The Presidency yesterday dismissed claims that Northern Nigeria was being neglected under President Bola Tinubu, insisting that the region was benefiting massively from his administration’s policies and investments.
Special adviser to the president on media and public communications, Sunday Dare, on his X handle, said more than 40 major infrastructure and development projects were currently underway across the North, cutting across transport, agriculture, health and energy sectors.
He was refuting allegations by the 2023 presidential candidate of the New Nigeria Peoples Party, Senator Rabiu Kwankwaso, that the North had been neglected under Tinubu’s administration.
Among the highlighted projects are key highways such as the Abuja–Kaduna–Kano Expressway, Sokoto–Badagry Super Highway, Kano–Maiduguri Dual Carriageway, and the reconstruction of the Dikwa–Gamboru–Ngala Road in Borno State.
In the rail sector, the Presidency cited ongoing work on the Kaduna–Kano Rail Line, the Kano–Maradi Rail Line linking Niger Republic, and the ₦100 billion allocation for the Kaduna Light Rail System.
The agriculture sector has also seen heavy federal investment, with programmes like the $158.15 million Agriculture Value Chain initiative for nine Northern states, the Kolmani Integrated Development Project in Bauchi and Gombe, and the World Bank–funded ACReSAL programme targeting one million hectares of degraded land for restoration.
On healthcare, Dare listed expansions and upgrades at major facilities, including Ahmadu Bello University Teaching Hospital, Zaria, Federal Medical Centre, Nguru, and over 1,000 Primary Health Centres across the North.
Energy projects are equally on the radar, including the Ajaokuta–Kaduna–Kano (AKK) Gas Pipeline, the Gwagwalada Power Plant, and the proposed ABIBA Solar Power Station in Kaduna.
Pan-Yoruba socio-cultural organisation, Afenifere, also faulted Kwankwaso’s remark that national resources were increasingly tilted towards the southern region.
Afenifere said Kwankwaso’s statement was not only unfair but also deeply dangerous.
Recall that Kwankwaso, during a stakeholders’ dialogue on the 2025 constitutional amendment in Kano on Thursday, warned that national resources were increasingly being tilted towards the southern region, resulting in deepening poverty and insecurity across the North.
He lamented the deplorable condition of federal roads in the northern states, recounting how a cancelled flight forced him to travel by road from Abuja to Kano via Kaduna—a journey he described as “hell” due to the poor road conditions.
However, Afenifere, in a statement issued by the National Organising Secretary of the organisation, Otunba Kole Omololu, said Kwankwaso’s statement “stokes regional tension and paints a false picture of deliberate southern favouritism.”
According to the organisation, “Kwankwaso’s alarmist rhetoric is not only unfair but also deeply dangerous.”
Afenifere noted that development is a gradual process, and President Tinubu had not yet reached the halfway mark of his term.
The organisation also described Kwankwaso’s statement as “not only grossly misleading but also deliberately incendiary.”
The statement reads: “As a former governor and minister, one would expect Senator Kwankwaso to speak with facts, not emotions laced with sectional bias.
“It must be stated unequivocally that no region in Nigeria has benefited more from concentrated federal presence in the past decade than the North. During the Buhari administration—a northern presidency which Senator Kwankwaso conveniently omits—critical national resources were disproportionately channelled to the North.
“The World Bank Managing Director publicly disclosed that President Buhari specifically directed the institution to focus its interventions in northern Nigeria. Where was Kwankwaso’s voice for equity and fairness then?
“Road and rail infrastructure were overwhelmingly skewed. The Kano-Maradi railway, constructed deep into the Niger Republic with no economic significance to Nigeria, was completed under Buhari.
“Was this done for national integration or to aid cross-border movement of Fulani kinsmen? Meanwhile, under the same regime, the hell in which the senator travelled was not turned into heaven; the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, started by President Jonathan and designed to reach Iwo Junction, remained uncompleted.
“The Second Niger Bridge was still pending upon Buhari’s exit after eight years in office.
“Less than two years into President Tinubu’s administration, Kwankwaso is crying foul. Perhaps he is unaware that critical road projects have been initiated and awarded across the North, including the dualisation of the Kano-Maiduguri Road, Sokoto-Tambuwal-Jega Road, and the Abuja-Keffi-Lafia corridor.
“The Ajaokuta-Kaduna-Kano (AKK) gas pipeline, neglected by past regimes, is being fast-tracked. Just weeks ago, President Tinubu approved billions for critical infrastructure in Katsina, Borno, and Niger States. By 2027, and indeed by 2031, every region, including the North, will feel the impact of this administration.”
Afenifere, however, urged the former governor to rise above ethnic saboteurs and sectional agitators masquerading as patriots.
The organisation said, “Let statesmen, not ethnic lords, shape the conversation.”
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