The Massacre in Plateau State: A Litmus Test on the Security Approach of Tinubu’s Regime

On the eve of Christmas 2023, about 50 villages in Bokkos, Mangu and Barkin Ladi Local Government Areas of Plateau State were visited with a crushing bloodbath by terrorist gunmen whom many think are Fulani militia. This attack lasted for three days, and the count of human losses is estimated to be about 200. Houses numbering over 221, farmlands and several vehicles were also set ablaze. At least 10,000 displaced persons from the several affected communities are in Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camps. Incidentally, this type of event is not new; neither is the show of criminal bravado among such mass murderers in Nigeria’s novel. For the last thirty years, Plateau State has been a cauldron boiling with violence, which is rooted in the unresolved question of citizenship in Nigeria. The differentiation of citizenship into indigenes and settlers has led to the calibration of the rights of citizens along those lines, leading to levels of exclusion, which have resulted in contestations and bloody violence. Centrally, the mostly Christian indigenous Afizere, Anaguta and Berom conflict with the mostly Muslim Hausa-Fulani migrants in Plateau State. The main issue is the contest over political leadership and other spaces, including access to sources of livelihood, such as land and other natural resources.

Hence, in this edition of Nextier SPD Policy Weekly, we explore the 2023 Christmas Eve massacre in Plateau state and the nature of the Federal Government’s response, which would define the cadence of further attacks and other threats to national security.

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