Jos Main Market: Can someone please update us

I was privileged to visit the United States of America early this year and my trip took me to a city called Seattle, the capital of the North Western state of Washington. Seattle is a city of many firsts and the home of many world changing blue chip companies like Microsoft, the IT giants, Boeing, the aircraft manufacturers, Amazon, the online shopping mall and of course Starbucks the coffee giants. But none of these multi-billion investments really caught my attention like the Pike Place Market situated in downtown Seattle because of the glaring similarities of this market with our own Jos Main Market which has been lying in ruins for the past nine years. Pike Place Market is more than a place to buy and sell goods but has grown over the years to become a major tourist centre attracting millions of dollars to this wealthy city due to the government's deliberate and intentional efforts to make it so, this of course could not have happened without the cooperation of the organized private sector. The market oozes with the diverse culture of culture of Seattle city, there is absolutely no good from any part of the world that you cannot get to buy in this market. This place is a market and more, it is the place where the city converges, people meet old friends there, schedule business meetings there. Of particular attraction is the fish throwing practice of the Asian fish sellers which has attracted many tourists from all over the world to just come and see. It was once aired on CNN as a special program. Jos and Plateau state prides itself as the centre of peace and tourism; this market with all its potential to be a world class tourist attraction has been abandoned for this long, the income generating capacity of this market cannot be overemphasized. The market is regarded as the largest and most modern of such markets in the whole of the West African sub-region (I don’t have the statistics or facts to confirm this please). I am using this medium to call on the government agency responsible for this Market to revisit it and see to it that this market comes back to life. The non-functioning of this market might not be unconnected with the restiveness in the city as many youths were rendered jobless since the market was gutted by fire and they become easy recruits for violent activities. The government might give the usual excuse of no money but I believe that there are many private developers who will be willing to partner with government to rebuild this market and manage for a specific period of time to recoup their investment and the beneficiary will be the whole citizenry. We must learn not to play politics with issues of this nature because it is not far from the thinking of the powers to put political and ethnic considerations before the interest of the populace.
Jos Main market can be a money spinning venture for the City and the state and many employment opportunities will be created and be own Pike Place Market. I have always believed that if people have a place to go to daily to earn a living or business place to protect, it will be difficult for them to engage in violent acts.

Can someone please explain to us what is happening with the Jos Main Market!

NB: you can learn more about Pike Place Market, Seattle from their website: http://www.pikeplacemarket.org/