BRIEF ON OPERATION RAINBOW
Introduction:
Widely known as the “Home of Peace and Toursim in Nigeria”, Plateau State has unfortunately become infamous as a result of the several violent ethno-religious and communal clashes that have come to typify most news reports about the State over the past decade.
2. Plateau State’s cool temperate weather, attractive vegetation and terrain as well as history
of tin mining have turned Jos the State capital into a melting pot of ethnic nationalities from all over Nigeria.
3. Some of the crises/clashes that have bedevilled the State include;
a). Protest by Jos indigenes and clashes of 1994 over the appointment of a Hausa/Fulani man as caretaker Chairman of Jos North LGA. More violence broke out in 1998 at Gyero road, near Bukuru in Jos South LGA. Rising tensions between the indigenous ethnic groups of Afizere, Anaguta and Berom on the one hand and the Hausa/Fulani community culminated in the first major ethno-religious crisis which engulfed Jos in 2001. Thousands of lives were lost and several thousand homes and properties were destroyed in this crisis. More lives and properties were also destroyed in 2002 at Eto-Baba neighbourhood in Jos when a People’s Democratic Party (PDP) ward election turned into a bloody ethno-religious fracas. The Southern part of Plateau State witnessed their own share of the ethno-religious conflict between 2001 and 2004 as Wase, Langtang North, Langtang South, Shendam and Qua’an-Pan Local Government Areas also erupted in similar clashes. There was the 2008 Jos clashes over Jos North Local Government elections, which led to even more deaths and destruction as well as the 2010 clashes which lead to the establishment of a permanent Special Military Task Force to maintain civil order in Plateau State. This was made up of troops drawn from the Army, Airforce and Navy. The Task Force later expanded to include the Nigeria Police. Incessant attacks instigated by suspected renegade Fulani herdsmen in rural areas of Plateau North Senatorial Zone have also led to great losses of lives and property; an example being the Dogo Nahawa massacre of January 2010 when several hundred inhabitants of the village were killed in cold blood in their sleep at night.
3. In spite of the Federal Government’s responses with troops deployments in times of clashes and the eventual establishment of permanent Special Task Force, as well as the institution of multiple State and Federal Judicial Commissions of Inquiry aimed at finding the causes and solutions to these ethno-religious conflicts, peace has continued to elude Jos in particular and the entire Plateau State in General.
4. The 2010 Christmas Eve bombing by Boko Haram, a self-proclaimed Jihadist Muslim terrorist organisation only served to compound the problem in Jos which has since then witnessed several other su***de bomb attacks in Churches packed full of worshippers and recreational centres usually frequented by non-muslim residents of Jos. As its contribution to the building of peace in Plateau, the State Government at the initial stage provided necessary logistic support to the STF to bring the situation under control. Later on, some lapses were observed including inadequate provision of accurate and timely information/intelligence for proactive response to situations by the Task Force.
6. The Governor of the State Dr. Jonah David Jang decided to set up a team to understudy the security in a neighbouring State, Kaduna, whose outfit is “Operation YAKI”. The Team concluded that Operation YAKI was contributing immensely towards the sustenance of peace in that State.
7. The Governor therefore forwarded a request for formation of a similar outfit for Plateau State to the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan who promptly approved the creation of Operation RAINBOW as a security outfit for Plateau State. Hence, Operation RAINBOW with its Neighbouring Watch Operatives was set up to perform community policy duties in their various localities. They provide accurate and timely information on security situation in their various wards which enables proactive action by security agencies.
8. Operation RAINBOW is an outfit like the Special Task Force comprising of the Army, Navy, Air Force, the Police and the SSS elements. It also includes other security agencies like the Immigration to handle cases of illegal immigrants in the State, Civil Defence for physical security and information gathering and National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) to handle drug related cases and arrange for rehabilitation where necessary, particularly with the youths. We also have the Fire Service for necessary quick and proactive action to save life and property and Road Safety to handle vehicular offences.
9. Please be informed that Operation RAINBOW is a new concept that has a pragmatic approach to handling security. The outfit handles security in the State from four (4) dimensions. These include the Political, Economic and Social dimensions, as well as the Physical Dimension. Political Dimension
- Organise dialoguing with Stakeholders on political issues.
- Places a lot of emphasis on the provision of good governance to sustain social and economic transformation for the stability, survival and prosperity of the state.
