Tinubu didn’t neglect North, Presidency slams Kwankwaso

The Presidency has refuted allegations by the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) presidential candidate in the 2023 election, Rabiu Kwankwaso, that the North has been neglected under President Bola Tinubu’s administration.

Kwankwaso, a former governor of Kano State, had said national resources were increasingly tilted towards the southern region, resulting in deepening poverty and insecurity across the northern region of Nigeria.

The former governor, while speaking at a stakeholders’ dialogue on the 2025 constitutional amendment in Kano on Thursday, July 24, 2025, lamented the deplorable condition of federal roads in the northern states.

Kwankwaso recalled how a cancelled flight forced him to travel by road from Abuja to Kano via Kaduna, describing the journey as “hell” over the bad state of the federal highway.

Reacting to the allegations on Friday, the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Public Communication, Sunday Dare, said several critical projects and programmes are being executed in the North.

“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 stated.

Kwankwaso accuses Tinubu’s govt of neglecting northern Nigeria

Dare also listed many infrastructure, health, energy, and agricultural projects being implemented across the northern region.

The presidential aide, in a post on X, listed the projects to include Kano–Kongolam Road (Section II: Kano–Kanwar–Danja–Hadejia); Yakasai–Zalli Road; 1,068 km Sokoto-Badagry Super Highway (Northern section including Sokoto and Kebbi); Ajaokuta–Kaduna–Kano Gas Pipeline (AKK) (614 km); and Gwagwalada Power Plant (FCT, Abuja – connected with AKK pipeline)

Others are Ahmadu Bello University Teaching Hospital, Zaria, Kaduna (North West); Federal Teaching Hospital, Katsina (North West); University of Jos Teaching Hospital, Jos, Plateau (North Central); Reference Hospital, Kaduna (North West); Usmanu Danfodiyo University Teaching Hospital, Sokoto (North West); Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University Teaching Hospital, Bauchi (North East); Harmony Advanced Diagnostic Centre Complex, Ilorin, Kwara (North Central); Federal Medical Centre, Nguru, Yobe (North East); and the reinvigoration of about 1,000 Primary Health Centres in the North.

The Star