Peter Obi (PO) has now twice discovered that Benue is a complicated political terrain.
The former Anambra governor and presidential candidate of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC) arrived in Makurdi this week to sympathise with victims of the Yelewata violence and visit internally displaced persons. What should ordinarily have been a humanitarian gesture ended with his movement stopped by protesting youths, a political controversy and a fresh war of words between the NDC and the Benue State Government.
It is the second time in less than two years that PO’s visit to Benue has generated such friction. On April 14, 2025, when he planned a similar visit to IDPs amid heightened tensions over attacks in the state, Fr. Hyacinth Alia, Governor of Benue State publicly warned against an unscheduled visit. The argument then, as now, was that visits by high-profile personalities to displaced communities require coordination with the state authorities and security agencies.
This time, however, there is an important twist: The police say they were informed and provided security, while the NDC insists there was no requirement to inform the governor. Benue’s Commissioner for Information and Orientation, Chief Solomon Iorpev, disagrees, arguing that a former governor, two-time presidential candidate and sitting presidential aspirant cannot be treated as an ordinary visitor.
So, who was right?
That question may be less important politically than another one: Why does Obi keep walking into this particular trap in Benue?
In 2023, Obi’s relationship with Benue politics was helped enormously by the political calculations of the then governor, Chief Samuel Ortom. Chief Ortom, despite belonging to the PDP and openly disagreeing with his party’s presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, effectively presented PO to many Benue voters as the preferred Christian alternative to the APC’s Muslim-Muslim ticket.
The result was a remarkable political opening for PO in the state.
But the Ortom factor is gone. The political environment has changed. Benue now has an APC governor, a different coalition of interests and a 2027 contest in which every gesture is likely to be interpreted through the lens of partisan competition.
PO therefore needs to understand that the Benue of 2023 is not the Benue of 2026.
His supporters may insist that he was simply visiting suffering Nigerians and had no political agenda. That is a legitimate position. But presidential politics is not conducted in a vacuum. A presidential aspirant arriving in a conflict-affected community shortly before an election will inevitably attract political interpretation, particularly in a state where the governor himself is deeply invested in the security narrative.
The solution is not to stop PO from visiting Benue. Quite the opposite.
He should visit more. But he needs a better strategy.
Notify the appropriate authorities. Coordinate with State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA). Engage the governor’s office. Speak with traditional leaders. Meet civil society and community representatives. Then go to the displaced people.
There is little political cost in doing this. If the government refuses permission after proper notification, the political advantage shifts to PO. If the visit proceeds peacefully, everybody wins. But arriving without the necessary institutional coordination creates an avoidable controversy in which the humanitarian message is quickly swallowed by politics.
There is also a larger lesson here.
Benue politics has a long memory. PO himself has had his own political confrontations with political opponents, including former Kaduna governor Mallam Nasir El-Rufai. Political fortunes change, alliances change and yesterday’s adversary can become tomorrow’s ally.
What goes around, they say, comes around.
But Benue should not become a theatre where political scores are settled through intimidation, ethnic rhetoric or the blocking of political opponents.
The reaction of some commentators invoking the civil war and portraying the present dispute as an Igbo-versus-Tiv confrontation is particularly unhelpful. The civil war ended decades ago. Nigeria has moved through reconciliation, reintegration and several generations of political interaction since then. A presidential aspirant should not revive those wounds, and neither should his opponents.
The youths who blocked PO’s movement also need to understand that political disagreement does not confer the right to obstruct another citizen’s lawful movement. If there were genuine security concerns, the proper response was to alert the authorities—not become the authorities.
And if PO’s convoy was attacked, as the NDC alleges, those responsible should be investigated and prosecuted. Opposition politics is legitimate; political violence is not.
The police commissioner’s account is instructive. He said the police were informed, security was provided, and PO eventually left after youths blocked the road. That suggests that the immediate problem was not the absence of security but the absence of sufficient political and community coordination.
That is precisely where PO needs to rethink his strategy.
Once beaten, twice shy.
The first encounter should have taught him that Benue’s political terrain requires tact. The second should make the lesson impossible to ignore.
PO does not need to surrender his independence to the Benue Government. He does not need Fr. Alia’s political endorsement. And he certainly does not need permission to be compassionate.
But if he wants to become President of Nigeria, he must understand something fundamental: Presidents do not merely visit people; they manage institutions, sensitivities, security and competing interests.
Benue is giving PO another lesson before 2027.
The wise politician learns from the first beating.
The wiser one makes sure there is no third.
