BENUE State, known as the “Food Basket of the Nation,” is bleeding. Once a land of peace and productivity, it has now become a battlefield where blood replaces harvests and cries of anguish echo louder than church bells or the chants of farmers on their land.
For years, communities in Benue have suffered sustained attacks attributed to Fulani herdsmen.
Entire villages have been razed, families displaced, children orphaned, and thousands killed.
Despite this glaring humanitarian crisis, the response from the Nigerian government has been deafening silence — a silence that many now interpret not as indifference, but as complicity.
Recently, protests erupted across various parts of the state as citizens gathered to raise their voices against the killings, the inaction, and the betrayal.
The pattern of attacks, the violent suppression of protests, and the absence of any meaningful federal intervention point toward something more sinister: a coordinated effort to destabilize and potentially annihilate the indigenous people of Benue.
But instead of solidarity or support, they were met with tear gas — a cruel response from the very security forces meant to protect them.
Peaceful protesters, many of them elderly women and youths, were dispersed violently, as though demanding safety was a crime.
This use of force against peaceful demonstrators raises unsettling questions: Why is the government silent?
Why does the military, quick to quell civil protests, seem slow or absent when attacks are carried out by armed groups?
What is the role of the state governor, a man of the cloth — a Catholic priest — who should be guided by the principles of justice, compassion, and protection of the vulnerable? Governor Hyacinth Alia’s silence has been particularly painful for many.
While the people who entrusted him with their votes are being butchered, displaced, and silenced, the man who once stood at the altar preaching peace now remains mute in the face of brutality.
Many see this as betrayal — not just of a political mandate, but of moral and spiritual duty. Some fear this is more than negligence.
The pattern of attacks, the violent suppression of protests, and the absence of any meaningful federal intervention point toward something more sinister: a coordinated effort to destabilize and potentially annihilate the indigenous people of Benue.
If so, what is happening is not just violence — it is genocide.
It is time the international community takes note.
The ongoing crisis in Benue State is not merely a local security issue; it is a human rights emergency.
Silence from the global stage enables the continuation of this violence.
Advocacy groups, human rights organizations, international media, and governments must begin to ask the hard questions and demand accountability.
We call on the United Nations, the African Union, the International Criminal Court, and all global defenders of human rights to investigate the atrocities in Benue.
The people of Benue deserve protection, justice, and peace — not bullets, betrayal, and burial grounds.
This is more than politics.
This is about survival.
May God help Benue State.
May truth, justice, and peace prevail.
Mr Ebute writes from Makurdi, Benue State capital
