By Soni Daniel, North Regional Editor, Anayo Okoli, Sam Oyadongha, Peter Duru & Ibrahim Hassan-Wuyo
ABUJA — President Bola Tinubu has mentioned his administration will guarantee equitable improvement of all areas of the nation with no space left behind.
He gave the reassurance, yesterday, in Kaduna at a two-day interactive session on government-citizens’ engagement organised by the Sir Ahmadu Bello Memorial Basis.
He mentioned the ministers’ interactions with stakeholders on the occasion will unveil empirical info and figures that the North was not uncared for.
Tinubu, represented by the Secretary to the Authorities of the Federation, SGF, Senator George Akume, highlighted key achievements below the Renewed Hope Agenda, together with interventions in financial reforms, training, well being, safety, infrastructure and meals safety.
Northern governors and Nationwide Safety Adviser, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, concurred with the President, with the governors reaffirming assist for Tinubu, and Ribadu saying that Boko Haram and bandits’ assaults have declined below Tinubu’s watch.
Former SGF, Babachir Lawal, and chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Arewa Consultative Discussion board, ACF, Alhaji Bashir M. Dalhatu, echoed Dr. Rabiu Kwankwaso’s criticism of President Tinubu’s administration, alleging deliberate neglect of Northern Nigeria when it comes to infrastructural improvement.
How I’m growing Nigeria – Tinubu
On financial reforms, the president mentioned his administration had applied daring reforms to stabilise and develop the financial system, together with unifying the alternate price and restructuring debt profiles.
Tinubu burdened that investments had been made in modernising safety gear and up-skilling personnel.
He listed main tasks to incorporate the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Freeway, the Sokoto-Badagry super-highway, ongoing rail tasks (Kano-Maradi, Port Harcourt-Maiduguri), and housing initiatives.
Tinubu additionally highlighted the Renewed Hope Agenda’s priorities to incorporate reforming the financial system for sustained progress, strengthening nationwide safety, boosting agriculture for meals safety, unlocking power and pure assets, and enhancing infrastructure and transportation.
Others are specializing in training, well being, and social funding, accelerating diversification via industrialisation and innovation in addition to bettering governance for efficient service supply.
“The elimination of gasoline subsidy, although painful, has been a essential reform that saved trillions of Naira.
“The Palliative Measures Plan and interventions via state governments, MSME assist, and public transportation upgrades are mitigating the impacts.
“The financial savings are actually being redirected into important infrastructure and human improvement, whereas states are receiving elevated allocations for improvement,” Tinubu mentioned.
Govt-citizens engagement
Reflecting on the theme of the occasion, ‘Assessing Electoral Guarantees: Fostering Authorities-Citizen Engagement for Nationwide Growth,’ he mentioned the Renewed Hope Agenda has been a practical imaginative and prescient constructed on pillars of excellent governance.
They embody transparency, accountability, participation, responsiveness, fairness, rule of regulation, and inclusivity, going past only a marketing campaign slogan.
His phrases: “The financial reform methods are designed to create a sturdy, diversified, and resilient financial system.
“By fostering an surroundings conducive to funding and innovation, the administration goals to stimulate progress throughout all sectors, cut back unemployment, and guarantee equitable wealth distribution.
“Safety is the bedrock of nationwide improvement.
“The main focus right here is on enhancing the capabilities of our safety forces, selling peace and stability, and making certain that each Nigerian feels protected and guarded, regardless of the place they reside.
“Agriculture holds the important thing to our nation’s self-sufficiency and financial empowerment.”
In response to Tinubu, that is by modernising farming practices, growing entry to finance, and increasing market alternatives for farmers.
“This administration locations Nigeria on a path to attaining meals safety and reworking our nation into an agricultural powerhouse. By reforms, the federal government is unlocking the potential of Nigeria’s huge pure assets and power sector.
“By sustainable administration, elevated investments, and the adoption of contemporary applied sciences, the objective stays to drive financial progress and guarantee environmental sustainability,” the president added.
In response to him, over 400,000 college students in tertiary establishments had to this point benefitted from the College students’ Mortgage Programme, whereas an estimated N53 billion had been disbursed.
He additionally highlighted the significance of endurance and collective efforts in attaining the agenda’s objectives.
Tinubu extolled the virtues of the late Premier of Northern Nigeria, Sir Ahmadu Bello, describing him as an exceptional being who promoted nationwide cohesion and unity in Nigeria.
He additionally saluted the braveness, sincerity, and patriotism of different leaders akin to Chief Solomon Lar, Mallam Adamu Ciroma, Shehu Dan Musa, Abubakar Rimi, Prof. Suleman Kumo, Issac Shaahu, Prof. Jerry Gana, and others.
Northern govs reaffirm assist for Tinubu
Talking on the occasion, Governor Muhammadu Yahaya of Gombe State and chairman of the Northern States Governors Discussion board, reaffirmed the area’s dedication to the administration of President Tinubu, citing important strides in infrastructure, safety, and financial reform.
Governor Yahaya, who made the opening remarks, mentioned the gathering was not about empty rhetoric however a possibility to critically study the efficiency of the Federal Authorities, notably in relation to guarantees made throughout the 2023 marketing campaign.
