Veteran journalist and former presidential spokesperson, Laolu Akande, has called on both the Federal Government and state governments to take decisive action to stop the escalating wave of killings in Benue State, warning that Nigeria is edging dangerously close to a state of disorder if urgent steps are not taken.
Speaking passionately during the My Take segment on Inside Sources with Laolu Akande, aired on Channels Television, he decried the growing trend of silence around the recurring bloodshed, stating that such indifference erodes the nation’s collective humanity.
He issued a strong call to both federal and state authorities to wake up to their constitutional responsibilities, especially in volatile states like Benue, Plateau, and Borno, where innocent lives continue to be lost.
“Neither should we grow weary in calling on the government’s federal and state to protect the people of Benue, Plateau, Borno and several other states in this country where our people are being killed callously and needlessly.
We must also speak out and continue to speak so that the clamor for justice is kept alive. It was Professor Wole Soyinka who said justice is indeed the first condition of humanity.”
“Now, whenever we see evil and refrain from calling it out, we know something, a part of our humanity is compromised and while silence may be perceived as protective because we don’t want to get involved since we are not directly victims, such a shield is actually deceitful,” Akande said.
“It kills the kindred soul by vanquishing the injunction that we are supposed to be our brother’s keepers and it also destroys the sense of community which is our common humanity.”
Citing a Vanguard report, Akande noted that over 160 people, including two soldiers and a police officer, have been killed in Benue in just one month due to incessant attacks by armed herdsmen. He stressed that these attacks have devastated numerous communities, left families grieving, and rendered many women widows.
“Now, the callous and dastardly killings in Benue is not letting up at all and so we too should not be silent,” he declared.
“The attacks which sparked widespread outrage aside from claiming lives also left several communities in ruins.”
The anguish has become so unbearable, he noted, that women in the state have taken to the streets, demanding government intervention. Some leaders from the region have even begun to suggest self-help as a last resort, a sentiment Akande acknowledges as a growing frustration borne out of perceived government inaction.
“Women in Benue State therefore took to the streets a couple of days ago demanding immediate action from the government to end the carnage saying the attackers were turning them into widows. This is just as professors of chief extraction have advocated a resort to self-help if the government is incapable of defending the people,” he said.
Akande also weighed in on recent claims by Benue State Governor, Rev. Fr. Hyacinth Alia, who accused unnamed politicians in the National Assembly of sponsoring the violence. He urged the governor to go beyond rhetoric and bring the alleged perpetrators to justice.
“Now we hope Governor Alia who himself was drawn to politics in the midst of some of this persistent crisis in Benue State will find the courage to not only name and shame the alleged perpetrators but go all the way and ensure they are prosecuted. Anything short of that will be of no use Mr. Governor.”
Commending the military’s visible presence in the region, including the recent visit by Lieutenant General Olufemi Olatubosun Oluyede, Akande emphasized the need for sustained deployment of troops and police to protect vulnerable communities from further attacks.
“We should tell our military to please keep their presence in those troubled communities of Benue to avoid further bloodshed.
Both the states and federal governments must do everything possible to protect life and property wherever it is being threatened in this country.”
With growing calls for self-help, Akande warned that Nigeria may be drifting toward a lawless state — what philosophers describe as a “state of nature.”
“Already people are calling for self-help and rightfully so. Let us avoid an outright state of disorder where it is everyone to himself or what has been described as a state of nature which is nasty brutish and short.”
For Akande, the moral obligation to speak out cannot be overemphasized. He argued that real transformation would not come from political elites in Abuja but from a collective moral uprising by ordinary Nigerians.
“We do so because we are aware that moral action is an imperative and we know that moral voices in themselves may not guarantee an end to evil and wrongful conduct.
But we will relinquish something in ourselves if we keep quiet and don’t speak out against evil,” he affirmed.
He ended with a rallying cry for civic engagement, insisting that change in Nigeria will only come when ordinary citizens raise their voices with enough intensity to demand justice, peace, and responsible governance.
“The solution will come from among us, we the people, if and when a critical mass of us raise voices stridently enough demanding a reform and constraining our politics and governance to be more attuned to the common good.
Our voices we have to be raised. It’s a moral imperative and we should not be silent.”
