By Ibrahim Hassan-Wuyo, Kaduna
Kaduna — The Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF), Alhaji Bashir M. Dalhatu, has expressed deep concerns over what he described as the growing marginalisation of Northern Nigeria under the administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
Speaking at a high-level interactive session between Northern civil society groups and senior officials of the federal government in Kaduna, organised by the Sir Ahmadu Bello Memorial Foundation, Dalhatu recalled the region’s strong electoral support for President Tinubu, contributing over 64% of his total votes in the 2023 presidential election.
“Despite our support and goodwill, the feeling in the North is, to put it mildly, completely mixed. Key infrastructural projects, budgetary allocations, appointments, and policy decisions have largely sidelined Northern Nigeria,” Dalhatu said.
He cited critical areas of neglect, including insecurity, agriculture, transport infrastructure, power supply, education, healthcare, and the abandonment of strategic projects like the Ajaokuta Steel Plant and Kolmani oil exploration.
On insecurity, he decried the rising wave of terrorism, banditry, and kidnappings, urging the President to take “strong, audacious and sustained” action, especially by addressing root causes like youth unemployment and poverty.
In the area of agriculture, Dalhatu noted the sector received less than 5% of the national budget in the past two years, far below the FAO’s recommended 25%. He warned that the government’s decision to approve duty-free food imports had triggered a collapse of local agro-industrial businesses, particularly rice mills.
Turning to federal infrastructure, he pointed out that out of ₦1.013 trillion allocated to roads in 2025, only ₦24 billion went to the North-East. “Not a single strategic road has been completed or maintained in the North in the past 20 years,” he said, listing over a dozen critical highway routes long neglected.
On power supply, the ACF chair called for a state of emergency in the sector and demanded fast-tracking of stalled projects like the Mambilla Hydro Dam and the Abuja-Kaduna-Kano gas pipeline, saying the North’s economy cannot grow without reliable electricity.
Dalhatu also urged the relaunch of the UBE scheme, mass teacher training, and compulsory free basic education to tackle the North’s education crisis, where over 80% of Nigeria’s 20 million out-of-school children reside.
He expressed disappointment over the federal government’s “meagre” commitment to the Ajaokuta Steel Project, despite earlier promises, and warned that the push for public-private partnerships may derail the project’s industrial promise.
The speech also criticised perceived budgetary discrimination, pointing to a May 2025 Ministry of Works release showing allocations of ₦1.394 trillion to the Southwest, compared to ₦105 billion for the Northwest and ₦30 billion for the Northeast.
He concluded by calling for improved communication between the federal government and the North, recommending that the interactive session evolve into a standing ACF-FGN Contact Committee as earlier suggested by President Tinubu.
“The Hausa say: ‘Gyara kayanka bai zama sauke mu raba ba’. We criticise not out of mischief, but for the unity and development of Nigeria,” Dalhatu added.
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