Peter Obi Slams Tinubu for Neglecting Benue’s Security Crisis

 Peter Obi, Labour Party’s 2023 presidential candidate, sharply criticized President Bola Tinubu on June 15, 2025, for “ignoring” Benue State’s worsening security crisis, accusing the administration of showing “no value for human lives,”. 

Obi highlighted the deaths of over 200 residents in 2025, including a May attack killing 50 farmers, per Amnesty International. He urged Tinubu to declare a state of emergency and visit affected communities, as announced for June 18.

Obi’s remarks follow months of violence in Benue, with Logo, Guma, and Katsina-Ala LGAs under siege by armed groups, displacing 6,527 residents, per the National Emergency Management Agency. He criticized the federal government’s “piecemeal” response, noting only 20 arrests despite 150 attacks in Q1 2025, per Nigeria Police Force data. Obi contrasted Tinubu’s focus on infrastructure, like the N500 billion Lagos-Calabar Highway, with Benue’s plight, where 30% of farmland lies fallow, per the Ministry of Agriculture.

The criticism aligns with opposition leaders like Atiku Abubakar, who condemned Tinubu’s delayed response, per Al Jazeera. Pope Leo XIV’s denouncement of the “extreme cruelty” in Benue amplified pressure, per The Guardian. Tinubu’s June 15 directive to security chiefs, followed by the Inspector General’s visit on June 16, aims to curb violence, but Obi argued these are “reactive” measures, per Channels Television. He called for a N100 billion security fund and community policing to empower locals.

Benue’s crisis, rooted in herder-farmer clashes and banditry, has cost N1 trillion in economic losses since 2015, per a World Bank report. Obi’s comments resonate with 65% of Nigerians who rate the government’s security efforts poorly, per Afrobarometer. While Tinubu’s upcoming visit may signal action, Obi warned that without systemic reforms, Benue risks becoming a “failed state within a state,” urging a national security summit by July 2025 to address Nigeria’s 15,000 annual violent deaths.