Benue-Plateau: Tinubu’s Last Chance

 By Ochereome Nnanna

After two years as President of Nigeria, Bola Tinubu has the last chance to prove himself in the Benue and Plateau theatres of the Fulani herdsmen genocidal attacks on indigenous Nigerian communities. These terrorists drawn from domestic and foreign Fulani jihadist bandit groups were named by the Global Terror Index back in 2014 as the fourth “most murderous” terror group in the world behind ISIS, Al Shabbab and Boko Haram.

*Tinubu

But here in Nigeria, they are protected, armed and facilitated in their genocidal campaigns, which the Federal Government, the military and even the undiscerning sections of the media deceptively call “farmers-herders clashes” or “farmers-herders crisis”.

Contrary to the misconceptions of politicians who get “elected” into powerful offices, the people are neither dumb nor amnesic. Even when some do forget, the internet never does. An “X” account user, Uromi Boy, recently exhumed Tinubu’s Twitter post on April 14, 2014 attacking President Goodluck Jonathan thus:

“On matters of security, the bulk(sic) stops at the President’s table. Like in other countries, Jonathan is the Chief Security Officer. Stop Boko H”. This tweet garnered 4,653 reposts, 3,898 quotes, 2,810 likes and 563 bookmarks as of the time Uromi Boy captured it.

Eleven years later, Tinubu is our President, Commander-in-Chief. He has been in power as the Chief Security Officer of the Federation for two years. The buck (which he erroneously called “bulk” in his tweet) is gathering dust on his table, waiting to be deployed to protect Nigerians from expanding threats such as Boko Haram, bandits, Lakurawa, rampaging Fulani herdsmen and others.

Tinubu has turned the Chief Condolence Officer of the Federation instead. Imagine the number of times he has used “enough is enough” in his increasingly tawdry condolences usually composed by Bayo Onanuga. If my president is yelling “enough is enough” at a problem he was elected to solve, what am I, a “bystander” journalist, to say again? What are protesters to say again? Before they hijack “enough is enough” from us, let’s remind them that the buck has been on their desk for over two years.

When the latest genocide by Fulani “herdsmen” against the Yelewata indigenous community of Benue State claimed between 200 and 300 lives, President Tinubu had initially seemed lukewarm to it. He was furiously bashed in the social media for showing more interest in the Indian plane crash and Israel-Iran war. Finally, he decided to address the Yelewata genocide after two days of protests throughout Benue State. One almost hilarious aspect of the message was the assertion that after being briefed by his security aides, he ordered the armed forces to go and implement his earlier orders to end the killings around the country.

Our armed forces have become so “efficient” in performing their duties that the president has to issue orders time and again with little action, making our president look like a dog that only barks but can’t bite. President Tinubu started the condolence visit with “I have been briefed on the senseless bloodletting in Benue State…” and went on to call the Yelewata genocide “reprisal attacks”. Really? Could it be that the president is being wrongly briefed? Perhaps that was what prompted him to task Governor Hyacinth Alia to convene “reconciliatory meetings”.

Is the president not aware of the countless meetings between Benue indigenes and their Fulani herdsmen uninvited guests down the years that always ended with more attacks on farming communities by the latter? Is the president not aware that the occupants of the numerous refugee camps in Benue, Plateau and other places militarily besieged by these terrorists from all over Africa masquerading as Fulani herdsmen, are indigenous Nigerians? Isn’t he aware that the invaders have taken over and renamed the “conquered” communities?

I have always said the greatest bane of the Fulani herdsmen attacks in Nigeria is that the Federal Government and its crucial organs of law enforcement have been overprotective of these wicked, alien human slaughterers. We used to think the problem persisted because Buhari, their kinsman, was an unapologetic promoter of renewed Fulani expansionist campaigns of terror across Nigeria. That Tinubu has continued to loose-handle the problem, and addressing it as a case of “communal clashes”, is truly stupefying. If Tinubu fails to fix this problem and power returns to the North, Fulani conquest of Nigeria will either be accomplished or resistance to it could reduce Nigeria to what Sudan has become.

I am a person who always looks for a silver lining at the fringe of every dark cloud, even when I know the rain will still come. I want to give the President Tinubu administration the last chance to prove that it has the courage, capacity and patriotism to end Fulani expansionist killings and other sources of insecurity in Nigeria. The kind of mobilisation he is packaging for Benue is the most any administration has done in any theatre of insecurity.

First, he sent his National Security Adviser, Nuhu Ribadu. Next, the Chief of Army Staff, Olufemi Oluyede “relocated” to Benue and was seen on video demonstrating maneouvres with the troops. The Chief of Defence Staff, fast-talking General Christopher Musa, also descended on Benue, and so has the Inspector General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun. With the President bowing to pressure, suspending his trip to Kaduna and going to Benue apparently to confront this problem, he now has the proverbial cobra in his hands. He must either destroy the cobra or get bitten by it.

If after all this Tinubu still fails in Benue and Plateau, what else can he say or do about fixing our insecurity? Without looking the Fulani conquest agenda straight in the eye and piercing it with a red-hot sword, the trip to Benue will be just another owambe party.

I will demand for the sack of all Service Chiefs.

*Nnanna is a commentator on public issues