Farooq Kperogi: Haunting slaughter of Benue/Plateau children

A few days ago, right here on Facebook, I stumbled upon a haunting photo of three little children, their tiny bodies savagely hacked to death in Plateau or Benue. (I can’t even remember clearly now.)

Their skulls bore the cruel marks of machete blows, wounds that tore deep into my own heart. The image clawed at my soul in ways I wasn’t prepared for.

Even after I logged off, the agony lingered. It followed me through the day like a dark shadow. That night, I was visited by nightmares that replayed the horror of that photo again and again.

Four days have passed, yet I’m still shaken, still haunted, still tormented by the vision of innocence destroyed.

READ ALSO:Tension as as 32 cows die from suspected poisoning in Plateau community

These children had gone to sleep believing in the safety of their parents’ embrace, blissfully dreaming of tomorrow’s joys, of games and laughter that will never come. These could have been my children, your children, anyone’s children.

Part of what deepened my anguish is that I am the father of an 8-year-old daughter—the same age range as those little ones whose lives were so viciously cut short.

When I look at my daughter, full of life, dreams, questions, and laughter, I see in her the bright futures those Benue/Plateau children were never allowed to live out.

The thought that a child like mine could be murdered in her sleep, in a place that should be safest, shreds me in ways words can scarcely convey. It’s a grief by proxy, but it feels no less personal.

I thought silence might heal me, but silence feels like complicity or emotional self-sabotage. So, I thought I should disgorge the intense emotions I’ve been bottling up these past few days.

What kind of monstrous bastards, what heartless beasts, can slaughter innocent children in the sanctuary of sleep? What has become of our humanity, if this does not move us to tears, to anger, to action?

Farooq Kperogi is a renowned Nigerian columnist and United States-based Professor of journalism.