Herdsmen’s Attack on Benue Communities: A Daily Diet of Bad News
Editorial
The Christmas season covered the land with dried fallen leaves that hovered in the carol filled air. The memory of the unveiling of the Civil Protection Guard in the penultimate week by Governor Hyacinth Alia had not only buried the years of fear but also put an energizer on the peoples’ spirit. All sauntered into Christmas day with the assurance that life had granted Benue a sabbatical from tragic woes. So, people even dared to dream that they could begin to enjoy peace and brace up to work harder in the coming year to fill the food basket with food. Thus, all spawned the most ill-fated hope that had yet occurred to the state in a while. Then, the clock struck and the peace of Christmas was shattered. On Wednesday, December 25 2024, the mouth-watering entrails of Christmas meat became cold in my hand and the spoonful of rice got spilled traveling the short distance between hand and mouth. Even the chilled bottle of my favourite Goldberg earned itself a break as the sordid news of the unspeakable wrongness of cutting lives short by suspected herdsmen, in Anwase community in Kwande Local Government Area of the state, tumbled into my ears and left a bad taste in my mouth. The report said the attackers shot indiscriminately at worshipers who were in the church for Christmas service, massacring 33 people and also setting many houses and yam barns ablaze.Sadly, no one – no political leader, no vanguard up-and-comer, no ruler with any devil may care confidence – could say how exactly we could burn off the mist that left Anwase limping on Christmas day. Governor Hyacinth Alia had issued a statement vowing to ensure that the attackers are apprehended and brought to justice. Yet, the unfortunate event could not even grab headlines. The most significant by-lines of media spaces in the state were busy blazing with how Agidi women in Shangev Tiev sang a corrupted version of Christian song to denigrate Governor Alia during Dr. Matthias Ibyuan’s birthday, and how the Chief Press Secretary (CPS) to Governor Alia, Mr. Tersoo Kula had engaged in name-calling ordeals with the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, His Excellency, Sen. George Akume and his supporters. No one saw the Anwase tragedy as a test of how unified Benue can stand against the unending trifecta of attacks across the state.
To be honest, the primary business of democratic governance is in the realm of bringing development to the people, but I am not sure it stops there. As it is commonly said “development cannot thrive in an insecure environment” For me, this raises once again the fundamental question of what should be done differently from what have always been done over the years – condemning the attacks, raising angry voices that will soon die down until another attack happens? There is no question that the growing political disunity in the state is very complex and would defy any simplistic assessment to the problem of insecurity. It has to be looked at without ignoring the peculiarities that politics of divisiveness brings. There has certainly been a loosening in the grip on human sanctity in our society that once treated human life with the sacredness it deserves. Politics has brought out the worst in our hearts. How faithful have our leaders at all levels been to commitment to the security situation in our state and the perennial indignity that herdsmen attacks have reduced many of our people to. These herdsmen’s attack on Benue communities have become a daily diet of bad news, producing an awful number of internally displaced persons. Today, Benue has the unenviable reputation of one of the states with the largest number of IDPs in the country, some of which are not even documented. A hard look at the persistent killings would reveal that behind the seeming silence over these, are some vested political interests. I had recently written in another editorial that “Without doubt, it must be clear to those who still have eyes to see, and a conscience which is alive, that the greatest burden of our state today is insecurity, with hunger as a faithful handmaid. It is heart wrenching when the limbs of innocent people are so mercilessly mutilated while an unjustifiable silence continue to follow the serious bleeding sores of our state. The Brazilian Journalist, Vladmir Herzog knew what he was saying when he wrote, ‘If we lose our capacity to be outraged when we see others subjected to atrocities, then we lose our right to call ourselves human beings. ‘It is, therefore, incumbent upon government at all levels, the religious leaders and the traditional institution to, as a first step, work assiduously in stitching the fabric of disunity among our leaders. Christianity, for instance, has shown a phenomenal growth in Benue state across the denominations. The bad news is that our leaders who are members of the churches here have continued in disunity and the churches who are the agents of restoration seems to be defeated in their efforts in uniting them. Another area of concern is that the traditional institution has stood and watched the gangrene of disunity among our political leaders to fester so badly. Given the complex web of politics which operates here, it has been a daunting task, but the religious and traditional leaders must continually prick the conscience of our political leaders, because the cost of not doing so will be colossal, and as we continue to be divided along political lines, we will not be able to dive beyond the surface and see the tap root of a deeper calamity that is gradually closing in on us.
