By Amos Aar
A major campaign strategy used by presidential candidates coming to Benue State to canvass support and votes from people of the state to enable them to win the forthcoming general elections in Nigeria is the promise to quell the killings being perpetrated in the state by suspected herdsmen militia.
The presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP), Peter Obi, and that of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, who visited Benue State earlier, anchored their campaigns on stopping insecurity in Benue State and Nigeria at large.
Similarly, the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and former vice president of Nigeria, Atiku Abubakar, who flew with his campaign team to Makurdi on Monday, February 6, 2023, also anchored his campaign prominently on the killings in Benue State.
Atiku, and all the presidential contenders who came before him, dwelt mostly on the Benue killings probably because they identified it as the most contending and existential challenge that the people will quickly connect with.
Atiku in particular may have heard, prior to his visit to the state, that Benue people were frowning at his body language that some indigenes of the state if not majority, were threatening not to vote for him for those reasons.
He said during the campaign rally: “We want to extend our condolences and sympathies to the families and loved ones who have lost their lives in the last 7-8 years in Benue State.
“As Zege Mule U Tiv (the big shade of the Tiv nation), I’m the umbrella of Tiv people. I promise you, if you elect me as president, just as I did in 2001 when I came to Benue, I made the Fulanis to sign a peace accord with their brother, Tivs. I will come to make sure peace returns to Benue State. Benue State is the Food Basket of the Nation but today, farmers cannot go to farm because of insecurity. I will make sure security returns to Benue State”.
He limited his condolences and sympathy to Benue people to the last 7-8 years under President Buhari’s administration which sounded like a mere campaign trick to attribute the killings to the APC led federal government to takeover power while the heightened annihilation of Benue people started since 2012 and had continued unabated till date.
Atiku’s assurances to tackle the Killings in Benue State had sparked negative reactions from people of the State and he was simply viewed as someone dancing on the graves of the slain Benue people, and one who cannot keep his promise to protect lives for a number of reasons.
The PDP presidential candidate has never condemned publicly, the incessant Killings of Benue people by suspected Fulani herdsmen militia neither has he ever sent condolences to the Benue State Government and people of the state before the day of his electioneering campaign in Makurdi.
Atiku’s recent verbal war against the incumbent Governor of Benue State, Samuel Ortom, over the latter’s firm stand on the sustained attacks on Benue communities was the last stroke that broke the carmel’s back. It was an indication that the Zege Mule U Tiv did not feel the pains of the Benue people and may not protect them even if elected president.
The chieftaincy title of Zege Mule U Tiv (Big Shelter of the Tiv Nation) which Atiku had used emphatically and repeatedly during his campaign rally in Benue state, was conferred on him in 2001 by the Tiv Traditional Council under the Chairmanship of the late Alfred Akawe Torkula, Tor Tiv (iv). The conferment of the chieftaincy title was due to Atiku’s condemnation and intervention in the Tiv massacre in Zaki-Biam by the Nigerian Army during Tiv-Taraba crisis following an allegation, that some soldiers were killed by the Tiv people in the area. Atiku was therefore seen as a shelter of the Tiv people hence the title, “Zege Mule U Tiv”, the highest honorific title bestowed on a non-Tiv person so far in the history of the tribe.
But after the award of the Zege Mule U Tiv title in 2021, Atiku had never identified with the Tiv nation and Benue people at large, in their trying times occasioned by suspected herdsmen militia. Consequently, two things have been thought of; whether Atiku took advantage of the Tiv massacre in 2001 to outshine his boss, the then president Olusegun Obasnajo who reportedly ordered the Army to eliminate Tiv, or he had the courage then to condemn the massacre because the crisis that led to the incident was between Tiv and Jukun but not Tiv-Fulani. Several agitative calls have been made by Tiv groups for the withdrawal of the chieftaincy title of Zege Mule from Atiku, considering his actions and inactions against Benue people and Tiv in particular.
Another incident that made Benue people not to keep faith with Atiku that he will protect them as president is his perceived religious bigotry and parochialism.
Those negative attributes were observed in Atiku when a 200-level student of the Shehu Shagari College of Education, Sokoto State, Miss Deborah Samuel, was burnt to ashes in May, 2022 by some Muslim school mates over what was reported to be a common argument that involved the of Prophet Mohammed, the founder of Islamic religion.
Atiku Abubakar swiftly took to his Facebook and Twitter handles to condemn the heinous act. But when Islamic fanatics threatened to withdraw their support from his presidential ambition, he quickly pulled down the posts and his action received fierce castigations from Nigerians especially from Christian parts of the country.
Atiku’s post on social media before he deleted it, read: “there cannot be a justification for such gruesome murder. Deborah Yakubu was murdered, and all those behind her death must be brought to justice. My condolences to her family and friends.”
Syllogistically, even if elected as president of the federal republic of Nigeria, Atiku will be influenced negatively by his religious fanatics and will not be able to protect people from other religious faiths and tribes even if he wishes to protect them.
Benue Killings have lingered for many years without intercession or at least condemnation by those campaigning to lead Nigeria come 2023 general elections and should not be used as bait and prey to cajole and lure people of the State into a trap.
