Benue killings: Tinubu’s visit exposes his shortcomings as C-in-C—SDP’s Adebayo

Former presidential candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) in the 2023 general elections, Prince Adewole Adebayo, has said that President Bola Tinubu’s recent visit to Yelwata in Benue State, where over 200 villagers were killed, has exposed his shortcomings as a Commander-in-Chief (C-in-C) of the country’s armed forces.

He noted that as the C-in-C, he cannot deny having the foreknowledge of the killing in Benue because, according to him, the things that are happening across the country, especially in Benue and Plateau, where killings have become a regular occurrence, should form part of the daily features in the security reports that he receives.

Insisting that President Tinubu is not the right person for the country, he condemned the politicisation and trivialisation of the Benue massacre during the president’s visit by turning the event into a political rally and carnival.

He said, “What I see is a general pattern where the president politicises everything. If he’s going to commission a road, there’s always this cartoonish aspect that has to do with singing and all of that.

“He goes to the National Assembly in a country where people are suffering, and they sing these various anthems that they wax all the time.

“Now, they’ve not gone one step beyond reason by going to a place of mourning, a place of massacre where over 200 people were dastardly killed; such a place is a somber occasion, and he’s in charge of all the people who followed him there, and what you get there is like another political rally. That sombreness was not there”

He stated that some of the theatres they were doing there with the Chief of Defence Staff giving the president a salute are the things they should have done in the situation room. 

“I think the president should have gone there as a chief mourner, and his language should have been sober. The responses should have been better controlled, and he should have made sure that, come rain, come shine, he got to the venue of the attack,” he said.

He equally condemned the President’s failure to step into the blood-soaked Yelwata community for whatever reason. “The president should have gone to Yelwata and seen the people. He cannot say as a commander-in-chief that there’s a part of the country that’s unreachable for him. People are living there and he left them there; he is responsible for their welfare there. So, I think the notion that merely going to Benue is enough sacrifice is wrong.

“Some of the commentaries there and his own reaction to it did not do anything to suggest to the people that his priorities are with those who have been killed,” he said.

Adebayo also faulted the town hall meeting the president had with the Benue people during the visit, saying, “In that hall, which looks like a banquet, the whole setting is not the setting you would find for mourning. The whole staging of it is not sympathetic enough and is not appropriate enough and that is our understanding of it. It did not portray the president as understanding that he should use that visit to clearly identify the problem on ground and indicate some solutions to them even if he doesn’t give all of it.  So, where you go on an occasion like that, you set the tone; you let the people know that you understand the situation. The basic thing is that he should realize that those people died because of him; he is the commander-in-chief of the armed forces. He is the one running the police and the armed forces. If he had done his duty, if the people working for him in uniform and out of uniform had done their duty, that thing would not have happened. So, the first thing he should have done was to take responsibility.”

The SDP’s leader stressed that President Tinubu’s claim of not knowing if arrest had been made demonstrates that he lacks the quality of a good C-in-C. 

“It shows that the President may have other good qualities but totally not a good Commander-in-Chief because before you go there you will know whether arrests have been made. This Commander-in-Chief thing is not a joke. It’s not the same thing as being chairman of a party or wearing agbada,” he said.

ALSO READ TOP STORIES FROM NIGERIAN TRIBUNE