Our Reporter, Abuja
Professor Moses Ochonu has accused President Bola Tinubu of disrespecting the people of Benue State with his comments and conduct following the Yelwata massacre, saying the President’s approach amounted to asking victims to “make peace with their killers.”
Speaking on Thursday at the Ikengaonline November virtual town hall themed “Alleged Genocide, Trump’s Threat and the Propaganda Against Ndigbo,” the Cornelius Vanderbilt Chair in History and Professor of African History at Vanderbilt University in the United States, said Tinubu’s repeated calls for residents to “live in peace with herdsmen” were deeply offensive to a community reeling from mass killings.
“That was insulting. Every Benue person felt that insult in their bones,” he said.
“You are telling people to essentially make peace with their killers.”
Ochonu recalled that the President repeated the same message when he visited the state after the Yelwata massacre, during a reception organised by the state government, which he lampooned Governor Hyacinth Alia for hosting.
“In the aftermath of Yelwata massacre, Tinubu visited Benue. The governor, foolishly, in my opinion, organized the banquet for him,” Ochonu said.
According to him, Tinubu used the banquet to again urge Benue residents to “live in peace with your neighbours,” a remark he described as a continuation of the “appeasement script” used during former President Buhari’s administration.
Ochonu also faulted the Federal Government’s “non-kinetic approach” to terrorism, led by National Security Adviser Nuhu Ribadu, calling it “a plan of surrender.”
He argued that Tinubu’s reluctance to confront armed groups stems from calculations about the 2027 elections rather than a commitment to national security.
“Tinubu politicizes everything. Anything he thinks may undermine his chances in 2027, he won’t touch,” he said.
While noting he does not believe the administration is intentionally aiding atrocities, Ochonu said its inaction amounts to “indirect complicity by omission,” urging Nigerians to focus on demanding accountability rather than debating labels such as “genocide.”
