Farotimi Questions Impact of President’s Visit to Benue: ‘Why Bother?

Human rights lawyer and activist, Dele Farotimi, has lambasted President Bola Tinubu’s recent visit to Benue State, saying the optics of the trip did more harm than good. Speaking during an interview on Channels TV on Thursday, June 19, Farotimi argued that the president’s presence lacked substance in the face of a crisis that has claimed thousands of lives.

“It would have been better if he didn’t come at all,” Farotimi said, describing the visit as symbolic emptiness wrapped in a red carpet.

He noted that the only moment of genuine reckoning came from Tor Tiv V, James Ayatse, the paramount ruler of the Tiv people, who did not mince words. The traditional leader branded the sustained onslaught on Benue communities as a “calculated, well-planned, full-scale genocidal invasion and land grabbing campaign” by herder militias and bandits an assertion that resonated deeply with the people but reportedly received no meaningful rebuttal or acknowledgment from the presidential camp.

“I must say very quickly that it would have been better if the president didn’t go. The only thing worthy of anybody’s time was the words of the Tor Tiv, who spoke extensively to the reality of the situation in the Benue trough and spoke eloquently to the pains of the victims.

Other than that, all the president had to offer were mere windows into his preoccupation and what truly concerns his aides and assistants.”he said

Benue, often referred to as the “food basket of the nation”, has long been caught in the deadly crosshairs of herdsmen-farmer conflicts, often described by locals and activists as ethno-religious and territorial wars cloaked in silence from the federal center.

Farotimi also criticized what he called the “performative politics” of receiving the president with pomp and pageantry amid open graves and displaced communities.

“That red carpet was soaked in blood,” he declared, condemning the warm welcome given to a presidency many feel has done little to stem the violence.

“In Benue, they knew exactly what was of importance to the president, so they ensured that they put up the necessary theatre for 2027. The de@th of over 200 people did not count much; they were mentioned only in passing, and you would have been excused that it was a political event.

The primary reason the state exists is to protect the lives and property of the citizens. We’ve almost lost our capacity to be shocked. 200 human beings were murdered, and the President went to Benue and was talking as if he were preparing for a campaign rally.

It was more or less that they went to dance on the graves of some of whom may not even be identified. Let the state begin to protect the lives and property of the citizens.” he said