Like in most states of the country, Benue state has had its unfortunate share of the herders/farmers crisis that has resulted in needless killings, senseless destruction of properties, and displacement of thousands of Benue people currently living in Internally Displaced Camps (IDPs) across the state.
The ongoing and sustained brutal killings of farmers by herdsmen in Benue stats span across the 23 local Governments, but it is worth mentioning that while Benue tops the chat of victims, other states in the North Central namely Kwara, Kogi, Nassarawa, Plateau, and Niger have experienced ugly situations where people are gunned down, slaughtered and butchered like ordinary animals.
These persistent attacks and eliminations are majorly a result of open grazing activities where herds are controlled to fists on people’s farms.
This brand of insecurity has unfortunately added to the initial activities of Boko Haram and banditry which was mostly within the North East and North West and kidnapping for ramson that has taken over the entire country.
There is no gain in saying the fact that the security operatives may have been overwhelmed, but while the same operatives, particularly the military insist it can decimate insurgence, the practical experience contradicts this military assertion.
In the last week, Benue and Plateau states have experienced sustained attacks leading to mind-bugging killings of innocent people.
Indeed the two states were in the news for the wrong reasons as herdsmen turned Benue and Plateau into a bloodbath.
It is difficult to even ascertain the casualty figures in both states because of conflicting figures by the security authorities and the community leaders.
This deliberate and unprovoked attacks by herdsmen and the inability to curtail the same have birthed another major concern of food insecurity.
There are also concerns about land grabbing and occupation by these marauding herdsmen which introduces the dangerous argument about conquest.
There is a school of thought that believes that one way to end these killings will be a collaborative effort regardless of political affiliations to chart a new course and cross-fertilization of ideas.
Dr Jeffrey Kuraun, for instance, had a detailed plan of action to tackle the Benue crisis when he contacted to become Governor of the state in 2023.
And it is important that the states in the North Central can adopt the Kuraun model.
The North Central Development Commission recently established by an Act of the National Assembly may equally find his model quite useful when it becomes operational.
Suffice it to say, the North-Central Development Commission is an (NCDC) focal organization charged with the responsibility to assess, coordinate, harmonize, and report on all intervention programmes, and initiatives by the Federal Government or any of its Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs), States; and other Development Partners and for the implementation of all programmes and initiatives for the North Central states; Benue, Nassarawa, Plateau, Kogi, Niger, and Kwara respectively.
The NCDC “among other things, is to receive and manage funds from allocation of the Federal Account and international donors for the settlement, rehabilitation, and reconstruction of roads, houses and business premises of victims of insurgency as well as tackling menace of poverty, illiteracy level, ecological problems and any other related environmental or developmental challenges in the North-Central states”.
In dealing with the insecurity in Benue, Dr Kuraun had detailed that “We will establish a state-owned security agency – BENUE STATE SECURITY & BORDER PATROL AGENCY (BSSBPA) to serve the good people of Benue state in the following areas.
“protection against external aggression, provision of both public and private security services, and serve as a revenue generating agency,
collaborate with federal security agencies like the Nigerian police, the Nigeria Security & Civil Defense Corps, and the Military (Army, Airforce, Navy); serve in civilian joint task forces with vigilante groups and counterinsurgency”
It is crystal clear that the Governor of Benue state inherited a crisis-infested state where herdsmen promised to overrun, unleash bloodbath, and conquer.
These threats were executed under the Samuel Ortom administration and the number of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) camps says it all.
But while the Ortom Government kept the federal government on its toes through sustained attention to the degree of pogrom on the Tiv people, the massacre went unabated.
The IDPs admitted more people with over 10 camps; the humanitarian crisis took more dangerous dimensions; today the story is no different, there is a geometric progression of concern.
Although the International Organization for Migration (IOM) was requested to capture the biometric data of displaced populations in Otukpo and Gboko Local Government Areas (LGAs) to ensure that a template was developed based on data, the renewed attacks are overwhelming and have created more humanitarian concerns.
