The Presidency has responded to claims by former Kano State governor and 2023 presidential candidate of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), Senator Rabiu Kwankwaso, dismissing his assertion that the North has been sidelined under President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s administration.

Kwankwaso had raised the alarm during a stakeholders’ dialogue on the 2025 constitutional amendment held in Kano on Thursday, accusing the federal government of skewing national resources in favour of the South, thereby worsening poverty and insecurity in the North.

He decried the poor state of federal roads in the region, recounting a recent ordeal where he was forced to travel from Abuja to Kano via Kaduna due to a cancelled flight. The trip, he said, was “hell” owing to the dilapidated road conditions.

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In a swift response on Friday, the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Public Communication, Sunday Dare, refuted the allegations in a post on his X handle, insisting that the Tinubu administration has not neglected the region.

“SENATOR KWANKWOSO. YOU ARE WRONG. NORTH NOT NEGLECTED. PRESIDENT TINUBU HAS THE NORTH COVERED. NORTHERN NIGERIA NOT LEFT BEHIND.”

He cited a range of ongoing projects to support his position, including the Abuja–Kaduna–Kano Expressway, the Sokoto–Badagry Super Highway, and the Ajaokuta–Kaduna–Kano Gas Pipeline. According to him, the government is actively pursuing development across key sectors in the region.

Dare also mentioned the $158.15 million Agriculture Value Chain programme being implemented in nine Northern states, as well as the Kolmani Integrated Development Project in Bauchi and Gombe. He added that the Agro-Climatic Resilience in Semi-Arid Landscapes (ACReSAL) initiative is working to restore one million hectares of degraded land.

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The presidential aide highlighted ongoing health interventions, including the expansion of facilities at Ahmadu Bello University Teaching Hospital, Zaria; University of Jos Teaching Hospital; and Federal Medical Centre, Nguru. He said about 1,000 primary healthcare centres across the North are being revitalised.

On infrastructure, Dare named several road projects such as the Kano–Kongolam Road, Kaduna–Jos Road, the Kano–Maiduguri Dual Carriageway, and key rehabilitation works in Borno and Adamawa states.

In the energy sector, he pointed to the 614-kilometre Ajaokuta–Kaduna–Kano Gas Pipeline, the Gwagwalada Power Plant, and planned solar projects in Kaduna. He further cited major railway projects, including the Kaduna–Kano and Kano–Maradi rail lines, as well as the Abuja Metro rehabilitation.

Former National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Chief John Oyegun, has vowed to set a new political order in Nigeria, stressing that the coalition that birthed the APC against the 2015 general elections was a mistake.

Oyegun spoke when he hosted stakeholders of the coalition opposition party, the African Democratic Congress (ADC), in his Benin home.

According to him, the mistakes of the past notwithstanding, the imperative thing was to those who fell before to rise and ensure they did not fall again.

The first executive governor of Edo State added that he aligned with the apology tendered by the former governor of the state, Professor Osarhiemen Osunbor on the mistake of the 2013 APC coalition.

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Oyegun said that while he joined others to chase away “a government we called clueless”, the government that took over became indescribable.

“The story of success in life does not matter how much you fall. You heard the apology made by Professor Osunbor. We accept our failings. We removed a clueless government, and I don’t have a word for what we replaced it with. We are back to the struggle. We know what we are doing, and it will not fail,” Oyegun said

On the stakeholders’ meeting, he explained that the meeting was called to set up a committee for membership registration ans revalidation in the state.

The Committee, Chief Oyegun stated, was to work with the party’s state coalition in the state to ensure a rancour free process.

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He added that the membership registration and revalidation was to ensure the message of the coalition gets to every corner of this state in cooperation with the incumbent executive.

Oyegun also disclosed that the ADC had received other groups from the Social Democratic Party.

“I think the message has gotten home very largely. The entire state will convulse at the mentioning of the ADC. One of the Committee will work with the State Working Committee in a way that is effective and convenient to the ordinary citizen of Edo State.” Oyegun stated.

Also speaking with journalists after the meeting, Professor Osunbor said Nigerians were not happy with the way the country was being governed.

Osunbor noted that the coalition was formed by all concerned Nigerians across political parties “to ensure that multi-party democracy exist in the country.”, as the present situation tilted towards totalitarianism.

Rep. Kayode Akiolu (APC- Lagos ) says he will support a bill that will ban children of public servants from attending private schools, if it includes politicians.

The lawmaker said that such a bill should make everybody put in their best interests for national development.

He made this known in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria on Friday in Lagos.

Akiolu represents the Lagos Island II constituency of Lagos state in the 10th National Assembly.

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NAN recalls that the House of Representatives passed for first reading, a bill seeking to prohibit public and civil servants, including their immediate families, from patronising private schools and healthcare facilities in Nigeria.

The bill was sponsored by Mr Godwin Ogah, lawmaker representing Isuikwuato/Umunneochi Federal Constituency of Abia.

Akiolu said: “First things first, I hold a balanced view; what I mean is a balanced view on both sides.

“We are creating a democratic country, which is open, freedom of association, and freedom of movement.

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“However, on the other side, it is presently a proposed bill; maybe the benefit of the bill is to make sure that civil servants put in all the best.

“Also, if I am to support the bill, I would also want it to include all public servants, which includes us, the politicians.”

According to him, that is when the country’s education will be top-notch, world-class, saying, “Because my child is there, the Bank Secretary’s child is there, the President’s child is there.

“We have nowhere but our country. If they amend it to include children of politicians, I am in support 100 per cent,“ he said.

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He said that the support also included visiting the country’s hospitals, saying the nation’s healthcare required investing in, to arrest medical tourism.

“We need to go back to the good old days when Saudi Arabia and some other countries sent their people to Nigeria, including the Saudi royal family.

“In the 60s, and 70s, the Saudi royal family were coming to invest in Ibadan to get treatment. Later, there was a brain drain, and they decided to take our doctors over to Saudi Arabia, in the 80s and mid-90s.

“There is always a reversal; the way people go to India, and different countries of the world, is the way they will start coming to Nigeria.

“So, I think its high time we looked inwards, into our country, “ Akiolu said.