A former member of the House of Representatives, Hon Bamidele Faparusi, has slammed former Governor of Kano State, Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso over accusation against President Bola Ahmed Tinubu that the projects being executed by his administration favoured the Southern Nigeria.
Puncturing the claim, Faparusi, a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress, posited that the North was far more favoured in President Tinubu’s government in project execution, even than the Southwest, where major federal road linking the zone are now in deplorable conditions.
The former Kano State Governor and chieftain of the New Nigerian Peoples Party, had at an event on Friday, alleged that the projects being executed by President Tinubu’s favoured the Southern part of the country than the Northern Nigeria, which had elicited reactions across the nation.
In a statement in Ado Ekiti on Tuesday, Faparusi stated that Kaduna-Abuja, Katsina-Kano, Sokoto-Katsina, Sokoto-Badagry super highway and many other road projects, were being undertaken across the North, when the entire Southwest federal roads, besides the Ibadan-Lagos Highway are laced with craters and gorges.
Faparusi clarified that while not defending a president being biased against any section of the country, he said it was obvious to every Nigerian that the late President Muhammadu Buhari favoured the North in appointments and projects during his eight years presidency.
The former lawmaker appealed to Tinubu’s administration to pay attention to the deplorable state of the federal roads in the Southwest region, especially in Ekiti State, where all the 12 federal roads have collapsed and become boot traps to motorists.
“His Excellency, Rabiu Kwankwaso should know that the North is taking the larger chunk of project attention under President Tinubu’s government.
“Evidence abound that major highways in the Southwest where the president hailed like Ado-Akure, Lagos-Abeokuta, Ekiti-Lokoja, Ibadan-Akure highway, Osogbo-Ibadan, Ibadan-Abeokuta and many others are now unpassable for motorists”.
He asked Kwankwaso to controvert the position of the presidency on his allegation and challenged the projects reeled out in each of the geopolitical by the federal government to further corroborate his accusation.
The APC Chieftain challenged Kwankwaso to come up with accurate data to convince Nigerians that his claim was truthful and made with honesty.
Faparusi added that the trajectory of President Tinubu’s political history was devoid of unwarranted ethnicity, saying his cabinet as a Lagos State Governor was branded as a “mini Nigeria”, because it comprised people from all ethnic nationalities.
The former Federal lawmaker said Kwankwaso made the statement to cheaply curry the favour of Northern voters, particularly now that he erroneously perceives himself as Northern political leader sequel to the demise of President Muhammadu Buhari.
“This Statement was laced with bile that the projects being executed by President Tinubu favour the South. The projects reeled out by the presidency and the Minister of Works were enough to puncture whatever former Kano State Governor, Rabiu Kwankwaso had said, except if he could controvert the facts contained therein.
“I want to caution the NNPP leader to stop acting irresponsibly just because he has wrongly started posturing as the Northern political leader just because of the death of President Buhari.
” If you want to be a leader, be one that is responsible, that can unite and don’t be divisive by making incendiary comments.
“His Excellency, Rabiu Kwankwaso should know that he is making frantic efforts to be President of Nigeria, and not that of the Northern extraction only.
“President Tinubu as a Lagos State Governor appointed people from all ethnic backgrounds into his cabinet. He proved that he was pan-Nigerian. How can he now change to be ethnic biased as a President even when he didn’t do such as a Governor?”, Faparusi asked.
Faparusi added that most of the known and vociferous critics from the North never accused President Tinubu of favouring the South in project execution, saying their major grouse had always been that the removal of fuel subsidy was biting harder in that axis of the country, than the south.