IN January, Benue State governor, Samuel Ortom, had criticised his Nasarawa State counterpart, Umaru Al-Makura, for harbouring the herdsmen who perpetrated the New Year’s Day killings in Benue State. The Nasarawa governor was quoted as saying that the anti-open grazing law passed by Benue State was unnecessary notwithstanding the horrendous attacks orchestrated by the herdsmen who were thought to be mostly Fulani. Mr Ortom was to later apologise for his harsh comments which he attributed to the grief that overcame Benue people as a result of the January massacres. In his response, Mr Al-Makura had insisted that neither he nor his state as a whole was insensitive to the killings, suggesting ruefully that Mr Ortom probably responded too hastily. But whether Mr Al-Makura was insensitive or not, or whether he truly opposed the anti-open grazing law or not, it was clear he was unable to vicariously feel Mr Ortom’s pains when Benue farmers and indigenes were massacred by herdsmen.
Mr Al-Makura, all reports indicated, was more restrained than Plateau State governor, Simon Lalong, in his comments over the trauma the neighbouring Benue State endured in the opening days of January, a trauma that has sadly become relentless. Mr Lalong had openly and unambiguously attributed Benue’s unending killings to the anti-open grazing law, which he said he had advised against. He was to apologise later for being so insensitive. But while sporadic killings have continued in Plateau State and persisted with sickening orchestration and ferocity in Benue, the neighbouring Nasarawa State is finally having to grapple with herdsmen’s mass killings. And contrary to his philosophical aloofness when the bloody shoe was on the other foot, Mr Al-Makura is now very flustered with the killings spilling over to his state with deadening regularity. Last Sunday, some 32 persons were reportedly killed by herdsmen in Keana, Obi and Awe Local Government Areas of Nasarawa State. The razed settlements were quickly depopulated, with many of the indigenes taking refuge in Internally Displaced Persons’ camps.
Evidence of Mr Al-Makura’s testiness came when he visited the IDPs last Tuesday. As he attempted to address the grieving and distressed displaced Nasarawans, the youths of the camps reportedly become impatient with him and unruly. Unable to stomach their sourness, the governor blurted out that their unruliness perhaps had political roots. He thus proved how infinitely easy it is to pontificate before coming under herdsmen attacks. Said he to reporters after the disruption in the IDP camp at Agwatashi in Obi LGA: “The reaction from the people is understandable, given their plight and we have to use diplomacy to address the issues. Continuing to address them at the moment would not yield any result, so we have decided to avoid further altercation.”
Had he sustained this understanding throughout his interaction with the press over the vexed issue, he would have been applauded for his unearthly calm. But he was apparently boiling underneath the cold, placid exterior. He continued: “However, this action (the unruliness of the youths) appears to indicate that the problems in some of these communities are self-inflicted. If people can conduct themselves in this way, then you know that there is more to it than what is happening…If you will want to take laws into your own hands, you will be left to defend yourselves. However, as a responsible government desirous of protecting lives and property, we shall explore all avenues to ensure the safety of the people.”
If Mr Al-Makura could lose his cool so quickly, what if herdsmen had replicated in Nasarawa the relentless killings it continues to inflict on Benue? Would he not be transformed into a worse firebrand than Mr Ortom? It was unfortunate that the governor insinuated that the herdsmen attacks on Nasarawa communities could have been triggered by their impatience and negative behaviour. In what way? Just because they were, as he suggested, unruly? Or perhaps he saw them as intransigent, and that if they had been more accommodating, perhaps the herdsmen would have spared them. He spoke in codes and would not spell out exactly what he meant.
But even more unfortunately, in anger, he briefly hinted that the sacked communities would be abandoned to the ravages of herdsmen, as he put it, “to defend (themselves)”. The fault of course is not Nasarawa’s, nor, as it is clearly evident for Mr Al-Makura to see, that of Benue’s anti-open grazing law. The fault is squarely the federal government’s. By allowing the problem of herdsmen killings to start, gather speed, and then fester, while it dithers over who the identity of the attackers and what ailed them, the federal government showed it either lacked the courage to serve justice in the matter or it was complicit. There are no indications that Nasarawa or Benue, or any other attacked state, would be able to curb the killings, for the attackers have become more vicious and ubiquitous. The job is squarely that of the federal government’s, anti-open grazing laws or not. But by waffling, as villages and towns are sacked and pillaged by herdsmen, the federal government seems unpatriotically to be preparing the template for total anarchy.
