When Life Takes Backstage -By Pius Mordi

In the past two months, Nigerians have seen two extremes in their national life. On the one hand, attacks and killings in Plateau and Benue states peaked in the past one month with over 180 people killed in the unchecked April attacks in more than 183 villages.

In the past two weeks, the political class has been in celebratory mood with tales of states that have been captured or about to be captured without the rigours of elections. Make no mistake about it. The only thing that matters for politicians and rulers is the jostling for 2027. That more states are being captured now does not make governance take centre stage before the election.

In back-to-back attacks by cattle herders and their military killer bands, at least 56 people were killed in one night in Ukum and Logo local government areas of Benue state in what Governor Hyacinth Alia said was carried out “suspected herdsmen”. The narrative is that competition over land use was the trigger.

After the recent killings of over 183 under circumstances where the herders operated challenged with sophisticated assault rifles of military grade, what greeted Nigerians was celebrations by politicians’ change of loyalty in the proportion of a “tsunami”.

While the celebration goes on, where the neglect of the people is criticised, the response is that such criticisms amount to lack of patriotism and demarketing the country. In diverting attention from the life and living of the people to mundane politics, do political leaders really think that until political opponents criticise the state of the polity, the world does not know what is happening? In this era global village driven by the social media?

In a report by ThisDay newspapers, a coalition of civil society organisations operating under the umbrella of the Community of Practice Against Mass Atrocities and Nigeria Mourns, has called for an independent probe into recent attacks on agrarian communities in Benue and Plateau states. Similarly, in a joint statement, Global Rights and over 20 other Civil Society Organisations in Nigeria, concerned by the brazen killings where no group in held accountable save for meaningless routine condemnations, demanded that the federal government allow an independent investigation into all reported attacks to ensure the prosecution of perpetrators without bias or delay, through the instrumentality of the National Human Rights Commission and the United Nations Human Rights Council.

Giving vent to the long-held allegations of sabotage and collusion by elements in the security services, the Christian Rights Agenda (CRA) called on President Bola Tinubu to go beyond ordering the deployment of security men to troubled areas, stressing the need for strict implementation and accountability, and that security personnel who fail to deliver on their duties must be sanctioned to prevent further sabotage.

According to the group, over 80 communities have already been seized by terrorists, leaving a trail of death, destruction, and mass displacement in their wake.

They alleged that, “the current attacks are systematic, organised, and aimed at wiping out entire Christian communities.” This is a weighty allegation that justifies the agitation for an independent inquiry into why the attacks have remained intractable while nobody or group has even been indicated. The CRA noted that their monitoring of the situation shows the killings are coordinated efforts by insurgents to impose terror, religious intolerance, and complete anarchy.
In the search for a long term solution to the deadly attacks, all stakeholder groups, especially state governors had agreed that allowing states to set up their Police is now inevitable as the 1999 Constitution is undergoing yet another review. Unfortunately, at the April 24, 2025 meeting of the National Economic Council presided over by Vice President Kashim Shettima, the issue which was earlier slated for discussion was suspended.

Invariably, discussions on letting states establish their own Police have been shelved in a move that suggests its proponents have lost their nerve, preferring to be politically correct.
As political leaders engaged in backslapping over their acquisitions, they fail to realise that the people are not excited by what gives them so much joy. They do not demand much of the government nor do they expect much either.

They are used to generating their electricity, educating their children in better private schools, giving themselves good healthcare at their cost and wading through the treacherous roads.
But securing the roads, their farmlands and taking on kidnappers and killers armed with assault weapons is one enterprise too much. They do not share in the euphoria of knowing that the second term election of public office holders is already guaranteed two years ahead of the end of the first term. Why should they bother?

Where they vote on election day is immaterial because they know whoever emerges winner is not determined by their votes. Their lives and those of their families occupy prime attention for them. If only political leaders should stop relegating their precious lives to the backstage of the responsibilities of government.

They will not mind the corruption, wastefulness and the absence of basic infrastructure the government is supposed to provide.