Make no mistake about it. Those bandying the harebrained herders-farmers conflict in explaining away the horror on the Plateau are living a lie. It is also instructive that these attacks against predominantly Christian communities took place on Christmas Eve. It was no coincidence. The Plateau bloodbath won’t stop anytime soon because those who ought to see to that are busy playing political Ping-Pong with people’s lives.
In the last one month, I have refrained from commenting on Nigeria’s woes, the hypocrisy of the elite and exasperating charlatanism and tomfoolery of the citizens, who, holding the wrong end of the stick, not only exhibit a shocking indifference to the parlous realities that confront them but also act as enablers to the wayward leaders.
Is it not strange that we have citizens who don’t care a hoot about the debauchery of the conspiratorial elite? It will only take an extreme measure of self-hate for a people to behave the way Nigerians are behaving right now. And of what use will it be to continue sparing a thought for a people who rather than worry about their own predicament rationalize and even defend the depravity of their leaders?
But then, the bloodbath on the Plateau happened and the puerile reactions of a duplicitous elite, jolted me out of my self-imposed censorship.
As the world was preparing for Christmas, terrorists invaded 38 communities in Bokkos and Barkin-Ladi local governments of Plateau State, butchering hundreds of innocent, law-abiding citizens. The attacks which began on the evening of December 23 and lasted through the morning of December 26, were well-coordinated, audacious and vicious. Governor Caleb Mutfwang condemning the unprovoked violence, called it “barbaric, brutal and unjustified.” It was all that and worse.
On Tuesday, December 26, the Plateau State Commissioner of Police, Mr. Okoro Alawari, in his preliminary report said: “Findings from the assessment of the ugly incidents in Bokkos LGA revealed that “221 houses were set ablaze; 27 motorcycles were burnt, eight motor vehicles were burned down; and over 79 persons were killed, while 17 deaths were recorded in Barkin Ladi LGA.”
Since then, the number of fatalities has risen to no fewer than 200, more than 300 others injured, 38 villages sacked and 1,290 houses razed. Nearly 20,000 people, mostly women and children, were displaced and are now sheltering in 23 camps set up by the Red Cross. It was genocidal.
Military authorities admitted receiving 36 distress calls from the besieged residents who faced the murderous wrath of more than 100 terrorists armed to the teeth with nothing to defend themselves other than bare hands. A grotesque mismatch. Yet, no help came their way from the Nigerian state. The terrorists had a field day hawking their deadly merchandise.
What is worse? As you read this, ten days after the genocide, nobody has been arrested for the heinous crime. Instead, assured that there will be no consequences, the terrorists wrote residents of Pushit community in Mangu local government threatening fresh attack. And on Saturday night, they attacked Durbi village of Shere district, Jos East local government area killing two – father and son.
Last week, Middle Belt Forum (MBF) Deputy National President, Stanley Kavwam, claimed that the military knows the identity of the attackers and their hideouts. Mr. Monday Kassah, chairman of Bokkos local government, on Wednesday, said his kinsmen who survived the gruesome attacks fingered their Fulani neighbours as culprits.
So, the terrorists are not ghosts. Their victims not only know who they are but where they are. Governor Mutfwang echoed the same sentiment on Channels TV last week when he revealed that 64 communities in Plateau State have been displaced by terrorists.
“As I am talking to you today, in Barkin-Ladi Local Government Area, schools have been occupied by these terrorists for some years now. Not less than 64 communities have been displaced and the lands have been taken over by these marauding terrorists,” he mourned.
“Under the last regime the feeling among people in Plateau State, particularly the victims of these terror attacks, is that it looks as if the terrorists were given official government backing to be able to terrorise them, because little or nothing was done to repel these attacks… What do we need to do? I think this is where the President needs to come in. We need to summon the political will to give instructions to security agencies to protect the territorial integrity of Nigeria and even the internal integrity of our land boundaries.”
