State of The Nation...No State of Emergency, No Tanks for Terrorists, No Justice for Farmers, Zero Accountability: Nigeria’s Leaders Watch as Benue Bleeds -NDCfC

Joint statement by The League of Social Justice (LSJ) and the Nigerian Diaspora Coalition for Change (NDCfC)

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What happened in Yelwata, Benue State where over 200 Nigerians were butchered, homes set ablaze, and entire families incinerated in the dead of night, is not a security breach. It is state-enabled slaughter. It is ethnic cleansing by neglect. It is the latest entry in a long and bloody ledger of mass murder ignored, denied, and quietly excused by the Nigerian government, from Aso Rock to Makurdi.

Over the past few weeks, and most horrifically, this past weekend, Benue State has become a slaughterhouse. The most recent massacre in Yelwata saw over 200 Nigerians murdered, their homes set ablaze, and entire families buried under rubble and ash. Survivors report hours-long rampages by armed men unchallenged, unimpeded, and seemingly unbothered by the institutions meant to defend the sanctity of life.

And what did the Nigerian government do?

It drafted condolences. It convened talking shops. And now, with blood barely dry and the stench of death still thick in the air, it is scheduling photo-ops and town hall meetings.

TO PRESIDENT BOLA AHMED TINUBU: YOUR SCHEDULE IS NOT OUR SALVATION.

We have seen your itinerary. You were meant to commission buildings in Kaduna. You postponed the ribbon-cutting to witness bloodshed in Benue. You dispatched your entourage, your Secretaries, your Security Chiefs, and Senators, not to apprehend the killers, but to prepare the stage for your arrival.

You have reduced governance to optics. Your visit, now scheduled for June 19th, comes only after widespread outrage, global condemnation, and unspeakable loss. This is not a display of leadership. It is a political retreat masquerading as empathy.

It is a government whose response has oscillated between silence, spin, and staged pageantry.

Where was this urgency last week, when the bodies piled in Guma, Gwer West, and Yelwata? Where were the intelligence briefings before the attacks? Where were the military deployments while homes were set ablaze? Instead, you offered recycled statements about “peace” and “reconciliation” as though words could bury the dead or disarm the murderers.

And while Benue burns, the State Government under Governor Hyacinth Alia continues to issue downplayed casualty counts and evasive press releases. The victims are farmers, women, children, and security personnel. Yet the state and federal governments are locked in a danse macabre of denial and deflection. This is an affront to every family now mourning.

A BETRAYAL. A DERELICTION OF DUTY.

Your administration has presided over one of the most brazenly indifferent federal responses to mass violence in Nigeria’s democratic history. The double standard is staggering. Whereas you declared a political emergency in Rivers State, where not a single life was lost, you have failed to declare an emergency in Benue State, where over 200 people, men, women, and children, have perished in weeks.

And this crisis is not limited to Benue alone. Our demands are not limited to Benue State; they reflect the growing insecurity and state-sanctioned abandonment across the entire Middle Belt and other volatile regions of Nigeria. This national hemorrhage must be stopped before the republic itself collapses under the weight of its cruelty.What do we call a government that mobilizes against protests but hesitates against pogroms? A country that dispatches armored tanks for ballots but sends condolence tweets after massacres.

We call it complicit.

WE DEMAND:

1. Immediate Declaration of a State of Emergency in Benue State to prioritize civilian protection and end the murderous impunity that has turned the state into a death zone.

2. Federal Deployment of Special Forces under direct civilian oversight to secure vulnerable communities, arrest known militias, and protect displaced populations.

3. Creation of an Independent National Mass Atrocities Commission with international observers to investigate not only the Benue massacre but all other killings across the Middle Belt since 2015.

4. Emergency Food and Shelter Intervention led by the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and supervised by credible third-party humanitarian partners.

5. Accountability at the Top, including a full review of the performance of the Inspector General of Police, the National Security Adviser, the Minister of Defense, and the head of military operations, whose repeated failures have paved the way for this horror..

TO THE PEOPLE OF BENUE STATE AND NIGERIA:

We mourn with you. We rage with you. And we refuse to normalize this rot.

Do not be placated by scripted visits, photo ops, or ceremonial condolences. Demand justice. Demand protection. Demand a government whose response to carnage is not choreographic, sorry, our prayers are with you.

No democracy worthy of its name should accept this. No people should be slaughtered and then asked to smile for the camera while the president surveys the wreckage. We are not props in a political drama. We are citizens.

If Tinubu’s visit does not yield arrests, reforms, and real protection, then it is nothing more than a campaign stop soaked in blood.

Signed,

League for Social Justice (LSJ)

Nigeria Diaspora Coalition for Change (NDCfC)

“We are not only responsible for what we do, but also for what we fail to do.” 

Jean-Baptiste Molière