Presidential candidate of the Labour Party in the 2023 election, Peter Obi, has lambasted President Bola Tinubu for “turning his condolence visit to Benue into a fanfare”.

In a post on his X handle on Thursday, Obi frowned at the president’s choice of Agbada attire and the atmosphere that trailed his visit to the state, stressing that such funfare contradicts the gravity of the tragedies that struck Benue and Niger states.

Obi maintained that the president should have appeared in mourning clothes rather than adorned himself in his usual Agbada regalia, given the situation of things on the ground.

”What we saw in Benue visit was instead of a solemn, reflective visit, a display that would have been more befitting for the commissioning of the reconstructed Enugu-Makurdi highway, a critical road connecting South and Northern Nigeria, which had become impassable for years.

”The President arrived not in mourning cloth but in celebratory agbada attire, like it were an occasion for joy,” he said

He also lambasted Governor Hyacinth Alia for his decision to line up students and mourning parents in the rain to welcome the president when they should be in their respective homes to mourn their dead neighbours.

”Even more heartbreaking is the role of the State. Rather than being in a mourning mood and weeping, the state declared a public holiday, not for reflection or prayer, but to organize fanfare. Schools were shut down. Children who should be mourning their slaughtered classmates, and parents, were instead lined up under the rain, rehearsed to sing and dance for the President. In what kind of country does this happen?,” Obi asked.