‘Call It Genocide’: Farotimi Slams FG for Downplaying Killings In Nigeria

Human rights activist and lawyer, Dele Farotimi, has condemned the Federal Government’s description of ongoing violent attacks in parts of the country as “farmer-herder clashes,” insisting the situation amounts to genocide.

Farotimi spoke on Friday during an interview on Channels Television’s Hard Copy, where he addressed the recent international spotlight on the killings, including comments attributed to former U.S. President Donald Trump.

“You are calling genocide farmers-herders clash — what nonsense,” he said. “How can a farmer who owns nothing be clashing with somebody carrying a Kalashnikov and M-16 rifles? And they are calling it a farmers-herders clash. You even find government persons peddling that idiocy.”

The activist accused authorities of deliberately downplaying the scale of violence by masking it under misleading labels.

“Let us deal with the reality that has been painted for us. Some of us have held up mirrors for a while, showing Nigeria the fact of its ugly nudity, but it refused to change,” he said.

He added that the long-standing denial is now being challenged by external voices calling global attention to the crisis.

“Now someone outside is telling them the truth; the truth is not devalued in the tongue of a liar,” he stated.

Farotimi addressed the controversy around Trump’s description of the killings as genocide, saying the former U.S. President only highlighted a reality Nigerians have lived with for years.

“The question is, has Donald Trump lied about the killings? Maybe you don’t like the fact that he has called it a genocide, which is a very political word to use. But it doesn’t change the fact that unacceptable casualties are being recorded within a country that proclaims itself to be at peace.”

He lamented that as citizens continue to be killed and buried in mass graves, government attention remains fixed on semantics rather than solutions.

“People are being buried in mass graves, and we are still quarrelling over what name Donald Trump called it. I don’t need Trump to tell me what I have seen and heard. I have been using the word genocide to describe what is happening in Nigeria for close to 10 years.”

Farotimi further alleged that some individuals within the government are complicit in the atrocities, saying they are fully aware of the killings but choose to remain silent.

“They don’t need Trump to tell them what is happening in their country; they are complicit in what is happening,” he said.

“These are persons exercising the powers of impunity extended by the Nigerian state and the assurance that nothing will happen, so they can do as they please.”

His comments come amid intensifying debates on insecurity and widening criticism of the government’s perceived inability to protect communities ravaged by violence.