• Kwankwaso: “Tinubu is Starving North of Development, Prioritizing South”
• Presidency to Kwankwaso: “You lied, Tinubu has done a lot in Northern Nigeria”
By Abiola Olawale
A heated exchange has erupted between the Presidency and Senator Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, the 2023 presidential candidate of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), following allegations that President Bola Tinubu’s administration is sidelining Northern Nigeria in favor of the South.
The war of words was sparked by Kwankwaso’s remarks during a stakeholders’ dialogue in Kano.
Speaking at the Kano State Stakeholders’ Dialogue on the 2025 Constitutional Amendment on Thursday, July 24, 2025, Kwankwaso had accused the Tinubu-led government of prioritizing Southern development while neglecting the North.
He claimed that the national budget is disproportionately skewed, exacerbating poverty and insecurity in Northern states.
He said: “Let me advise the Federal Government on the distribution of federal resources.
“From the information available to us, it’s like most of the national budget is now tilting in one direction in this country.
“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.”
However, the Presidency swiftly rejected Kwankwaso’s claims, labeling them “inaccurate and misleading.”
In a statement on Friday, July 25, 2025, Special Adviser to the President on Media and Public Communication, Sunday Dare, asserted that Northern Nigeria remains a priority for the Tinubu administration.
He cited ongoing mega road projects such as the Abuja-Kaduna-Kano Expressway, Sokoto-Badagry Expressway, and the Sokoto-Zamfara-Katsina Road, among others.
On agriculture, Dare highlighted the $158.15 million Agriculture Value Chain Programme covering nine northern states, the Kolmani Integrated Development Project in Bauchi and Gombe, and the Agro-Climatic Resilience in Semi-Arid Landscapes (ACReSAL), a World Bank–funded scheme aimed at restoring over one million hectares of degraded land.
He also pointed to investments in healthcare, including the Ahmadu Bello University Teaching Hospital in Zaria, Federal Teaching Hospital Katsina, University of Jos Teaching Hospital, and over 1,000 primary healthcare centres rehabilitated across the North.
Dare also outlined investments in energy and transport infrastructure.
These include the 614-kilometre Ajaokuta–Kaduna–Kano Gas Pipeline, the Gwagwalada Power Plant in the FCT, and the planned ABIBA Solar Power Station in Kaduna.
On rail and urban mobility, he referenced the Kaduna–Kano rail line, the Kano–Maradi rail line, and the ₦100 billion Kaduna Light Rail project, as well as the rehabilitation of the Abuja metroline.
