By Chukwudi Abiandu
Across Nigeria’s northern and Middle Belt regions, a silent genocide is unfolding. Entire communities, many of them Christian, are being overrun by armed Fulani militants. Villages are burned, families wiped out, and children orphaned. The cries of survivors fill social media feeds daily, yet from the country’s highest offices comes only silence.
The question is no longer whether these massacres are happening; they are. The real question is why President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, and his military chiefs appear powerless, or unwilling, to stop them.
For years, successive governments have treated these atrocities as isolated skirmishes between herders and farmers. But the pattern is too consistent, the scale too vast, and the indifference too telling. Communities have repeatedly alleged that they warned nearby military units of impending attacks, only to receive no protection. In some cases, troops reportedly withdrew just before the killers arrived.
If these reports are false, then the military high command must urgently prove it. If they are true, Nigeria faces a betrayal of historic proportions—a collapse of moral and constitutional duty by those sworn to defend the nation.
President Tinubu cannot continue to look away. His oath of office is unambiguous: to protect life and property. His government’s sluggish response to these killings, and the absence of clear accountability from the service chiefs, raise troubling questions about commitment and complicity. How many more citizens must die before decisive action is taken?
The National Assembly also bears guilt. Lawmakers who should be conducting investigations and demanding answers have chosen silence. They have turned a blind eye to the anguish of their constituents, treating the massacre of Nigerians as just another statistic.
Meanwhile, the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) has maintained a disturbing quietness. A governing party that cannot speak up for the dead forfeits its moral right to lead the living.
This is not a call for rhetoric or another round of official condolences. It is a call for action; real, measurable, and immediate. The Commander-in-Chief must order an independent inquiry into the killings, backed by credible international and civil-society observers. The military must identify, arrest, and prosecute all perpetrators, no matter their background or connections. And officers who fail to act on intelligence or who aid the attackers must face court-martial.
Nigeria cannot afford to normalize bloodshed. The government must rebuild affected communities, support displaced persons, and reassure citizens that their lives still count for something. Every nation is ultimately defined by how it treats its most vulnerable. Right now, Nigeria is failing that test.
President Tinubu must remember that silence in the face of evil is itself evil. History is recording; the world is watching. Leadership demands courage, not calculation. The time for excuses is over.
Nigeria deserves a Commander-in-Chief who will rise above politics and act to defend every citizen. Until that happens, the cries from the burning villages will remain a haunting indictment of a nation adrift—and of leaders who looked away while their people perished.
* Chukwudi Abiandu is a public-affairs analyst and advocate for human rights and good governance.
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