For a state that has endured years of attacks, displacement and the abandonment of entire communities, restoring security in Benue cannot be achieved by guns alone.
That, according to the Security Adviser (External) to Governor Fr. Hyacinth Alia, Col Alex Igbaya Ashungu (retd), explains why the Benue State Government has placed considerable emphasis on a non-kinetic approach to insecurity—combining security operations with community engagement, diplomacy, empowerment and civil-military cooperation.
Col Ashungu (retd) told The New Times that the strategy is designed to weaken the influence of perpetrators of insecurity while rebuilding the confidence and cooperation of communities affected by violence.
“Everyone is involved,” he said, linking the strategy to Fr. Alia’s repeated message: “When you see something, say something.”
The philosophy is straightforward: Security agencies cannot effectively protect communities if the communities themselves are excluded from the security process. Residents are therefore expected to provide information, cooperate with security agencies and participate in efforts to prevent violence, while government works to address some of the social and economic conditions that allow insecurity to persist.
From displacement to return
The challenge is enormous.
Several parts of Benue have experienced prolonged insecurity, with communities across areas including Kwande, Katsina-Ala, Ukum, Logo, Guma, Makurdi, Gwer West, Gwer East, Agatu, Ogbadibo and, more recently, Otukpo, affected by different forms of violence.
At the beginning of the Fr. Alia administration in 2023, hundreds of thousands of residents were living away from their ancestral homes because of attacks.
For the government, therefore, security is not considered complete merely because an attack has been repelled. The bigger test is whether displaced people can return home, rebuild their livelihoods and cultivate their farms without fear.
That has made the resettlement of internally displaced persons a central component of the administration’s security strategy.
Col Ashungu (retd) said stakeholder engagement has been used to strengthen stability at the grassroots while creating conditions for displaced communities to return.
One returnee, Gabriel Paddy, said the change had already been felt in his community.
“With the coming on board of H.E. Rev. Fr. Alia, as Governor of Benue State, my kinsmen have returned to our ancestral home and resumed farming activities on our ancestral farmlands,” Paddy said.
His experience illustrates an important measure of security that is sometimes lost in official statistics: Whether ordinary people feel sufficiently safe to return to their homes and livelihoods.
Combining community action with security operations
The non-kinetic strategy has not, however, meant abandoning conventional security measures.
Col Ashungu (retd) pointed to the government’s provision of vehicles to security agencies to improve operational mobility, as well as the launch of Operation Anyam Nyor and the Benue State Civil Protection Guards.
The administration has also pushed for increased federal security presence in the state.
According to Col Ashungu (retd), the establishment and deployment of additional Nigerian Army formations in Benue followed sustained demands by Fr. Alia to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu (PBAT) for more personnel to confront insecurity.
The thinking behind the approach is that military and police operations can provide the immediate protection required to stabilise troubled areas, while community engagement and economic interventions help address conditions that can sustain violence.
In other words, the strategy seeks to make security a combination of force, information, trust and livelihoods.
Addressing the reasons people fight
Benue’s security crisis is not driven by a single factor.
The state has faced attacks linked to armed herder groups, local militia activity, communal disputes, cult-related violence, banditry and border disagreements. These conflicts also intersect with competition over land, water, markets and other economic resources.
That makes the non-kinetic component particularly important.
Where farmers and herders compete over land and water, diplomacy and negotiated solutions can complement security operations. Where local militias compete for control of markets and territory, restoring legitimate institutions and economic opportunities becomes part of the security equation.
The emergence of mining in parts of Kwande introduces another layer of economic competition, particularly amid the state’s restrictions on mining activities.
These realities suggest that sustainable peace will require more than deploying security personnel. It will also require government and communities to confront the economic interests behind some conflicts and ensure that legitimate access to land, markets and natural resources does not become a trigger for violence.
Security as a pathway back to normal life
The most significant test of the strategy may ultimately be what happens after communities become relatively peaceful.
Can farmers return to their fields? Can children go back to school? Can traders reopen their shops? Can displaced families rebuild their houses? Can communities resolve disputes before they become violent?
For Fr. Alia’s administration, these questions are tied directly to its stated objective of resettling displaced Benue residents.
Col Ashungu (retd) said the government’s security efforts are already producing results, pointing to communities where residents have returned to their ancestral homes.
Yet the persistence of killings, destruction of property and other forms of violence in parts of the state shows that the challenge is far from over.
The emerging lesson from Benue is therefore not that one security approach has replaced another, but that the state’s response is increasingly being framed as a combination of security operations and measures aimed at rebuilding communities.
For a population that has spent years moving between ancestral homes and IDP camps, the ultimate measure of success will be simple: Whether people can stay home, farm their land and live without fear.
That is where the non-kinetic strategy faces its biggest test—and where its promise, if sustained, could extend beyond stopping attacks to rebuilding the communities that insecurity has fractured.
