The Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF), Alhaji Bashir M. Dalhatu, has voiced strong concerns over what he termed the growing marginalisation of Northern Nigeria under the administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

Speaking in Kaduna during a high-level interactive session between Northern civil society groups and senior federal government officials, organised by the Sir Ahmadu Bello Memorial Foundation, Dalhatu reminded the gathering of the North’s pivotal role in Tinubu’s 2023 presidential election victory.

Dalhatu stated, “Despite our support and goodwill, the feeling in the North is, to put it mildly, completely mixed. Key infrastructural projects, budgetary allocations, appointments, and policy decisions have largely sidelined Northern Nigeria.”

Highlighting insecurity as a major challenge, Dalhatu expressed dismay at the rising wave of terrorism, banditry, and kidnappings across the region.

He urged President Tinubu to take “strong, audacious and sustained” measures to address the crisis, including tackling root causes such as youth unemployment and poverty.

On infrastructure, Dalhatu criticised the federal government’s allocation of ₦1.013 trillion to roads in 2025, with only ₦24 billion directed to the North-East. “Not a single strategic road has been completed or maintained in the North in the past 20 years,” he said, listing more than a dozen highways that have been left in disrepair.

Dalhatu lamented the federal government’s limited investment in agriculture, noting that the sector received less than 5% of the national budget in the last two years, far below the Food and Agriculture Organisation’s recommended 25%.

He warned that the government’s recent approval of duty-free food imports had triggered a “collapse of local agro-industrial businesses,” particularly rice mills, crippling the region’s agricultural economy.

On energy, Dalhatu called for a state of emergency in the power sector and demanded the fast-tracking of stalled projects such as the Mambilla Hydro Dam and the Abuja-Kaduna-Kano gas pipeline. He emphasised that the North’s economic development would remain stalled without stable electricity.

Turning to education, he urged the relaunch of the Universal Basic Education scheme, mass teacher training, and compulsory free basic education to address the alarming statistic that over 80% of Nigeria’s 20 million out-of-school children are from the North.

Dalhatu also expressed disappointment over the federal government’s “meagre” commitment to the Ajaokuta Steel Project, despite earlier assurances of progress. He cautioned that an overreliance on public-private partnerships could derail its industrial potential.

The ACF chair accused the government of budgetary discrimination, citing a Ministry of Works report from May 2025 which showed that ₦1.394 trillion was allocated to the Southwest, while the Northwest and Northeast received ₦105 billion and ₦30 billion respectively.

Calling for stronger federal engagement with the region, Dalhatu proposed the creation of a standing ACF-Federal Government Contact Committee, as earlier suggested by President Tinubu, to improve communication and ensure fair representation.

“The Hausa say: ‘Gyara kayanka bai zama sauke mu raba ba’. We criticise not out of mischief, but for the unity and development of Nigeria,” he added.