16/06/2025
ENOUGH IS ENOUGH: The Hypocrisy Surrounding Herdsmen Killings in Benue.
The herdsmen killings in Benue State are not new. They’ve been happening for years — brutal, inhumane, and far too often ignored. Entire villages wiped out, children butchered in their sleep, farmers slaughtered on their land, and yet, the silence from the political class is deafening. This is not just failure; it is deliberate indifference.
If not for VeryDarkMan (VDM)’s bold visit to one of the scenes of these atrocities, Nigerians would once again have turned the page, scrolled past, or swept the blood under the political carpet. VDM did what those elected to protect us failed to do — he showed up. He showed the world the horror. The bodies. The destruction. And he forced a conversation.
Suddenly, the politicians who had previously gone mute found their voices. But even their responses reek of hypocrisy — statements filled with empty condemnation and no action. Where were they before VDM’s lens caught the raw pain of a grieving people? Where were their voices when Benue cried out month after month?
The truth is bitter: if this carnage had happened in Abuja or Lagos, the entire country would be on fire. But because it’s "just Benue," the lives lost are treated like statistics. This is the worst kind of injustice — when lives are valued differently based on region, religion, or political convenience.
And let’s be clear — these killings are not just “clashes.” They are targeted attacks, and the perpetrators are known. But because political interests and alliances are at stake, the will to act is missing. Our leaders speak peace while accommodating terror. They light candles for one region and ignore the funerals in another. Their silence is complicity.
If not for VDM’s courage, the world wouldn’t have seen it. And that should embarrass every government official who swore an oath to defend the lives of every Nigerian.
It’s time to stop the double standards. It’s time to call the killings what they are — terrorism. It’s time to stop politicizing lives and start protecting them. You cannot build a nation on selective outrage and region-based empathy.
Benue deserves justice. Nigerians deserve honesty. And the victims deserve more than hashtags.
