Rabiu Kwankwaso, the influential figure in Kano politics, has publicly criticized the administration of President Bola Tinubu, alleging that it has neglected Nigeria’s northern region while concentrating national resources on developing the southern part of the country, from which the president hails.
“Let me advise the Federal government on the distribution of federal resources,” the former Kano governor stated on Thursday during the Kano State Stakeholders’ Dialogue on the 2025 Constitutional Amendment. He further elaborated, “From the information available to us, it’s like most of the national budget is now tilting in one direction in this country.”
Kwankwaso, who was the New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP) presidential candidate in 2023, accused the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) of a skewed allocation of scarce resources between the nation’s two major regions. He offered a word of caution: “Let me advise those who are struggling by all means to take everything to remember that some of the issues that we have in this part of the country today have to do with the lack of enough resources and mismanagement of the little that comes in.”
He directly linked this alleged imbalance to prevailing challenges, asserting, “That is why we have insecurity; we have poverty and so on. It is happening here mainly, but like a desert, it would go everywhere.” Kwankwaso specifically highlighted the deplorable condition of most roads in the northern region, contrasting it with the substantial budgetary allocations for infrastructural development in the southern region under the APC government.
Recounting a personal experience, he stated, “Yesterday, I was to come by air, but unfortunately, my airline decided to shift our takeoff from 3pm to 8pm. I had to come by road. From Abuja to Kaduna to Kano was a hell. Terrible; very bad road. This is a road started many years ago, right from the beginning of the leadership of the APC.” He then referenced another project: “Now, we are told that there is a road from the South to the East. We support infrastructure anywhere in this country…and any other thing that is good for the masses but a situation where government is taking our resources and dumping it in one part of the country and other parts of the country are left just like that, I don’t believe that is the right thing to do by the government itself.”
Kwankwaso concluded by urging the Tinubu administration to rectify this perceived imbalance, advocating for the equitable distribution of scarce resources to ensure the development of all parts of the country. He stressed, “This is the time for the government to change, to convince our people that the government is not just on one side of the country.”