Former presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Peter Obi, has subtly compared President Bola Tinubu’s level of compassion to that of his colleagues in South Africa and India.
According to him, Tinubu’s response to disasters within Nigeria does not show he has compassion and empathy.
As part of the Federal Government’s response to the security issues in Benue, President Tinubu has ordered special military deployment to the zone but Obi is keen on his personal visit.
In a statement on Monday via X titled “What Cannot Be Hidden in Leadership,” Obi said said people should consider compassion and general competence rate before election leaders.
He wrote: “There are critical areas of leadership that must exist for a nation to move forward, and these are summed up in four Cs: Competence, Capacity, Character and Compassion. Where these four are non-existent, there is no magic you can do. We must move away from voting based on tribe and religion, and begin to vote for people with competence, capacity, character, and compassion, because we have all seen, painfully, what leadership without these qualities has done to our country.
“Leadership must be rooted in character and integrity because, without integrity, public trust collapses, corruption thrives, and selfishness takes over,” he added. “But perhaps most importantly, we need compassion, because when a leader lacks compassion, human lives are treated as statistics, and suffering is ignored.
“Recently, we witnessed severe flooding in Niger State that claimed nearly 200 lives, with many still missing. Yet, not even a single presidential visit,” he said. “Just days ago, over 200 Nigerians, innocent men, women, children, and even soldiers were massacred in Benue State. Again, no presidential visit. No physical presence at the scenes of pain. No genuine national mourning.
“In India, after a plane crash killed nearly 200 people, the Prime Minister was physically at the scene within hours. In South Africa, when floods claimed 78 lives, the president went personally to the affected communities, stood with them, and took responsibility.”
“That is leadership with compassion. That is leadership that understands the value of human life,” he said. “But here in Nigeria, we have normalised leadership without empathy, without accountability, and without a human face.”
