Former Kano State Governor Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso has come under fire from former House of Representatives member Hon. Bamidele Faparusi for allegedly accusing President Bola Ahmed Tinubu of favoring Southern Nigeria in the projects his administration was carrying out.
Faparusi, a leader of the All Progressives Congress, punctuated the assertion by asserting that the North was given preferential treatment in President Tinubu’s administration when it came to project implementation, even more so than the Southwest, where a key federal road connecting the two regions is currently in appalling condition.
At a gathering on Friday, the former governor of Kano State and leader of the New Nigerian Peoples Party said that President Tinubu’s initiatives favored the southern region of the country over the northern one, a claim that sparked outrage across the country.
Faparusi said in a statement in Ado Ekiti on Tuesday that while the entire Southwest federal roads, aside from the Ibadan-Lagos Highway, are pocked with craters and gorges, numerous road projects, including the Kaduna-Abuja, Katsina-Kano, Sokoto-Katsina, and Sokoto-Badagry super highways, are being undertaken throughout the North.
Although he did not defend a president who was biased against any part of the nation, Faparusi explained that it was clear to all Nigerians that during his eight years in office, the late President Muhammadu Buhari gave preference to the North in appointments and projects.
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The former senator urged Tinubu’s administration to take notice of the terrible condition of the federal highways in the Southwest, particularly in Ekiti State, where all 12 of them had collapsed and turned into driving boot traps.
“His Excellency Rabiu Kwankwaso ought to be aware that under President Tinubu’s administration, the North is receiving a greater portion of project attention.
“There is ample proof that the president’s home state of the Southwest, including Ado-Akure, Lagos-Abeokuta, Ekiti-Lokoja, Ibadan-Akure highway, Osogbo-Ibadan, Ibadan-Abeokuta, and numerous others, is now impassable for drivers.”
To further support his claim, he challenged the projects carried out in each of the federal government’s geopolitical initiatives and asked Kwankwaso to refute the president’s stance on his charge.
Kwankwaso was challenged by the APC Chieftain to provide reliable data in order to persuade Nigerians that his assertion was sincere and truthful.
Faparusi went on to argue that President Tinubu’s political career had been free of unjustified ethnicity, claiming that his cabinet as governor of Lagos State was known as a “mini Nigeria” due to the fact that it had members of different ethnic backgrounds.
According to the former Federal lawmaker, Kwankwaso made the remark in an attempt to gain favor with Northern voters, especially since he mistakenly believes he is the political leader of the North following the death of President Muhammadu Buhari.
This statement, which was loaded with hatred, claimed that President Tinubu’s projects favored the South. Unless Rabiu Kwankwaso could refute the facts, the projects presented by the president and the minister of works were sufficient to undermine anything the former governor of Kano State had to say.
“I want to warn the NNPP leader to cease acting carelessly since, due to President Buhari’s passing, he has mistakenly begun posing as the political leader of the North.
“If you want to be a leader, you should be accountable, able to bring people together, and refrain from causing division with inflammatory remarks.
“His Excellency Rabiu Kwankwaso ought to be aware of his desperate attempts to become President of Nigeria, not only the Northern extraction.
As the governor of Lagos State, President Tinubu appointed members of his cabinet from a wide range of ethnic origins. He demonstrated his pan-Nigerian identity. Even though he didn’t act in such a manner as a governor, how can he now become an ethnically biased president? Faparusi inquired.
Faparusi went on to state that the majority of the well-known and outspoken Northern critics had never charged President Tinubu of favoring the South in the execution of projects, claiming that their main grievance had always been that the withdrawal of fuel subsidies was more painful in that region of the country than in the south.
