.
The governor commended Nnamani for his statesmanship and recalled his legacy of leading the National Assembly with dignity. He assured the NIPSS delegation of Plateau’s partnership in tackling insecurity and pledged his administration’s continued support for the institute’s research and policy initiatives on security and development.
In his remarks, Senator Nnamani applauded Mutfwang for restoring relative peace to Plateau, describing the calm as a welcome break from years of violence that drew both national and international concern.
“What we are seeing in Plateau today is calmness and peace. Without peace, we wouldn’t even be able to gather here. There can be no development without peace. We have been reading about killings and disturbances, but you seem to have quietened it a bit, and we congratulate you for this,” he said.
Nnamani also congratulated the state on its forthcoming cultural showcase at the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in New York and at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., describing the invitation as “a rare privilege that brings pride not just to Plateau, but to Nigeria as a whole.”
Director-General of NIPSS, Prof. Ayo Omotayo, also lauded Nnamani’s pivotal role in safeguarding Nigeria’s democracy during his tenure as Senate President, describing him as “a leader who stood for what was right at a critical moment in Nigeria’s history.”
Omotayo further appealed for Plateau State’s support in addressing land compensation, infrastructure, and security challenges affecting NIPSS’s Vom campus, which he said are vital to the institute’s role in national peacebuilding and development.
