Former Nigerian senator and civil rights advocate, Shehu Sani, has decried what he described as a dangerous moral decline in society, warning that selective empathy toward victims of terrorism threatens the country’s shared humanity.
In a post shared on his official X (formerly Twitter) account on Friday, Sani lamented that public reactions to acts of violence are increasingly shaped by religious and ethnic considerations rather than universal human compassion.
According to him, society has reached a troubling point where people first assess the identity of victims before deciding how much sympathy they deserve.
“Our society has cruelly descended to the lowest level of its human and moral standards,” Sani wrote, criticising what he called a growing culture of conditional outrage. He argued that terrorism and murder should be condemned unequivocally, regardless of the background of the victims.
Sani warned that normalising selective condemnation risks legitimising violence by implication. “If you have the kind of murder you oppose, you have the kind of murder you support,” he added, suggesting that silence or indifference toward certain atrocities amounts to tacit approval.
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His remarks come amid ongoing national debates over insecurity, terrorism, and communal violence, issues that have continued to test Nigeria’s social cohesion.
Observers say Sani’s comments reflect broader concerns among civic leaders about the erosion of empathy and the politicisation of tragedy.
The former lawmaker has long been vocal on human rights and security issues, often calling for unity, moral clarity, and equal concern for all victims of violence, irrespective of faith, ethnicity, or political affiliation.