By all means, vent your anger. In fact, tear shirt. Tinubu and Alia's show of shame in Benue yesterday deserves every ounce of scrutiny it gets. But before you drown in righteous indignation over Abuja’s failures, may I ask where was this same energy when Ondo State was soaked in blood, and silence was the official response? It’s convenient to raise your voice when the President stumbles, but what about our own Governor, His Excellency Dr. Lucky Orimisan Aiyedatiwa, who continues to stumble with polished shoes and a plastic smile?
Have you forgotten when farmers were killed in Aba Sunday not long ago, our governor had to be practically dragged before a tepid, almost indifferent statement was issued? As though the lives lost weren’t worth a single urgent breath. Meanwhile, his media foot soldiers, ever ready to spin tragedy into political theatre, dared to ask if the slain were even from Ondo State as though citizenship of Ondo State must now be proven before one is mourned. That is the level of contempt we now normalize.
When grieving farmers brought corpses to the gates of Alagbaka to protest, bloodied bodies of sons and breadwinners, Governor Lucky Aiyedatiwa did not step out. He did not look them in the eye. He hid behind curtains of cowardice, shielded by press releases and his band of digital praise singers.
But suddenly, in pursuit of political relevance and a phantom “third term”, Aiyedatiwa finds the energy to accompany the President to Benue. A state outside his jurisdiction. A trip outside his moral reach. Not to stand in solidarity with the victims there, but to stand beside power, to be seen by the right cameras, to be framed in the right photos. A loyal Tinubu boy desperate for the President’s nod, even if it means betraying the people who pay his salary.
This is why we must domesticate our anger. Let it begin from home. You can’t be loud in Yewelta and mute in Ose. You can’t shed tears in Guma and shrug at Akure North. The politics of selective empathy is a sickness, and Ondo State is currently its most infected host. If loyalty to the President now ranks higher than loyalty to the people, then let it be said clearly that we are governed by opportunists, not leaders. And the tragedy is not just their hypocrisy. It is the fact that we’re getting used to it.
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