The provision of five thousand units for the IDPs at the Mega camp at the Mbayongo community along Gbajimba road in the Guma local government area of the state where people at NEPA camps were relocated has become a child’s play and grossly inadequate.
About eight hundred and thirty-five persons from 171 households had moved into the mega camp with facilities provided by the State Government, but the current wave of attacks potentially sends a signal that all hands must be on deck and the stage Governor must be intentional without playing the ostrich.
These attacks have also compounded and affected the planned relocation of IDPs at Achwa and Baka camps.
It is commendable that the state Governor has launched what he calls the Durable Solutions, a five-year action plan to support internally displaced persons (IDPs) in the state, but the growing rate of attacks requires a collaborative and cross-fertilization of ideas because the treatment of an ailment is preferable to addressing the symptoms.
The Durable Solutions itself was designed to foster IDPs to safely return to their ancestral homes, what has been happening is the complete reverse where there are more IDPs and more people have either lost their lives or ancestral homes.
This initiative is meant to create sustainable results for the over 500,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs), but that appears to be a wishful thought. The refusal or inability of the state government to admit the attacks and call the attackers by their names has left the people more vulnerable.
Governor Alia had hinted at ensuring the formation of 210 Farmers Cooperatives across all camps in the state that will benefit over 4,200 IDPs; this policy only wears good optics, the reality is that they crave a return to their ancestral homes where they can go about their farming activities without hindrance and limitations.
It is abnormal that large-scale farmers with large families and settlements would be subjected to micro-businesses in a civil-service state capital such as Makurdi. The Governor apparently was oblivious to the fact that what should be of priority to him is the quick return of those IDPs to their homes. He has a responsibility to collaborate and is seen to have collaborated with the Federal Government, and Benue Stakeholders irrespective of political differences to secure the state.
It is unthinkable that Under the Durable Solution, the IDPs are supposed to have access to land, subsidized inputs, and improved seedlings, as well as increased yields and revenue. This is deplorable because the attackers have occupied these same lands, stamped their authorities, and collected taxes from the indigene unchallenged.
The Benue Government’s RETURN, INTEGRATION, and RESETTLEMENT roadmap can be best sub consumed into the NCDC because the Governor’s consistent grandstanding has not yielded any positive results in tackling the needless wave of killings of the Benue people.
It is worthy of mentioning that on settlement of IDPs, Dr Kuraun had proposed that, “we will make deliberate efforts to resettle, rehabilitate the thousands of internally displaced persons living in various camps across the state. We must ensure that our people go back to their ancestral homes in a dignified manner by building appropriate shelters, schools, hospitals, and provision of other necessities. First, we must support the Federal government’s efforts towards the restoration of peace and security. We also need collaborative effort with government and humanitarian organizations”. These are collaborative and forward-thinking strategies that appear lacking at the moment in tackling the Benue menace.
What is and, ought to be of great priority to the Benue Government should be how to tap into stakeholder inputs and detailed solutions and approaches that will ensure human dignity and restore people-confidence.
Although the state Government prides itself on allocating 10% of the state budget for the implementation of the Sustainable Solutions Action Plan that will be reviewed periodically, this is far from a realistic implementation as long as there is no deliberate approach to stop the killings that gave birth to the ugly situation in the first instance.
The collaboration as detailed by Dr Kuraun is lacking at the moment in Benue state.
The current Benue state Governor spent taxpayers’ funds on the procurement of vehicles and motorbikes for the Livestock guards to complement the conventional security operatives; the sad news is that these vehicles and the motorbikes are never in site anywhere in Benue.
It is important to note, that for insecurity to take a downturn in Benue and North Central states, the Governors must set aside politics and address these challenges by providing home-grown solutions.
Honest and genuine engagements of all stakeholders and intentional approaches to finding solutions rather than unnecessarily name-calling and profiling will only aggravate the situation as is seen in Benue.
