A Just Cry from the Bishops—And a Wake-up Call to a Failing State -By Leonard Karshima Shilgba

The recent statement by the Catholic Bishops of Nigeria condemning the persistent killings in Benue State and the silence—or complicity—of both the Federal and Benue State governments is a just cry. I commend the bishops for rising above denominational and partisan affiliations to speak boldly for the oppressed.

This is not merely a matter of law and order; it is a matter of justice. When human life is desecrated daily by coordinated acts of murder and communities are repeatedly displaced by terrorists masquerading as herders, while those entrusted with the defense of the innocent issue platitudes and evasions, we must ask: What is the purpose of government if not the protection of lives and property?

The bishops’ lamentation is not hyperbole—it is a factual representation of our tragic reality. For too long, the victims of these attacks have borne their grief in silence, while state actors blame vague “bandits”, invoke tired clichés of “unknown gunmen”, or every so often mere “relocation” of a defence chief to the affected states is ordered. In the face of sustained patterns of aggression, such passivity is betrayal, and regular repeats of unworkable rituals are comedic displays.

As someone who has lived, taught, and led among Benue’s academic and civic institutions, I know too well the cost of fear and the paralysis of leadership. We cannot build roads soaked in blood, nor can we wholeheartedly celebrate governance achievements while graves are being dug daily in our villages. All these other achievements, including infrastructural development, by both federal and state governments are noteworthy, but they are being dwarfed by the ceaseless shedding of blood of innocent lives: our mothers, fathers, children, brothers, and sisters.

I call on the President of Nigeria, the National Assembly, and the Benue State Government to treat the bishops’ call as a moral verdict and a national alarm. Enough of the statements—what the people demand now is action: decisive, just, and protective. The killers must be stopped, their sponsors must be exposed and prosecuted, and peace must be returned to Benue State, and every other region in Nigeria.

There cannot be such coordinated attacks involving such sophisticated weapons being deployed without sponsors. It is in the light of this that I take seriously Gov. Alia’s recent revelation that the interim report of a Benue Panel of Inquiry contains names of some sponsors of Benue terrorism. The Governor said on the June 6 Politics Today show on Channel TV that the full report would be received by him this week. Benue people and the nation await the bombshell revelation and a bombshell prosecution following the bombshell arrest of the sponsors of those coordinated attacks on the people of Benue, which for too long have been moderated under the euphemism “herdsmen attacks”.

Additionally, President Tinubu may borrow a leaf from President Trump’s recent directive to his Secretary of Homeland Security Noem, Secretary of Defense, Hegeth, and US Attorney General, Bondi to mobilize resources and personnel to the California city of Los Angeles to liberate it from “insurrectionists” and rioters who are resisting ICE operations to expel the “illegal aliens” from USA. President Tinubu’s Minister of Defence (rather than only the COAS), along with his colleagues, the Minister of Internal Affairs and the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation, must be given the appropriate orders to liberate Benue State and other states of those murderers of our people, whether they are called “herdsmen”, “militia”, “bandits”, or whatever. Ministers and defence chiefs should retain their jobs only when they deliver on the president’s orders and vision. Holding a public office without delivering results is as useless as a goalkeeper who folds his arms and idly watches every shot take the ball into the back of the goalpost.

The Governor of Benue State should be assisted to root out the evil. As I have written heretofore, both Governor Alia and the other Nigerian state governors are neither commanders of federal troops nor are they invested with operational control over federal security agencies. More pathetically, Nigeria’s constitution doesn’t allow either State Police or national guards under state governors’ control. The Nigerian security architecture has been designed to fail, and it is failing badly under the current weight of terrorism sponsorship by non-state actors. The President and National Assembly must arise to get our constitution reframed accordingly.

Let us remember: Every government that fails in its primary duty to protect life forfeits its moral claim to leadership. President Tinubu must act now and act smartly. This is the message that the bishops have sent.

© Shilgba