President Bola Tinubu met with victims of the recent Plateau State attacks at Jos airport on Friday instead of visiting the affected communities directly, a decision the Presidency says was shaped by security, logistical and scheduling constraints. The meeting followed a bilateral session with Chadian President Mahamat Idriss Déby Itno at the Presidential Villa, which ran longer than planned, delaying Tinubu's departure. According to Bayo Onanuga, the President's Special Adviser on Information and Strategy, the revised itinerary came after a security briefing from Plateau State Governor Caleb Mutfwang. Due to the late arrival and the Jos airport's inability to support night flights—lacking navigational aids—the President could not safely travel to the city centre and return before dark.
Federal and state officials arranged for victims to be brought to a hall adjacent to the airport. The meeting included top security officials: the Minister of Defence, the Chief of Army Staff, and the Inspector General of Police, who had earlier visited Rukuba, the epicentre of the violence. Tinubu deployed a high-level team ahead of his visit, including his Senior Special Assistant on Community Engagement, for preliminary consultations. The President listened to victims, offered condolences, and pledged federal action on justice and peace. He announced plans to deploy 5,000 Artificial Intelligence-enabled cameras across Jos to improve surveillance and aid perpetrator identification. Community leaders were also invited to Abuja for broader dialogue on conflict resolution.
Holding a crisis meeting at an airport terminal because of runway lights is not strategy—it's improvisation under pressure. Tinubu's 5,000-camera pledge may sound decisive, but it echoes past tech-heavy promises that did little to stop bloodshed in Plateau. If surveillance alone could end cyclical violence, the state would have been at peace years ago. This moment reveals more about logistical limits than strategic breakthroughs.
