Former Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Babachir Lawal, has thrown his weight behind Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, accusing President Bola Tinubu’s administration of marginalising northern Nigeria in federal infrastructure distribution.
Speaking on Sunday Politics, a Trust TV programme, Lawal stated said:
“Every Nigerian that has anything to do with the north will know that no infrastructure work is going on at any level.”
He added, “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.”
Reinforcing his view, Lawal noted, “We don’t see any construction work. We don’t see any infrastructure going on. No federal government project whatsoever.”
Lawal: ‘Kwankwaso is right — and not alone’
Defending Kwankwaso’s recent remarks on the subject, Lawal said:
“Kwankwaso, remember, is an engineer too—so he, like me, like David Umahi, who’s an engineer too, the way we see things—the way we see them differently.”
“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.”
Lawal argued that northern Nigerians feel deliberately excluded from the Tinubu administration’s developmental agenda.
“This government is undoing the north’s progress”, Lawal
According to Lawal, the administration isn’t just neglecting the region — it’s reversing past gains.
“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.
He went further to question the ruling party’s viability in the north ahead of the next general elections.
APC may lose grip in the region, Lawal warns,
Lawal cast doubt on the prospects of any northern politician running on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in 2027.
“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 queried.
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 accused Tinubu’s government of running an anti-north agenda:
“Everything that this government does is designed to destroy the north.”
