The presidency has refuted former Kano State Governor Rabiu Kwankwaso’s claim that President Bola Tinubu was executing lopsided infrastructure development to the disadvantage of the northern part of Nigeria.
PREMIUM TIMES reports that a day after meeting Mr Tinubu at the Presidential Villa in Abuja, Mr Kwankwaso accused the president of concentrating the country’s resources on developing the southern part of the country. The 2023 presidential candidate of the New Nigerian People’s Party (NNPP) spoke at a constitution review engagement organised by the Kano State Government,
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“Let me advise the Federal Government on the distribution of federal resources,” the former Kano governor said on Thursday at the Kano State Stakeholders’ Dialogue on the 2025 Constitutional Amendment.
“From the information available to us, it’s like most of the national budget is now tilting in one direction in this country.”
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“Let me advise those who are struggling by all means to take everything to remember that some of the issues that we have in this part of the country today have to do with the lack of enough resources and mismanagement of the little that comes in.
“That is why we have insecurity, we have poverty and so on. It is happening here mainly, but like a desert, it would go everywhere,” Mr Kwankwaso said.
He said most roads in the northern region remained in deplorable condition, whilst the APC government continued to allocate lump budgetary allocations for infrastructural development in the southern region.
“Yesterday, I was to come by air, but unfortunately, my airline decided to shift our takeoff from 3 p.m. to 8 p.m. I had to come by road. From Abuja to Kaduna to Kano was a hell. Terrible. Very bad road. This is a road started many years ago, right from the beginning of the leadership of the APC.
“Now, we are told that there is a road from the South to the East. We support infrastructure anywhere in this country…and any other thing that is good for the masses but a situation where government is taking our resources and dumping it in one part of the country and other parts of the country are left just like that, I don’t believe that is the right thing to do by the government itself, Mr Kwankwaso said at the event.
You got it wrong
However, the Special Adviser to President Bola Tinubu on Media and Public Communication, Sunday Dare, dismissed the allegation as inaccurate, saying the politician was not in touch with the administration’s development initiatives.
Mr Dare also listed some developmental projects and programmes that Mr Tinubu has embarked on or executed in northern Nigeria in the last two years.
Below is the full statement by Mr Dare.
SENATOR KWANKWOSO. YOU ARE WRONG. NORTH NOT NEGLECTED.
PRESIDENT TINUBU HAS THE NORTH COVERED NORTHERN NIGERIA NOT LEFT BEHIND. SOME SAMPLERS/ EVIDENCE
SOME Federal Government Projects across Northern Nigeria Under President Tinubu’s Administration
For starters : Under President Tinubu
Abuja-Kaduna-kano Expressway
Sokoto-Badagry Expressway
Sokoto-Zamfara-Katsina Expressway
AGRICULTURE
1. \$158.15m Agriculture Value Chain (VCN) Programme for nine Northern states
2. Kolmani Integrated Development Project (Bauchi and Gombe States)
3. Agro-Climatic Resilience in Semi-Arid Landscapes (ACReSAL) — a six-year World Bank–funded programme to restore 1 million hectares of degraded land and improve climate resilience in Northern Nigeria states
4. Kano River Project (irrigation scheme) — large-scale integrated irrigation development in Kano State, commissioned in 2023 and operational under the current administration
HEALTH
5. Ahmadu Bello University Teaching Hospital, Zaria, Kaduna (North West)
6. Federal Teaching Hospital, Katsina (North West)
7. University of Jos Teaching Hospital, Jos, Plateau (North Central)
8. Reference Hospital, Kaduna (North West)
9. Usmanu Danfodiyo University Teaching Hospital, Sokoto (North West)
10. Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University Teaching Hospital, Bauchi (North East)
11. Harmony Advanced Diagnostic Centre Complex, Ilorin, Kwara (North Central)
12. Federal Medical Centre, Nguru, Yobe (North East)
13. Jos University Teaching Hospital, Jos, Plateau (North Central) — additional expansion
14. Reinvigoration of about 1,000 Primary Health Centers, PHCS in the North
ROADS AND HIGHWAYS
15. Kano–Kongolam Road (Section II: Kano–Kanwar–Danja–Hadejia)
16. Yakasai–Zalli Road
17. 1,068 km Sokoto-Badagry Super Highway (Northern section including Sokoto and Kebbi)
18. 258 km, 3-lane Carriageway (Section 2, Phase 2A: CH 120+000–CH 378+000) in Gulumbe, Kebbi State
19. Abuja–Kaduna–Zaria–Kano Dual Carriageway
20. Biu–Kangiwa–Kamba–Gaya–Niger Republic Road (30 km segment)
21. Malando–Garin Baka–Ngaski–Wara Road (CH.0+000 – CH.79+586)
22. Koko–Besse–Zaria–Kala Road
23. Abuja–Kaduna–Kano Highway (375 km)
24. Repair of the Gamboru Bridge (Gamboru–Ngala–Kala–Balde Road in Borno State)
25. Expansion of Mararaba–Keffi Road (43.65 km)
26. Construction of Lafia Bypass Road (Nasarawa State)
27. Kano–Maiduguri Dual Carriageway
28. Adamawa–Taraba Single Carriageway
29. Adamawa–Borno Single Carriageway
30. Kaduna–Jos Road (Single Carriageway)
31. Zaria–Funtua–Gusau–Sokoto Road (Dual Carriageway)
32. Zaria–Hunkuyi–Daya Road (Sections I, II & III – 152.67 km) — rehabilitation project in Kaduna and Kano States
33. Reconstruction of Dikwa–Gamboru–Ngala Road (49.55 km) — strategic corridor reconstruction in Borno State
ENERGY AND GAS
34. Ajaokuta–Kaduna–Kano Gas Pipeline (AKK) (614 km)
35. Gwagwalada Power Plant (FCT, Abuja – connected with AKK pipeline)
36. ABIBA Solar Power Station, Kaduna (50 MW) — planned solar power plant to boost renewable energy capacity in Kaduna State
RAIL AND METRO
37. Kaduna–Kano Rail Line (203 km, part of Lagos-Kano Rail Project)
38. Kano–Maradi Rail Line (285 km, linking Kano, Jigawa, Katsina to Maradi in Niger Republic)
39. Kaduna Light Rail System — ₦100 billion budget allocation to develop light rail public transport in Kaduna
40. Abuja Metro Line Rehabilitation (Abuja Light Rail)
WATERWAYS & TRADE CORRIDORS
READ ALSO: Lawmakers decry poor living condition at Nigeria’s correctional centres
41. Trans-Sahara Trade Route — infrastructure development to connect trade routes from Calabar through Nasarawa and Abuja towards Northern Nigeria and beyond
NATIONAL PROGRAMMES & INSTITUTIONS
42. National Agency for the Great Green Wall (NAGGW) — renewed mandate and leadership for desertification combat in Northern Nigeria
43. Nigeria Erosion and Watershed Management Project (NEWMAP) — ongoing erosion control and watershed infrastructure development in the North.
All of these in only two years by President Bola Tinubu.
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