Analysis … Benue: Father’s Father Alia’s Priority

When the Ball President Ahmed Tinubu visited the state of Benue on Wednesday, June 12, 2025, that, in theory, was a sign of national solidarity – efforts to lament with a staggered country from the latest massacre in Yelewata, the Guma Regional Government, where more than 200 innocent lives were removed by armed heroes suspected.

But outside of optics and photo options, events around the visits and actions of Governor Hyacinth Alia painted a priority portrait of the wrong place, political despair, and the failure of total moral and administrative responsibilities.

Instead of using the President’s visit as an opportunity to show the urgency faced by the Benue Security Crisis, Governor Alia chose to wine up rather than the principle. Declaration of public holidays in the state – on weekdays is not less – filled with exploration and trivial administration. Instead of grieving the dead and strengthened the crying of people who are grieving, the government regulates the loyalty show, which includes paradise of school children in the rain to welcome a president below who witnesses the blood of native benue people continues to flow.

It was a heartbreaking and disgusting scene of the same children, soaked to the leather, flying the flag as a prominent person in the bullet anti-bullet convoy drove through them to the meeting of the city hall that was filled with sympathizers that had been filtered. The same children who bear the dilapidated classrooms, poor nutrition, and the trauma of violence in their community are converted into props for political spectacle. Their welfare secondary; The optics are everything.

As placed by the International Organization for the Development of Human Rights and the Environment (IOHRDE) Alia’s actions are “very inactive, deaf, and very impolite for families who are grieving, safe, and all unimaginable mourning communities,”.

What makes this play more annoying is the background that occurs: the massacre that is repeated and systemic in the benue population with the robbers of the armed shepherd. From Guma to the logo, ukum to Agatu, the whole community has been destroyed. Thousands of people have died, more refugees, but the only constant is the government paralysis in dealing with terror. The benue people are not only victims of violence – they are victims of silence, neglect, and now, performances of performance.

Camelarad Akinyemi Ojo Adebayo, the President and Chair of the IOHRDE Board of Management, expressed disappointment over what he described as a priority for the wrong political symbolism of the empathy and sincere responsibility. “When the hearts of the state of Benue and indeed all Nigerians are severe with sadness and anger, it is very important that leaders show compassion, humility, and commitment that is unjected to justice and security. Stating a general holiday to respect political figures during such a period sends a dangerous message that is said by political interests.

Governor of Hyacinth Alia, a Catholic priest who became a politician, has recently triggered anger over his opposition to the initiative of the defense of the community. In a state where security forces are defeated and lack of resources, his criticism that is consistent with all forms of civil self -defense reflects the troubling detachment of reality. When people are slaughtered in their sleep and security is a far -away mirage, what moral land is the leader to demand pacific? Is the state not bound by the task to protect its people-or at least not block their path when they try to protect themselves?

Gen, Theophilus Danjuma (retirees) who should know better, after assessing the same situation openly urged the Nigerians to prepare to defend themselves against security threats, emphasizing that the government alone cannot protect everyone. He believes that if citizens do not take action, criminal elements will flood the country.

The call to defend himself by Danjuma, a former defense minister, was rooted in his observations that the existing security structure was not enough to overcome the insecurity that extended in certain parts of Nigeria. He made this statement at an event in Takum, the state of Taraba, an area that faced significant security challenges, unlike what Benue was facing today.
Alia’s rejection to fight for the rights of her people’s security has caused suspicion of involvement or, at most, cowardly. Many wondered how, how is a God, entrusted with the leadership of one of the most terrorized Nigerian states, confirmed the slowness while the corpses piled up and the survivors were abandoned in refugee camps with a little more than prayer and promise?

And what about President Tinubu? His visit, although symbolically important, without new solutions or bold policy shifts. There is no concrete commitment to military assistance, there is no emergency assistance package for the affected community, and of course there is no road map to end the conflict of farmers for a decade. Conversely, the visit felt like a campaign re-show that was not written badly-emotional, access that was strictly controlled, and zero accountability.

Suffering in Benue is no longer just a humanitarian crisis; This is a political indictment. This is charged a federal government who treats mass murder as routine, and that condemns the state government that is more concerned with applause than action. Pastor Alia’s loyalty to political truth and federal agreement seems to have exceeded his call to protect the flock entrusted to him.

Benue deserves more than just a symbolic movement. It deserves real security, honest leadership, and a governor who understands that human life is not a mere amount in a mercy speech – or a background view for the president’s hubbub. If Governor Alia cannot speak for the dead, defend the living, or challenge the power that allows this massacre, then not only the priority is the wrong place – it is the whole moral compass.

By Timothy Eniet-Matthews