Why the ‘North’ is not mourning the Plateau/Benue dead

In life, some things seem destined never to change. That is why, when confronted with certain predictable behaviours, the tribe of talking drummers—the bàtá drummers—proclaim:
“Ìwà àtà ò pàdà (2x) / Ẹ bá l’àtà l’oló, kẹ ẹ gb’àtà l’odó, ìwà àtà ò pàdà.”
Gloss: The pepper’s nature does not change—whether ground on a stone or pounded in a mortar, the pepper remains true to its sting.

This timeless proverb is a fitting mirror to the Fulani terrorists—those abiku spirits who have rendered the Hausa babaláwos mere liars. These outlaws are like the bird called àpárò (quail), which clings to the (Hausa) yam till its death. Shamed by the ruination of their lineage and heritage, the Hausa—one of Nigeria’s most culturally subjugated peoples—have begun, especially after the Uromi tragedy of a fortnight ago, to tell anyone who will listen that they are not Fulani.

The story is grim. Hausa hunters, mistaken for Fulani terrorists, were consumed in flames. Since then, neither the Nigerian hen nor the rope on which it perched has known rest. The Fulani know that once they cloak hegemony in religious garb, the Hausa will fall in line. As our people say, “Àlùyà nílu ọfẹ ni a na títí kó fi gbó,” (A free drum is beaten until it bursts). And worse still, “Eranko tó yà wèrè bí ẹṣin kò pọ: ẹṣin fi ọmọ rẹ sílẹ̀ ó ń gbé ọmọ olómọ kiri.” (No animal is as foolish as the horse: it abandons its own child to carry the child of another.)

While the Hausa groan, their overlords sleep soundly. Sea storms do not stop the fish from snoring.

The Fulani marauders continue to hunt down the Hausa, killing them in cold blood—abiku that they are, unmoved by a mother’s tears. Right now, they are in Kaduna, Benue, Plateau, Ondo, and beyond—creating widows, orphans, and the childless. In Plateau and Benue, in particular, their decades-old mission to exterminate indigenous populations continues unabated. The powers that be remain indifferent. These are not the right dead—they do not carry foreign burdens; they’ve freed themselves from Fulani control. Their deaths are unworthy of mourning.

After the Uromi tragedy, the Nigerian establishment exhausted itself in a frenzy of rage. This week alone, the Deputy Governor of Edo State, Idahosa Dennis, received his Kano counterpart, Alhaji Aminu Abdulsalam Gwarzo, along with the Emir of Rano and others on a “fact-finding” mission. Even Governor Okpebholo stood to address them, while his guest remained seated. The Federal Government continues to huff and puff. Yet, Fulani herdsmen are slaughtering innocents in Plateau, Benue, and Ondo—without a whisper of national outrage. Again, they are not the right dead.

Former Bayelsa governor and current senator, Seriake Dickson, rightly blamed state failure for the massacres in Benue and Plateau, calling them “dastardly and callous.” His voice, however patriotic, barely echoes. As he said:
“Not only are armed gunmen terrorising and ransacking hapless communities and committing mass murders, but the level of banditry, kidnapping, and killing now rivals, if not eclipses, the Boko Haram insurgency that once plagued the Northeast.”
Still, the North does not mourn. I throw an open challenge: Show evidence of a visit by any prominent figure from the core North to Plateau or Benue following any massacre between 1999 and 2025.

In December 2023, Fulani terrorists killed over 100 people in Plateau. In Bokkos, they struck again—at least 60 dead, nearly 2,000 displaced. Yet the core North reacted with nothing more than lukewarm statements. No fire. No fury. France24 labeled it “suspected intercommunal violence.” Intercommunal violence? Nonsense.

The Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Gen. Olufemi Oloyede, promises more troops. The IGP is deploying “tactical squads.” History tells us this is another tragic charade—a gross trivialization of Middle Belt blood. It’s this same negligence that once made Plateau elders cry out for UN protection.

In “Plateau of Blood” (May 27, 2023), I wrote:

“Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily,” said Solomon, “the heart of men is fully set in them to do evil.”
Instead of mourning over the 130+ lives recently taken in Plateau, some Nigerians were celebrating their latest political schemes. I’ve written on Plateau’s bloodshed since 2009—nothing has changed. Abiku has made the medicine man a fraud.

Prove me wrong: show me a single year since 1999 when Fulani herders didn’t commit genocide in Plateau State.

In 2018, General Theophilus Danjuma (rtd.), former Defence Minister, sounded the alarm:

“The armed forces are not neutral. They collude with the killers. They facilitate their movement, they cover them. If you depend on them, you will die one by one.”
At the time, I backed his claims with data in a piece titled “The Damning Data in Danjuma’s Defence.” How could Southern Kaduna, the Middle Belt, and the South have bled so freely if the state was not complicit? These terrorists move, kill, extort, and escape—often across borders. And someone still questions Sani Abacha’s infamous claim:
“Any insurgency that lasts more than 24 hours has government backing.”