A nation that finds it difficult to tell itself the truth will also find it difficult to move forward. Nigeria is one of such countries. Telling the truth is nearly an impossibility in the country. It is even inconceivable that with over 200 million most effervescent people on earth we could sink this low.
What should anyone call the decades of incessant killings in Plateau State? Its current governor, Caleb Mutfwang found rare courage in a nation steeped in spinelessness to say that 12,000 indigenes of the state had been killed in sectarian violence since 2000.
How about the frequent murders in Benue State? Its own governor, a priest, preferred to dance on the graves of the thousands of his people habitually killed by Fulani herdsmen with the sole aim of dispossessing them of their arable lands. To Rev. Fr. Hyacinth Alia, it is not genocide.
And the perennial killings in Southern Kaduna? Just to be sure, Southern Kaduna has known relative peace in the last two years since its son, General Christopher Musa became the Chief of Defence staff (he was replaced late October) and the incumbent governor decided to rule fair in contrast to his predecessor’s militant governance.
What is genocide?
Artificial Intelligence says: “Genocide is the intentional destruction of a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group, in whole or in part. The key element is the intent to destroy the group, not just to harm individuals”.
The Oxford’s dictionary defines genocide as “the deliberate and systematic killing or persecution of a large number of people from a particular national or ethnic group with the aim of destroying that nation or group”.
Based on these simple-to-understand definitions, I can infer that the frequent killings of people in Southern Kaduna, Plateau and Benue States is genocidal. I can also infer that the frequent killings of people in Borno, Niger, Zamfara States and elsewhere in Northwestern Nigeria is genocidal. We do not need foreigners watching happenings in our country to tell us what is happening. We know the truth and we must call a spade by its name.
When it started in July 2009, the Boko Haram insurgency was targeting Christians. It was and remains a militant Islamist and jihadist armed group against Christians and the Nigerian state as a secular state. Anyone can fact check this. It was much later when many churches had been destroyed and many Christians killed and displaced that the murderous gangs started aiming at Muslims. Then a few prominent northern Muslims including Sheikh Ahmad Gumi and former President Mohammadu Buhari gave these figures grounds to continue their murderous acts. At a point when the administration of Goodluck Johnathan, which Buhari succeed, contemplated negotiations with the Islamists, it nominated Buhari to lead their negotiation team (this is not to say that Buhari was a Boko Haram member but he had initially sympathised with their cause). Though that did not happen, it had given fillip to their twisted ideology.
Unfortunately, the Johnathan government was too lily-livered to deal with the situation. The kidnap of hundreds of Chibok schoolgirls in April 2014 opened the eyes of the world to the danger that Nigeria had become.
This article is not about proving if genocides are being committed against Christians in Nigeria but about helping to rescue our nation from the Islamists, the armed Fulani herders and the murderous gangs in the Northwest, who are bent on turning the country into a permanently destabilised nation. That is already an established fact; just as it is with the defenceless Muslims in the Northwest.
While those behind Boko Haram and ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria) are waging a bloody jihad against Christians and Muslims, who do not share in their extremism, in order to turn Nigeria and the entire Sub-Saharan Africa into Islamic enclaves after the ilk of Iran or even Afghanistan, the herders are busy killing innocent people in order to seize their ancestral lands. The gangs in the Northwest are interested in controlling the rare minerals in that region by all means including even killing people they share the same faith and heritage with.
These set of people have been succeeding because the nation of Nigeria collapsed long ago. The institutions of governance at every level has been thoroughly compromised. These guys waging these wars are not stupid. They know that the Nigerian armed forces and the entire security community cannot defeat them because of the compromises that have taken place over the decades.
Can anyone imagine that Boko Haram, which started as a child’s play in 2009, is still posing an existential threat to the people of Borno State majorly and Yobe and Adamawa States peripherally? Under a Brigadier General Tunde Idiagbon of blessed memory, would Boko Haram have survived three months?
What is armed Fulani herdsmen that the whole nation is being held by the jugular for over a decade? Nigeria is not even a major producer of cattle yet we have killed several thousands of our fellow citizens in order to allow cows to breathe. What a joke!
