The Verdict Olusegun Adeniyi
I have in the last quarter of a century (since 2001) written dozens of columns on how ancient animosities have fed a spiral of violence in Plateau State. ‘Fire from the Mountains’, followed the July 2012 brutal killing of then Chairman of the Senate Committee on Health, Gyang Dantong and then Majority Leader of the Plateau State House of Assembly, Gyang Fulani by gunmen during a mass burial for victims of an earlier attack on villages in Barkin Ladi and Riyom local government area. ‘A Cycle of Multilateral Killings’ recounted the anguish of thousands of people being gruesomely murdered or maimed, communities razed, huge swarths of farmlands destroyed and hundreds of thousands made perpetual refugees in their own country. There have been numerous others.
Within the same period, the United States-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) has done several extensive reports on what started as an economy/ecology problem before ethnic and religious dimensions, combined with old grievances, ignited the violence that has refused to go away. Some of these publications include, ‘Jos: A City Torn Apart’, ‘Nigeria: Revenge in the Name of Religion: The Conflict in Yelwa’, ‘Leave Everything to God: Accountability for Inter-Communal Violence in Plateau and Kaduna States, Nigeria’ etc. In one of their reports, HRW indicted authorities in our country for “taking no meaningful steps to address underlying grievances” or bring to justice those responsible for the massacre of innocent people, “often in horrific circumstances”.
The main concern now is that several of our communities across the country have today become killings fields. Only on Monday, former Senate President David Mark decried the killings in Otukpo, Agatu, Apa and many other communities in Benue State where he hails from. On Tuesday, both the Kebbi Governor, Nasir Idris, and his Borno counterpart, Babagana Zulum, cried out about the growing capacity of criminal gangs in their respective states. While the former lamented that the Lakurawa group seems to be gaining more ground, Zulum’s concern is about Boko Haram resurgence. “Many military locations were dislodged, especially in Wulgo, Sabongari, Wajirko among others,” Zulum said in Maiduguri. “It seems we are losing ground, and this is a very important thing that we need to discuss.”
But my immediate concern is in Plateau State and what Governor Caleb Mutfwang has described as genocidal killings. As of last weekend, the death toll from the massive attacks launched on Mangor, Tamiso, Daffo, Manguna, Hurti, and Tadai communities in Bokkos Local Government Area (LGA) of the state had risen to 52. This followed the recovery of more corpses by search teams after combing nearby bushes for missing persons. “As I am talking to you, there are not less than 64 communities that have been taken over by bandits on the Plateau between Bokkos, Barkin Ladi and Riyom local government areas,” Mutfwang said on Tuesday. “They (communities) have been taken over, renamed, and people are living there conveniently on lands they pushed people away to occupy.”
I must commend Mutfwang for the mature manner in which he has handled the crisis in the last two years and for urging restraint in response to the latest killings. “We strongly urge citizens to exercise restraint and refrain from taking the law into their own hands,” said the state Commissioner of Information and Communication, Joyce Ramnap, who confirmed that some arrests have been made in connection with the attacks. “We call on religious, traditional, and community leaders to reinforce the message of peace, unity, and lawful engagement.”
As it is with all problems that result from a mix of land, ethnicity and religion, there are no easy solutions to the perennial crisis in Plateau State. But the bigger issue is that the Nigerian state seems to be losing the capacity for its primary responsibility: security of lives and property. In its latest report, the Cheta Nwanze-led SBM Intelligence revealed how the escalating conflict between herders and farming communities in the Middle Belt has not only spread South but also now threating the fabrics of our country. “Nigeria’s pastoral conflict has evolved from localised grazing disputes into one of the country’s most pressing security challenges, now affecting multiple regions and threatening national stability,” the SBM wrote. “The violence, primarily between Fulani herders and farming communities, has spread southward from its Middle Belt epicentre, intensifying in states like Edo and Ondo while maintaining its devastating grip on Benue, Nasarawa and Plateau.” The crisis “has also metastasised, merging with banditry and kidnapping networks. Disturbingly, complicity within affected communities – including alleged intelligence-sharing with attackers for financial gain – has complicated counter-violence efforts.”
Beyond the situation in Plateau State, it is also important for the federal government to pay attention to what is happening in rural communities across the country. “Most of the herdsmen you see all over the place, whether in the north or south…are employees of a larger terror network. They kidnap but the ransom does not go to them”, a senior security officer once told me as I recounted in my 2021 column, ‘Criminal Cartels on the Loose’, which dwelt on the complexities of our national security challenge. “Many of them are from Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso…That these kidnappers kill, maim and rape is bad enough. That they are identified as belonging to a certain ethnic colouration is the problem,” I wrote back then.
Now that we have descended to the level in which retired military Generals are creating WhatsApp groups for the purpose of contributing ransom money to pay kidnappers for the release of their colleagues, I don’t know how much lower we can sink as a nation. But the bigger issue is the profiling that comes with this criminality. When a national security challenge is framed around identity, as it is in Nigeria today, its management requires more than a knee-jerk approach. I just hope President Bola Tinubu and his team can appreciate that before it is too late.
• You can follow me on my X (formerly Twitter) handle, @Olusegunverdict and on www.olusegunadeniyi.com
