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High above the Thames, in the shadow of Westminster’s gothic spires, former Benue Governor Samuel Ortom stood before an international audience and delivered a message too urgent to whisper. On November 3, 2025, at the Freedom of Religion and Belief (FoRB) International Ministerial Fringe Events in London, Ortom declared religious freedom “humanity’s most valuable yet most contested commodity” in Nigeria—a nation, he said, sliding deeper into persecution, extremism, and state-enabled inequality.
Speaking with the weight of eight years in power and the scars of Benue’s farmer-herder crisis etched into his voice, Ortom didn’t mince words. He decried the silence of global leaders as Nigerian communities—especially in the Middle Belt—are displaced, churches burned, and faith reduced to a death sentence. “We cannot normalize the abnormal,” he told the gathering. “When a people are killed for what they believe, the world must not look away.”
His call was twofold: first, for stronger international pressure on the Nigerian government to protect religious minorities and enforce justice; second, for humanitarian support to reach the millions displaced by violence—many of whom remain in IDP camps across Benue, forgotten by headlines but not by hunger. Ortom, whose administration once armed local vigilantes to defend rural communities, now wields diplomacy as his weapon, urging sanctions, aid, and solidarity.
The timing is poignant. Back home, Governor Hyacinth Alia—Ortom’s successor and a Catholic priest—faces mounting criticism over security lapses and unpaid salaries, even as extremist attacks persist in Logo, Guma, and Katsina-Ala. Ortom’s London platform offered a stark contrast: one leader abroad pleading for global intervention, another at home wrestling with the fallout of a system he says has failed its people.
FoRB International, hosted by the UK government, brings together faith leaders, NGOs, and policymakers to confront religious persecution worldwide. Ortom’s presence there wasn’t ceremonial—he submitted evidence, engaged diplomats, and left with a promise: Nigeria’s crisis will not be solved in Abuja alone. “If the world speaks with one voice,” he said, “tyrants listen.”
As Benue Info-pedia broke the story with the headline “IN LONDON, EX-BENUE GOVERNOR DEMANDS GLOBAL ACTION,” reactions poured in. Some praised Ortom’s boldness—“He’s the only one still fighting for us,” one commenter wrote. Others dismissed it as political posturing from a man out of power. But beneath the noise, one truth stands: the killings haven’t stopped, the displaced haven’t returned, and the world is finally being asked to notice.
Ortom ended his speech with a line that echoed long after the room emptied: “Freedom is not a Nigerian problem. It is a human obligation.” Whether London listens—or whether Abuja acts—remains the question now hanging over two continents.
