Nigeria, June 8 -- When your people are dying, you don't trade their blood for political correctness. You don't distort their reality for diplomatic ease. And you certainly don't go on national television to erase their pain with careless words.

But that is what Governor Hyacinth Alia did yesterday on Channels TV and it's not the first time. In a string of bewildering statements, the Governor of Benue State has continued to cast shadows over a tragedy that demands urgent light. He has, with shocking ease, downplayed massacres, shifted blame to victims, and shielded those long suspected of complicity in the violence. His words are not just embarrassing, they're dangerous.

He claimed that the killings in Benue are being orchestrated by to...