President Bola Tinubu visited Benue State recently after another round of gruesome attacks. Before he did, he had issued a press statement. Secretary to the Government of the Federation, George Akume, who is from Benue State, also issued a statement. At the time, I spoke to a university lecturer who is from Benue State and whose LGA is next to the LGA where the latest attacks happened. Here, I string these together in a contextual analysis, rather than engage in some diatribe that won’t help correctly identify the problems, let alone proffer appropriate solutions.

In Tinubu’s press statement, he referenced “…latest round of reprisal attacks”. He called on the Benue State governor to hold reconciliation meetings among “warring parties”, and “rein in” those who “cause provocations and ignite reprisal attacks”.   He said, “Political and community leaders in Benue State must…avoid inflammatory utterances that could further increase tensions and killings.” It has since been said that what the President said was based on misinformation. Was he misinformed? Also, Akume “called on leaders and communities in Benue State to urgently unite in forging a path to peace”. He said, “We must rise above division.” He noted that the “root causes are largely economic and not religious”. When I spoke to a university lecturer who is from Benue State, he mentioned the element of “politics”, as well as “mercenaries” being used.

Without prejudice to what happened lately, there had been clashes between Benue communities in the recent past. On September 2, 2021, The PUNCH newspaper reported one involving Tse Njor and Opaha Adoka in Gwer West and Otukpo LGAs. On June 14, 2023, The PUNCH reported another attack involving the Mbasombo and Mbaivur communities of Ikpayongo in Gwer East LGA. In July 2023, I wrote about yet another clash, expressing my concern that it wasn’t reported by the Nigerian media. The attack happened on July 8, 2023, barely two months after Tinubu assumed office. AIT was the only major Nigerian media platform that mentioned it rather briefly on July 9 in its 8pm news broadcast. AIT attributed it to “gunmen suspected to be hoodlums”, rather than gunmen “suspected to be herdsmen” as usual. This indicated to me it was a communal clash and further investigation confirmed my suspicion.

Of this attack I wrote at the time: “When the July 2023 attack happened in Benue State, only one foreign website mentioned it online. Crisis24 reported thus: “Nigeria: Further violence possible in Ukum LGA, Benue State.” Crisis24 also added: “Eyewitness reports suggest approximately 20 gunmen attacked the villages of Zaki Akpuuna and Diom in the Mbaterem district, burning homes; several locals remain missing following the attack.” Note that herdsmen were not mentioned. Of that July 2023 attack I further wrote, “One person (from Benue State who explains it to me) says Agan and Gwer West are in the general area, where the attack happened. The person who explained this to me said Agan and Gwer West have traditionally hated each other. There were other attacks in the past in Benue State that involved local tribes, but the Nigerian media never paid attention to them.” (The PUNCH, July 28, 2023).

The attack of July 8, 2023, demonstrated that a communal clash had happened in Benue State after Tinubu assumed office. Also, the President must have been reliably informed of similar communal attacks before that one. The intelligence reports he had must have further confirmed that. It takes a lack of awareness of this for anyone to say there are never communal clashes in Benue State. The President knew there were attacks that involved herders, but he knew there were attacks involving local communities, too. So, he knew exactly what he was talking about in that press release. Add to this what the university lecturer said about elements of “politics” and “mercenaries” in the latest attack, and the complexity of this situation is clearer. Did we recall that a church priest was recently killed in southern parts of Kaduna, not too long ago, and when a Fulani person was arrested, he said the househelp of the priest paid him to kill the priest?

Regarding the latest attacks in Benue, the Fulani association, Miyetti Allah, also said it appreciated Tinubu’s efforts to address the “communal” and “farmers-herders crisis” in Benue State. Miyyeti Allah’s leader thanked him for having the courage to urge “political and traditional leaders in Benue State to seek ways to live in peace with one another”. Obviously, Miyeti Allah members residing in Benue know a few things about elements of politics, tribal rivalry, and possibly the use of mercenaries. Moreover, another Fulani leader present at the town hall meeting said some “madmen” came from outside the state to mix with their law-abiding members. So, what do madmen do? Everywhere “madmen” are available for recruitment by anyone who needs a killing machine.  More than this, in his speech at the town hall meeting during his visit to Benue, Tinubu advised the state governor on how to handle his political enemies. No one should pretend otherwise; in these attacks, we all know there’s an element of a hairless hand that is seen and a hair-covered body that isn’t seen.

Meanwhile, we shouldn’t be fixated on elements of politics, mercenaries, or suspected herders so much so that the primary reason attacks happen across the country is overlooked. Doing this takes focus away from the real issue. The real issue is that the nation’s centralised security architecture cannot handle the kind of non-state actors who engage in criminal activity.

Since democracy returned in 1999, no administration has been willing to take the needed steps to unbundle the security architecture and make it cope with local demands. So, blaming a president or state governors, as some do, misses the point.  The fact that no matter the administration, attacks are rampant across the country should have turned our minds to a vital question: Why is it that with different political leaders and many changes made to the service chiefs, the same attacks continue?  No one appears to focus on this, rather the trend is to insult a sitting president and call for a change of service chiefs.

As I have been stating on this page for over a decade, no nation where the security architecture is right would witness criminal elements operating in its space for so long. There is no single state in Northern Nigeria where armed men aren’t operating. What the criminals do in different states is sometimes different. In the North-West they forcefully tax communities, kidnap, and collect ransom. In Kaduna, Benue, and Plateau States, they slaughter people and it is alleged that they take land. In the south people are mostly kidnapped for ransom or killed on their farmlands. Many place the blame on politicians at the sub-national units who don’t have control over the security apparatuses.  Others blame the president and the security apparatuses he controls; meanwhile, soldiers and the police are not even enough in numbers to cover remote parts of the country.

Despite this, there has not been the political will to drive through the introduction of a decentralised security architecture. It is what will ensure communities are better monitored, intelligence better gathered and utilised, as well as ensure more rapid movement of personnel to trouble spots either to prevent or abort attacks. As things stand, the centralised security apparatuses are accused of arresting criminals and releasing them.  I ask: If each state has its own security apparatus, will a security personnel see his people slaughtered in their communities, arrest the perpetrators, and then release them?

I believe my question is answered by what the state government security outfit, Amotekun, has achieved in the South-West. They arrest criminals, and we have not heard of such criminals being released without prosecution. We shouldn’t lose sight of these basics, only to make sentimental comments that won’t lead to lasting solutions. Insecurity is a national problem; communal clashes remain part of the problem in Benue State, as credible news reports have demonstrated. The President has said his own concerning Benue, and I believe he said what he knows for certain in his position as the nation’s leader. It is the reason, I imagine, in the course of the town hall meeting, he didn’t even join issues with everyone who, naturally, presented their own side of the case.