The recent two-day summit of some elected office holders and appointees of the federal government of Northern extraction on the platform of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), with some northern groups, comprising Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) and the Northern Elders Forum (NEF), provided an opportunity for prominent persons to assess the footprints of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, especially as it affects the North. The event, which took place at the Arewa House, Kaduna, with the theme, ‘Accessing Electoral Promises; Fostering Government-Citizen Engagement for National Unity’, also attracted the presence of the Northern Governors Forum (NGF), led by its chairman, Governor Muhammadu Inuwa Yahaya of Gombe state, and the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Senator George Akume, who defended the present administration’s commitment to the region.
Senator Akume, who led top officials of the federal government to the summit, declared that major infrastructure projects such as the Sokoto-Badagry superhighway, the ongoing Kano-Maradi and Port Harcourt-Maiduguri rail lines, with substantive investments in agriculture and security, was proof that President Tinubu has left no stone unturned to improve the lives of the Northern people. He said: “President Tinubu had promised impartiality in governance and a commitment to remodelling our economy, improving security, accelerating infrastructure, job creation and revitalising agriculture”.
Governor Yahaya hailed the government for making progress under the ‘Renewed Hope Agenda’, stressing that, despite prevailing challenges, the president has recorded “meaningful results”. Yahaya identified landmark projects benefiting the North like the near-completion of the Abuja-Kaduna-Kano Expressway, the revival of the Kaduna Refinery, the construction of the Kano-Katsina-Maradi rail line, operations at the Kolmani Oilfield, among others.
The summit was initially convened to provide a platform for citizen-government engagement, but it turned into a critical assessment of the administration as some speakers at the event accused the president of grossly neglecting the region. The first to fire the salvo was the ACF Board of Trustees Chairman, Alhaji Bashir M. Dalhatu. He lamented the crippling despair that has impoverished citizens and made life difficult for those living in the economic fringes. The ACF chairman noted that it was “self-evident that President Tinubu’s budget priorities, infrastructural projects, appointments and other executive actions have, over the last two years, largely sidelined Northern Nigeria. As far as we can see, little is being done to address the major issues of concern to the North”.
Dalhatu not only harped on the need to develop the agriculture sector, but also criticised federal allocations of less than five percent, far below the 25 percent recommended internationally, for the region that contributes more than 75 percent of Nigeria’s landmass and 95 percent of its livestock. He called for renewed attention to education, especially in the aspect of funding compulsory schooling to address the 20 million out-of-school children in Nigeria of which 80 percent resides in the North.
The chairman of NEF, Professor Ango Abdullahi, emphasised the need to place premium on education, as well as develop infrastructure in the North. The former vice chancellor of the Ahmadu Bello University bemoaned the disproportionate share of the country’s estimated 20 million out-of-school children to the North as reflective of the structural failure bedeviling the region. “If even half of the N15 trillion federal budget were channelled into education, we could build schools, train teachers, and drastically cut down the out-of-school population”, he noted.
Taking into cognisance the mid-term performance of the president, there’s no cause for alarm over the perceived apprehension that the North has been neglected by the Tinubu government. There is no basis in the accusation that Tinubu is biased towards the region that massively supported him in 2023. Of course, certain decisions, especially the removal of fuel subsidies, may have thrown up some economic hardship, it must be noted that it was done to free funds, and this has availed the three tiers of government with more funds. The states and local governments are now receiving almost triple the sum that were previously allocated to them.
States like Borno and Kaduna, among others, that were gradually turning into red zones of banditry and other criminal activities, are now breathing fresh air of safety. Though safety is now returning to states that were hitherto under siege, there are still parts of the North where these terror elements are yet to be completely neutralised. We commend President Tinubu for his focus in tackling the myriad of problems plaguing not only the North but Nigeria generally. Blueprint is of the view that the years ahead hold bigger promises and all hands should be on deck to collaborate and develop the nation.