The Lagos Illusion
A viral chart recently made the rounds, loudly proclaiming that Lagos alone received ₦3.9 trillion worth of federal projects.
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To the casual observer, it seemed a damning indictment: as if the federal treasury had been converted into a Lagos development fund.
But closer inspection tells a different story. That chart bundles together national infrastructure—federal highways, coastal transport corridors, and strategic legacy roads—and labels them “Lagos-only projects.” By that logic, the Kano–Maiduguri expressway could just as easily be called a “Maiduguri-only project.” Such sleight of hand ignores a central truth: these are not local trophies. They are the arteries of a national economy.
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When properly disaggregated, Lagos’ exclusive projects — airport fencing, Carter Bridge rehabilitation, localised upgrades—amount to about ₦1.2 trillion.
The much-touted ₦2.7 trillion are highways and transport links that pass through Lagos but serve the entire federation. In short, Lagos is not swallowing the budget. What is happening is far more important: Nigeria is being stitched together, city to city, region to region, economy to economy.
The Northwest Reality
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The real numbers paint a very different picture:
– North West: ₦5.97 trillion (over 40% of all approvals)
– South South: ₦2.41 trillion
– North Central: ₦1.13 trillion
– South East: ₦407 billion
– North East: ₦400 billion
– South West (excluding Lagos): ₦604 billion
– Lagos (exclusive projects): ₦1.2 trillion
The conclusion is inescapable. The Northwest—not Lagos—holds the lion’s share of federal projects. By every measure, it is the single largest beneficiary of President Tinubu’s approvals.
Infrastructure as National Glue, Not Constituency Trophy
This is where the debate must shift. Infrastructure should never be reduced to a regional scoreboard, as though every road is a prize to be shared
and every bridge a trophy to be flaunted. Roads, rail, and power plants are not gifts to a favoured constituency—they are the veins and lifelines of one national economy.
The farmer in Katsina needs a market in Lagos. The trader in Aba depends on goods flowing through Kano. The student in Sokoto requires the national grid as much as her counterpart in Port Harcourt. Federal projects must be understood as national investments designed to connect Nigeria to itself, and ultimately to the world.
The real prize is not the ribbon-cutting in any one location. The prize is the commerce, energy, and opportunity that flow across borders once those roads and power plants are in place.
Tinubu’s Northwest Compact
Let us speak plainly: without the Northwest, there would be no Tinubu presidency. The President knows this. He has neither forgotten nor been ungrateful.
Consider the Kaduna Power Plant (255MW) — conceived under the late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua but abandoned for years. Today, under Tinubu, it is being revived.
That plant is not merely a power project; it is a symbol of continuity, recognition, and reward for the North.
Add to this the Kaduna–Kano expressway, the Kano–Maiduguri highway, the Sokoto–Illela corridor, and unprecedented investments in education and security infrastructure.
These are not footnotes. They are the backbone of a deliberate Northwest-first investment strategy—kilometre by kilometre, megawatt by megawatt.
The Coming Beltway Transformation
And this is only the beginning. By the time the Tinubu National Beltway Project is prepared and approved—a bold L-shaped corridor connecting Calabar in the South-South to Maiduguri in the North East, and from there across to Sokoto in the North West—Nigeria’s infrastructural map will be redrawn.
This single project will bind together the South South, North Central, North East, and North West in an unbroken chain of modern highways, economic corridors, and logistics hubs. It will not only transform those regions, but also unlock a continental trade artery.
Above all, it will be the national economy and our productive citizens—farmers, traders, manufacturers, transporters—that will benefit most. With faster connectivity, reduced logistics costs, and greater market access, wealth creation will spread, and prosperity will deepen.
That is the logic of national infrastructure: not as a prize to be shared, but as a platform for shared growth.
Propaganda vs. Progress
The danger of the viral infographic is not its statistical error alone. It is the deliberate attempt to incite division: Lagos versus Kano, Southwest against Northwest,
one region’s progress pitched as another’s exclusion. That is not budgeting. That is political blackmail.
But Nigerians are wiser. The record is clear:
– Lagos remains Nigeria’s commercial hub, rightly upgraded.
– The Northwest is Nigeria’s electoral fortress, richly rewarded.
– Every region receives its due, because Tinubu budgets for one economy, one country, one people.
Beyond Rumors: A Record Written in Concrete and Kilowatts
History will not remember colorful viral graphics. It will remember the farmers in Katsina whose produce now reaches new markets, the lights in Kaduna powered by Yar’Adua’s plant, revived by Tinubu, and the schools and hospitals rising across Sokoto and Zamfara.
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has not marginalized the North. He has trusted it, invested in it, and rewarded it.
That is the record. That is the fact. That is the truth.
And no infographic, however deceptive, can bury it.
Tanimu Yakubu is the director-general, Budget Office of the Federation.
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