The ongoing accusation gaining traction in the north, that Tinubu is short-changing the region in terms of project allocation, as well as political appointments, is driven heavily by partisan politics, says Abdulaziz Abdulaziz, Presidential aide on Print Media.
According to him, the Tinubu administration has been very considerate with the region, as several high-profile projects are in various stages of completion in most of the Northern states; this is something the people in the region should be grateful for.
Abdulaziz stated this recently in Kano, while interacting with members of the Kano `Correspondents` Chapel, noting that President Tinubu has also been magnanimous enough to continue with several projects started by the Buhari administration.
“Of late, we have been hearing some people saying What is the president doing in the north? Beyond new projects, which there are many of them to count, when President Tinubu came, there were so many projects in the northern part of Nigeria. A lot of them were at a very early stage of commencement. I tell people, if this man is wicked or doesn’t like the north, he could leave these projects to be abandoned.
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“He can also withhold financing. If there is no financing, these projects will stagnate, and they will die naturally. But none of these projects that he inherited, which are massive, have actually stopped. And these projects are in billions of dollars.
“If you look at the very important energy projects for northern Nigeria. The Ajaokuta-Kaduna-Kano gas pipeline, the AKK, was something that when we came, was not up to 50%. It has been continued. We are nearing completion.
“This is somebody who is faithful. As I said, if he had wished, he could have sabotaged the funding for it or redirected the money to something else. If you look at the Kolmani oil prospecting, it’s ongoing. It’s something that was at an infancy level when this government came, but it’s continued.
“If you look at the Abuja-Kaduna-Kano Road, it is a very important road. If not because of the altercation with Julius Bega that led to cancellation, revocation of the contract and the re-award, otherwise, it would have been completed by now.
“But now, I drive from Abuja to Kaduna to Kano. At different points, you see the projects going on. The portion that remains between Zaria and Kano is almost completed. They are laying asphalt. If you come from Suleja, from the Suleja axis, you see work is ongoing on reinforced concrete. That is iron and concrete. That is very durable work that has been done. This project, the government devoted over N400 billion to complete it.
“If you come to the Kaduna-Kano rail line, it was a stage when this government came in. But this government has continued. So many other projects like that. The Kano-Katsina-Maradi rail line is ongoing at a very speedy pace.
“In fact, they are working literally 24 hours. Because I pass by the places on weekends and I see them working. If you go just outside Kano, around Janguza, once you cross the bridge from BUK, you will see them working up to now, as we speak. And so are so many other places and other projects like that.
“I say the greatness of a government, for me, is in the way it continues with the project it inherited. The norm, usually in Nigeria, is that every government tries to do something new. So that it will be praised for doing this. Yet billions and billions of Naira get wasted in abandoned projects. But this president has strong faith in Northern Nigeria. And he is a nationalist. And that is why he has devoted a lot of attention and resources to ensure that projects in Northern Nigeria are not halted because a southerner is now the president.
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“No, he sees them as Nigerian projects. And coming to the new roads and other infrastructure, everywhere there are roads dotting Northern Nigeria and other infrastructure that the president is doing. If you look at it, people complain about the coastal highway.
“But look at the Sokoto-Badagry Road. It’s a bit longer than the coastal highway. Only the coastal highway, because of the terrain, may be more expensive. But this one is a virgin road that is connecting communities, connecting businesses, connecting social interactions between the farthest place in the north to the creeks down south.
“And along the road, there are economic activities that are being carried out along with the road, including dams, farming clusters, and all that. And this is why it is a very noble project. Over 60% of it is in Northern Nigeria.
“And the work is ongoing on that. And work is ongoing from different sides, so that no part is left behind. In fact, on the northern plank, I think right now there are about three lots that are concurrently taking place. From Sokoto, it has started. From Kepi, it has started. So, this shows that the government is serious about… It’s not something that is just a name. It’s something that the government is doing to bring prosperity among our people and to also ease the movement of goods and services. That is a very important corridor for livestock and also goods from the south.
“And on the other side, you know, there is the other road from Lagos to Abuja that is also being done, which is also connected. And then the Port-Harcourt -Maiduguri Rail line, the government has gotten funding for it, and work is starting. And that is also one very massive project that is to the advantage of Northern Nigeria.
“So, talks about lopsided projects and all that, as I said earlier, are largely political. And the people saying those are not genuine. They say that those who advance their own political causes do so not because they mean what they say. Because any objective analyst, as I just pointed out, any objective analyst will see the economic benefits of this.
“Sometimes people are myopic about issues like this. A country is not built in a fragmented arrangement. You can’t develop an economy in fragments. It has to be holistic. And some things are done not because maybe the president is from Kano or the president is from Ibadan, but because Kano or Ibadan is important and therefore needs to be developed along that line. For example, there were talks about when the Federal Executive Council approved the upgrade of Abuja and Lagos airports.
“People were saying all manner of things. But any objective person would know, especially any modern educated person, that anywhere in the world, there are hubs. And you can’t say that you develop your airport or ports at the same rate because they don’t have equal importance. You can say because you say you like equity or you approve equity. And you say you will go and spend N300 billion to develop an airport based on equity. When nobody goes there, when there is no economic activity there.
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“But Lagos is a hub for Nigeria. Not even for Nigeria, you can say, even for West Africa. But modestly, we can say that for Nigeria, it is an airport that carries more than 70% of our passenger traffic. More than 70% of our passenger traffic is in Lagos. So why don’t you develop it? If you go to the UK, they have Heathrow in London. And Heathrow is not the same as maybe the airport in Sheffield or the one in Liverpool. It can be. If you go to Dubai, United Arab Emirates, people sometimes, especially people who are not really educated, don’t even know that Dubai is a city in a country called the United Arab Emirates.
“But because the authorities understand the importance of having a hub and developing it, and that hub will end up servicing the country. So, Dubai is developed deliberately so that it keeps attracting money for the rest of the country. There are other cities. Even the capital, Abu Dhabi, is not a hub compared to Dubai.
So, in Niger, it’s the same thing. What is the percentage of our revenue coming through the artery of Lagos? It’s a lot. So why don’t you develop it? Because it’s just like a milking cow. If you have a cow that gives you a lot of milk, you should also take care of it so that you will get more milk from it. You can’t say that because the cow is this or is that, I won’t take care of it.
Because the most important thing is that when you feed it well, you will also get a lot of milk. So, if our airport is an ISO, and this is our major entry point, and then some investors or some people are not keen on coming because they feel we don’t have the right facilities, and some airlines cannot land, we are losing. So we ought to be very patriotic and genuine in terms of assessing some of these things”, he explained.
