Until recently, we knew Benue State as and called it “the food basket of the nation”. Its big yam tubers, fruits, vegetables and fish caught in River Benue reached all nooks and crannies of Nigeria. Now, regrettably, the state has been turned to a blood river, transplanting the natural one, which made the state look like the alluvial Mesopotamia of old. Today, human blood saturates dry land, making farming impossible. What is worse, our attempt at making sense of Benue’s killings is exactly what is fueling them.
The first context given to the conflict was, and still is to a lesser extent, was that it was Fulani herders that caused it. That might have been correct in the 1990s. Then, the herders, forced by the ever southward advance of the Sahara desert, took their livestock whereever they could find pastures. The fertile Benue Trough through which the Benue River and its tributaries run, was particularly inviting during the dry season. This was also the time crop farmers were harvesting rice, guinea corn and yam. Unfortunately, the animals couldn’t tell the difference between crop and grass and gobbled up both. The younger herdsmen who had replaced their ageing fathers in taking care of the cows and goats, unlike the elderly herders, didn’t bother to keep the animals away from crops. This often resulted in clashes between them and farmers. With time, machetes and guns replaced hands as the weapons of violence and the confrontation became more frequent. However, the fighting was limited to the dry season and was not as widespread and murderous then as now. Still, the Benue State government thought it could solve the problem by criminalizing open crazing and replacing it with ranching. But it has not set up a single ranch since the legislation was passed in 2019.
The problem with the government’s action was that it acted at the wrong time when herding had become a franchise which even neighbours used to settle old scores. Tiv neighbours, for example, who had had land disputes over time, would attack each other well into the night and the government would say it was Fulani cattle-rearers that did it. Because nobody thought it possible that a Tiv man would kill another. It was easier for outsiders to understand, if it was said it was the handiwork of Fulani herders. Another fact decision makers conveniently forgot was that a number of Tiv people owned cattle which they fed on the move. Some of their livestock was rustled from Fulani owners but, again, it wasn’t considered politically correct to mention it in government house. One more mistake or willful oversight that the government made was to create and arm a vigilante group to protect people from so-called killer herdsmen. But soon the vigilantes would turn their arms against the same people they were meant to protect. They discovered they would make more money for themselves through kidnapping for ransom than the peanut they received as salary from the government. An example was the case of one “Ghana”, who originally headed the government’s militia force, but later became a Robin Hood. But unlike the latter, who protected the weak from the powerful, Ghana used his gun to “rob, kill and destroy.” It had to take the creator of the Frankenstein to finally destroy him in 2022.
Now, another misreading of the conflict has just been given. This by no one but the chief of defence staff, Lt.-Gen. Christopher B. Musa, who is given to opening his mouth too wide at a time when he should be acting more than talking. On Friday, Musa told journalists at Defence Headquarters in Abuja that the mass murders that took place in Yelwata community were carried out by known killers. “These criminals were harboured by people in the community,” he said. They were given food. They were even given women. They were guided on where the IDP camp was located. Yet, security forces received no information. This is why we consistently urge communities to be vigilant and report suspicious activities. Security is everyone’s responsibility.” Wao! Residents giving accommodation to killers to eliminate fellow residents! Security experts would find this hard to accept because it isn’t straight from their textbooks. How come the attackers move about, plan and execute the attacks without giving themselves away. Why was it that Musa’s supposedly well armed troops in Benue didn’t foul the killings before they happened? Well, he explained that they received no intelligence from the residents. Which made sense because if they were harbouring the criminals, giving food and women to them, then they wouldn’t tell it to anyone else! How did Musa come to the killers were embedded within the community if no insider offered any information? I fear this is another mistaken view of the Benue crisis, one that further complicates it, making it even harder to resolve.
