The Dangers of Oversimplification

"For years, some actors have built influence around a singular narrative that portrays Plateau’s complex security challenges exclusively through a religious lens. Every attack is quickly framed as part of a grand Islamic religious conspiracy, while the criminal, communal, economic and retaliatory dimensions of the conflict receive little attention. This oversimplification has done more harm than good.

The tragedy of Plateau is that innocent people from different communities have suffered. Fulani Bandit have carried out attacks. Berom militia have carried out attacks. Thousands have been killed on both sides....... Therefore, sustainable peace cannot emerge from narratives that continually divide citizens into permanent victims and permanent villains. Neither can it come from inflammatory rhetoric that hardens ethnic and religious fault lines.......Nigeria needs voices that build bridges, not voices that profit from division. The path forward is truth, dialogue and accountability, not fearmongering, exaggeration and endless narratives of siege.

The people of Plateau deserve solutions, not perpetual conflict marketed through carefully crafted stories of Christian genocide."

Zagazola Makama - Dachomo, propaganda and the endless search for international sympathy