Benue massacre and disturbing optics from the President’s visit, by Adekunle Adekoya,
SO, Mr President finally found his way to Benue State, more than two years after he assumed office. That visit was coming after no less than 10,217 persons, mostly defenceless women and children, the old and infirm, got killed in the two years that Tinubu had been president. The figures are those of rights watchdog, Amnesty International.
Tinubu’s Benue visit makes him that little bit better than the predecessor he helped install in office — the taciturn Katsina General called Muhammadu Buhari. Despite the serial attacks and killings, all Buhari did was ask then Inspector-General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, to go to Benue, which did not happen, and our president told a bewildered nation that he did not know that the Police boss did not obey his instructions. And nothing happened.
The gory killings that occurred in Yelewata, Benue State, claimed no less than 200 lives in one night of attacks by a Luciferous militia of armed herdsmen, motivated only by the darkest injunctions from the hottest, blackest, and deepest recesses of hell. Pictures of wholesale slaughter of human beings seen on social media indicate how depraved and schizophrenic the killers must be. And finally the president decided he must go there to see for himself. Good. And that’s where the bad optics began.
The state governor, Hyacinth Alia thoughtlessly decided to infuse political fanfare into what was clearly a mourning session. He took out advertisements on the cover pages of newspapers welcoming the president, and in addition had schoolchildren who should be mourning their slaughtered classmates and parents line the roads along which the presidential convoy would pass to hail the president. At the hospital the president went to see victims, the red carpet was laid for him. Was it a state visit or condolence tour?
Who does that? Where is Alia from? In this part of the world, when we lose loved ones, we recoil into ourselves as we mourn their departure, particularly when the circumstances are unpleasant as in the case of the Yelewata attack victims? Who loses his wife and all children and still rolls out red carpets to welcome mourners? However, Governor Alia is rapidly failing at being able to surprise people, even if unpleasantly. A few weeks ago, after similar, deadly attacks in Gwer West LGA of his state, some persons planned to visit the state to, perhaps in a spirit of humanity, offer succour to survivors.
The governor caused a statement to be issued, saying he cannot guarantee the safety of visitors to his state. In any case, he was and still is correct. If he cannot guarantee the safety of the people whose affairs he is managing as their chief security officer and governor, how could he guarantee safety of visitors? Clearly, this un-Catholic bent is becoming the hallmark of this reverend father who suddenly found himself governor of Benue. The governor also disavowed the notion that people can and should defend themselves. His option was state police, an idea which all of us know has been run aground by those bent on maintaining the status quo. Since the first feeble attempts to get the idea off the ground at inception of this administration, what has become of it outside platitudes and meaningless rhetoric?
And the president, while speaking during his Benue visit, asked security chiefs why there had been no arrests since the crime was committed. I really don’t know whether that question was for the Police, the people of Benue, his immediate audience, me or whoever. At the town hall meeting the president had in Makurdi, he was reported to have told the Chief of Defence Staff, General Christopher Musa: … “Christopher… We need to get our ears to the ground. Let’s get those criminals. Let’s get them out”.
In all the kidnappings that have taken place in the country and the killings in Benue, Plateau, Borno, Zamfara, Kaduna and Niger states since he became president, have there been arrests? Why was the president looking for what is not lost?
Then the president turned political. For what? The occasion was hardly auspicious, in my reckoning. We are talking about a whole village, called Yelewata, sacked by marauding militias, with over 200 people massacred and their dwellings set ablaze. In addition, harvested crops of yams, maize and other commodities were burnt in their barns. Speaking to the Benue State Governor, Hyacinth Alia, the president said: “Your political enemies don’t want you to succeed…Are you just realising that?”
Could it be that the governor’s “political enemies” were behind the attacks, which have claimed more than 10,217 lives since May 29, 2023? If the president has superior intelligence about political goings-on in the state, what was supposed to be a mourning and commiseration visit was hardly the event to ventilate it. As I have always believed in, if we don’t get the politics right, we will never get the economy right as politics rules economy. The visit to Benue State should have been completely shorn of anything political.
Now that the Inspector-General of Police and the Chief of Defence Staff, among other security mandarins, are in Benue State, it is hoped that they would be able to emplace a solution-driven framework that can ensure lasting peace in Benue. And not just there alone — in Plateau, Borno, Yobe, Kaduna, Nigeri, Zamfara, Katsina, and Sokoto too. There should be an immediate plan, backed with action that our fellow country men and women do not get murdered in their homes by land-grabbing, janjaweed militias from nowhere. TGIF.
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SO, Mr President finally found his way to Benue State, more than two years after he assumed office. That visit was coming after no less than 10,217 persons, mostly defenceless women and children, the old and infirm, got killed in the two years that Tinubu had been president. The figures are those of rights watchdog, Amnesty International. […]
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, , Emmanuel Okogba, {authorlink},, , Vanguard News, June 20, 2025, 12:37 am
