Labour Party presidential candidate in the 2023 general elections, Mr. Peter Obi has showered a rare praise to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu for his decision to visit the beleaguered people of Benue State.

He said it was refreshing to hear the pronouncement of the president to visit the state that has come under sustained attack by armed herdsmen. The visit of the president to Benue is about the first he would be paying on the spot visit on any of the states that have come under sustained armed attacks by non-state actors.

Obi however urged the President to also extend a similar visit to people of Niger State aa, especially to the devastated market city of Mokwa following the flood that happened there.

Obi who took on his X handle to commend the president was of the view that such visits serve better purpose if they were executed promptly after an emergency situation.

“It was refreshing news on Monday to a bewildered nation learning that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has finally decided to visit the scene of the brutal killings in Benue State. For this I thank him even as I make further requests that a similar gesture should be extended to Niger state that lost more human lives in a natural disaster, flood recently.

“Given the emergency nature of these incidents, a prompt visit would have delivered the urgency needed, instead of giving future dates that makes 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.

 Obi urged President Tinubu to imitate South African President Cyril Ramaphosa who wasted no time visiting his South African community that faced similar fate as Mokwa.

 “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’.