Just so you know, we are not even among the first 15 countries with the highest number of cattle. Here are the top countries by cattle population:
- Brazil: 238.6 million
- India: 194.5 million
- United States 88.8 million
- China: 73.6 million
- Ethiopia: 70.9 million
- Pakistan: 55.5 million
- Argentina: 54.2 million
- Tanzania: 37.9 million
- Chad: 37.6 million
- Mexico: 36.6 million
- Sudan 30.7 million
- Australia 29.9 million
- Colombia 29.2 million
- Bangladesh 24.9 million
- Kenya 21.9 million
We are number 16 with just 20.9 million cattle, less than a 10th of Brazil’s. So, what does it take to establish ranches across the country? Why do we have to continue to spill human blood in order for cows to live? Almost all the states in southern Nigeria have banned open grazing but the governors see the cows everywhere in their states and do nothing about it because they don’t want to hurt some people. Some people? For your political survival, you rather have your people killed by herders while you look the other way.
Nigeria with a paltry 20 million cattle kills more of its citizens to keep the cows than all the nations of the world combined. Isn’t this sickening? And yet our government sits pretty. The government of President Johnathan, lacked conviction and fighting power; was always living in fear of what might happen if it acted in certain ways. That of the late President Buhari was more sympathetic to both the herdsmen and the Islamists who were killing people in their thousands. The murderous lots in the Northwest emerged during his tenure and he had no answer to the threat even though his people were being massacred. Three months to his handing over power to the incumbent, President Buhari kept saying that he would defeat the bandits before the end of his tenure. I kept wondering whether he was still in his right mind.
The current President Bola Tinubu appeared less concerned about the deteriorating security situation in the country. Even his choice of defense ministers appeared like a mockery to the nation. His major preoccupations have been to tax the hell out of Nigerians and to destroy opposition political parties.
He made it appear as if he was not both the President of Nigeria and the Commander in Chief of its armed forces. He only got jolted last month by United States President Donald Trump’s declaration of Nigeria as a country of particular concern with threat to bomb enclaves of the insurgents. Because of the political capital this could have on his regime (more importantly his avowed second term bid), the Nigerians President is running frantically appearing to be solving the problem of instability and insecurity in the country.
In doing so, he is putting the wrong foot forward. Have you seen the list of ambassador-nominees? I even feel belittled personally as a Nigerian. Just one question on this: what is Nigeria’s current foreign policy? The state of security emergency declared speaks more about recruitment into the armed forces and the police rather than about routing out the armed non-state players. Where are the matching orders to the various security agencies?
One would have thought that having staggered and struggled with dealing with insecurity for over 15 years without success, the government would grab with both hands the opportunity provided by the Trump administration to help. Make no mistake, we have proven that we cannot deal with the security situation in the country. If we could, we would have done so long ago. If my house is on fire and I have no fighting power to prevent the house from being razed, I will gladly shout for help!
The corruption in the entire fabric of the nation is so endemic that the current state of insecurity is the biggest industry in town. It has made so many people stinkingly rich. For these people, the situation must continue as is. Can you imagine the size of the economy of kidnappings in Nigeria; and you want that lucrative industry to fold up just like that. Even with the capture and killings of our officers, is government still not negotiating (begging is more appropriate) with the kidnappers and insurgents?
Which is the reason why we need a Trump for the killings to reduce. I am not unaware of the implications of a foreign country intervening in this matter but we have proven that we cannot keep our people safe. The erroneous assumption is that the American troops will be bombarding anywhere in Nigeria. No, they will be targeting where these insurgents are and neutralize them.
We need to secure our country from excessive bloodshed in virtually every part of the country. The cultism and voodoo/ritual killings in the southwest, the economic sabotages in the south south (have you taken a look at what NNPC Limited claims it spends on oil and gas pipeline protection?) and the self inflicted violence in the south east (thankfully, the jailing of one character called Simon Ekpa in Finland is doing the magic) need to be stopped immediately so Nigerians can live in peace and begin the weighty task of nation building.
So, come, Donald, come!
Postscript
Sincere apologies for not having your favourite Reflections! on 15 November 2025.
Esiere is a former journalist!
©️2025
