One aspect of President Bola Tinubu’s government that is strikingly and eerily similar to that of his predecessor, former President Muhammadu Buhari, is the concentration of key appointments and important positions in their region. Tinubu even outdid his predecessor in this regard by manning key and plum positions in the country with his associates from his Lagos inner circle.
Recently, Tinubu has come under attack for his skewed and lopsided distribution of infrastructural projects in the country. He is accused of allocating projects worth trillions of naira to Lagos at the expense of other states and regions in the country. The loudest and most vocal voices in pointing out this conspicuous disequilibrium and marginalisation are from the North West, a region deemed to be electorally valuable to the re-election of the president. These voices have threatened to work against Tinubu’s victory in 2027 as payback for his unfair treatment of the region.
The threat of losing re-election is all that is needed to get the attention of Tinubu. His spokesperson swung into action to dispel claims of uneven development and marginalisation against the North West by Tinubu’s government. But these rebuttals have not done much to dispel the allegation of favouritism and unfairness, as they fall apart in the face of the slightest scrutiny.
On Monday, the president, on his social media pages, made a post reaffirming his commitment “to serve all Nigerians, not a section”. The post was accompanied by a graphic or digital leaflet detailing the distribution of projects in the country. One thing that sticks out like a sore thumb from this graphic is the total exclusion of Lagos from the details of project distribution in the country.
A Daily Trust report showed that over three trillion naira was earmarked for projects in Lagos alone. A presidential spokesperson, Daniel Bwala, said Lagos was not included because it was a no-man’s land.
In the north west, where the cry of marginalisation has been loudest, the claims of the Federal Government regarding the projects in the region are filled with half-truths and lies.
The Presidency’s claim regarding the Abuja-Kaduna-Kano expressway is false. The total length of the road is 420km from Zuba to Kano, not 350km as it claims.
The Buhari government has almost finished the Kano to Kaduna, which is 240km (and part of Kaduna to Abuja). This leaves one with the remaining Kaduna to Abuja section, which is 180km in total, so how did you get 350km? And the total sum for the completion awarded to Infoquest is N250 Billion, so one wonders how N764 Billion is published as the amount allocated comes from?
Kano to Daura is the BUA tax credit scheme, and since the Tinubu administration assumed office in 2023, that project has stopped. The government also claimed that Zaria to Hunkuyi is 156km, which is false. The actual distance between the two towns is 37.8km. Our findings also showed that the route from Kaduna to Katsina does not exist, and Zaria to Hunkuyi is likely listed again under another name.
There is also nothing to show that the Kano Northern bypass project has commenced or even exists. It is the same with Sokoto to Badagry. There are no proofs, pictorial or video, to show that the project has commenced or is being funded.
South East.
In the South East, the government disclosed that it is also funding the Enugu-Onitsha road. However, this project is not being executed or funded by the federal government. The construction of the road is being executed by the telecommunications giant, MTN, under the federal government tax credit scheme. The federal government in 2022 offered Tax Credits, MTN accepted and chose the Onitsha road. The road was not handed to MTN to fix by the government, and in particular this administration.
Hence, one wonders why that same road is now listed by the Presidency as a project embarked on and funded by this administration in response to an accusation of skewed distribution of resources. The right thing to do is to list projects this administration has done in the South East and other regions.
In its bid to debunk claims of favouritism in the allocation of resources, the federal government has shot itself in the foot and exposed its chauvinism. Lagos alone gets ₦3.9 trillion in projects more than South South-South, South West and North Central combined.
Discussion about this post