Three weeks after the massacre of about 200 peace-loving Nigerians last Christmas eve in Plateau State; and after the ritual of commiserations and condolences by top government officials including the President and leadership of the National Assembly, life seems to be returning to business as usual in the state, until the next massacre. Indeed, the next killings are taking place daily in the state and elsewhere where the killers walk around with confidence, knowing that no one will come after them for their heinous crime. Sadly, that scenario has been the norm over the past several years, with no government even expressing a desire or willingness to apprehend the killers, in a country of laws but no order.

Perpetrators of the Plateau massacre must be arrested, prosecuted, and punished accordingly if the President Bola Tinubu-led Federal Government must win the war against insecurity and earn the respect of all lovers of peace and justice in and outside the country.

From the reactions of Nigerians across the country to the killing of about 200 innocent people in Plateau on the Christmas Eve, it is obvious that the citizens are already tired of the Federal Government’s mechanical mourning of the victims, compensation of affected families and constant failure to fish out terrorists who carried out mass murder of their fellow human beings, old and young, in the country.

Indeed, it is no longer acceptable for the government to come out promising to arrest and prosecute terrorists who invaded communities and killed scores of the residents, and at the end, nobody is brought to book. The inability of the government, past and present, to walk its talk in this regard is a confirmation of its failure to perform the most crucial of its constitutional responsibilities, that is, guaranteeing security of life and property of its citizens. It is infuriating that terrorists and other criminals are having a field day constantly killing innocent Nigerians and the government whose responsibility it is to ensure that nobody takes the life of another person illegally, with all the power vested in it and the resources at its disposal, looks helpless and only makes promises it never effectively fulfilled. Wherever this happens, what the citizens are being told is that the government cannot guarantee the safety of life and property.

This is unacceptable to Nigerians. The government must fish out and prosecute these killers. Nigerians deserve to know them, and hear from them the offences committed by those that they murdered. We need to know the offence committed by small children, and the unborn babies in their mothers’ wombs whose innocent lives were unjustly terminated with the killing of their mothers. It is no longer acceptable for the government to promise prosecution of killers in the country, Nigerians want to see the terrorists and their likes physically brought to book. This is the only way the citizenry can ascertain the ability and sincerity of government to end insecurity and ensure justice for the wronged.

What is now being described as Plateau massacre because of the magnitude of the violence was perpetrated when terrorists carried out gruesome attacks in Bokkos Local Government Area of Plateau State on the Christmas Eve and killed about 200 innocent people during the 48 hours that the invasion lasted. The criminals also razed about 221 houses, leaving over 10,000 people, including children, displaced. The attacks elicited condemnation locally and internationally. Expectedly, the Federal Government condemned the killings, mourned the victims and, as usual, ordered a probe into the incidents.

The government’s reaction should no longer be to mourn the victims, pay condolence visit to their families and summon emergency meetings of the service chiefs with the President to create the impression that something serious is about to happen. Unfortunately, each time this is the case, nothing remarkable happens. The victims’ families are abandoned to their pains and trauma. Nigerians want to see the government arresting and punishing the killers accordingly, otherwise the killings will persist and the country will continue to suffer greatly. Mourning the victims all the time cannot be a solution; compensating the families of the dead will not solve the problem. The way out is to fish out the killers and make them pay for their dastardly act. Until that begins to happen, the culprits will always be emboldened by the government’s seeming weak reaction to the callous disregard for the life of their fellow human beings, and to the extant laws of the land.

Former Commonwealth Secretary General, Emeka Anyaoku, at a ceremony in Anambra State, said unless the killers of the Plateau residents are arrested and punished, insecurity in the country would not abate. “The Federal Government should devote efforts to find those responsible for these killings. What is particularly distressing is that these killings occur and nobody seems to be held responsible and charged accordingly. The first thing the Federal Government should do is to deploy its security forces to apprehend those perpetrating the killings because that is the only way to address the problem. If they are apprehended, prosecuted and punished, that will serve as a deterrent to others.”

Similarly, a security expert, Col. Hassan Stan-Labo (rtd) said President Bola Tinubu was yet to exhibit political will to tackle the insecurity that is visibly bringing the country to its knees. Speaking at Arise TV Morning Show recently, Stan-Labo lamented that nothing has changed since Tinubu came to power. “The political will to tackle this menace seems to be lacking. We are beginning to see a semblance of what happened in the last administration. One would have expected the commander-in-chief to come out in a helicopter in military gear to assure villagers that ‘we can get this rubbish done with’, and even talking to the service chiefs to produce perpetrators of these dastardly acts. This is the sort of decisiveness we expect from the commander-in-chief. Is it so difficult to crush these guys? What is happening?”

It must be said that insecurity is becoming a major threat to the corporate existence of Nigeria, and not much progress can be made in an environment where life and property are not safe. Giving serious attention to the welfare and other basic needs of the people is crucial at this time. There must be strong institutional arrangements to promote the security and welfare of the citizens. With the resources of the country being controlled by the government, the task of ensuring safety of life and property in Nigeria should not be too difficult. Wherever life and property are not safe, the state is considered to have failed. Nigeria does not deserve to be in this category.

To safeguard the future of Nigeria, the Federal Government must practically shift from being a mourner of victims of unprovoked and senseless attacks to being an efficient protector of the citizens and a pillar of justice when the life of anyone is wrongly taken. The way to achieve this is by doing everything legally possible to apprehend killers, prosecute and punish them according to the weight of their offence. Failure to do this is an indication that there is no government in place.

Update news