Tinubu’s Plateau Visit Misplaced, Insensitive, Says Atiku

Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has chided President Bola Tinubu for visiting Jos, the Plateau State capital, for merry-making amid pain and anguish unleashed on poor residents by terrorists and bandits.

President Tinubu was in Plateau State on Saturday, attending the funeral of the mother of the National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Prof Nentawe Yilwatda.

But Atiku, in a statement on Saturday night, said the president’s visit to Plateau was a confirmation that ordinary Nigerians are not his priority.

“With large swathes of the country still under siege from unrelenting insecurity and thousands of innocent lives lost, it is deeply unfortunate that President Bola Tinubu has not, for once, found it worthy to visit any of the affected states to commiserate with the grieving citizens.

“Today, however, the president suddenly remembered Plateau State — one of the most terrorised parts of the North Central — not to share in the people’s pain but to attend a social event under the auspices of his party’s national chairman.

“It is a sad reflection of priorities and a glaring mockery of leadership that while families in Plateau continue to bury their loved ones, President Tinubu chose to grace a political funeral rather than stand with the people in their darkest hour.

“Between the APC National Chairman and his President, what we witnessed today is a heartless exhibition of disregard for empathy, compassion, and the dignity of human life.

“From Benue to Niger and most recently Kwara, the entire North Central region has endured some of the most horrific waves of violence in recent history. Yet, not once has the APC-led government deemed it necessary to physically stand by the victims or console their families,” Atiku said.

The former vice president recalled what he described as President Tinubu’s symbolic visit to Benue State in June, but never bothered to set foot in Yelewata — the epicentre of mindless killings, allegedly by armed Fulani militia.

He noted that the President ended his visit “comfortably” in Makurdi, the Benue State capital, turning his back on the people of Yelewata, whose tears and blood still stain the soil.”

Atiku regretted that the president was in Plateau not to console the bereaved or reassure the broken but to celebrate and make merry with his party elite while the people mourned.

“The message could not be clearer: this is a President who would rather feast than feel – a leader who finds pleasure where the people find pain.

“The Nigerian people are watching — and they will remember,” Atiku stated.