Following a deadly series of attacks that left over 50 people dead in Bokkos Local Government Area of Plateau State, fresh calls for government accountability have reignited the debate over the true nature of Nigeria’s long-running security crisis in the region.
Speaking on the killings during an interview with ARISE NEWS on Monday, the former Minister of Youth and Sports Development, Solomon Dalung, delivered a blistering critique of what he described as a longstanding reluctance to confront the truth. He stated that “There is nothing like herder-farmer clashes on the Plateau. These are terrorists. They have enclaves. They grab land, wrestle cattle, and displace natives. In the bush, there is a government, and these places are known.”
Dalung further criticised the federal government’s narrative, particularly the introduction of the Ministry of Livestock as a solution, calling it a distraction from the real issue. “Let us not be hiding about Ministry of Livestock. Ministry of Livestock cannot even do anything about this problem.
“If you sum up this, you will come back to this issue of lack of a political will because if the political will to deal with the situation is there, these people will be given their rightful designation. They are terrorists. There was no farm or other animals that were either wrestled by the community or they trespassed into any farmland that resulted into this series of attacks we are hearing.”
He expressed disbelief at the excuses of poor road access cited by security agencies, pointing out that modern surveillance technologies could bridge such gaps.
He stated, “The security said, well, we couldn’t do anything because there are no access roads. I couldn’t fathom that because in a technologically-driven economy like ours, would the issue be that of access roads? What happened to drones and cameras, other sophisticated gadgets of intelligence gathering?”
Dalung warned that continued reluctance to name the violence for what it is — genocide — would only allow the attackers to remain on top of the situation while officials pretend to be. He also called on Nigerians to reject the ethnic framing of the conflict and demand a stronger, swifter response grounded in truth and justice.
“If we must be very honest in dealing with the plateau situation, first, we will have to stop pretending that it is herder-farmers’ clashes. Not at all. It is terrorism. It is genocidal because it has met the international definition of genocide. When a group of people attack another group with the intention of wiping them off the face of the earth, it is genocide. When you employ a policy of starvation and trying to use that to wipe a community or a group of people, it’s genocide. So what is happening is genocidal.
“The problem is for the Federal Government to designate these people with their rightful names, consider them criminals, and stop even attaching ethnic identity to them. Yes, predominantly they belong to an ethnic nationality. But I don’t see them as operating in the overall interest of that particular ethnic nationality.
Rather, they are criminals. And so if we do not treat them as criminals, we will miss the point and we’ll continue to hold visits to Plateau State by government officials and they will be on top of the situation while the criminals are on top of the situation.”
