The Labour Party’s 2023 presidential candidate, Peter Obi, has criticised President Bola Tinubu for failing to visit Yelwata, the community at the epicentre of a recent deadly attack in Benue State, during his recent trip to the state.

Tinubu, who was in Benue on Wednesday to commiserate with victims of the violence, explained that he was unable to visit Yelwata due to what he claims to be the rain, flood and bad roads. However, Obi dismissed the explanation as inadequate and unbecoming of a leader in times of crisis.

In a statement shared on X (formerly Twitter) on Friday, Obi argued that leadership demands personal sacrifice and a willingness to show up regardless of the circumstances.

“One of the consistent principles of leadership is the willingness to make ultimate sacrifices and take risks,” he stated.

“A true leader does not make excuses or complain; he shows up, sacrifices, and provides solutions, especially in difficult times.”

While acknowledging the need to protect the president from unnecessary risk, Obi said the excuse given was unacceptable. “This visit happened days after the massacre, with enough time to plan appropriately,” he noted.

Obi also pointed out that the responsibility for maintaining infrastructure, including roads, lies squarely with both state and federal governments. He questioned why the president did not consider other means of accessing the community.

“Even if we accept that the roads were truly impassable — which they are not, as presidential aides and staff managed to navigate them — what happened to the use of helicopters?” Obi queried.
“Are we saying a nation that boasts of a presidential air fleet could not airlift the President to Yelwata to condole with grieving citizens?”

He emphasised that the people of Benue were not looking for justifications but concrete demonstrations of empathy and leadership.

“A New Nigeria cannot — and will not — be built on excuses. It will be built on the sacrifices, courage, and responsibility of true leaders,” he added.

Obi also condemned the tone of the president’s visit, describing it as insensitive and poorly handled.

“Children who should be mourning their slaughtered classmates and parents were instead lined up under the rain, rehearsed to sing and dance for the president,” he said.

Similarly, the 2023 presidential candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), Adewole Adebayo, also criticised Tinubu for not visiting Yelewata town.

Adebayo said the president’s excuse was not tenable.

“He (the president) should have made sure that come rain, come shine, he got to the venue of the attack, Yelewata, and he saw the people. He cannot say as commander-in-chief, there is a part of the country that is unreachable by you. People are living there,” Adebayo said.

The politician also said the president’s visit was politicised and that the number one citizen should have been more empathetic to the plight of the people.

He said, “Going to a place of mourning that even during the Nigerian civil war, it would be newsworthy if there were 200 lives lost at one time. So, such a place is a somber occasion, and he is in charge of all the people who followed him there. But what do you get there? It was like another political rally. That sombreness was not there. The president should have gone there as a chief mourner and his language should have been somber and his language should have been better controlled.”

Seriake Dickson, the senator representing Bayelsa west, has equally criticised President Bola Tinubu for visiting Benue five days after over 200 people were killed on June 14.

Dickson said Tinubu should have visited the state earlier to demonstrate leadership and empathy, following the brutal attacks by suspected herdsmen in Yelewata and Daudu communities in LGA.

Dickson, a former governor of Bayelsa, said the president’s trip fell short of expectations and failed to reflect the scale of the tragedy.

“While it’s commendable that President Tinubu visited Benue state, albeit he could have gone earlier than he did. The decisions taken and declarations made were not as forceful as some would have wanted,” he said.

He criticised the characterisation of the killings as “communal disputes”, insisting that what has been happening in Benue and other states like Plateau goes beyond local grievances and represents a “systematic campaign of terror”.