Nigerian commentator and former presidential aide, Reno Omokri, has criticized Peter Obi over his recent statements about the killings in Benue State.

Earlier today, Peter Obi released a statement where he strongly criticized the federal government for not visiting places in Nigeria that have experienced serious disasters or attacks.

Obi compared Nigeria’s leaders with those from other countries. He mentioned how the President of South Africa visited flood victims, and how the Indian President went to the hospital to visit the only survivor of a major plane crash.

He said Nigeria’s leaders are not showing care or responsibility. According to Obi, the country needs someone who is competent, has strong character, and truly cares about the people. He warned that if we keep choosing the wrong leaders, Nigeria will continue to suffer.

Reno Omokri didn’t agree with Obi’s remarks. He went on his X (formerly Twitter) account to criticize Obi. Omokri said Obi is using the Benue tragedy to push a political agenda, which he believes is not right.

His post reads

‘’The Benue Killings Stand Condemned, And I Urge Non-Politicisation Of The Deaths And For Accounts To Be Opened For Nigerians To Donate

My heartfelt condolences to the government and people of Benue State over the recent gruesome killings of Nigerian citizens by suspected herders and bandits. No community deserves to go through the harrowing experiences they have had to endure.

My prayers are with the survivors, and I join peace-loving persons around the world to demand that those who have perpetrated these atrocities should be brought to justice speedily.

I stand with Benue and unequivocally give my right hand of support to the people of Benue in these trying times. I call on the State Government and the Governor to do their utmost, in tandem with the President and the Federal Government, to end the bloodletting in the state.

I also call on the Benue State Government to consider opening an account for donations to the victims and making such public, so that public spirited members of the public can donate to give practical help to those displaced by the disturbances. I will donate once that is done.

Let me also state that it is wrong for persons like Peter Obi to politicise these matters and claim that things have never been this bad in Nigeria.

We must not compare evil with evil. Nevertheless, when political malcontent desperadoes, like Mr. Obi, make such comments, I am forced to set the record straight.

In this same country, on July 5, 2022, terrorists in their hundreds belonging to Boko Haram and ISWAP invaded Kuje Prisons and freed 879 of their colleagues.

Thereafter, on July 29, 2022, more terrorists attacked the Guards Battalion, who provide security to the President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces. They ambushed them and killed some of their personnel.

Prior to that, on Tuesday, August 24, 2021, terrorists invaded the Nigerian Defence Academy, Kaduna, and killed multiple soldiers.

Then there was the slaughter of a hundred rice farmers sowing their fields in Zabamari, Borno State on November 29, 2030.

Even before then, Boko Haram had killed over a hundred soldiers of the 157 Task Force Battalion, Metele, sometime in November 2018

And then on March 28, 2022, terrorists had bombed the Abuja-Kaduna train, killing multiple people.

This is not to forget the Southern Kaduna Genocide under the Nasir el-Rufai government, where the Governor admitted to paying killer herders and where clerics were openly visiting and taking photographs with heavily armed bandits.

None of these has happened under the Tinubu administration. That is not to say that the Benue killings are not condemnable. They are.

And specifically, in Benue, these killings and clashes have been occurring pre- and post-Independence. They will keep on happening unless the grazing routes the colonial government created for itinerant livestock herders are reopened so that there can be peaceful coexistence between herders and local communities across Nigeria.

Right now, Nigeria needs leaders and statesmen who can suggest solutions, not those who seek political mileage from the misery of others.

Especially, Peter Obi, under whom as Governor of Anambra, hundreds of young Nigerian men were extrajudicially murdered, and their corpses dumped in the Ezu River for crocodiles to eat.

It should be recalled that it was exactly because he politicised the Benue situation that Peter Obi was banned from visiting the state by the Governor, a fellow Catholic, Reverend Father Hyacinth Alia.

Right now, Nigeria needs leaders who offer solutions, not those who only introduce pollutions! ‘’