Peter Obi and critics say the President’s airport-only Plateau stop reveals a troubling pattern of detached, compassion-free governance.
ABUJA, — President Bola Ahmed Tinubu flew into Plateau State on Wednesday following deadly violence in Jos, but departed without visiting a single affected community—a leadership failure. Peter Obi and civil society voices say it has become a defining and dangerous pattern.
Survivors waited. Families grieved. The President left from the same tarmac he arrived on.
The visit drew immediate comparisons to the leadership philosophy long championed by Peter Obi, former Anambra governor and 2023 Labour Party presidential candidate, who has consistently argued that governance must be rooted in empathy, accountability, and physical presence.
For Obi’s supporters—the millions-strong movement that rallied under the Obidient banner—Wednesday’s airport stop was precisely the kind of leadership failure they warned against before the 2023 election.
“Peter Obi has always said leadership is not a title—it is service. What we saw in Jos was the opposite of service,” said a Lagos-based political analyst. “A leader who cannot sit with grieving mothers has lost the moral authority to govern them.”
A Pattern Tinubu Cannot Escape
This is not an isolated incident. In June 2025, Tinubu visited Benue State following mass killings—stopping at the Government House without once traveling to the massacre sites. Yesterday’s Plateau visit followed an identical, troubling script.
Peter Obi addressed the Benue crisis directly at the time, calling for leadership that goes beyond protocol and meets citizens in their pain.
“When people are dying, the least their leader owes them is presence,” Obi stated publicly. “Not a government house visit. Not an airport press conference. Presence.”
The contrast between Obi’s articulated vision of leadership and Tinubu’s demonstrated approach has sharpened with every crisis visit that ends before it truly begins.
What Plateau’s Survivors Needed
Communities in Jos had endured devastating losses—lives, homes, and safety stripped away in cycles of violence that have plagued the Middle Belt for decades.
An airport address, however polished, cannot substitute for a president walking through rubble, sitting with survivors, or looking grief directly in the eye.
“Plateau deserves more than distant words,” a community leader said following the visit. “We need a leader who comes to where the pain is—not one who manages our tragedy from a tarmac.”
Security analysts warn that repeated federal absence from crisis epicenters erodes institutional trust and emboldens perpetrators by signaling a lack of urgent consequence.
The Leadership Nigeria Deserves
Peter Obi has long argued that a new Nigeria is not only necessary—it is possible. But it requires leaders who are present, responsive, and genuinely accountable to the people they serve.
The gulf between that vision and Nigeria’s current reality widens each time a presidential aircraft lands, idles, and departs without a single survivor being embraced.
Nigeria’s most vulnerable communities, in Plateau, Benue, and across the Middle Belt — are not asking for perfection. They are asking for presence.
That is the minimum. And currently, it is not being met.
A better Nigeria remains possible. But it will require leaders who understand that compassion is not optional—it is the very foundation of legitimate governance.
