The Northern Elders Forum (NEF) has formally accused President Bola Tinubu’s administration of marginalizing northern Nigeria in the allocation of federal infrastructure projects.
In a statement issued by its spokesperson, Professor Abubakar Jika Jiddere, the Forum expressed profound dissatisfaction with what it described as a disproportionate distribution of capital investments, characterizing the current infrastructure funding as “lopsided” and regionally biased.
NEF cited the allocation of N1.34 trillion to the Lagos–Calabar Coastal Highway and N148 billion to the Second Niger Bridge as evidence of heavy infrastructural concentration in the southern region. Conversely, it referenced what it termed “token” allocations to projects in the North, including N252 billion for the Abuja–Kano Expressway and N18 billion for the Wusasa–Jos Road.
The Forum also raised concerns over the complete neglect of strategic routes in the North East, specifically the Jalingo–Numan–Yola–Bama and Bauchi–Gombe highways, and flagged the prolonged inactivity of the Port Harcourt–Maiduguri Eastern Rail Line, which has remained dormant for more than a decade. According to NEF, current rail modernization efforts are predominantly focused in the southern corridor, exacerbating regional disparities.
“The systematic exclusion of Northern Nigeria from major infrastructure investments is not merely an administrative oversight—it constitutes a direct threat to national cohesion,” the Forum stated. “Such inequity entrenches underdevelopment, fuels regional resentment, and undermines the unity of the Federation.”
NEF called for the immediate incorporation of Northern Nigeria into the national infrastructure blueprint and demanded transparency and accountability from the Federal Ministry of Works and the Nigerian Railway Corporation. It also urged Northern lawmakers to secure concrete commitments to correct the identified imbalances.
