By: Olabode Opeseitan.
The facts about President Bola Tinubu’s government resource allocations reveal a profound narrative: despite persistent claims of Southern favoritism, the North-West—the heart of Northern Nigeria—continues to command the lion’s share of federal projects.
Regional Resource Allocation: Data-Driven Reality
Official budget documents and statements from the Budget Office illustrate that the North-West, including states like Kano and Sokoto, leads in federal project allocations and spending under Tinubu, outstripping every other region, including the South-South, South-West, and South-East.
Major legacy projects such as the Sokoto-Badagry Highway and substantial allocations to infrastructure in North-Western states directly contradict sectional media-driven allegations of regional bias.
The northern corridors including Abuja-Kaduna-Kano continue to appear prominently in national budget plans, while the South’s headline Lagos-Calabar Highway has not eclipsed northern investment.
Exposing the Politics of Division: Media and Political Motives
Outlets like Daily Trust and politicians such as Rabiu Kwakwanso push the claim that the North is marginalized. Their focus on selective data is a classic misdirection—a magician’s trick in political discourse.
The motive? These narratives serve entrenched interests who have, for decades, harnessed regional agitation for personal gain: securing elite privilege while millions remain impoverished.
The noise, amplified near election cycles, is calculated to sway public emotion, reify old fault lines, and distract from the substantial benefits accruing to the North through federal action.
The North: Legacy of Leadership and Cry for Progress
Since independence in 1960, the North has held national power for over 42 years, yet widespread poverty and illiteracy persist. When the Presidency was held by a Southerner, Jonathan Goodluck, he initiated the vital Almajiri Education Program for Northern children, building 165 Almajiri schools across the Northern region to make the children employable and reduce insecurity. This is an act of tangible solidarity when Northern leaders failed to address entrenched educational crises.
Tinubu is continuing this legacy, allocating hundreds of billions to Northern infrastructure, education, and economic revival—projects that directly target historic developmental delays.
Northern Youths: Rejecting Old Politics
Across social media and grassroots organizing, young Northerners increasingly denounce divisive ethnic rhetoric, recognizing that perpetual agitation only enriches an elite few while the masses suffer.
For instance, during the controversy following Tinubu’s appointment of key Northeastern ministers and security chiefs—appointments that the Northern Elders Forum publicly opposed citing personal and regional interests—young Northern activists and groups broke ranks, praising Tinubu for his merit-based appointments and condemning the elders’ selfishness and obstructionism.
Similarly, Northern youth organizations such as the Arewa Youths Coalition for Peace and Political Development vocally supported Tinubu’s administration’s peace and security efforts, countering claims by some elders who accused the government of neglecting the North. They even demanded an apology from foreign actors who undermined Nigeria’s unity, signaling a clear break from the elders’ more reactionary postures.
Northern youths are increasingly distancing themselves from legacy politicians whose rhetoric and policies have failed to uplift the region. This generational shift is marked by public repudiation of figures like Nasir el-Rufai and Atiku Abubakar, whose appeals to ethnic loyalty are now seen as outdated and self-serving.
Analogy: National Cake Divided on Camera
Imagine Nigeria’s resources as a round cake presented at a national banquet. Even with a Southern baker (President Tinubu), the largest, choicest slices are plated for the North. Meanwhile, some guests shout that the South is hogging the dessert. The serving footage (budget data) shows otherwise: if the North is still hungry, it is not for lack of cake, but for how some have always stolen the biggest slices for themselves.
Conclusion: Profound Clarity
The true story, backed by budget data, is that the North continues to receive the highest allocation of federal projects, even under a Southern presidency. The complaint over resource distribution is a political smokescreen, perpetuated to fuel division and benefit a few. Young Northerners and reform-minded leaders now see through the fog, recognizing that unity—and honest, data-driven accountability—is the only path to genuine progress. The facts, crystal clear, leave no room for doubt: claims of Southern favoritism are not only illogical, but disproven by the very numbers advanced by those who made them.
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