If genocide means “the deliberate and systematic killing or persecution of a large number of people from a particular national or ethnic group with the aim of destroying that nation or group”, then we can conclude that it has taken place, numerous times, in the States of Benue, Plateau, and some parts of Taraba State and Southern Kaduna.
For nearly two decades, and in these parts of the Middle Belt, which are preponderantly Christian, people have been mowed down in their thousands.
In co-ordinated, stealthy and martial attacks, innocent and unsuspecting villagers in these parts, have been cut down while they slept at night. Their remains were then buried, in the full glare of the public and television klieg lights, in mass graves.
Also, in the North East, Boko Haram insurgents have laid siege to the States of Borno, Adamawa and Yobe.
By the same token, bandits, kidnappers and terrorists have beleaguered the States of the North West geopolitical zone.
Furthermore, unknown gunmen have kept the States of the South East in thrall. Lately, terrorists have made incursions into the hitherto placid States of Kwara and Ondo.
On the whole, the heinous activities of these terrorists have rendered Nigeria into a vast killing field in which members of Nigeria’s two major faiths(Christians and Muslims) have lost their lives. Citizens are traumatized and sorrowing. Millions are displaced. Schools are shut down. Millions cannot access their farms. Millions are suffering from Severe Acute Malnutrition(SAM). Commercial activities have been constrained. And millions have been further impoverished.
Nigeria, which was once prosperous and carried itself with pride, has since assumed the unseemly status of a reproach and a byword. Its citizens, in droves, seek after safer and more prosperous havens either to eke out their living or to give full expression to their God-given talents.
Countries which set great store by the sanctity of human life, and which fear that a further deterioration of the affairs of Nigeria could imperil the West African sub-region, if not the entire world, given its huge population, must be deeply concerned.
Against this backdrop, Nigeria has been a Country of Particular Concern(CPC) in the past five years, namely:2018, 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2024. A country is designated as being of particular concern to the United States if it engages in severe violations of religious freedom under the International Religious Freedom Act(IRFA) of 1998. Countries so designated are subject to further actions, including economic sanctions by the United States.
Thus, when President Donald Trump threatens that “if the Nigerian government continues to allow the killing of Christians, the U.S.A. will immediately stop all assistance to Nigeria”…, he was speaking with fidelity to a time-honored American Law.
It is, however, when he proceeds to add that America “may very well go into that now disgraced country, ‘guns-a-ablazing’ to completely wipe out Islamic Terrorists who are committing horrible atrocities” that he may have sounded outlandish and way over the top.
Even then, for victims of these killings, bar our sovereignty, which is likely to be violated in the event of such an attack, Trump’s effusion must be music to their ears. For the period which Benue, Plateau, Taraba States and Southern Kaduna had come under a slew of attacks, the government set up Operation Safe Haven(OSH). Yet, these killings took place, with egregious abandon and frequency, under its nose.
Until terrorists nearly took over the Aso Rock Presidential Villa at the twilight of his administration, former President Muhammadu Buhari did not deem it fit to order our Armed Forces to decimate these terrorists. Additionally, a number of prominent politicians had confessed to the roles they played in procuring terrorists into the country ahead of the 2015 General Elections. Nothing could be more treasonous or subversive.
Nearly two decades into the insurgency in the North East, terror activities, rather than abate, are continuing apace. The Boko Haram terrorists have demonstrated greater operational savvy and agility. They have forged strategic alliances with foreign terror organizations such as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, also known as DAESH and Harakat al-Shabaab al Mujahideen. Recently, the Borno State Governor, Professor Umara Zulum, was reported to have said the insurgents had begun to deploy drones in their attacks.
In the North West, we have witnessed a deterioration of the security situation. Whole communities are reported to be entering into peace treaties with bandits even when they(the bandits) have not decommissioned or surrendered their arms. In some of the treaty sessions, the bandits have arrived armed to the teeth. Citizens continue to be abducted at will. Suffocating taxes are being imposed and exacted by the bandits.
One could argue that America is merely being sanctimonious and needlessly meddlesome. One could point to its previous military misadventures in Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan. But America moves swiftly against criminals and terrorists when they threaten the homeland.
On the contrary, we coddle terrorists. We are lackadaisical about decimating them. We treat life, which is sacred, as trite and as a mere statistic. The lack of value we attach to precious lives is the very reason we are viewed with contempt and referred to disdainfully as a “disgraced country”.
The long and short of it is that Nigerians are weary of bloodletting and the government’s inaction in stanching it. We are tired of being cast in the mould of savages and a “disgraced” people.
The government should wake up to its constitutional responsibility of protecting the lives and properties of its citizens. It should stop, forthwith, this daily carnage and restore the country to good health. This is the time to give our Armed Forces all the resources and support they require to decimate these terrorists, instead of indulging in theatrical musical chairs for their leaderships. A strict deadline should then be given as to when these killings should stop and when the war on terror should be accomplished.
It is only when we stop these needless killings and bloodletting that we can earn the respect of the comity of nations. It is when we do so that peace will prevail and our farmers can go back and till their lands. It is then that our capacities will be given free rein and to flower. It is then that commerce will thrive. It is then we will look attractive and be sought after by investors.
