Former Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Babachir Lawal, has launched a scathing critique of President Bola Tinubu’s administration, accusing it of deliberately marginalising northern Nigeria in federal infrastructure development.
Lawal made the remarks during an interview on Trust TV’s Sunday Politics, aligning himself with Rabiu Kwankwaso, the 2023 presidential candidate of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP). Kwankwaso had recently alleged that Tinubu’s government was neglecting the North in its national development agenda.
“There is no infrastructure work going on at any level in the North,” Lawal declared. “No projects whatsoever. Maybe in their imagination, maybe in the spirit—but we don’t see it.”
He emphasized that the lack of visible federal projects in the region was not just an oversight but a deliberate policy direction. Lawal, himself an engineer, argued that professionals like Kwankwaso and Minister of Works David Umahi are trained to assess physical development critically and that Kwankwaso’s claims were valid.
“Kwankwaso knows what he’s talking about,” Lawal said. “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 went further, suggesting that the Tinubu administration is not only ignoring the North but actively dismantling its previous gains. He questioned the viability of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the region ahead of the 2027 elections, asserting that northern politicians would struggle to campaign under the party’s banner.
“I believe the sense we get as northerners is that if this government can destroy what they inherited, they’ll willingly do it,” he said. “Which elected official, a northerner, will go into the campaign on the platform of the APC in this coming election? Nobody. Unless they join ADC, they will not win simply because they belong to the destructive party.”
Lawal concluded with a stark accusation: “Everything that this government does is designed to destroy the North.”
His comments have intensified the ongoing debate over regional equity in Nigeria’s federal development strategy, especially as political alignments begin to shift ahead of the next general elections
