Genocide Not Communal Conflict: Tinubu’s Response To Benue Killings Falls Dangerously Short

By Bolaji O. Akinyemi

The Apostolic Round Table (ART) expresses deep dismay and utter disappointment at the recent statement released by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu via his official X handle, @OfficialABAT, regarding the continued and escalating massacres in Benue State.

While we acknowledge the President’s eventual public attention to what he described as “senseless bloodletting,” we reject in the strongest terms the false framing of the crisis as a communal conflict. What is happening in Benue is not a conflict between communities — it is genocide, perpetrated by well-armed terrorists against indigenous peoples, with the complicity of silence and inaction at the highest levels of power.

The President’s directive to security agencies to “arrest perpetrators on all sides” is an unfortunate mischaracterization that equates invaders with victims, terrorists with communities defending themselves, and criminals with casualties. Such ambiguity is not only irresponsible but also emboldens those who thrive on impunity and bloodshed.

The continued reference to “dialogue and reconciliation” is tone-deaf and ill-timed. You cannot negotiate with killers while they are still holding the machetes. You cannot ask people to reconcile with those who have turned their homes into graveyards.

Mr. President, as Commander-in-Chief, your duty is not to mediate between life and death. It is to defend life. Your response has not only fallen short of your mandate; it reeks of either deep ignorance of the “underlying issues” or a troubling political mischief that sides with neutrality in the face of evil.

We therefore make the following demands:

1. Immediate military intervention in all affected Benue communities with clear rules of engagement to protect civilians

2. Public identification and prosecution of known perpetrators and their sponsors.

3. A national security address from the President with a detailed and time-bound roadmap to end the genocidal attacks across Nigeria’s Middle Belt.

4. A halt to further gaslighting and false equivalence in government statements concerning acts of terror.

Benue does not need sympathy. Benue does not need another committee. Benue needs protection — now.

Should this government continue to treat mass murder with press releases instead of action, the Apostolic Round Table will mobilize a nationwide prophetic and civic movement to demand accountability. We will not fold our arms while our people are buried in silence.

History will judge every leader not by the speeches they gave, but by the blood they refused to let spill. Mr. President, it is time to act like the Commander-in-Chief you were elected to be.

Signed,
Apostle (Dr.) Bolaji O. Akinyemi,
Convener, The Apostolic Round Table