The Middle Belt Forum (MBF) has welcomed the designation of Nigeria as a Country of Particular Concern by the United States, saying the move will compel the federal government to take decisive action against persistent killings across the country.
In a statement on Sunday, Bitrus Pogu, national president of the forum, said the declaration should serve as a wake-up call for Nigerian authorities.
Pogu expressed disappointment that the federal government had failed to use its capacity to address insecurity, describing the U.S. decision as “a necessary push” for action.
He lamented the scale and frequency of attacks in several parts of the country, noting that in some cases, “a hundred, two hundred, and even up to three hundred people are killed at a time.”
The MBF president said the situation was unprecedented and amounted to an indictment of the authorities.
“The government, to me, is the issue. It is an indictment on our government that the government has the capacity to handle the problems of this country but it has not,” he said.
Pogu blamed Islamist and militia groups for many of the attacks, saying the perpetrators “are known, whether they are Boko Haram or Fulani militia, they are all Muslims, they are jihadist groups.”
He accused some of these groups of pursuing a jihadist agenda and targeting communities along religious and ethnic lines.
“The Fulani herdsmen militia is just like the jihad. They came to Hausa land, took over their traditional institutions. Now they are killing the Hausa who are predominantly Muslim, and they are taking their land,” he said.
Pogu added that violence in the north-west, north-central, and the wider Middle Belt region had persisted “for over 10 years” with little or no effective government response.
The article was originally published on Politics Nigeria.