Bashir Dalhatu, Chairman of the Board of Trustees (BoT) of the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF), has accused President Bola Tinubu of sidelining the north despite the massive support he got from the region during the 2023 elections.
Dalhatu stated this on Tuesday in Kaduna at the commencement of a two – day interactive session on government citizens engagement.
The event with the theme- Assessing Electoral Promises: Fostering Government-Citizens Engagement for National Unity” was organised by the Sir Ahmadu Bello Memorial Foundation (SABMF), to review President Bola Tinubu’s electoral promises to the North.
Dalhatu recalled that on October 17, 2022, an interactive session was held in Kaduna with presidential candidates of leading political parties, including Tinubu, who made promises to address the challenges facing the north.
“In that meeting, we presented to Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, a written address containing details of the issues of urgent concern to the people of Northern Nigeria.
“In turn, he gave us his own written document containing details of the issues he believed were of concern to the North and how he intended to address them…” he said.
Dalhatu said northerners went out en masse on the 25th of February, 2023, and cast their ballots for Tinubu.
According to him, 5.6 million out of the total 8.8 million votes garnered by Tinubu in the election was from the north.
“And yet, two years into the four-year tenure of President Tinubu, the feeling among the people of the North is, to put it mildly, completely mixed.
“To our surprise, those who did not support him, did not vote and hardly wished him well, have emerged from nowhere, and are trying to push a wedge between him and the North.
“Whether or not they are succeeding, we do not know. But we can not pretend not to observe that President Tinubu’s budget priorities, his infrastructural projects, his appointments, and other executive actions have, over the last two years, largely sidelined Northern Nigeria”, the ACF BoT chairman said.
He accused the President of allegedly doing little or nothing to address the major issues of concern to the North.
Dalhatu said the biggest challenge facing the north, is insecurity, pointing out that “over the last decade, widespread violence, characterised by massacres, bombings, cattle rustling, kidnapping and other manifestations of conflict and insecurity has swept across Northern Nigeria, crippling almost all productive economic activities and social progress”.
He said, “Even as we speak, this crisis shows no signs of abating. The insurgent groups continue to multiply, their attacks becoming more deadly.
“With the possible exception of Kaduna and Bauchi states, the terror level everywhere in the North has continued to rise with each passing day.”
Dalhatu said, “unless the government takes decisive, strong, audacious and sustained measures, including the ones that address its root causes, particularly joblessness among the youth and deepening poverty, the insecurity crisis in Northern Nigeria can hardly ever be contained.”
He said Tinubu needs to demonstrate to the Northern public that he is truly concerned with the raging conflict and is determined to bring it to an end.
Dalhatu further allegedly that in recent years, “the federal government’s budget priorities, infrastructural projects, investments and even social services have been openly skewed against Northern Nigeria.”
He added that “this discriminatory practice is not done secretly, it is splashed directly into our face – openly and frankly and without the need for apology!…”
According to him, “An unhealthy mixture of sectionalism, partisanship and cronyism follows most of President Tinubu’s actions and policies.
“It is true in policy decisions as it is true in appointment and deployment of personnel in the departments of the federal government.”
He said, “Over the last two years, since President Tinubu has been in power, the ACF has released a number of press statements criticising some of his actions or lack of them.
“But we have also acknowledged and commended some decisions we felt would serve Nigeria well. Clearly, our criticisms are not borne out of mischief.”