“When candidate Bola Tinubu stood earlier than us, he made particular commitments to Northern Nigeria. The North believed in his imaginative and prescient and delivered over 60% of the votes that introduced him to energy,” he famous.
In response to him, the area is already seeing the dividends of that political alliance. He listed a number of key tasks below implementation, together with the Abuja-Kaduna-Kano Expressway, the Kano-Katsina-Maradi rail line, rehabilitation of the Kaduna Refinery, the Abuja-Kaduna-Kano Gasoline Pipeline, and continued oil drilling on the Kolmani Oilfields.
“These tasks are proof that when residents have interaction and leaders stay dedicated, democracy works. The Renewed Hope Agenda is starting to yield tangible outcomes,” he added.
Governor Yahaya additional highlighted rising infrastructure tasks such because the proposed Sokoto-Badagry Tremendous-highway, enhancements in inter-state street networks, agriculture worth chain initiatives, and healthcare upgrades. He emphasised that these mirror a transparent coverage concentrate on uplifting the North’s financial and social panorama.
On safety, he mentioned over 300 bandit and terrorist commanders have been eradicated in current months via improved army coordination and intelligence efforts, asserting that “whereas challenges stay, the siege on our folks is being lifted.”
He additionally recommended the creation of the Ministry of Livestock Growth as a strategic transfer to modernize the pastoral financial system and resolve long-standing herder-farmer conflicts. On youth and training, he praised the Federal Authorities’s interventions, notably grants and renewed efforts to deal with the Almajirai and out-of-school kids downside via partnerships with state governments and conventional establishments.
Addressing the financial reforms launched by the Tinubu administration—together with gasoline subsidy elimination and alternate price liberalization—Governor Yahaya acknowledged the hardship confronted by residents, however defended the selections as “painful however essential steps” in direction of long-term financial stability.
To maintain the features recorded to this point, he known as on all stakeholders within the North — governors, conventional rulers, non secular leaders, enterprise leaders, and civil society—to enrich federal efforts with sturdy native initiatives in infrastructure, training, and social improvement.
He urged the viewers to guage the administration’s efficiency pretty, particularly within the build-up to the 2027 normal elections. “By the measure of efficiency and supply, President Tinubu has earned our continued assist,” he declared.
Boko Haram, bandit assaults down below Tinubu — NSA Ribadu
Additionally talking, Ribadu, has mentioned that incidents of Boko Haram assaults, banditry, and communal violence within the northern area have considerably lowered below President Tinubu’s administration, in comparison with the earlier authorities.
Ribadu attributed the decline to Tinubu’s directive for a unified method to nationwide safety, saying: “Kaduna State alone recorded 1,192 killings and over 3,348 kidnappings below the earlier administration. In Benue, over 5,000 folks misplaced their lives inside the similar interval.”
He disclosed that ongoing army operations within the North-West have resulted within the rescue of 11,259 hostages as of Might 2025, and that a number of infamous bandit leaders and their teams have been neutralised in Zamfara, Kaduna, and Katsina states.
The NSA praised Kaduna State Governor, Uba Sani, for adopting a non-kinetic technique to handle unrest in Southern Kaduna, Birnin Gwari, and different flashpoints, describing the method as “commendable and impactful.”
North marginalised below Tinubu — Dalhatu, ACF chair
Nonetheless, chairman of the ACF BOT, Alhaji Bashir M. Dalhatu, expressed deep issues over what he described as rising marginalisation of Northern Nigeria below the administration of President Tinubu.
Talking on the high-level interactive session between Northern civil society teams and senior officers of the Federal Authorities in Kaduna, Dalhatu recalled the area’s sturdy electoral assist for President Tinubu, contributing over 64% of his complete votes within the 2023 presidential election.
“Regardless of our assist and goodwill, the sensation within the North is, to place it mildly, utterly combined. Key infrastructural tasks, budgetary allocations, appointments, and coverage selections have largely sidelined Northern Nigeria,” Dalhatu mentioned.
He cited important areas of neglect together with insecurity, agriculture, transport infrastructure, energy provide, training, healthcare, and the abandonment of strategic tasks just like the Ajaokuta Metal Plant and Kolmani oil exploration.
On insecurity, he decried the rising wave of terrorism, banditry, and kidnappings, urging the President to take “sturdy, audacious and sustained” motion, particularly by addressing root causes like youth unemployment and poverty.
Turning to federal infrastructure, he identified that out of ¦ 1.013 trillion allotted to roads in 2025, solely ¦ 24 billion went to the North-East. “Not a single strategic street has been accomplished or maintained within the North prior to now 20 years,” he mentioned, itemizing over a dozen important freeway routes lengthy uncared for.
On energy provide, the ACF chair known as for a state of emergency within the sector and demanded fast-tracking of stalled tasks just like the Mambilla Hydro Dam and the Abuja-Kaduna-Kano gasoline pipeline, saying the North’s financial system can not develop with out dependable electrical energy.
