Why the North should be happy with Tinubu, by Abubakar Gaya

When my family traveled along the Abuja–Kaduna–Zaria–Kano road last week, it was our little daughter who exclaimed ‘this road is different now’.
Our six-year-old daughter, Hadassah, is talkative. She always comments on things around her.
I wasn’t surprised by his observation. It’s a road we’ve traveled regularly since we were little.
When I pressed her to say the “difference” she had observed, she wittily said, “can’t you see that you’re driving better and faster.” And we got the message. The “better” means I wasn’t slowing down to dodge potholes and craters that defined this critical road.

It was at that moment that I realized that even though, as adults, we have chosen to see only the negative aspects of Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s government, our children, including babies and children, are observing the transformation that is taking place in their environment. There is a common saying in Hausa: if you want to know the details of what happened at an event, ask a child who was present at that event; not adults. Adults would naturally like to appear politically and socially correct, but not the child. The child, with typical childish innocence, will point out the main players in the event, who said what, how it was said and any other details that an adult will not reveal for whatever reason.

This is the case with policy and leadership analysis in Nigeria. It is worrying how some Northerners paint an anti-Northern picture of President Bola Tinubu. Every time I hear this kind of narrative, I wonder if there are things I know that these critics don’t know. But I also remember that in Nigeria, politics is an extremely prejudiced game, so partisan that even apolitical people can be tricked into aligning themselves with a political philosophy because it comes with the loudest noise. Having lived in Kano and Abuja and being familiar with the northern states through visits and temporary residences, I can confidently say that I know the north and its people. The North is usually and historically united. United by religion, food, culture, language (even with different ethnic groups) and all the values ​​we hold dear. This was the nature of the North, hence the expression “Northern hegemony”. However, in recent decades, that hegemony has been torn apart by politics, with all its bitterness and divisive tendencies.

This is the only explanation to justify the narrative that Tinubu is anti-North. Those who promote this narrative are driven by the illusory influence of partisan politics. Because this is indeed an illusion, an illusory illusion aimed at ruining Tinubu just to spite his government. As a Northerner who has seen democratic governments evolve in the Fourth Republic since 1999, I can say with my chest out that Tinubu has exceeded Northern expectations. Not only has he been pro-North in resource sharing and political appointments, but he has also been openly nice to the North in the distribution and construction of critical infrastructure.

The list is long of projects located in the north or connecting the north to other parts of the country and even outside the country. A Reduced Checklist: Rehabilitation and Expansion of the Abuja-Kaduna-Kano Expressway; construction and upgrading of the Kano-Kongolam road, including the Kano-Hadejia section of that all-important axis; the Sokoto-Badagry Expressway, a 1,068km six-lane highway with an integrated railway line that extends across the northern states from northwestern Nigeria and connects the region through the southwestern states to the Lagos coast. For details, this project connects Illela in Sokoto State (border between Nigeria and Niger Republic) to Badagry in Lagos State, crossing Kebbi, Niger, Kwara, Oyo, Ogun and Ondo states.

The Kaduna-Kano-Katsina-Maradi Railway is another ambitious trans-Sahara rail corridor connecting several northern states to Niger Republic, a path-breaking project that would boost trade in the North.

The north is the undisputed food basket and center of Nigeria’s agro-economy. From agrarian to pastoral farming, these roads and many others not listed, especially the shorter feeder roads that connect from state to state and city to city, are designed to serve as conveyor belts for the movement of goods, personnel and agricultural products from more inland markets and farmland to urban centers and markets. This is a carefully drafted marshal plan that grossly favors the north. According to federal government data, 48 of the 260 special intervention projects nationwide are located in the North West (Kaduna, Kano, Katsina, Jigawa, Kebbi, Sokoto and Zamfara), the highest among all geopolitical zones.

President Tinubu deserves credit for leaving agriculture in the firm hands of the north, where Senator Abubakar Kyari (Borno State) is a minister. And he didn’t stop there, he added real value to the sector with financing, procurement of tractors, strategic partnerships with relevant agencies including the African Development Bank (AFDB) for a $134 million initiative to empower farmers with irrigation and storage capacity to enable year-round agricultural production across 500,000 hectares. Indeed, there has been a great improvement and increase in the agricultural value chain with investments in fertilizers, higher quality agricultural yields, modernization of livestock farming, among others. If you consider that it is the North, and not the South, that plays an important role in the agricultural sector, you will appreciate how these initiatives have helped the North, economically and beyond.

Beyond roads and physical infrastructure there is the question of human capital and its distribution. Under Tinubu, the North has not suffered any malpractice in appointments to head federal agencies. Data from relevant federal government agencies shows that the North West holds the largest zonal share of federal leadership positions with 157 appointments (22.1%); followed by the Centre-North with 139 positions (19.5%) and the South-West with 132 (18.5%). The North-East follows with 105 positions (14.7%), while the South-South and the South-East have 91 (12.8%) and 88 (12.4%) respectively. The North’s total amounts to 401 positions, equal to 56.3%, while the South holds 311 positions (43.7%).

Data from the Federal Character Commission (FCC) also shows that in the distribution of permanent secretaries, the main drivers of the public sector, the North Central leads with 19.5%, while the North East, North West and South South each account for 17.1%. The South-East and the South-West follow with 14.6% each.

It is difficult for me, in good conscience, to join the chorus whose only song is “Tinubu is anti-North”. Honestly, there is no empirical data to justify this. Primitive, partisan politics is driving it. On the contrary, I believe, as we say in my neighborhood of Kano, that Tinubu is a northerner dressed in Yoruba clothes.

*Gaya, a public policy analyst, writes from Kano.