The National President of the Middle Belt Forum, Dr. Bitrus Pogu, speaks with IMOLEAYO OYEDEYI on the approach of both the Federal and Benue State governments to the persistent herdsmen attacks on the state and other areas

About 200 of people were reportedly killed by armed herdsmen in Yelewata community of Benue State recently. How would you assess the approach of the Federal and state governments to the killings?

Going by their pronouncements, I’m not impressed at all. When such a heinous crime has been committed by people who are identifiable, talking is just not enough. First of all, the state governor, instead of giving the correct figure of people who died, downplayed it, making it appear as if only less than 50 people were killed. Mr. President did better than his predecessor, who, when such a thing happened, never cared to visit Benue.

However, Tinubu visited the state, though I expected him to do and say more than what he said. For him to even joke that he would need some land in Benue for ranch is like trivialising the massacre of the Benue people. That dastardly act brutally took the lives of over 200 Nigerians. In some more civilised societies, the action that’s going to be taken would be so serious that the whole nation would feel the impact. So, I expected more seriousness from Mr. President and the government of Benue State

But the President, during his visit to the state, demanded arrests and asked the security chiefs to go after the killers. Isn’t that enough?

We have heard lots of such statements before, and you know the result, being a Nigerian like I am. Mr. President should have said, ‘I give the security agencies 24 hours or 12 hours to fish out these people and bring them to book.’ Let all Nigerians know who they are so that they can be dealt with in a way that will serve as a lesson to others. I think he should have said something like that, not to say we are going to fish out. Fish out who? We have really made a lot of noise. We need action now in Nigeria, not noise-making.

The President also held a town-hall meeting with the Benue people and proposed a peace panel to address the problem. What more should he have done?

Immediately this attack broke out, which is additional to others that had happened in the past, the President should have said, ‘Enough is enough of the killings in Nigeria. The whole military approach to insurgency, to terrorism is changing from today. We will not leave military men or security men to stay in one place, waiting for terrorists without acting.’ He should have added that anytime a distress call is made and the security operatives fail to act, every security man in that area will be held accountable. That would have instilled fear because it would be reported.

Come to think of it, the police claimed that they engaged the bandits, while there are military formations around the place where the attack happened, yet nobody went to save the people, and for hours, they were killed and burnt in their rooms. That’s why I said the President should have pronounced that any security man in an area of attack who did not go to rescue people who are being terrorised would be held responsible. We would have wanted such a message to be pronounced clearly so that henceforth, when there is a distress call and the security refuses for any reason to protect the people in their domain, they will be held responsible and culpable.

Secondly, knowing how helpless people were in the hands of these armed and ruthless criminals, the President should have said state and community police have to take off immediately.

The Tiv traditional ruler described the attack as genocide, but the responses from the Federal and state governments make it appear like a communal war that can be settled without force. What’s your take?

There is nothing like communal war, not in Benue, or Plateau State, not anywhere in this country. What you have is a set of people, mainly Fulani, going around for whatever reason, to kill, maim, destroy people’s lives, and take over their ancestral lands, and they are rewarded in the end. That was what happened in Wase in Plateau.

These attackers killed many people in the Plateau community, and they got rewarded by taking over ancestral lands of the people. They didn’t do that in Katsina, Zamfara, or Sokoto. But they came to the Middle Belt to unleash violence and take over the lands of the people they killed. That’s the irony of this country we call Nigeria.

Who rewarded the killers?

Who established and took Wase land and handed it over to the Fulani? Who did it? It was the Federal Government. A ceremony was even held by the Ministry of Livestock Development, which handed over the large expanse of the Wase people’s land to the same Fulani who were killing the people. The unfortunate development perhaps implies that the killing of innocent people is being rewarded, and that’s why it has continued.

There have been calls for the Benue residents to embrace self-defence, but the state governor kicked against this. What’s your take on that?

Everybody should defend himself. If that doesn’t work, we will collectively defend our territory. By the time it reaches that stage, Nigeria would have become a Somalia. So, the Federal Government needs to do something because people have been pushed to the wall, especially in the Middle Belt.

We are at the brink of displaying the Somalia kind of effect. When people are being killed, and there is a total breakdown of law and order, this means governance has failed. When this happens, everybody will take law into their hands. You cannot just sit and watch: today, this one is killed, tomorrow, that one is killed, yet only a group is perpetrating this act, while others are just at the receiving end.

