By Chibuike Nwabuko
ABUJA (PRECISE POST) – President Bola Tinubu has bowed to pressure and had scheduled to visit Benue State on Wednesday, June 18, 2025, as part of renewed efforts to foster peace and address the persistent conflict affecting communities in the state.
Precise Post recalls that according to the itinerary released over the weekend, President Tinubu was scheduled to visit Kaduna State on Wednesday to commission various state government projects but the official visit will now occur on Thursday, June 19, 2025.
According to the statement released on the X account of the Special Adviser to the President (Information and Strategy) Bayo Onanuga on Monday (today), the President’s visit aims to assess firsthand the recurring crisis that has claimed numerous lives and caused significant destruction.
“During his stay, President Tinubu will meet with all stakeholders—including traditional rulers, political, religious, community leaders, and youth groups—to seek lasting solutions to the hostilities.”
Furthermore, in preparation for the visit, President Tinubu has already dispatched the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, the Inspector General of Police, heads of intelligence agencies, the National Security Adviser, and the Chairmen of the Senate and House Defence Committees to Benue State, Onanuga said.
“The President is expected to hold a town hall meeting with all stakeholders during the visit.”
President Tinubu has previously condemned the ongoing violence in Benue State and called on all leaders and residents to embrace peace, love, and mutual understanding. He extended his heartfelt condolences to the families of the victims and to all those who have suffered losses as a result of the crisis.
Precise Post further recalls that President Tinubu’s change in plan to visit Benue state barely hours after the presidential candidates of both the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the Labour Party (LP), Atiku Abubakar and Peter Obi berated the attitude and reaction of President Tinubu to the Benue killing.
Atiku who took to his X handle to condemned the treatment meted to protesters by the government for voicing out their grieviances said among others:
“To unleash force on grieving, defenseless citizens is not governance, it is cruelty. It is a betrayal of the sacred duty of leadership. What kind of government meets a cry for safety with the barrel of a gun and a canister of gas?”
“The silence, the indifference, the lack of urgency, it is all damning. It speaks to a deeper rot in the conscience of leadership, a frightening normalisation of violence against the very people they swore to protect.”
Similarly, Peter Obi on his part, while registering his displeasure over the insecurity in the country and federal government’s lack-lustre attitude ‘via his X handle titled: ” What cannot be hidden in Leadership” said among others that:
“Leadership of a nation is such that it’s either succeeding or failing, none can be hidden. There are critical areas of leadership that must exist for a nation to move forward, and these are summed up in four Cs: Competence, Capacity, Character and Compassion. Where these four are non-existent, there is no magic you can do.”
“It’s in this line that I have always maintained that we must move away from voting based on tribe and religion, and begin to vote for people with competence, capacity, character, and compassion, because we have all seen, painfully, what leadership without these qualities has done to our country.”
“Sadly, the evidence is right before our eyes. Recently, we witnessed severe flooding in Niger State that claimed nearly 200 lives, with many still missing. Yet, not even a single presidential visit, this, in a nation where the scene of the tragedy is less than an hour away by helicopter.”
“Just days ago, over 200 Nigerians, innocent men, women, children, and even soldiers were massacred in Benue State. Again, no presidential visit. No physical presence at the scenes of pain. No genuine national mourning. No leadership face to comfort the grieving or give hope to the people.”
“Yet, we have seen what true leadership looks like elsewhere:
In India, after a plane crash killed nearly 200 people, the Prime Minister was physically at the scene within hours.”
“In South Africa, when floods claimed 78 lives, the president went personally to the affected communities, stood with them, and took responsibility.”
“That is leadership with compassion. That is leadership that understands the value of human life. But here in Nigeria, we have normalised leadership without empathy, without accountability, and without a human face.”
It is against these background that President Tinubu has to shelve his planned visit to Kaduna on Wednesday to go to Benue to see things for himself as have demanded by these stakeholders of Nigerian state.
