By Ebenezer Mabinuola
Former Labour Party presidential candidate Peter Obi has issued a scathing condemnation of the escalating violence in Nigeria’s Middle Belt, describing the killings in Taraba, Benue, and Kogi States as a national disgrace and a failure of leadership.
In a strongly worded statement, Obi called the bloodshed “heartbreaking” and a “gaping wound in the soul of our nation,” decrying the silence and inaction of authorities amid mass killings and displacement.
“What we are witnessing is not merely violence – it is a failure of leadership,” he said. “These are not just statistics; they are human beings – fellow Nigerians – whose lives matter.”
The region has seen a resurgence of attacks by bandits, herders, and militias, echoing decades of unresolved farmer-herder conflict, worsened by arms proliferation and state weakness.
Obi urged immediate action and accountability, warning that continued silence amounts to complicity. “When communities are razed and families destroyed, we cannot normalize such horror,” he said.
He closed with a rallying cry: “Nigeria cannot continue like this. We must reclaim our humanity. A new Nigeria is POssible.”
