Former Labour Party (LP) presidential candidate Peter Obi praised President Bola Tinubu for “finally deciding to visit the scene of the brutal killings in Benue State”.
Obi remarked that the President’s presence in these shattered and grieving towns would be both reassuring and encouraging.
The former Anambra State governor, however, stated that the president’s planned visit to Benue State on Wednesday was not adequate and that he should also visit the victims of the disastrous flood in the Mokwa area of Niger State, also in North Central Nigeria.
Tinubu expressed sympathy for the people of Benue State on Monday, when he launched the Greater Abuja Water Supply Network, following the attack on the Yelwata community on Friday that claimed hundreds of lives.
The President stated that he would clear his schedule to pay a condolence visit to the people of Benue State on Wednesday.
Obi, who had previously chastised Tinubu for failing to visit the state and Niger, where hundreds died as a result of recent flooding, said it was encouraging that Tinubu “has finally decided to visit the scene of the brutal killings in Benue state.”
While thanking the President for his planned travel to Benue, the former governor of Anambra State encouraged him to visit Niger State as well.
“For this I thank him even as I make further requests that a similar gesture should be extended to Niger state that lost a greater number of human lives in a natural disaster, a flood, recently,” Obi wrote on his X handle on Tuesday.
“Given the emergency nature of these incidents, a prompt visit would have delivered the urgency needed instead of giving future dates that make it look like a state visit.
“The presence of the President in these devastated and grieving communities will be very reassuring and uplifting.
“Both Benue and Niger States have lost over 200 lives each due to recent tragedies. In Mokwa alone, more than 200 people were confirmed dead, and over 1,000 are still missing following the floods. These are not just statistics; they are the lives of Nigerian families torn apart and their communities destroyed.
“The distance from Abuja to these affected areas is not far. Abuja to Makurdi is about 282 km, and Abuja to Mokwa is about 287 km.
“Combined, that’s roughly 1,134 km for a round trip to both locations, still significantly less than the 1,870 km round trip President Cyril Ramaphosa of South Africa recently made some days ago from Pretoria to Mthatha to personally visit flood victims in his country.
“Less than 100 persons died in Mthatha, and more than 200 died in Mokwa, with over 1000 still missing.
“If the South African President could do it, we trust that you, as our own President, can do the same for your people.
“Let your visit to Mokwa send a strong message that all Nigerian lives matter and that no community, no matter how rural, is forgotten. Please also consider stepping up security across the country, especially in disaster-prone areas.
“We look forward to seeing not leadership by remote control but proactive leadership that responds not just with words but with compassion and action.”
