Benue Genocide: Is Atiku for us or against us?

JOSEPH ORJIME

Former vice president, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, holds the revered title of Zege Mule u Tiv (Great shelter of the Tiv nation). This is the highest Tiv chieftaincy title conferred on a non-Tiv person. Whether he was truly deserving of it or not is not the issue at stake.

By implication of that title, Atiku Abubakar is supposed to play the much-needed role of a friend of the Tiv nation (Hur -or u Tiv), which is even a step lower than the Zege Mule u Tiv.

It is, however, disappointing looking at the manner in which he has not only demonstrated nonchalance and zero empathy towards the genocide visited on the Tiv nation, allegedly by the people of his ethnic stock, the Fulani, for more than a decade running.

We are all aware that Alhaji Atiku Abubakar is one of the national patrons of Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria (MACBAN), an umbrella body of all pastoralists of Fulani extraction in Nigeria and beyond.

By that position, he has a stake in the affairs of the umbrella Fulani sociocultural organization.

It is however to everyone’s dismay that Atiku has apparently taken sides with his Fulani kinsmen on their sustained onslaught on the Tiv nation.

Both his body language and unguarded utterances are proof of this. For instance, in 2017, when the immediate past governor of Benue State, Dr Samuel Ortom, signed into law the anti-open grazing laws to tame the monster of insecurity in the state, Atiku did not hide his misgivings.

He was said to have vehemently opposed the law and even openly chided the governor.

In addition to his vehement opposition to the timely measures taken to serve as panacea for the genocide on the Tiv nation and Benue State, which has led to the loss of thousands of lives, displacement of millions of people, and the destruction of property worth billions of naira, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar has neither issued any strong worded condemnation nor ever taken measures or suggestions to end the carnage. Just recently, over two hundred innocent people of Tiv ethnicity in Yelwata, Benue State were gruesomely murdered in cold blood in their sleep, allegedly by a vicious Fulani militia group masquerading as herdsmen.

While calls for arrest and prosecution of the perpetrators were made by a cross-section of well-meaning Nigerians, not even a condolence message to the paramount ruler of Tiv nation, the Tor Tiv, was received from Alhaji Atiku Abubakar.

In my candid opinion, therefore, Atiku Abubakar stands in solidarity with the aggressors (his Fulani kinsmen) as against the victims (the Tiv people). While I do not accuse him of any involvement directly, it is my observation that his insensitivity towards the plight of the Tiv nation is undeserving of such an exalted position in the Tiv traditional chieftaincy hierarchy. It is with these observations and many other ones, that I urge the Tiv Area Traditional Council to strip Alhaji Atiku Abubakar of the title of Zege Mule u Tiv, to serve as a deterrent to any other insensitive individual or group of persons.

Joseph Orjime is a journalist and public affairs analyst.

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