Former National Coordinator of the Middle Belt Patriots, Zariyi Yusuf, has alleged a sustained campaign of genocide against Christian communities in Nigeria’s Middle Belt, blaming Islamic extremists for nearly two decades of coordinated attacks and political domination.
In an exclusive interview with The News Chronicle’s Political Clinic, Yusuf accused northern political elites of forging emirates across the North Central region to create the illusion of Islamic conquest through political subjugation.
“Anywhere you find an emirate in the Middle Belt, it was forged. The whole idea is to make it appear that Islam has conquered the region. After the Christian monarch in Kajuru, Kaduna State, was assassinated, his throne was converted into an emirate under Nasir El-Rufai. That is genocide.” Yusuf declared
Yusuf faulted the media for downplaying what he described as clear evidence of mass killings and displacement, decrying the continued use of the term “claim’‘ of a genocide.
“Do you not see the mass graves? Do you not see the dead bodies? Do you not see the empty communities?” he asked pointedly.
He also accused northern Muslim leaders of selective silence in condemning the atrocities committed by Islamic militias.
Endorsing U.S. President Donald Trump’s call for action, Yusuf said that once a country is established as a genocide zone, the international community has both the moral and legal responsibility to intervene and dismantle terror networks.
He slammed some leaders of the current administration for blaming the opposition figures for politicizing insecurity, insisting that the real culprits are those in government who allegedly frustrated efforts by the then government of President Goodluck Jonathan in procuring arms from the United States to combat terrorism.
“Is it opposition leaders leaving 400 corpses? Is it opposition leaders sacking Middle Belt communities or arming terrorists? No. It’s a failed government sympathetic to terrorists,” he asserted.
Yusuf dismissed claims that Trump’s involvement was motivated by Nigeria’s natural resources, accusing Chinese nationals and complicit Nigerian leaders of plundering the country’s wealth instead.
“That narrative is a distraction from the undeniable reality that there is genocide in Nigeria,” Yusuf concluded.
