Benue Killings: Probing The Killers’ Identity, Motive And Viable Remedy

 By Tony Nnadi

“Nigeria must now suspend the doomed voyage to 2027 Elections and initiate an immediate Transitioning Process to first address the multiple Existential Threats Confronting Nigerians, and threatening the very existence of the Nigerian Distressed Federation”

As bloodletting, lamentations recriminations, accusations and counter-accusations continue around the killings in Benue State, there has been a remarkable conspiracy of silence amongst the political leaders in both Benue State and Abuja regarding the well-known  Fulani Conquest Agenda that is at the heart of the Invasions and Killings, as well as the role of the Caliphate-Imposed Unitary Constitutional Arrangements of Nigeria which makes it impossible for the embattled Benue Indigenous Peoples to defend themselves with appropriate Arms against the onslaught of the invading, Heavily Armed Fulani Militia, masquerading as “Fulani Herdsmen”

No matter how anyone may choose to pretend to the contrary, the big elephant in the room is the Fulani Conquest invasion which has been ongoing since the 1804 arrival of Uthman Dan Fodio and his Foot soldiers in Gobir (present day Sokoto), eventually halted by brave Tiv Warriors in the stretch just beyond pressure-day Katsina-Ala which was the Waterloo of Uthman Dan Fodio.

That Fulani conquest invasion continued under Premier Ahmadu Bello in the days of Joseph Tarka, exploding into the Tiv Resistance of the mid-1960s in what was mischievously reported by the British Press as ‘Tiv Riots’ in the same period the same Ahmadu Bello was by proxy, quelling the Yoruba resistance ignited by the imprisonment of Chief Obafemi Awolowo. 

Then came the Revolution of January 15, 1966 and the Revenge Coup of July 29, 1966 which quickly degenerated into the Igbo Pogroms of July-September 1966, prompting the Aburi Meetings of January 3-5, 1967, which outcome was abandoned by the Illicit “Federal Government” that emerged from the 1966 Collapse of the Federation of Nigeria, resulting in the British-Orchestrated Genocidal Nigeria-Biafra War of 1967-1970 which unfortunately pitched the Peoples of Middle-Belt, particularly those in Nigeria’s Military of the time, against the Igbo East where they fought on the side of the  Caliphate-led Alliance of the rest of Nigeria, masquerading at the time as the ‘Federal Military Government of Nigeria” and the  “Armed Forces of Nigeria”. 

The January 1970 cessation of battlefield hostilities in that War was quickly followed by a series of Punitive Policy Actions of the Federal Government against the Igbo East, including massive expropriations highlighted particularly by the seizure of the Biafran Currency of the time from the embattled Igbo East, (Igbo receiving a flat £20-per-pre-war account) and the Abandoned Property Decree as well as the Indigenization Decrees by which the Igbo were pushed out of the formal Economy of Nigeria.

These Anti-Igbo punitive Policies were in 1975 Codified into a Draft Unitary at the Instruction of Murtala Mohammed who was at the time, the arrowhead of the Military Wing of the Caliphate. 

With the 1976 assassination of Murtala Mohammed, Olusegun Obasanjo who took over the reins of Power, processed the Murtala Draft Constitution via the Constituent Assembly of 1977 into the so-called “1979 Constitution” which was carried forward wholesale 20 Years later as “the 1999 Constitution” under which the Indigenous Peoples of Nigeria, including menders of the aforementioned 1967 Alliance are revered Slaves in their Homeland by the Fulani to date.

As we mourn with our Benue brethren and compatriots over the wanton killings, and as the search for viable answers to the Murderous Fulani Conquest Onslaught currently sweeping southwards through the Plateau and Benue States continues, it has become necessary to raise the focus of that search above the political noise, general cacophony and emotional outbursts that have trailed the Benue killings. 

In comparison with what the Governor of Benue and the rest of the Political Gladiators in Benue and Abuja are saying, concerning the widespread killings happening in Benue, CDS Christopher Musa is the only one who has pointed at the true source of the problem which he named to be: Internal Sabotage, both within the Military and the Political Leadership circles of both Benue and Nigeria.

