Put Nigeria on a war footing
In two tumultuous weeks of insane bloodletting traversing Plateau and Benue States as well as the bandit-infested Northwest and Boko Haram-ravaged Northeast, hundreds of people have been killed and dozens
In two tumultuous weeks of insane bloodletting traversing Plateau and Benue States as well as the bandit-infested Northwest and Boko Haram-ravaged Northeast, hundreds of people have been killed and dozens of communities sacked and occupied. It is pointless pretending that the conflicts in various parts of the country have been contained or that the situation is still manageable. What is truer is that the conflicts are getting out of hand, even if the death toll has not assumed the humongous proportions they reached in the past. In addition, despite rampant analytical equivocation by the political elite from all regions of the country, it is now abundantly clear that both Nigeria's security paradigm and military doctrine have ossified and become incapable of responding adequately to the existential threat facing the nation.
It is time to think outside the box in understanding the foundations of the crises and conflicts, and in proffering solutions. The first place to start is finding common ground between the affected states and the federal government's interpretations of the existential threat. While it is conceded that the conflicts differ in origin from state to state, particularly when they involve banditry and ISWAP/Boko Haram insurgency in the Northwest and Northeast, in the fertile lands of the Middle Belt the conflicts look similar in origin and goals. The states and federal government must, therefore, call a spade a spade. Responding to the killings in Plateau State for instance, which has gripped the country in the past two weeks for their relentlessness and brutality, the federal government appears undecided what the conflicts' nature looks like, whether it is ethnic cleansing and genocidal madness or communal, herders-farmers or revenge clashes. Once the conceptual origins of the conflicts are misconstrued, responsibility for containing it may become skewed or ineffective.
This may be why the federal government's statement issued after the second round of killings in Plateau State raised angry concerns in the beleaguered region. In a statement last week, the federal government had said: “We cannot allow this devastation and the tit-for-tat attacks to continue. Enough is enough…The ongoing violence between communities in Plateau State, rooted in misunderstandings between different ethnic and religious groups, must cease. Beyond dealing with the criminal elements of these incessant killings, the political leadership in Plateau State, led by Governor Caleb Mutfwang, must address the root cause of this age-long problem. These problems have been with us for more than two decades. We can no longer ignore the underlying issues.” While it is true that the problem has festered for more than two decades, the reason is due more to the federal government's incompetent appreciation of the crises as well as bias. For decades the problem persisted; now it has metastasised. Over 60 communities have been sacked in Plateau, renamed, and most of them occupied. It is a replacement strategy, not communal clashes, and certainly not herders-farmers war.
When the sacking of communities began decades ago, the federal government failed to respond appropriately or reclaim sacked communities for their rightful owners. It was clear that a sinister objective was at play, an objective that has seemed to expand over the years due mainly to the acquiescence or/and ineptitude of the security and law enforcement agencies. After many such attacks, certain associations had come forward to claim responsibility or issue warnings and preconditions for peace. Yet, except on one or two occasions, no one was arrested, no real investigations were ordered, and no one was held to account. Sensing complicity, the attackers had grown bolder, desensitised, barbaric, and audacious. Having metastasised, the problem has dangerously morphed symptomatically into ethno-religious colouration. It is, indeed, only superficially ethno-religious. It is more fundamentally about mining land, arable land, and about a weak and dishonest appreciation and application of law and order.
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Harassed and shaken, Governor Caleb Mutfwang, like many of his predecessors, has talked out of both sides of his mouth. He knows and has argued that the conflict in his state is about land, but he is unable to wield and project the kind of force needed to deal with the menace and reclaim sacked communities for their rightful owners. Worse, he has reluctantly embraced superficial panaceas to stop the flow of blood. He has talked about outlawing night grazing and limiting the use of motorcycles – just to be seen as doing something forceful to rein in the madness on the Plateau. And unlike the federal government, he has acknowledged that foreign militias, egged on by local sponsors, were mostly behind the mindless attacks. Knocking the foreign militias and their nefarious ideologies into a cocked hat is obviously not the job of states, no matter how dutiful and well-meaning. It is the job of the federal government and its security agencies. It is a job for the heavy lifters, and for the heavy guns. Overthrowing a sinister ideology propagated by radical foreign elements and their local sponsors is not a job for the small lifters. While the state, as Mr Mutfwang has demonstrated, must be involved and be willing to deploy scarce resources, controlling the influx of dangerous foreign elements and controlling the proliferation of small arms are federal jobs.
Plateau State may be the exemplification of the existential crises inundating Nigeria from the North and Middle Belt, it is by no means the only one. In different forms, the crises are viciously and unremittingly replicated in the Northeast and Northwest theatres. The military have waged long-running and costly wars in both theatres to control the diseases, but they have been bogged down in waste, fragmented executions, and infiltrations. At the current rate of progress, the conflicts could very well last for another decade. That will be indefensible. The federal government might also in frustration begin to shuffle its cards and replace commanders and service chiefs; but it is a measure they have deployed to no effect in the past two decades. If the government is to see the end of these conflicts, it must step on toes, mobilise huge financial resources, give itself a timeline and deadline, embark on general mobilisation of enlisted men and women, and put the country on a war footing. The alternative is too bleak to imagine, for the country appears to be nearing an endgame with potentially catastrophic consequences.
•First published on April 20, 2025 under the title Countrywide killings: Put Nigeria on a war footing, it is slightly reworked and repeated for its relevance.
