…Says, “Act capable of eroding public confidence and negative impact on country’s image worldwide.”
by Achadu Gabriel, Kaduna
Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ’s) National body has expressed “serious worry” over the renewed killings of over hundreds innocent citizens of Benue State in Nigeria.
The Union noted that the killings, coming on the heels of other violent tragedies that have led to the gruesome loss of lives, have the capacity to erode public confidence in the nation-state, and negatively impact the international image of Nigeria.
A statement, titled, ‘Again, another massacre In Benue: NUJ is sad and grieving,’ made available to newsmen and signed by the Union’s National Secretary, Achike Chude, stated that Nigeria needs her citizens to believe in her capacity to keep them safe and secure.
“In the past few days, the world has been horrified by the killings of over a hundred innocent citizens of Benue State in Nigeria. These killings, coming on the heels of other violent tragedies that have led to the gruesome loss of lives, have the capacity to erode public confidence in the nation-state, and negatively impact the international image of Nigeria,” it stated.
It added that, “Nigeria needs her citizens to believe in her capacity to keep them safe and secure. This is the most basic of all enshrined responsibilities of the state. Section 2 of the 1999 Federal Constitution (as amended) makes an uncompromising declaration on the primary duty of the state to keep her citizens safe.”
The statement asserted: “Sadly, in the past fifteen years, various governments across political lines have struggled ineffectively to fulfill this crucial obligation.
“As we have maintained in previous lamentations on the killings of our peoples from the North, East, South, and West of our geopolitical space, we refuse to believe that the Nigerian State has lost the ability to protect both her territories and her peoples.
“We refuse to believe that a country that sacrificed the lives of her soldiers to ensure lasting peace abroad – in Liberia and Sierra Leone – now lacks the will and ability to defend the homestead.
“The Benue killings is one more killing too many, and must provoke sufficient national outrage to galvanize nationwide sentiments of defiance and challenge to galvanize every resource of the state against all killers and harbingers of evil in our country, be they terrorists, bandits, unknown gunmen, kidnappers or ‘herdsmen.’
“The reasons for our constant and consistent security failures cannot be in the stars. They are in us. The solutions do not lie in the skies. They are domiciled in us,” it stated.
NUJ stated that, it welcomes the statements of condemnation of the Benue tragedy from prominent Nigerians across all divides, especially from the President and Commander-in-Chief of the Nigeria Armed Forces, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
The Union also stated that it welcomes his call to action on his Service Chiefs to bring these shameful and abominable episodes to an end, as well as his call for the perpetrators to be brought to justice.
The body, however, stressed that in their last public statement titled, ‘These Killings Must Stop,’ they were adamant that those responsible for the madness must be fished and punished to the full extent of the law.
“But we are not unaware that similar calls by the country’s leaders have been made over the years by various heads of government, whenever our nation is assaulted in such a rude and unconscionable manner. We need a different outcome this time around.
“While the Nigeria Union of Journalists grieves with the government and people of Benue State over these heinous killings, the NUJ is ever ready to work with the Federal Government and security agencies in any meaningful and lawful capacity to bring this madness to a screeching halt.
“Surely, if it has been determined that the Nigerian State through its security agencies can no longer protect the citizens, then, the state must look for a way to involve and incorporate communities into a security network for self-defence. To do less is to continue to subject vulnerable communities to mass murder,” it asserted.