Look around the country, when they talk of this kind of thing in the North-West, they will also say Fulani are doing it. In the North-Central, they will mention the Fulani. In the South-West and South-South, it is the same Fulani doing it. Don’t you think it will reach a stage where everybody will turn against the Fulani? So, it will be everyone for himself. If we are not careful, it will be more like a Rwanda or Burundi kind of thing, everybody against one group. You don’t have to read history to know that’s where we are heading, and when that happens, we will have factions of everybody all over the place.

Only God knows how many pieces and portions of this country will be governed and by which kind of people. But it will be an unfortunate day when such a thing happens. The government is taking this for granted. Where in this world will over 200 people be killed and burnt, and we end up just talking? Where in this world will a whole brigade be sabotaged and run over by non-state actors, who are not trained and equipped? It’s only in Nigeria. Where in this world do you find these kinds of killings happening every day and in every part of this country? This is because even as we speak about Benue, I read something like that happened in Kebbi.

Do you think the crisis is political as claimed in some quarters?

We have read in the past that people were even imported from outside to come for political reasons, and they have remained in this country. Politicians may have their role, since we have these testimonies. But we have reached a stage in which people now occupy areas in this country, which we call ungoverned spaces. With the assistance of Nigeria’s residents, these people organise and arm themselves to attack and kill our people for whatever reason.

But if it is for politics, it would manifest sooner than later. Now, it is escalating during Bola Tinubu’s era. But it scaled down a bit during Muhammadu Buhari’s era. Don’t also forget that it rose during Jonathan’s era.

It will manifest whether politicians are sponsoring and supporting these things. The truth is the majority of the attacks are perpetrated by a group of people who are identifiable. Every time the attack happens, we say it is Fulani herdsmen. But some of them don’t have cattle. Yes, they may appear to be Fulani, but some of them are not herdsmen. A herdsman is someone who takes care of cattle. But whatever it is, we know that this thing has some motive; and that motive is to steal from Nigerians, take over their ancestral lands, and convert it to Fulani land.

There have been insinuations that the Benue State governor seems helpless in the anti-terror fight. How true is this?

The state governors are the Chief Security Officers of their states. Yes, it’s true that some of the machinery of government, like the police and the military are not under the control of the governor. In that respect, we will say he has some challenges, just like any other governor in this country. That is why we insist that we should have true federalism, alongside the state and local government police, so that the defense of a community would start from that community in an organised manner.

Mr. President said, ‘Let’s establish forest guards.’ But we know this country, anything by the Federal Government will be manipulated to an extent that the same attackers will be posted as forest guards to the place where people are being attacked, and they will facilitate attack on those communities. Let’s have state police, and local government police. Let people defend their territories from aggressors. If these people know you are armed and you are ready for them, they will not come.

How should the governor address the situation?

Let the governor forget about politics and do what is necessary for his people. The primary purpose of government, according to our Constitution, is security and welfare. Let him concentrate on providing security and then welfare to the people. Let the people who have been chased out of their homes go back to their ancestral lands and be able to live at peace and in peace.

The governor’s re-election will be guaranteed by the people. But he just stands around and continues playing politics, downplaying even the number of people massacred, his own people, rather than coming out to say, ‘I’m sorry, 200-plus of my people have been massacred.’ Let the governor be seen as a person who cares about his people, not about covering up for some other people outside or for his government. But if he toes the line he’s treading now, trying to politicise things, he will be the one to lose out. Benue people know what is happening, and they will reward him in the coin that he selects for himself.

Are you suggesting that the governor intentionally played down the death toll?

Going by the pictures you have seen, you know the kind of mayhem that was committed. Think about those people that were burnt inside their rooms, let alone those who were massacred outside. For the governor to downplay and pronounce a low number or a figure when many nongovernmental organisations, journalists, and everybody have gone there, it’s a sad development. Every life of a Benue person is very importantnd his primary objective is to protect those lives. The governor really needs to change and care about Benue life, because that’s what he has been elected to do.

The military and police said they have launched a cross-border manhunt for the Benue attackers. Do you think anything concrete will come out of the exercise?
If the police want to get these people, they have the capacity to track them in less than 12 hours. I know our police have that capacity. Unfortunately, Benue’s problem does not solve Nigeria’s problem. This is because when you solve this problem in Benue, it will erupt in Southern Kaduna, in Plateau, Taraba, and Kebbi.

So, we have to look at a holistic approach.
We have had enough of bloodletting and terrorism in this country. The military should change its tactics and stop staying in one place waiting for the attackers. There is technology enough in place, and the bandits’ locations are known. Those locations should be blown out of existence so that we can have peace in this country.

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