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Concerned people are asking why so much terrorism is going on the Plateau and across the Middle Belt region of Nigeria on such a horrific scale. And the word that keeps going round is that the terrorists are aliens from the Sahel. Gen. T.Y. Danjuma, Nigeria’s former Chief of Army Staff and Minister of Defense, who confirmed “that most of (the terrorists) are foreigners, (though) there are (local) collaborators”, lamented, “The whole country is overrun.” The horror of the renegade’s invasion is captured in an amateur, but gory, video that shows people offloading corpses of those they claimed were casualties of recent attacks in Plateau State to the front of a massive white building that they claimed was a government state house. If those individuals indeed dumped the corpses in front of a state government house, they would have added more numbers to the casualties, if the sentries had decided to mow them down for breaching state house security. But it must be acknowledged that it was a brilliant public relations stunt to draw attention to the helplessness of the people of the Plateau, victims of the reign of terror that has now almost become a regular ritual. A young female poet laureate, who says she is from the North, but her blood carries many names, recited an indicting dirge on the assault on the lives and lands of the people of the Plateau, which is representational of the Middle Belt region of Nigeria that includes Plateau, Benue, Taraba and Southern Kaduna States. She wailed, in narrative prose, rather than poetry, “Haven’t we learnt yet, oh my beloved country? Haven’t we seen enough lands dug by shaking hands in fury and fear? And haven’t we carried enough bodies, stiff and silent, wrapped in the weight of injustice?” From the conniving government and nonchalant Nigerians outside of the Plateau killing field, she asked, “Haven’t we learnt yet, Nigeria, that silence is a co-conspirator, that when the leaders turn away, history sharpens its knife; that when justice is delayed, the earth grows fat with graves; that a country that does not punish its past will live to repeat it in different dialects? “Haven’t we learnt that violence does not stay contained, and the machete swung today could rest on any door tomorrow? That today’s victim is yesterday’s neighbour, and tomorrow, it could be you, me, or the child who still believes that home is a safe place, that this is still our Nigeria?” Another female poet lamented in dreadful words, “The food basket of the nation is now the blood basket of the nation. The land, once lush with green, now hush and grim, filled with sullen faces with no hope to survive the day, like arid ground in want of rain. “Pain is plain. It’s daybreak. Folks are supposed to go on to their farms, but farms are not the safest places to be. It’s nightfall, it’s heartbreak, it’s heartache, over destroyed homes, destroyed crops, slaughtered brethren and bloodshed. “Motherland is not the safest place to be. Once lively hoes now echo with silence; the land, loud with violence, flooding with the blood of the young and the old alike. Great sons fall like autumn leaves, dead bodies scattered like mustard seeds… “They say tough times don’t last. Tell that to the people of Guma, who have watched herdsmen turn gunmen. Tell that to the people of Turan, who have been swept from their homes, like brooms to flies, their homes and belongings transformed to bonfires. “Tell that to the people of Sankerra. Tell that to the people of Logo. Tell that to the people of Kwande, who have had bullets sprayed on them like rainwater, who have been changed to nothing but chickens for slaughter. Tell that to youths who this has caused them their futures.” But enough of the poetry; the artists’ impression of the unbridled carnage happening on the Plateau of Nigeria, without anyone in government or the security agencies being able to take any tangible steps to contain it. One real-life story of the pains caused by these invaders on the Plateau is the ridiculous story of Samuel Ortom, who, as the sitting governor of Benue State, was chased, with his security details, by terrorists from his farm. A recent report from Benue State claims that several communities, like Tombo Mbaya, Buruku Local Government, and Mbachoughu and Mbanyagber, in Tarka Local Government, came under “coordinated assault” by armed herdsmen. Governor Caleb Muftwang personally reported how terrorists sacked communities in Plateau State. His words: “These communities that have been recently attacked were part of the communities attacked in 2023… The Ruuri community that was first attacked lost about 17 people in 2023…Over 50 persons were killed within one week in attacks on communities that left over 300 houses burnt.” Governor Muftwang reasons, “If these attacks have been going on for close to 10 years (most of which is under the All Progressives