The pan-Yoruba socio-political organisation, Afenifere, on Friday berated the 2023 presidential candidate of the New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP), Senator Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, over the claim that President Bola Tinubu’s administration has sidelined the north by concentrating the country’s resources in the southern part.
According to the organisation, Kwankwaso’s alarmist rhetoric is not only unfair but also deeply dangerous, as it stokes regional tension and paints a false picture of deliberate southern favouritism.
Kwankwaso, a former Kano State governor, had alleged during a stakeholders’ dialogue on the 2025 constitutional amendment in Kano that the North was being sidelined in terms of federal projects and development priorities.
While disclosing that development is a gradual process, Afenifere, in a statement issued by its National Organising Secretary, Otunba Kole Omololu, and made available to The Guardian on Friday evening, stated that Tinubu has not yet reached the halfway mark of his term.
Afenifere described the position of Kwankwaso as misleading and deliberately incendiary, maintaining that the northern part of the country has benefited more from concentrated federal presence in the past decade.
The statement read in part, “Senator Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso’s recent outburst, alleging that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s administration is marginalising the North and concentrating national resources in the South, is not only grossly misleading but also deliberately incendiary.
“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 on which the senator travelled was not made heaven; the Lagos-Ibadan Motorway, 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.”
Afenifere further stated that “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, the 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 of naira 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. We must rise above ethnic saboteurs and sectional agitators masquerading as patriots. Let statesmen, not ethnic lords, shape the conversation,” the organisation said.
