As the international community focuses on the killings of Christians in Nigeria’s Middle Belt region, American missionary Alex Barbir has criticised the Nigerian government for its failure to protect lives and livelihoods.
In the face of intractable security challenges, Babir encourages survivors to place their trust in God during this difficult time.
Barbir, who recently took to social media wrote: “We will continue to follow our Lord’s words in Psalm 82: ‘Give justice to the weak and the fatherless; maintain the right of the afflicted and the destitute. Rescue the weak and the needy; deliver them from the hand of the wicked.’”
He decried that “Thousand(s) and thousands have been killed and displaced. Villages are silent, no movement, no life, completely desolate and abandoned.”
The humanitarian and activist stated that “Today we trekked into Turan of Kwande, Benue State,” Barbir wrote, describing the region as “the home of 15 years of terrorism, displacement, unfathomable violence, and genocide. [The] heart of the Fulani terrorism on Christian’s and indigenes of Nigeria.”
Alex Barbir interviewing a Benue survivor. Photo Credit: Alex Barbir
He berated the government, lamenting that “15 years of cries have been ignored, while blood has continued to flow in the land. Not one checkpoint, no army, no police, zero initiative from the government and forces to save and rescue their own people.”
The activist criticised the government, maintaining that “Clearly, those in power have no desire to stop what has been occurring for almost 2 decades.”
The American Preacher disparaged the lack of political will to stop the terrorists, noting that the complicity suggests that life is not precious.
“If their own families were murdered, their own homes burned, and their ancestral lands conquered by terrorists, we have no doubt the full-fledged force would be released on the perpetrators. It seems as though the lives of Christians, the villagers, are of no value to the powerful,” he said.
The missionary took the matter to the spiritual realm, emphasising, “I thank God that true power, justice and vengeance is in the hands of the Lord Almighty. Yahweh has the final word.”
On moral and retributive justice, the rights activist stressed that “It is his judgment and fury that will reign down on those [who] chose wickedness and evil as their means of breath.”
Through his organisation, Building Zion, Barbir is working to rebuild homes in communities across Benue for people displaced by suspected Fulani herdsmen.