Congress), it tells you that there is a deliberate, conscious attempt to clean out populations. “As I am talking to you, there are not less than 64 communities that have been taken over by the bandits on the Plateau, between Bokkos, Barkin Ladi and Riyon Local Governments. They have been taken over, renamed, and people living there (now are) conveniently on lands they pushed people away to occupy.” Why do government and security agencies fail to repel the land grabbers and restore the rightful owners to their ancestral lands? Gen. Danjuma told a home crowd in Taraba State, “The armed forces are either not capable or unwilling to protect us.” Following is the, albeit one-sided, report of a current victim hiding in the bushes to avoid another attack from terrorists, that Governor Muftwang, like Lai Mohammed, President Muhammadu Buhari’s Minister of Information, called bandits. “This is reporting from Hurti, on exactly what happened on 2nd April 2025. We were living peacefully with these Fulani herdsmen… At around 3:45pm… we… just began to hear gunshots… We saw that they had surrounded the environment. They were shooting sporadically, shooting at every person… “But they concentrated more on the men that they wanted to wipe out the community. They kept on telling us that we say we are serving a living God. Where is our God now? They kept on shooting everybody that they found around…. “After the shooting, the next thing is that they started burning houses… They looted all the foodstuffs, our house stuffs…. On Thursday… we were able to recover 32 corpses… We went searching again, and still retrieved another four…. We had a mass burial for the 32 and the four others were buried in different places. “17 people sustained injuries, and they are currently receiving treatment. One of them, Oji Tobias, has lost his life. I am pleading that all necessary measures should be taken to make sure that this does not recur…. The government should be able to arrest these people and make sure that justice takes its course.” To resolve this matter, maybe the government should take Gen. Danjuma’s counsel, wherein he said, “As a soldier, my training teaches me that the best defence is attack,” and enlist citizens of the Plateau in something like South-West Nigeria’s “Amotekun”.

The Ekiti State Governor, Biodun Oyebanji, has offered to help victims of the no fewer than 50 houses destroyed by the rainstorm in some communities on Wednesday evening, leaving many residents homeless. The communities affected by the rainstorm which damaged residential buildings, shops, and educational institutions are Ipoti, Ejiyan, Owatedo and Odo Owa Ekiti, in the Ijero Local Government Area. Oyebanji, who visited the affected communities for an on-the-spot assessment on Thursday, sympathised with the victims and promised to initiate a process that would lend a helping hand for them to repair their damaged buildings in record time. Oyebanji, represented by the Deputy Governor, Mrs Monisade Afuye, during the visit, charged landlords “to always take precautions by repairing damaged roofs and changing weak planks that can predispose their residences to unwarranted wreckage. “Regular maintenance of old buildings remains the best option to avert annual rainstorms being experienced in some towns, thereby rendering many homeless and scores being sapped economically. “I am saddened seeing people being homeless as a result of rainstorms. Moving around the town, you could see that the disaster was too much. “We are promising you, on behalf of the government, that the officers of the State Emergency Management Agency will visit here and do the enumeration of the buildings and value the damage. We are going to help you. God shall heal your wounds.” He thanked God that there was no loss of lives, noting that “that is our joy in this matter. The ruins are much, but we need rains to make our lives and farming flourish. But we have to do what is necessary to prevent damage to our buildings.” As part of the ways to mitigate such occurrences, Oyebanji encouraged residents to embrace tree planting around residential areas to serve as windbreakers during stormy rainfall. He also urged the traditional rulers to propagate tree-planting practices among the people at the grassroots. The Olupoti of Ipoti Ekiti, Oba Oladipupo Kolade and Oloja-Owa of Owatedo, Oba Adebayo Adewole, described the calamity as heartrending, saying people needed to manage their buildings to resolve such a crisis. The Olupoti said: “I nearly cried while going round to assess the level of damage. Mostly affected are the women and children, which makes the matter so worrisome. “I want to appreciate the governor for being proactive in attending to this emergency in record time. The governor has again demonstrated that he is after the welfare of Ekiti people. So, we are expecting the government’s help within a short time to give relief to the victims.”

