Former Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Babachir Lawal, has lent his voice to the mounting criticism of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s administration over what he describes as the deliberate neglect of northern Nigeria in the area of infrastructural development.
Lawal’s comments align with recent remarks made by former Kano State governor and presidential candidate, Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso.
In a Sunday interview on Trust TV’s Sunday Politics, Lawal stated that the region is being sidelined by the current administration, as there are no visible federal infrastructure projects in the North.
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“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.”
He echoed the sentiment earlier expressed by Kwankwaso, maintaining that the former Kano governor was justified in his claims.
“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,” Lawal 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 went further to suggest that the northern populace feels intentionally excluded, and that the current government is not just neglecting past progress in the region but actively dismantling it.
“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 also cast doubt on the viability of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the North ahead of the 2027 general elections.
According to him, the party is fast losing relevance in the region due to its perceived disregard for northern interests.
“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 did not mince words in his assessment of the Tinubu government’s approach to northern affairs.
“Everything that this government does is designed to destroy the north,” he said.
Lawal’s critique comes on the heels of Kwankwaso’s own allegations during a constitutional reform stakeholders’ meeting in Kano. At the forum, the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) leader faulted the federal government for what he termed lopsided allocation of resources, which he claimed has deepened poverty and insecurity in northern Nigeria.
However, Minister of Works David Umahi has refuted Kwankwaso’s allegations, calling them “misleading and unfair to the president.”
Umahi cited data showing that 52 percent of the road projects currently being executed under President Tinubu are situated in northern Nigeria, with the remaining 48 percent in the South. Among the flagship projects, he highlighted the Sokoto–Badagry superhighway, which spans 756 kilometers within the North, as a major undertaking by the administration.
Presidential media adviser Sunday Dare also weighed in, asserting that more than 40 key projects and programmes are either ongoing or have been maintained in the northern region under Tinubu’s leadership. He dismissed the accusations of marginalisation as politically motivated narratives.
, Babachir Lawal, has lent his voice to the mounting criticism of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s administration over what he describes as the deliberate neglect of northern Nigeria in the area of infrastructural development.){kind=link}