BY TONY OKAFOR
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, some months ago, took the dramatic step of declaring a state of emergency in Rivers State, ostensibly to address political instability and a breakdown of governance.
But while that move has triggered national debate, a far more urgent tragedy festers elsewhere—Benue State, where blood flows freely and lives are lost in their hundreds.
In one single attack, over 200 innocent Nigerians were massacred in Benue—a horror of unimaginable proportions.
Children were butchered. Women violated and mutilated. Entire villages wiped off the map.
This is not an isolated incident; it is part of a long, unrelenting campaign of terror that has reduced parts of Benue to killing fields.
The perpetrators act with brazen impunity. They seem to know that federal response, if it ever comes, will be slow and muted.
So we must ask: If political infighting in Rivers State justified a state of emergency, how much more does the mass slaughter in Benue?
Rivers, for all its political drama, did not descend into lawlessness on the scale seen in Benue. There was no widespread internal displacement.
There were no marauding militias routinely sacking communities and displacing tens of thousands.
Governance structures in Rivers, however flawed, remained functional. But in Benue, governance is under siege. Entire territories are effectively beyond the control of the state government.
Mr. President, you are the father of the nation. A father does not intervene only when his allies are threatened, and look away when his children are being massacred. A true leader protects all, defends all, and acts when life itself is at stake.
Let it be said clearly: Selective justice is no justice at all. It violates the very Constitution you swore to uphold. It undermines national unity and deepens the wounds of distrust in a country already stretched by insecurity, division, and despair.
Benue is crying out for help. The killings are not new, but their intensity and frequency have escalated alarmingly.
People are being killed almost on a daily basis, yet there has been no extraordinary federal action. No special intervention force. No judicial panel of inquiry. No visit by the Commander-in-Chief—at least as of the time of writing this editorial.
Nigeria cannot afford this dangerous double standard. Declaring a state of emergency in Rivers while ignoring the carnage in Benue sends a chilling message: that political crises receive more federal urgency than the mass killing of Nigerian citizens.
Mr. President, the people of Benue are Nigerians too. Just like those in Rivers, they bleed the same blood. They fly the same flag. They deserve the same protection, the same urgency, and the same leadership.
If Rivers deserved a state of emergency, then Benue deserves it even more.
The time to act is now. Benue is bleeding—and silence is no longer an option.
