By Cham Faliya Sharon
If not for the vigilance of Distinguished Senator Danjuma Goje, who represents the Gombe Central senatorial district at the National Assembly, we wouldn’t have known that the extent of discriminatory practices that the Tinubu administration has cultivated in the allocation of legacy projects in the federal government’s budgets has not spared even the region which his deputy, Vice President Kashim Shettima, comes from – the Northeast.
While the discriminatory pattern of the Tinubu administration’s appointments, which largely favours the President’s tribesmen, is well-known and well-documented, it is expected that, at least, in the aspects of project distribution and implementation, there should be equity and justice for all regions, as dutifully exemplified by a similar APC administration of President Muhammadu Buhari which initiated and executed legacy infrastructural projects across the country without discrimination. In fact, it is on record that the selfless nature of President Muhammadu Buhari was such that his most pronounced and most visible infrastructural projects were done in southern Nigeria, not minding that it was the place he was most hated, with even regular death wishes often masqueraded as prophecies by false prophets and ethnic warlords.
Former governor of Kaduna State, Malam Nasir El-Rufai
So, why is it a herculean task for the Tinubu administration to copy that simple kind of Nigerian nationalism from Muhammadu Buhari – even if they were jettisoning his economic policies like they did – and then embark on a reasonably equal distribution of infrastructural projects across the regions even if they were not going to favour the North like he favoured the South in both appointments and projects when he was President? Or are the top honchos of the administration under some kind of acute sense of cataclysmic complex, so much that they feel the gluttonous necessity of cornering everything for the South before their envisaged cataclysm swallows Nigeria into the dark recesses of nothingness?
If not for the vigilance and outspokenness of Senator Muhammadu Danjuma Goje, who raised it as a motion in the Senate Chamber, we might not have known that the Tinubu administration has budgeted 4.2 trillion Naira for road projects in the 2025 Appropriation Act, and that out of that very huge sum, only a paltry 19 billion Naira was set aside for roads in the Northeast. You get to see the ridiculousness and the demeaning intent behind this paltry allocation when you see that it is not even 190 billion Naira or 500 billion Naira or 700 billion Naira or 900 billion Naira that was allocated to the region but an insulting figure of 19 billion Naira, which, in this Tinubu’s era of a grossly devalued Naira and an economy bedridden by hyperinflation, cannot build a 10km road much less expecting it to cover a geopolitical zone with six states.
R-l, Vice President Kashim Shettima and Chief Security, Malam Ribudu
But then, it becomes even more interesting, albeit annoying, that the Northeast is where Tinubu’s Vice President as well as his National Security Adviser (NSA) come from, yet they are being treated with such disdain and contempt. Or are they being programmed for ridicule and betrayal, otherwise, how can an administration appropriate 4.2 trillion Naira for roads, and yet the bulk of it goes to the President’s region while the region of his deputy and NSA gets far less than one percent of the whole sum? Who drew this specific part of the budget, and were the Vice President and NSA consulted for their input in the preparation, or were they completely sidelined on a very important issue like this? Or could it be an act of negligence and carelessness on the part of the Vice President and the NSA that this process was done and they didn’t care to ensure that their region’s interests were captured in the document?
Again, the Tinubu administration ought to learn something from the immediate past administration of the same party, wherein President Muhammadu Buhari ensured the initiation and execution of legacy projects in the geopolitical zone of his deputy. No one can accuse the Buhari administration of marginalising Vice President Yemi Osinbajo in any way or form. In fact, he was empowered on a number of occasions to exercise the duties of the president in acting capacity, wherein he made several consequential decisions that even included the firing of some top level officials of the administration.
Angel Commodore FC of Abagana, Anambra State that beat Big T Global FC 2-1 in their friendly match played at Oyi Central School field, Umunya, Anambra State
Big T Global FC of Umunya, Anambra State, that lost 2-1 to Angel Commodore FC in their recent friendly match
But now, in sharp contrast, the streets are awash with insinuations of Vice President Kashim Shettima being turned into a mere envoy of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu at weddings, burials, naming ceremonies, festivals, and the like, with no apparent contributions to major decision-making processes of the administration. Of course, if that’s not the case, then how else can anyone explain why 4.2 trillion Naira was set aside for roads and only a paltry 19 billion got earmarked for the Vice President’s region – an amount that is far less than what the President spent on his new presidential jet! This can only happen because they have cut the Vice President off the loop of the exercise of real power in the administration.
And if you bring in the NSA, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, who is also from the same region with the Vice President, into the matter, can it also be said that he isn’t in the loop of making such critical decisions about policies and infrastructural development so much that his very own Northeast can be marginalized or shortchanged in such ridiculous manner without him knowing anything about it, or was he so busy listening and responding with threats of lawsuits to what female politicians were saying about what he said in the past, such that he never even knew that his boss, President Tinubu was conducting a projects bazaar minus the Northeast?
In closing, whatever may be the real power and influence of Vice President Kashim Shettima and Mallam Nuhu Ribadu in the Tinubu administration, it is very clear, at least from this specific issue blown open by Senator Muhammadu Danjuma Goje, that critical matters of this importance are being deliberately done behind their backs, and this is treachery, to say the least. The only bright side VP Kashim Shettima and Mallam Nuhu Ribadu may have in this mischief is that, even if they are being wittingly or unwittingly projected by the administration’s real cabal as failures to the people of the Northeast, the consequences of this marginalization will fall on the architects of the marginalization themselves, because it will be Tinubu that residents of the Northeast will ask to show them his legacy projects for the zone. But that is not to say that both Kashim and Ribadu will not share in the blame because we will simply assume that they chose to go to sleep while their region was being marginalized in the allocation of federal legacy projects.
The author, Sharon, a columnist, writes for Leadership Newspaper, Abuja
