- Lawal said Kwankwaso’s engineering background made him spot lack of physical development easily across northern Nigeria.
- He alleged Tinubu’s government is deliberately undoing progress inherited in the region’s infrastructure.
Former secretary to the government of the federation (SGF), Babachir Lawal, has supported Rabiu Kwankwaso’s claims that President Bola Tinubu is marginalising the north in infrastructure development.
Speaking on Sunday Politics, a current affairs programme on Trust TV, Lawal said there is no tangible federal project in the region.
“Every Nigerian that has anything to do with the north will know that no infrastructure work is going on at any level,” he said.
“No projects are going on — at least they are not visible to the eye. Maybe in their imagination, maybe in the spirit — but we don’t see it.
“We don’t see any construction work. We don’t see any infrastructure going on. No federal government project whatsoever.”
Lawal said Kwankwaso’s assertion was accurate, noting that as engineers, they both view physical development differently from others.
“Kwankwaso, remember, is an engineer too — so he, like me, like David Umahi who’s an engineer too, the way we see things — physical things — the way we see them differently,” he said.
“So, Kwankwaso knows what he’s talking about. And it doesn’t need to be Kwankwaso to say what he said. Every sensible, honest Nigerian will know that the north is being marginalised.”
He alleged that the federal government appears intent on reversing the progress recorded in the region.
“I believe the sense we get as northerners is that if this government can destroy what they inherited, they’ll willingly do it. That’s the sense we have from this government,” he said.
Lawal questioned the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC)’s electoral chances in the north, arguing that the party has lost its appeal.
“I mean, look at it this way — which elected official, a northerner, will go into the campaign on the platform of the APC in this coming election?” he asked.
“Nobody. Except, ab initio, you have no plan to win the election. Unless they join ADC, they will not win — simply because they belong to the destructive party.”
He accused the Tinubu administration of working against the interest of the north.
“Everything that this government does is designed to destroy the north,” Lawal claimed.
His comments come after Kwankwaso accused the Tinubu government of concentrating development in one region to the detriment of others.
But the minister of works, David Umahi, dismissed the allegation, describing it as “misleading and unfair to the president”.
Umahi said 52 per cent of Tinubu’s major road projects lie within the north, including a 756-kilometre section of the Sokoto–Badagry superhighway.
Also defending the government, presidential media aide, Sunday Dare, said over 40 key projects are ongoing or sustained across northern states.
He said the accusations are politically motivated.
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