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That is the crux of the matter. The appetite to summon the political will to do the needful is sorely lacking. Tinubu, who, while holidaying in Lagos, ordered “security agencies to immediately move in, scour every stretch of the zone, and apprehend the culprits” will do nothing beyond the empty rhetoric.
While he may not give the terrorists official government backing as Buhari unashamedly and unapologetically did, Tinubu will, nevertheless, not do what Muftwang is asking of him because of 2027 politics. Which explains why he never mentioned the genocide in his New Year message. It was deliberate. He has moved on and being the ‘astute’ politician he is, the president will not allow the killing of “only” 200 people in remote Plateau villages to put a spanner in the works and jeopardize the chances of his re-election.
Those who blame his aides for the omission miss the point. The New Year message may well have been recorded before the Plateau bloodbath. But what does it take to make adjustments if Tinubu wanted to mention the carnage that has attracted global attention?
Instead, he claimed that his administration has tamed insecurity. Of course that is a lie and an egregious insult to the memory of the dead, but like the terrorists, the president can afford to be so brazen and spiteful of the people because there are no consequences for such behaviour.
He didn’t need the people’s mandate to become president in 2023. And he won’t need it in 2027, either. In real democracies where the people are supreme because they give the government power, leaders cannot afford to be so cavalier in their dealings.
Besides, Tinubu knows Nigerians well. One month from now, no one will be talking about the Plateau bloodbath any longer. After all, who still remembers the massacres in Gwer East, Agatu, Gwer West, Otukpo, Guma, Makurdi, Logo, Ukum, Apa and Katsina Ala of Benue State by the self-same Fulani militia?
In one of such dastardly attacks in 2021, several communities in Guma and Otukpo local governments were savaged and no fewer than 87 people were killed within 48 hours. In Umogidi Entekpa community, the terrorists spent hours ransacking, killing and maiming. And just as it happened in Plateau State, security agencies refused to respond to distress calls. At the end of the day, 51 people lay dead.
Who still remembers that while those who were lucky to survive the Benue massacres are still living in IDP camps, the terrorists are living large in their ancestral homes from which they were forcefully ejected? That, also, is the sad reality that confronts the Plateau indigenes that have been driven out of their homelands by terrorists.
Politics is also the reason why Governor Mutfwang’s reaction is subdued. He cannot do the needful because the Sword of Damocles is hanging over his head at the Supreme Court and the justices of the apex court will determine his fate based on the body language of a president who has totally captured the Nigerian state.
It is all politics at the expense of people’s lives. A government determined to put an end to this incessant carnage on the Plateau will rout these terrorists within weeks because the security agents not only know who they are and where they are but also their sponsors. The terrorists are occupying the ancestral homes of the thousands of Nigerian citizens who are forced to live in IDP camps.
So, politics is effectively trumping the primary purpose of any government. Section 14(2) (b) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 declares that the security and welfare of the people shall be the primary purpose of government. By allowing politics to stand in the way, the government is complicit.
Abandoned by the Nigerian state that has allowed its monopoly on the legal use of force to be effectively challenged by non-state actors, Nigerians will have no choice than resort to self-help. Telling victims of terrorism not to take the laws into their hands, while nothing is done to rein in the terrorists and stop the carnage smacks of collusion. Those who preach peace and tolerance in the circumstance are accomplices to an erring state.
Nigerians have cried enough. They have prayed enough. They have turned the other cheek at every turn, forgoing retaliation but these blood-thirsty marauders cannot be appeased. The only language they understand is force. The indigenous populations of the Middle Belt and Southern Kaduna must band together for their own survival. Otherwise, sooner than later, they will be wiped off the face of Nigeria.
And make no mistake about it. Those bandying the harebrained herders-farmers conflict in explaining away the horror on the Plateau are living a lie. It is also instructive that these attacks against predominantly Christian communities took place on Christmas Eve. It is no coincidence. The Plateau bloodbath won’t stop anytime soon because those who ought to see to that are busy playing political Ping-Pong with people’s lives.
