The Presidency yesterday punctured the position of former Governor of Kano State and leader of the New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP), Senator Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, that the current administration has concentrated development in the southern part of the country.
Presidential spokesperson, Sunday Dare, who reacted on behalf of the government, said nothing could be far from the truth as the assertion of Kwankwaso was a blatant lie.
Also yesterday, the Afenifere, Yoruba socio-political organisation lampooned Kwankwaso over his recent outburst.
Dare, in his verified X handle told the ex-governor of Kano State pointedly that both the southern and northern parts of Nigeria are equally being developed by the two-year-old administration of President Bola Tinubu.
He wrote: “Senator Kwankwaso, you are wrong. North not neglected. President Tinubu has the North covered. Northern Nigeria not left behind.”
Dare gave some samples/evidence of the federal government’s projects across northern Nigeria under Tinubu’s administration.
The presidential media aide said, for starters under Tinubu, three expressways, namely Abuja-Kaduna-Kano Expressway,
Sokoto-Badagry Expressway and Sokoto-Zamfara-Katsina Expressway are currently being reconstructed.
For the other 43 projects in the northern Nigeria, Dare listed them to include:
Agriculture – $158.15 million Agriculture Value Chain (VCN) Programme for nine Northern states; Kolmani Integrated Development Project (Bauchi and Gombe States); Agro-Climatic Resilience in Semi-Arid Landscapes (ACReSAL) — a six-year World Bank–funded programme to restore one million hectares of degraded land and improve climate resilience in Northern Nigeria states; and Kano River Project (irrigation scheme) — large-scale integrated irrigation development in Kano State, commissioned in 2023 and operational under the current administration.