Presidency rebuts Kwankwaso, insists Tinubu hasn’t neglected the North
By Jeffrey Agbo
The Presidency has refuted remarks by Senator Rabiu Kwankwaso, the 2023 presidential flagbearer of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), suggesting that President Bola Tinubu’s administration has sidelined Northern Nigeria.
In a statement issued on Friday via his X handle, Sunday Dare, Special Adviser to the President on Media and Public Communication, pushed back on Kwankwaso’s allegations, citing an array of major infrastructure and development initiatives currently ongoing in the region.
Kwankwaso, during a stakeholders’ meeting on the 2025 constitutional amendment held in Kano on Thursday, decried what he described as a growing imbalance in national resource allocation, claiming it favoured the South at the expense of the North. He pointed to worsening poverty and insecurity in the region and criticised the poor state of federal roads, recounting a grueling road trip from Abuja to Kano due to a cancelled flight.
“The claim that Northern Nigeria has been left behind is incorrect. The Tinubu administration has initiated and continued several landmark projects in the North, covering roads, agriculture, healthcare, and energy,” Dare said.
To support the government’s position, Dare highlighted several ongoing projects, including the Abuja–Kaduna–Kano Expressway, Sokoto–Badagry Super Highway, and the Ajaokuta–Kaduna–Kano Gas Pipeline.
He further cited a $158.15 million Agriculture Value Chain initiative in nine Northern states, the Kolmani Integrated Development Project in Bauchi and Gombe, and the ACReSAL programme targeting the restoration of one million hectares of degraded land.
On healthcare, he listed facility upgrades at Ahmadu Bello University Teaching Hospital in Zaria, University of Jos Teaching Hospital, and the Federal Medical Centre, Nguru, alongside the revitalisation of roughly 1,000 primary healthcare centres.
Other infrastructure efforts, he said, include the Kano–Kongolam Road, Kaduna–Jos Road, and the Kano–Maiduguri Dual Carriageway, as well as the rehabilitation of major routes in Borno and Adamawa.
In the energy sector, Dare mentioned ongoing work on the 614 km gas pipeline from Ajaokuta to Kano, the Gwagwalada Power Plant, and planned solar energy installations in Kaduna. Rail projects listed include the Kaduna–Kano and Kano–Maradi lines, as well as the rehabilitation of the Abuja Metro.
“Northern Nigeria is not left behind. From road networks to gas pipelines, agriculture, health, and rail, this administration has the North well covered,” he stressed.
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