* Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso
The Pathfinder
Saturday July 26, 2025
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Former Kano State governor, Rabiu Kwankwaso, has criticised the President Bola Tinubu administration for what he described as the neglect of the northern region of Nigeria and the concentration of the nation’s resources on developing the southern part of the country where the president comes from.
But Kwankwaso’s claims have been faulted by the Presidency, asserting that Kwankwaso’s claims did not align with “facts” on the ground.
The Special Adviser on Media and Communication to President Bola Tinubu, Mr. Sunday Dare, said the Northern part of the country has never been neglected by the Federal Government.
Kwankwaso, a former Defence Minister stated further, “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.”
Kwankwaso, the 2023 presidential candidate of the New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP), accused the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) of lopsided allocation of scarce resources between the two regions of the country.
He said, “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.”
Kwankwaso 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 3pm to 8pm. 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.”
He urged the Tinubu administration to change for the better and ensure the equitable distribution of scarce resources for the development of all parts of the country.
“This is the time for the government to change, to convince our people that the government is not just on one side of the country,” he said.
Presidency reacts
The Special Adviser on Media and Communication to President Bola Tinubu, Mr. Sunday Dare, has faulted claims that the Northern part of the country has been neglected by the Federal Government.
In a post on his X (formerly Twitter) account on Friday, Dare addressed Kwankwaso, a former governor of Kano State, on the matter.
He said ”PRESIDENT TINUBU HAS THE NORTH COVERED. NORTHERN NIGERIA NOT LEFT BEHIND.”
He went on to list over 40 projects and programmes across sectors, which he said the Tinubu-led administration had initiated or sustained in Northern Nigeria within two years.
According to Dare, several road projects had been executed under the president, including the Abuja–Kaduna–Zaria–Kano expressway, Sokoto–Badagry expressway, and the Sokoto–Zamfara–Katsina route.
In the agricultural sector, he cited the $158.15 million Value Chain North (VCN) programme covering nine states, the Kolmani Integrated Development Project in Bauchi and Gombe, and the World Bank–funded ACReSAL climate resilience initiative.
“The large-scale irrigation development through the Kano River Project was commissioned in 2023 and remains operational,” Dare added.
The presidential aide also listed over a dozen health institutions either revitalised or expanded under the Tinubu government, including Ahmadu Bello University Teaching Hospital in Zaria, Jos University Teaching Hospital, and over 1,000 primary health centres across the region.
On road infrastructure, Dare highlighted 33 highway projects, such as the Kano–Kongolam road, the expansion of Mararaba–Keffi road, and reconstruction efforts on strategic corridors like Dikwa–Gamboru–Ngala in Borno state.
He noted that the Ajaokuta–Kaduna–Kano gas pipeline (614 km) and the Gwagwalada Power Plant have positioned the North as a key energy hub, while also pointing to solar and renewable energy efforts in Kaduna.
On rail transport, he said this had also not been left out, with the ongoing Kaduna–Kano and Kano–Maradi rail projects, as well as a N100 billion budgeted Kaduna Light Rail system.
Dare added that Abuja’s metro line was undergoing rehabilitation as part of the administration’s investment in transport infrastructure.
On regional integration and trade, Dare mentioned the Trans-Sahara trade corridor and the revitalisation of national institutions such as the Great Green Wall agency and the erosion control agency (NEWMAP).
“All of these in only two years by President Tinubu,” Dare stated.
He went ahead to list other development projects the Tinubu-led government had embarked upon in the Northern region.
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