Afenifere to Kwankwaso: Your claim of northern neglect under Tinubu is incendiary

Afenifere, the Yoruba socio-cultural and political group under the leadership of Reuben Fasoranti, has dismissed Rabiu Kwankwaso’s claim that President Bola Tinubu is marginalising the north.

On Thursday, Kwankwaso, presidential candidate of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) in 2023, accused the federal government of concentrating resources in one part of the country while neglecting other regions.

The former governor of Kano state also alleged that mismanagement of resources at the national, state, and local levels has worsened poverty and insecurity, especially in the north.

Reacting in a statement on Friday, Abagun Omololu, national organising secretary of the Fasoranti-led faction of Afenifere, described the claim as “grossly misleading” and “deliberately incendiary”.

Omololu said it is unfortunate that Kwankwaso, a former governor and minister, would make such comments without regard for facts.

He said the north “enjoyed significant federal attention under the late former President Muhammadu Buhari,” which Kwankwaso “has conveniently ignored”.

“No region in Nigeria has received more federal presence in the last decade than the north,” he said.

Omololu cited the Kano-Maradi railway project that extended into the Republic of Niger as an example of Buhari’s “skewed infrastructure”.

“Was that project meant for national integration or to aid cross-border movement of Fulani kinsmen?” he asked.

He said major road projects have already been awarded in the north, including “the dualisation of the Kano-Maiduguri road, Sokoto-Tambuwal-Jega road, and the Abuja-Keffi-Lafia corridor”.

“The Ajaokuta-Kaduna-Kano gas pipeline is being fast-tracked, and billions were recently approved for infrastructure in Katsina, Borno, and Niger states,” he added.

Omololu also accused Kwankwaso of “stoking regional tension” and pushing “a false narrative of southern favouritism”.

“Development is a gradual process,” he said, urging leaders to avoid “ethnic rhetoric” and allow “statesmen, not ethnic lords, to shape the national conversation.”