By Amos Aar
THE NATIONAL conversation around the violence in Benue State has intensified in recent days, following Governor Hyacinth Alia’s controversial remark in Abuja where he rejected the idea of a “Christian genocide” taking place in the state.
What began as brief remark during a consultative forum on the protection of the rights of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) and Forcibly Displaced Persons (FDPs) organised by the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) in Abuja has grown into a full-scale public debate, drawing reactions from citizens, religious leaders, political groups, and security analysts across the country.
“I am a Reverend Father; so being in governance does not take that away from me. I am still a Reverend Father. I came in as a governor as a Reverend Father; I am working with the fear of God and the compassion of Christianity and humanity and at the end of the day, I’m still going back to the church as a Reverend Father and a good Christian. So that is for the record. We need to understand this.
“In my state of Benue, we don’t have any religious, any ethnic, any racial, any national or state genocide. We don’t have that. Do we have a number of insecurities in the state? Yes, we do. But it is not a genocide. Someone would need to go through there to check the United Nations definitions for this. Have we lost a number of people? Yes. We have at different stages.
“If I have given you a background or the challenges we’ve had many years ago, we’re talking about the agro-pastoralist. And they were talking about the agro-farmers, typical farmers. So, it began like playing, like joke, and then it went over and then just continued to some huge proportions.
“But that does not fit into the parameters of a genocide. So, for those who seek to politicise everything, there is no genocide in Benue State. But we have security challenges in Benue state,” Alia’s controversial remark reads.
Governor Alia, addressing journalists again in Makurdi on Friday after meeting Nobel Laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka, insisted that he did not deny the killings in Benue, nor did he trivialise the suffering of displaced families.
According to him, his earlier comments were misunderstood. He explained that his use of the phrase “executing their plans religiously” was merely an idiom for “consistently,” not a suggestion of religious motivation. To him, describing the killings as religiously driven misrepresents the complexity of the crisis.
“I never denied that my people were killed. I remain very firm that we have bandits and terrorists who come fully organised to destroy, maim and kill. I have consistently, yes, religiously, stated that their aim is land grabbing. This did not begin as anything religious,” Alia insisted.
He argued that both Christians and Muslims have been victims and cautioned against reducing a multi-layered tragedy to a single narrative. He also urged journalists to seek clarification before amplifying misinterpretations, stressing that their role is to construct society, not inflame it.
His clarification, however, did little to calm the storm. Across social media, many Nigerians insisted the governor had gone too far in distancing the killings from a genocidal pattern. On X (formerly Twitter), several commentators reposted his initial interview clip, arguing that Alia’s tone and choice of words made it appear as though he was downplaying the crisis. User @chukserice, whose video of the governor went viral, accused him of “technicalising a human tragedy.”
A Catholic priest, Rev. Fr. Chidi Phillip, in a widely shared Facebook post, described the governor’s remarks as a betrayal of his priestly calling. He argued that victims of the violence, many of whom identify strongly with their Christian heritage, felt unheard and dismissed. “Instead of standing with the persecuted, Alia defends a narrative that benefits politicians,” he asserted.
Political critics also joined the conversation. A group of 2027 Benue governorship aspirants from multiple parties argued that the governor’s denial contradicts years of documented attacks, including coordinated murders of families, pregnant women, children, and priests.
The group referenced earlier incidents such as the 2018 killing of two Catholic priests and the repeated sacking of communities across Guma, Logo, Agatu, Kwande, and other LGAs. To them, the intention behind the attacks amounts to an attempt to wipe out communities, an essential marker of genocide. “If the coordinated killings [do not] aim to erase a people and take their land, what else is it?” one of them asked.
Supporters of the government, however, defended Alia’s insistence on grounding the conversation in the United Nations’ definition of genocide. They argued that his caution prevents the crisis from being framed in a way that could trigger sectarian tensions or international misinterpretation.
According to them, the governor is simply trying to avoid a narrative that pits religions against each other in a state where both Christians and Muslims have been victims.
Prof. Wole Soyinka, who was in the state to assess ongoing projects and visit internally displaced families, offered his own perspective. He cautioned Nigerian leaders to be wary of seeking assistance from foreign countries whose interventions could worsen national security challenges.
Soyinka acknowledged the suffering in Benue and commended the governor’s development efforts, recalling that previous federal administrations failed to curtail the violence. His remarks subtly reminded the public of the long, painful history of unchecked attacks in the state.
Aside the clash of interpretations, the real issue rests with the thousands of families in IDP camps who continue to live with the trauma of displacement. For them, the debate over terminology is secondary to the harsh reality of losing their homes, loved ones, and livelihoods. Many feel frustrated that public attention often centres on semantics rather than solutions.
The controversy reflects a deeper tension in Nigeria’s struggle to define and respond to mass violence. On one side are those who seek accuracy and caution in language; on the other, those who feel that caution can sometimes erase urgency. The truth likely lies somewhere in between: whether or not the killings meet the strict legal threshold of genocide, their scale and consistency are alarming enough to demand national and international attention.
Governor Alia’s remarks may have been an attempt at precision, not denial, but they touched a sensitive nerve. As long as families continue to flee their ancestral homes and attackers operate with alarming coordination, the people of Benue will expect more than explanations, they will expect justice, protection, and accountability.
