Presidency rejects N’West neglect claims, lists projects

KEY POINTS

• The presidency has rejected claims that President Tinubu has neglected the North West.
• Officials cited a $2 billion Kano-Maradi standard-gauge rail project that is now 60 percent complete.
• The Renewed Hope Ambassadors will tour the region starting in Kaduna to showcase the administration’s projects.

President Bola Tinubu’s office has hit back at the narrative that he has neglected the North West, pointing to a $2 billion standard-gauge rail project, hospitals, road networks and other infrastructure investments rolling out across the region.

The presidency made the case Monday at a pre-tour media briefing in Abuja, where the Renewed Hope Ambassadors hosted reporters. The group plans a nationwide project showcase tour that will kick off in Kaduna and other North West states.

A direct response to the critics

Tunde Rahman, the senior special assistant to the president on media and special duties, said the visit aims to push back on the perception that the president had not kept faith with the region. He doubles as the RHA’s director of media and publicity.

“A lot of people are saying that the President has not kept his promise with the North. This is not correct,” Rahman said.

Furthermore, Rahman framed the tour as the principal vehicle for the president’s re-election campaign. The RHA, he said, is consolidating the administration’s three-year record into a single message Nigerians can see and verify for themselves.

Closing the information gap

Specifically, Bayo Onanuga, special adviser to the president on information and strategy, said the tour was a direct response to an information gap that has allowed skepticism about the administration’s performance to flourish.

“If we don’t blow our trumpet, no one will blow it for us. We are carrying the media along so they can see for themselves the many projects being done across the country,” Onanuga said.

The rail at the center

Notably, Finbarr Zirra, director of rail transport service at the Federal Ministry of Transportation, walked the room through the railway program. He said the North West is emerging as the geographic centerpiece of a broader national rail integration push under Tinubu, anchoring the administration’s transport agenda.

Specifically, the Kano-Katsina-Maradi extension covers about 400 kilometers of new standard-gauge rail running from Kano through Katsina to Jibia, then 40 kilometers into Niger Republic. Zirra said the project is now 60 percent complete, with earthworks substantially underway.

Furthermore, a 100-kilometer branch line from Kano to Dutse is part of the same package. Once complete, Kano will become a multi-modal hub linking the Lagos-Kano main line, Kano-Maradi international line, Kano-Katsina branch and Kano-Dutse line.

“One movement of a fully loaded train will take approximately 30 trucks off the road. If we are able to do that consistently, the impact on road maintenance, logistics costs and the cost of goods will be enormous,” Zirra said.

A digital pitch to voters

Meanwhile, the briefing follows the recent unveiling of the RHA’s website and digital repository, which catalog Tinubu’s milestones. Imo State Governor Hope Uzodimma, who chairs the RHA, has framed the platform as a verified information hub to counter misinformation directly.

With Tinubu’s 2027 re-election campaign now formally underway, the showcase tour is the administration’s bet that physical evidence and a coordinated communications push can outpace the narrative that the North West has been ignored. Whether voters in Kaduna, Kano, Katsina and beyond accept the pitch will likely shape the next phase.