Caution as the herdsmen killings take a religious dimension

Two recent developments have added a critical and unfortunate dimension to the crisis caused by the killings in the Middle Belt of Nigeria and the handling of those developments by the Federal Government. They move the country into uncharted territory of matters seen from the prism of religion. Experience elsewhere instructs on the need to tread cautiously and handle the unfolding developments with circumspection.

The religious angle to the killings was the dominant theme when President Muhammadu Buhari met with United States President Donald Trump in Washington on April 30. Trump bluntly stated, “We have had very serious problems with Christians who are being murdered in Nigeria. We are going to work on that problem very, very hard because we cannot allow that to happen.”

Members of one of the largest Christian denominations in Nigeria stepped out Tuesday, May 22, in nationwide protest marches against the cold-blooded murder of two priests in a church in Benue State. The protests by Catholics add a new and dangerous dimension to the unfolding sad chapter of killings by terrorists in the guise of herdsmenin the Middle Belt.  Benue State has been at the epicentre of these gruesome killings. There are now no fewer than 170, 000 displaced persons from various communities in the state residing in Internally Displaced Persons camps.

The murder of Fr Joseph Gor and Felix Tyolaha was particularly provocative. Armed Fulani herdsmen attacked the reverend fathers inside the church as they conducted morning mass on April 24, in AyarMbalom community within the Gwer East Local Government Area of Benue State. They also killed 19 parishioners and burnt houses in the community.

Among the dead were two head teachers and the principal of a secondary school in Ayar. In other words, the killers went for the jugular of matters  such as education and religion that held the community together. The attack on the church came some four days after herdsmen similarly murdered ten persons in the Guma LGA, and destroyed houses in Naka, Gwer LGA. There were also attacks by persons dressed in military uniforms who claimed to be searching for those who killed a soldier.

More than any other incident, the direct attack on the church, its leaders and parishioners gave a religious twist to the killings. President Buhari seemed to grasp the implication of the incident as he quickly reacted with a statement condemning the action. Buhari said, “This latest assault on innocent persons is particularly despicable. Violating a place of worship, killing priests and worshippers is not only vile, evil and satanic, it is clearly calculated to stoke up religious conflict and plunge our communities into endless bloodletting.”

Buhari then pledged the resolve of the Federal Government to arrest and prosecute the perpetrators. Nothing has happened since then. The Federal Government has made no recourse to the incident since that instantaneous reaction by the President. The inaction is compounded by statements that do not bring any comfort to the affected as well as other citizens.

President Buhari and officials of the Federal Government have had no fewer than three different rationalisations for the killings in Benue State and other parts of the Middle Belt. While meeting with Trump, Buhari canvassed what Nigerians now call the Gaddafi theory for the mindless terrorist killings. “The problem of herders in Nigeria is a very long historical thing,” he said. “The Nigerian herders don’t carry anything more than a stick and occasionally a machete to cut down foliage and give it to their animals. These ones are carrying AK-47s.

“People should not underrate what happened in Libya. Forty-three years of Gaddafi; people were recruited from the Sahel and trained to shoot and kill. With the demise of Gaddafi, they moved to other countries and regions and carried the experience with them.”

While meeting with leaders from Benue State, however, President Buhari sued for integration and cooperation between the farming communities and the herdsmen. He asked the grieving visitors to be more accommodating and see the herdsmen as fellow citizens of Nigeria. Then the Inspector General of Police and the Chief of Army Staff blamed the killings on the passage by the Benue State House of Assembly of a law that made open grazing an offence in the state.

Some of the explanations are insensitive while others such as that of “ex-Gaddafi soldiers” insult the nation. The Gaddafi theory is beneath contempt: it implies a breach of the internal security of Nigeria by foreign forces and directly questions the competence of all our security forces. No one should be repeating that jaded explanation.

BusinessDay calls on the Federal Government to provide leadership in the core area of security of lives and property of citizens in one of the federating units of the country. Citizens of Benue State and all Nigerians want to see positive action to arrest the persons visiting terror on Benue State, whether they are herdsmen or former Gaddafi soldiers. Nigeria must avoid adding the tinderbox of religion to the conflict between pastoralists and farmers. Stop the killings now.