The commentaries following President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s visit to Benue State after the infamous Yelewata massacre leave one in dismay at how we have sunk to this low ebb in national politics.

It was quite disturbing that a former presidential candidate seemed more concerned about the attire the president wore to Benue State than about interrogating the president’s speech.

The president made a clear and decisive statement – “We are to govern, not to bury.” Yet instead of critically questioning the president’s action plan to ensure that our approach to tackling the raging insecurity across the nation would be proactive rather than reactive, we are questioning why the president wore an “agbada” to Benue State.

I have consistently maintained that the quality of conversation we have in situations like the Yelewata massacre will determine whether we emerge from such ugly scenes stronger or continue to witness such terrible tragedies repeated in the future.

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I must strongly affirm that the failure of this government would be inherently tied to the failure of the opposition if we cannot inspire meaningful conversations on burning national issues.

𝐓𝐡𝐨𝐬𝐞 𝐰𝐡𝐨 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐝𝐨𝐮𝐛𝐭𝐬 𝐰𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐎𝐍𝐋𝐘 𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐧 𝐨𝐟 𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐠𝐮𝐭𝐬 𝐭𝐨 𝐝𝐨 𝐰𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐢𝐬 𝐫𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭.

-Francis Onyema, 2027 Presidential Aspirant.

This article was originally published on Francis Onyema’s Facebook page on 19th June, 2025.