Selective Outrage Will Not Bring Peace to Mangu or Plateau
By Zagazola Makama
The emotional appeal by the President of the Berom Youth Moulders Association (BYM), Barrister Dalyop Solomon Mwantiri, following the tragic killings in Gwam-Ajang, Foron District, deserves sympathy for the innocent lives lost. Every innocent death is a tragedy and must be condemned without reservation.
However, genuine peace cannot be built on selective outrage, hypocrisy, selective memory, and selective justice.
For weeks, this platform has consistently reported, with evidence and verifiable security records, a disturbing pattern of attacks targeting Fulani pastoralists and their livestock across Mangu Local Government Area. Those reports documented cases of herders attacked, cattle rustled, livestock killed, and pastoral communities displaced.
Where were the so called youths leaders? Where were the emotional appeals to the international community? Where were the calls to President Donald Trump, foreign governments, and international organizations?
The silence was deafening.
On May 31 alone, just hours before the unfortunate attack in Gwam-Ajang, a herder identified as Muhammad Saidu was shot while three cows were killed and three others injured at Kikyua 2 community by suspected militia elements. This was not an isolated incident. Security records over the past several weeks show repeated attacks against pastoral communities, missing herders, recovered unattended livestock, and allegations of systematic cattle rustling. Yet these incidents rarely attract public outrage. They are often ignored, denied, or rationalized.
The painful reality is that violence in Mangu has become cyclical. When attacks are carried out against pastoralists, many prefer silence. When retaliation follows, suddenly everyone wants the world to listen.
Retaliatory attacks against innocent civilians, especially women and children by Fulani Bandits are criminal and must be condemned unequivocally. Those responsible should be hunted down and prosecuted.
But it is intellectually dishonest and morally dangerous to discuss the consequences while deliberately ignoring the triggers.
Barrister Mwantiri describes Mangu as a peace-loving community. Many residents undoubtedly are. But the uncomfortable truth is that armed militia elements operating within some communities have repeatedly been accused by security agencies of targeting herders, rustling livestock, and carrying out attacks that fuel the cycle of revenge. Pretending these incidents never happened does not make them disappear.
The path to peace begins with acknowledging every victim, regardless of ethnicity, religion, or occupation. A Fulani herder killed in the bush deserves the same sympathy as a Berom farmer killed in his village. Stolen cattle deserve investigation just as murdered civilians deserve justice.
The danger of one-sided narratives is that they deepen divisions and encourage communities to view themselves solely as victims while ignoring abuses committed by elements within their ranks. Mangu does not need competing victimhood narratives. It needs accountability for all offenders, protection for all communities, and honest conversations about the realities driving the violence.
Calling on foreign governments may generate headlines, but lasting peace will only come when local leaders, community groups, and stakeholders are willing to condemn every act of violence equally, whether the victim is a farmer, a herder, a woman, a child, a Christian, or a Muslim.
Peace built on selective outrage is not peace at all. It is merely a pause before the next round of bloodshed.
