The strongman of Kano politics, Rabiu Kwankwaso, has criticised the President Bola Tinubu administration for what he described as the neglect of the northern region of Nigeria and the concentration of the nation’s resources on developing the southern part of the country where the president comes from.

“Let me advise the Federal Government on the distribution of federal resources,” the former Kano governor said on Thursday at the Kano State Stakeholders’ Dialogue on the 2025 Constitutional Amendment.

“From the information available to us, it’s like most of the national budget is now tilting in one direction in this country.”

Kwankwaso, the 2023 presidential candidate of the New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP), accused the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) of lopsided allocation of scarce resources between the two regions of the country.

President Bola Tinubu presents the 2025 budget proposal to members of the National Assembly on Wednesday, December 18, 2024 in Abuja. Photo credit: Presidency

He said, “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.

“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 said most roads in the northern region remained in deplorable condition, whilst the APC government continued to allocate lump budgetary allocations for infrastructural development in the southern region.

“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.

“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.”

The project will be completed in eight years, according to the Federal Government.

He urged the Tinubu administration to change for the better and ensure the equitable distribution of scarce resources for the development of all parts of the country.

“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,” he said.

Kwankwaso As The New Bride?

With the 2027 election less than two years away, Kwankwaso, who commands a cult-like following with his red-capped socio-religious group known as Kwankwasiyya, has seemingly become the new darling now desperately courted by political parties — from the ruling APC to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the Labour Party and the African Democratic Congress (ADC).

Kwankwaso’s Monday meeting with Tinubu at the Aso Villa has further widened the optics that the president is seeking an alliance with the former Kano governor to trounce the ADC opposition coalition that has his closest rivals Atiku Abubakar and Peter Obi and win a re-election in 2027.

Historically, since Nigeria’s return to democracy in 1999, the northern region of the country, especially Kano, always had the highest voter turnout at presidential elections, making it a darling of politicians jostling for Aso Rock top job.

For instance, in the 2023 presidential election, Kano, a major battleground state, had about 1.7 million cumulative votes. NNPP’s Kwankwaso scored 997,279, APC’s Tinubu polled 517,341 votes, PDP’s Atiku got 131,716 votes while Obi of the Labour Party got 28,513 votes. Interestingly, of the 44 local government areas in Kano, Kwankwaso won in 38 of them.

At the 2023 presidential election, Kwankwaso secured 1,496,687 total votes and came distant fourth in the election won by Tinubu who garnered 8,794,726 total votes. Atiku came second with 6,984,520 while Obi came third with 6,101,533 votes.

At the moment, Kwankwaso’s godson Abba Kabir of the NNPP is Kano governor but the APC controls two of the three senatorial districts in the North-West state. (Channels TV)