- It is pertinent to note that, good governance is essential for the successful de-radicalization of terrorist and insurgents, transformation of violent extremism as well as the effective implementation of other counter-radicalisation programmes. Economic Dimension
- There is strong evidence that inclusive growth, defined by the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) as growth which ensures opportunities for all sections of the population with particular emphasis on women and young people, can promote rapid economic growth. Operation RAINBOW is involved in;
- The creation of youth empowerment programmes through direct employment (Dry Season Farming)
- Women Empowerment to enhance their emancipation through the establishment of catering, sewing and knitting training centres.
- Actively encourage and also undertake agricultural training with special focus on dry season farming.
- Provision of soft loans and credit facilities to enable our trainers to utilise and fully benefit from the knowledge they acquired from us
- The emphasis on farming for the youth is primarily because over 70% of our people are farmers.
- Operation RAINBOW actively encourage the establishment of Skill Acquisition Centres in various parts of Plateau State
c). Social Dimension
- Sensitization of people, especially the youths on the menace of drugs on them.
- Arrange for the rehabilitation of youths who are already into drugs by NDLEA
d). Physical Dimension
- It is the failure of the political, economic and social dimensions that necessitates the stick approach which is the physical security and which in turn has been able to contain most crises/conflicts in the State to give room for the other three (3) dimensions to function.
- Operation RAINBOW’s Early Warning and Early Response capabilities will be put to use when the need arises. The vision of Operation RAINBOW is: “To strengthen the security network in the state for sustainable peace, security and economic development”.
11. The mission of the outfit on the other hand is;
“To ensure enduring peace and security of lives and properties on the Plateau through the process of proper articulation and deployment of all embarrassing measures that would adequately address and contains the democratic values and rule of law issues that have potentials of leading to crisis in the State’’. NEIGHBOURHOOD WATCH
12. The current trend of crime control world over is community policing. This arrangement involves the recognition of some individuals or groups of people by Security Agencies to provide auxiliary security watch over their communities in view of the fact that security is all encompassing and not the exclusive of government and security agencies.
- Plateau State is made up of 17 LGA’s
- Subdivided into 325 wards
- An average of at least 12 Neighbourhood Watch Operatives per ward were recruited and trained on how to gather information from their various wards and forward same to the appropriate headquarters for proactive action to be taken to prevent crisis in the state. Experience has shown that this development has contributed immensely towards the sustenance of peace in Plateau State.
- The recruitment of this high number of youths for Neighbourhood Watch duty has gone a long way to provide jobs for over four thousand (4,000) previously jobless youths in the State. The youths in turn complement Security Agencies in the enforcement of Law and Order. UNITED NATION DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMMME (UNDP) SUPPORT
13. It is pertinent to state that UNDP is;
- Providing a free four (4) digit SMS facility for Operation RAINBOW for timely forwarding of reports and distress calls to Operation RAINBOW headquarters for necessary further action.
- Capability to render various ICT – based services to other security outfits aimed at strengthening their network in the State for sustainable peace, security and economic development.
- The support will enable Operation RAINBOW offer to various web-based E/lection and Vote Counting Monitoring Systems which can be used by civil society organisations and other election monitoring bodies.
- Training which is very cardinal to any organisation.
- Operation RAINBOW in conjunction with UNDP, has conducted a workshop on “Conflict Monitoring, Early Warning, Early Response in Jos.
- It has also, in collaboration with National Defence College Nigeria conducted a course on “Protection of Civilians in Armed Conflict for Sector Commanders of the Special Task Force”. COLLABORATION WITH MASADA ISRAEL
14. There is collaboration between the Plateau State Government and Israel MASADA “Inner Strength Development Centre” which is an inner strength based leadership program for women, men and youths to endure and overcome crises. This is an ultimate Israel training program for personal “Inner Strength” development and empowerment. It gives the participant qualification on struggle against violent crime or terrorism. CONCLUSION
15. The quest for peace in Plateau State and commitment of the present State Administration to the process has taken a toll on the resources of the State. The priority given to the setting up of Operation RAINBOW is reflected in the number one policy thrust of the administration which is to provide sustainable peace and security in the State.
16. The establishment of Operation RAINBOW is a demonstration of the Plateau State Government’s commitment to the restoration and sustenance of peace and security. This effort builds on the effort of the Special Task Force and Joint Operations deployed by the Federal Government in managing the security challenges in the State. It is to our delight to state that Operation RAINBOW is contributing its best towards ensuring sustainable peace, security and harmony in Plateau State.
17. Thank you for reading.