Dalhatu additionally urged the relaunch of the UBE scheme, mass trainer coaching, and obligatory free fundamental training to deal with the North’s training disaster, the place over 80% of Nigeria’s 20 million out-of-school kids reside.
He expressed disappointment over the Federal Authorities’s “meagre” dedication to the Ajaokuta Metal Mission, regardless of earlier guarantees, and warned that the push for public-private partnerships could derail the undertaking’s industrial promise.
His speech additionally criticised perceived budgetary discrimination, pointing to a Might 2025 Ministry of Works launch exhibiting allocations of ¦ 1.394 trillion to the South-West, in comparison with ¦ 105 billion for the North-West and ¦ 30 billion for the North-East.
He concluded by calling for improved communication between the Federal Authorities and the North, recommending that the interactive session evolve right into a standing ACF-FGN Contact Committee as earlier advised by President Tinubu.
Kwankwaso is correct, Tinubu marginalising North — Babachir Lawal
Nonetheless, in an interview on Sunday Politics, a present affairs programme on Belief TV, former SGF, David Babachir Lawal said that there’s a lack of tangible federal tasks within the North.
“Each Nigerian that has something to do with the North will know that no infrastructure work is happening at any degree. No tasks are occurring — no less than they don’t seem to be seen to the attention. Perhaps of their creativeness, perhaps within the spirit — however we don’t see it.
“We don’t see any development work. We don’t see any infrastructure occurring. No Federal Authorities undertaking in any way,” Babachir Lawal mentioned and defended Dr Musa Kwankwaso’s earlier assertions about neglect.
He famous that each he and the previous Kano governor share a technical background that makes them attentive to bodily improvement.
“Kwankwaso, bear in mind, is an engineer too—so he, like me, like David Umahi, who’s an engineer too, the way in which we see issues — bodily issues— we see them otherwise,” he mentioned.
“So, Kwankwaso is aware of what he’s speaking about. And it doesn’t have to be Kwankwaso to say what he mentioned. Each wise, trustworthy Nigerian will know that the North is being marginalised.”
Actual devt must be premised on restructuring – Ohanaeze
To apex Igbo socio-cultural organisation, Ohanaeze Ndigbo, “genuine improvement must be premised on restructuring, present system has made all people Abuja dependent.”
Nationwide Publicity Secretary of Ohanaeze, Dr Ezechi Chukwu, mentioned: “We must revisit our basis as a nation to make sure a polity which stimulates business and financial vibrancy of the federating items, relatively than dependence on month-to-month federal allocation.
That is the rationale for our clamour to restructure the established order. If the foundations will not be sturdy, the event could be fragile.”
Niger-Delta’s maltreated – PANDEF
Reacting, Nationwide Spokesman of the Pan-Niger-Delta Discussion board, PANDEF, Obiuwevbi Ominimini, mentioned the area which over time has been the mainstay of the nation financial system has not been handled pretty.
His phrases: “Frankly talking, PANDEF shall be very completely happy if the South-South geopolitical zone could be given honest therapy like the opposite areas. For instance, the variety of ministers from the South-West far outnumbered the ministers from the South-South geopolitical zone. That is among the areas we wish Mr. President to right if he says all areas might be handled equally.
“Secondly, our kids will not be given beneficial employment in federal parastatals and ministries akin to Customs, Immigration and even within the army, within the Nigeria Defence Academy we don’t have a commensurate variety of folks in all these areas in comparison with different geopolitical zones. So, we wish Mr. President to right this. We additionally need the Niger-Delta to be related to the Federal capital territory with prepare providers. The one prepare line that comes from the Niger Delta from Ujewu resulted in Itakpe.
“In reality, in case you get to the NNPC, folks converse Hausa there as if you’re in a neighborhood Hausa neighborhood as a result of the NNPC has been flooded with Northerners as towards the Niger-Delta that produce the oil and gasoline.
“Additionally, the one street we’ve within the Niger Delta- the East-West street, our folks can not journey from Benin to Warri- Ughelli-Yenagoa -Port Harcourt and to Uyo and Calabar-Itu street is unhealthy. We can not journey simply. We aren’t speaking of different federal roads which are so dilapidated. It’s a disgrace that for 2 years of this administration the East-West street has not been fastened.”
Pledge of equitable devt throughout Nigeria, promise from election in search of politicians – MBF
Equally, the Center Belt Discussion board, MBF, mentioned President Tinubu’s promise to make sure equitable improvement of all areas of the nation may very well be a promise from one in search of re-election.
The President of the MBF, Dr. Bitrus Pogu, identified that the promise won’t be possible, given the present state of the nation’s financial system.
He mentioned: “Anyone who desires to be elected into workplace would at all times say such issues to persuade the citizens due to his aspiration to get elected.
“However whether or not he understands fairness and equitable is one other factor. And whether or not he’s additionally going to do it’s one other factor altogether.
“Our prayers are that he does it. However with the type of financial system we’re having below his administration, it’s uncertain. Although we’re seeing some magic within the FCT, how I want he can even translate that magic to different elements of the nation, outdoors the FCT.
“We solely can pray for him that the financial system will be capable of maintain what he says he would do. We want him properly.”
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