•The government has been unfair to them; it’s time for restitution
The Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) from Agatu, Benue State, have been maltreated by their country, Nigeria; so, we urge the relevant agencies to engage in restitution. We consider it a monumental national tragedy that as a result of attacks from Fulani herdsmen, indigenes of Agatu, like a number of others across the country, have become IDPs in their own country. But what do you call a nation whose security officials, instead of bringing succour and remediation to her IDPs, maltreat and punish them, for having the audacity to protest against the state and her institutions, for neglecting them?
Even when the protesting IDPs may have behaved rascally by defecating at the palace of Ochi Idoma, sending security goons after them in retaliation as reported, is an unacceptable insensitivity. The security agencies, and those who sent them were unthinking, in their conduct. After all, if the security agencies were alive to their main responsibility, the people of Agatu would not have been sacked by marauding Fulani herdsmen. Indeed, it is a national shame that despite the widely reported destruction of lives and property in the community by the attackers, the nation’s emergency responders delayed in ending the tragedy.
It was the complete abandonment by the Nigerian state that prompted the displaced and destabilised people of Agatu to take their protest to the palace of their traditional ruler, to gain a modicum of attention.
Without realising it, the concerned security officials, by their action, made the federal, state and local administrations appear as failed institutions, which do not care about the sufferings of their ordinary citizens. By going to their traditional ruler, the people were casting a vote of no confidence on these contraptions, whose sense of shame and failure in the circumstance, was glaring to all, except their naïve officials. For us, the Agatu crisis mocks our common humanity.
We commend the Ochi Idoma, who directed that the displaced persons should be temporarily sent to a makeshift camp, when those who bear the official responsibility failed to act. Now the state actors must assume full responsibilities, to care for those in the IDP camps. The report of lack of facilities, like toilets and other basic amenities, should be taken care of. The officials responsible for bringing relief to the IDPs must not treat their glaring failure, so far, as a badge of honour. Food and other requirements should be provided, with the support of the state and local authorities, like in other IDP camps.
The concerned tiers of government and relevant agencies should always show care, and reiterate the competence of state institutions. Until recently, the federal authorities, in charge of security, acted as if the crisis in Agatu was inconsequential. Despite the killings of hundreds of unarmed civilians, widespread destruction of properties, and the displacement of thousands, the federal authorities were demurring to send soldiers to the place. Unfortunately, even after the state governor, Samuel Ortom, had visited President Muhammadu Buhari, to brief him, more killings were allowed to happen, before soldiers were drafted.
The neighbouring states to Benue, particularly Taraba, where the Fulani herdsmen allegedly came from, must join hands with the Benue State government to resolve the crisis. The leadership of the Fulani herdsmen and the rural communities in Agatu must find ways to avoid similar clashes that had destroyed so many lives.
We hope it would be helpful that the Minister of Agriculture is from Benue State; for the crisis in Agatu is one major reason why he should move quickly, to realise President Buhari’s promise that in the next two years, no cattle will roam any part of Nigeria.
