A chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Ekiti State, Hon. Bamidele Faparusi, has faulted the statement credited to the former Kano State governor, Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, claiming that projects being executed by the President Bola Tinubu administration are only in favour of the Southern part of Nigeria.
Faparusi, a former member of the House of Representatives, who described the accusation against President Tinubu as baseless and false, posited that the North was far more favoured in federal government project execution, even than the Southwest, where most federal roads linking the zones are now in deplorable conditions.
The former Kano State Governor and chieftain of the New Nigerian Peoples Party (NNPP) recently alleged at an event that President Tinubu’s administration’s projects favoured the southern part of the country over the northern part, eliciting reactions across the nation.
Faparusi, in a statement made available to newsmen on Tuesday, noted that Kaduna-Abuja, Katsina-Kano, Sokoto-Katsina, Sokoto-Badagry super highway, and many other road projects were being undertaken across the North.
In contrast, the entire Southwest federal roads, besides the Ibadan-Lagos Highway, are laced with craters and gorges.
He clarified that while not defending a president of being biased against any section of the country, it was obvious to every Nigerian that the late President Muhammadu Buhari favoured the North in appointments and projects during his eight-year presidency.
The former federal lawmaker appealed to Tinubu’s administration to pay attention to the deplorable state of the federal roads in the Southwest region, especially in Ekiti State, where all 12 federal roads have collapsed and become death traps to motorists.
“His Excellency, Rabiu Kwankwaso, should know that the North is taking the larger chunk of project attention under President Tinubu’s government.
“Evidence abounds that major highways in the Southwest, where the president hailed, like Ado-Akure, Lagos-Abeokuta, Ekiti-Lokoja, Ibadan-Akure highway, Osogbo-Ibadan, Ibadan-Abeokuta and many others, are now unpassable for motorists,” he said.
He asked Kwankwaso to contradict the presidency’s position on his allegation and challenged the projects rolled out by the federal government in each of the geopolitical areas to further corroborate his accusation.
Faparusi also challenged Kwankwaso to come up with accurate data to convince Nigerians that his claim was truthful and made with honesty.
He added that the trajectory of President Tinubu’s political history was devoid of unwarranted ethnicity, saying his cabinet as a Lagos State Governor was branded as a “mini Nigeria”, because it comprised people from all ethnic nationalities.