It is from this more honest perspective postulated by General Christopher Musa that we can begin to see more clearly who could be orchestrating that Internal Sabotage and for what Motive.

It is not difficult to see that the answer to the question of WHO can be easily found around the established fact that the Invaders are heavily armed Fulani Militia.

It is also easy to see the Conquest Motive of the Fulani Invaders when we look closely at the vicious Ethnic Cleansing Methods and Land-Grab Tactics adopted by the Fulani Invaders.

Permutations towards 2027 general elections as roadblock to the way forward: 
The sharp contrast BETWEEN the crooked, patently dishonest postulations by political gladiators in both Benue State and Abuja about partisan manipulations AND the more straightforward declaration by the Chief of Defence Staff about Internal sabotage, brings us to where we need to probe the reason for the nauseating partisan accusations and counter-accusations flying BETWEEN the Benue State Governor AND Political Bigwigs in Abuja, whether it be Bola Tinubu, the helmsman or George Akume his appointee. 

At a time of daily body counts in Benue numbered in hundreds, It takes only a casual look in the direction of these political gladiators, to see that permutations around the Voyage to the 2027 Elections is central to the distractive accusations and counter-accusations, especially when we consider the weird prescription of Tinubu on the Benue Killings which was that the Benue State Governor and his Abuja-Based traducers (who both belong to the APC), should go and reconcile amongst themselves. What else, but permutations for 2027 could have led to such warped suggestion by the Commander-In-Chief of the Armed Forces of a Nigeria that is under a massive, coordinated Conquest Invasion by Fulani converging in Nigeria from about 16 Countries across West Africa and the Sahel on a Conquest Mission.

Against the backdrop of Tinubu’s State Capture  gambit which already resulted in State of Emergency madness in Rivers State, the tsunami of decamping sweeping into the fold of the ruling APC, the Governors Delta State, Akwa-Ibom State and a long list of Senators, Federal House and State House of Assembly Members from the PDP and Labour Party, it is not difficult to see the role of permutations towards 2027 General Elections in the refusal or inability of the Political Authorities in Nigeria to take steps necessary for arresting both the Fulani Murderous Invasion and the disasters looming from Tinubu’s State Capture gambit and suspension of the Rule of Law resulting from that gambit. 

We need not talk about the decapitation of opposition parties, openly being orchestrated by agents of the ruling Party, (the APC) nor the deliberate Economic Strangulation of the Populace to stifle dissent especially from the restive youth that might revolt against the system. 

I posit, unequivocally (as NINAS had done repeatedly) that in the face of the multiple dangers confronting Nigeria and Nigerians, including:
• A Death-Dispensing, Anti-People, Anti-Progress, Anti-Unity and Anti-Development, Anti-Democracy Caliphate-Imposed Unitary Constitution of Nigeria (1999) which has left Nigeria and Nigerians in dire Security and Economic straits. 
• The Murderous Fulani Conquest Onslaught Powered by that Constitution.
• The State-Capture that resulted from the charred remains of the bungled 2023 Presidential Election.

Nigeria, now Bleeding Profusely from the Self-Inflicted Injuries of Unitarism, must as matter of First Aid, suspend all preparations towards another round of National Elections in 2027 under the Distressed 1999 Constitution and in place of the 2027 Elections, Initiate and immediate Transitioning for the purpose of addressing the three existential threats listed above.

Should Nigerians plunge heedlessly to the 2027 Elections under the abominable 1999 Constitution, we run the risk of being overrun by the Fulani Conquest Invasion, or watching Nigeria implode into Anarchy on account of the Strangulation of all Institutions Governance and Democracy or the catastrophic collapse of the Fragile Nigerian Union now erected upon on a totally Damaged Constitutional Foundation.
*Nnadi is of the Nigerian Indigenous Nationalities Alliance for Self-Determination (NINAS)