President Tinubu’s men’s courageous outing to Kaduna

I couldn’t make it to Kaduna to observe the historic encounter between the Arewa elites and appointees of northern extraction in President Ahmed Bola Tinubu’s cabinet. Nevertheless, throughout the encounter, I was glued to my TV watching the live event happening in Arewa House. I had a sneaky feeling about how the conversation would go, which […]

I couldn’t make it to Kaduna to observe the historic encounter between the Arewa elites and appointees of northern extraction in President Ahmed Bola Tinubu’s cabinet. Nevertheless, throughout the encounter, I was glued to my TV watching the live event happening in Arewa House. I had a sneaky feeling about how the conversation would go, which way it would turn, and how it might land.

Kaduna, once the capital of the Northern Region, still retains that aura. Despite the creation of numerous states from the region over the past 60 years or so, the elites of the north still congregate there, as the need arises, to thrash out issues affecting the north. Politicians with eyes on the northern votes always pan out their campaigns at events orchestrated from Kaduna. The savvy politician that Tinubu is, with eyes firmly fixed on the 2027 elections, decided to send his first eleven team among the northerners in his cabinet to plead for his government.

I understand that before the 2023 elections, he was in the same venue to canvass his position. Then he was received and interrogated under the umbrella of the Arewa Joint Committee, a coalition of groups with an interest in the advancement of the north. This time, however, the arrangement to receive and engage the Abuja contingent was only done with the Sir Ahmadu Bello Sardauna Memorial Foundation. This did not deter the star-studded attendance I saw on TV.

This time, maybe due to protocol restrictions, the president decided to stay away but sent forth his senior team to accomplish the assignment. The SGF, George Akume, the NSA, Nuhu Ribadu, accompanied by a galaxy of heavily bemedalled generals of the armed forces, a host of ministers and heads of parastatals, made up the strong team that came to Kaduna to explain.

Obviously, there is a lot at stake. Even though the next election is two years ahead, the handlers of President Tinubu’s re-election must have surmised that it is time they start testing the waters. This is particularly evident, given the recent groundswell of opinion in the north that President Tinubu has not fulfilled the promise he made to northern stakeholders when he met them in 2022. There is a strong feeling that the president is short-changing the north despite the massive support he received during the 2023 election.

Then there would be a lot of explanations to make. The NSA made the first significant impression on me when he took the floor with statistics and photos of liquidated bandits, revealing that insecurity has largely been degraded from its peak before the Tinubu administration. He dwelt at length on the success achieved in Kaduna State, particularly on the Abuja-Kaduna highway and the Birnin Gwari axis. The explanations by other appointees rambled on for two days.

For me, I was focused on two key areas: security and infrastructure. However, when I was dissatisfied with the explanations given, and I was on the verge of losing interest, Bashir Dalhatu, the chairman of the ACF board of trustees, took the floor. His speech was the sum total of the aspirations and the rising disappointments of the North. The fact that all he said was put down to candidate Tinubu in 2022 and found to tally with his agenda made the betrayal more acute.

Yes. There has been a lull in the incidences of communal clashes in Kaduna State. So far, there is an absence of banditry on the Abuja-Kaduna highway, as well as some success in restoring peace to the Birnin Gwari enclave that has suffered years of suffering from attacks by bandits. Nevertheless, bandits have continued to operate seamlessly in the forests of Zamfara, Sokoto, Katsina and Niger States. The situation in Zamfara and Sokoto States is particularly grave. Both the Defence Minister of State, Bello Matawalle, and the Chief of Defence Staff, General Christopher Musa, were born and bred in the two contiguous states, and, surprisingly, they have yet to bring the scourge of banditry to an end in that area.

The state of infrastructure in the north is even more grim. I refer to the road network, in particular. The roads linking the south of the country and the north, as well as those leading out of Abuja to other parts of the country, are all in a deplorable condition. What galls observers is that while road construction in other parts of the country is proceeding smoothly with sufficient funds, all the roads being constructed in the north are starved of funds. It remains a challenge to travel on any road in any direction from Abuja.

And to add all these to the nepotic tendencies of the administration, then you have a brew that would be too sour to swallow for the average voter in the north. To date, all key posts in the security and finance sectors are routinely being filled and refilled from an enclave. And when all the key personal staff of the president are from that enclave too, how do other parts of the country penetrate to get the listening ear of the president?

It was a courageous outing for the president’s men in Kaduna. I congratulate them on the effort. I guess they will return next year. I hope when they come, they will have better offerings to make.