Scale of US president’s tariff plans takes investors by surprise, sending stock markets tumbling. After weeks of anticipation, global investors finally have sight of United States President Donald Trump’s “reciprocal” tariffs. If the reaction of the stock market is any guide, the “liberation day” tariffs unveiled on Wednesday exceeded their worst fears. From the US to Asia to Europe, markets tumbled as investors absorbed the implications of the sharpest turn towards protectionism by the world’s largest economy since the 1930s. Futures tied to the US’s benchmark S&P 500 and tech-heavy Nasdaq-100 – which can be traded outside usual market hours – dropped more than 3 percent and 3.5 percent respectively, setting the stage for heavy losses when Wall Street reopens on Thursday. Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 dropped as much as 4.5 percent, while South Korea’s KOSPI and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng each fell more than 2 percent. In Vietnam, the benchmark VN-Index suffered one of the worst days in its history, plunging more than 6 percent. “The hike in tariffs was more aggressive than expected,” Lynn Song, chief economist for greater China at Dutch bank ING, told Al Jazeera. “Many were expecting a range of 10-20 percent tariffs. This sort of aggressive move will probably risk some retaliation from the bigger players, though smaller countries could choose to try and negotiate for a lower rate.” Daniel Ives, an analyst with Los Angeles-based wealth management firm Wedbush Securities, went as far as to describe Trump’s plans as “worse than the worst-case scenario”. While Trump announced a baseline 10 percent tariff for all imports to the US, he confirmed that much higher duties would be imposed on dozens of other countries. The steeper rates apply to both major US trading partners and smaller economies – and allies and rivals – alike. China, the US’s third-largest trading partner accounting for more than $430bn worth of US imports annually, is facing a 34 percent tariff. When added to Trump’s previous tariffs on Chinese goods, the latest tariff lifts the overall rate to 54 percent. “In our view, the scale and speed of the new Trump administration’s additional tariffs and other measures against China are much worse than markets had expected, though these events unfolding are consistent with our more cautious views,” Ting Lu, chief China economist at Nomura, said in a note. The European Union is set to be hit with a 20 percent tariff, while Japan and South Korea are facing duties of 24 percent and 26 percent, respectively. Some of the steepest rates have been applied to developing economies that potentially have the most to lose from serious disruptions to trade, including Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos, Myanmar, Sri Lanka and Laos, which are facing tariffs of 44-49 percent. Trump’s list included exemptions for a limited number of goods, including semiconductors, oil and pharmaceutical products. “These tariff figures are worse than expected – certainly viewed from Asia, where everyone got hit. An export-dependent region is going to really struggle with sudden, huge price increases,”  Deborah Elms, the head of trade policy at the Hinrich Foundation in Singapore, told Al Jazeera. “This will result in a loss of jobs in markets that are already poor and often fragile.” China and the EU, the world’s two largest economies, have already promised to retaliate with their own trade measures, though many smaller trade-reliant economies are seen as hesitant to respond in any way that might exacerbate trade tensions further. After weeks of market volatility due to uncertainty over Trump’s plans, a key question is whether the tariffs could be eased in negotiations between Washington and its trade partners. “The tariff announcement doesn’t eliminate uncertainty, but it hopefully puts a boundary around how bad the economic consequences will be,” Brian Jacobsen, chief economist at Annex Wealth Management, told Al Jazeera. “Including non-tariff barriers in the calculation has pushed the tariff higher than it otherwise would be. That’s also the part that is hardest to quantify, so perhaps it leaves a large door open to negotiations. Framing these tariffs as reciprocal will hopefully reduce the likelihood of retaliation.” Gary Ng, a senior economist with the investment bank Natixis in Hong Kong, said that while he expects US trade partners to work towards a compromise, it is likely that at least some of the measures will become permanent. “Regardless of what the deal is, it is highly likely that the US will keep part of the tariffs for everyone,” Ng told Al Jazeera. While the severity of Trump’s tariffs seemed to take many investors by surprise, there is room for stocks to fall much further still – depending on the administration’s next moves. JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs have put the likelihood of Trump’s protectionist policies tipping the US economy into a recession this year at 40 percent and 35 percent, respectively. Veljko Fotak, an associate professor of finance at the University at Buffalo, said the market does not see Trump’s latest announcement as the final word on tariffs. “If that were the case, markets would be falling a lot more dramatically, as this kind of tariff regime would effectively guarantee a recession. The long-run tariff policy remains uncertain – how will other countries react? Will the US escalate? Will it pull back?” Fotak told Al Jazeera. “Markets did react forcefully, but we will see further downward corrections if these tariffs persist – and more dramatic movements if the trade war escalates.” Follow Al Jazeera English:...