A social media Facebook post by a friend and colleague, James Ibechi, captured the current state of frustration and despondency in Benue State. I worked with James when I edited the Features and Politics Desks of Daily Independent Newspapers, Lagos. He was my Production Editor, a man of few words and utmost dedication to duty. Ibechi left the newsroom for public service in his native Benue. We have not met ever since but I always read the analyses he does on the state. His commentaries on Tuesday, June 17, 2025, before President Bola Tinubu’s visit to the state, were discouraging but summarized the magnitude of crisis in Benue.
He wrote; “President Tinubu is flying into Benue (on Wednesday, June 18), not to mourn, not to protect, but to pose. After months of deafening silence while our people were butchered like animals, his sudden visit reeks of political calculation, not compassion. The blood of Benue is oozing, yet he comes with empty hands and heavy cameras.
“And Governor (Rev. Fr. Hyacinth) Alia? A shepherd who lost the flock while negotiating with wolves. He traded our cries for a seat at the APC (All Progressives Congress) table — one where Benue was never on the menu. Both men have danced around the graves of our people. While bodies piled up, they issued statements. While homes burned, they held meetings”.
This is scary. It speaks of abandonment and a feeling of alienation. You cannot not blame Ibechi for crying out. He is merely amplifying the situation in the state. Benue is like an abandoned flock in the face of hungry lions. Since the Friday, June 13, deadly attacks on Yelewata in Guma Local Government Area of the state, distraught families still recount the anguish they suffered. Staggering figures ranging from 100 to over 500 deaths, comprising mainly women and children, have been posted on the incident. A survivor, Michael Ajah, reported losing at least 20 members of his family to the attack. He said: “11 of my family members died in this house, eight died in the other store, and some died here. My family members, 20 in number, died in the attack”.
He also lost goods and property in the crisis. In his words; “They (attackers) burnt everything. They burnt our food and my family members. What we came out with were the clothes we had on. And I, standing here, this is what I came out with. And this is the only thing that I have now. There is nothing else with me”.
It can only take personal experience to feel the pain and loss in Ajah. I recall as a kid when, on return from our places of refuge, after the 1967-1970 civil war, we were scattered to various households. Our parents were confronted with the bitter experiences of loved ones lost in the war and family houses reduced to the ruble by the rampaging federal forces. Some did not have roofs over their heads for weeks or months. More than 55 years after, many families are yet to recover from the shock. This will be the lot of many displaced and dislocated children and families of the Benue crisis in the days ahead. It is an experience one should not wish even his enemy.
Nothing pains as knowing your traducer but lacking the capacity to halt his murderous activities or fight back. The East of 1967-1970 took the bombardments and economic blockades from the federal power and its foreign collaborators because it did not have who to turn to. In Benue, the Fulani herdsmen are the architects of the crisis, the cause of the confusion. But in the killings that have serially occurred in the state, neither the federal government nor state government has come to the rescue of the people. Rather, at each massacre, statements have been released, pronouncements made by state officials, threats issued by security agents but no consequent actions on the aggressors.
The present case may not be different. Everything, so far, points to the furore generated by the latest round of killing going down in a matter of days and business running as usual, pending another episode of bloodshed. It even took the Catholic Pontiff, Pope Leo XIV, the United Nations (UN) and others crying out before the Nigerian authorities realised that fellow citizens were being slaughtered in Benue. More than any other thing, President Tinubu’s belated visit to the state five days after the mayhem and his posters taking over strategic joints obviously for 2027 campaigns tells the extent regard for human life has been reduced to in the country.
Make no mistake about it, this is not the first time Benue would be bleeding on the hands of suspected Fulani terrorists. Some weeks ago, communities in Logo and Ukum LGAs of the State lost over 55 of their kinsmen to the marauders. Unfortunately, not much has been done to rein in the killers. Not one known arrest has been made since the state was turned to a killing field. It is that bad!
Benue does not deserve what it is passing through. By a stroke of fate, the state holds out a lot to Nigerians and has mattered in many strategic junctures in the country’s history. In fact, the entirety of Benue presents a paradox of sorts. The state prides itself as the food basket of the nation and rightly so. With immense endowment on agricultural resources and arable land, Benue feeds Nigeria in many ways. There is no doubt in the state playing significant role in the touted economic diversification programme of the federal government.
Benue and its people have also borne some burden in the search for Nigeria’s unity. Whether the unity has been realised or not is another story. But on occasions when the need had arisen for the use of force to needle the country together, sons and daughters of Benue had answered the call, at times, paying the supreme sacrifice. From constituting the foot soldiers of the Northern Constabulary Forces that later metamorphosed to the Nigerian Army, to the challenging moments of the Civil War, Benue indigenes have always stood up to be counted.
A people that has made such sacrifice for the country, deserves to be treated better. But that is not the case for Benue. Leaving the state at the mercy of Fulani invaders, portends dangers to the corporate existence of the country. Any soul lost in the Benue debacle, is a loss to the Nigerian nation. It is high time President Tinubu and Governor Alia woke to the demands of their offices and ensure that the citizens in Benue are adequately protected.