“You Are Mistaking Lagos For The North” — ACF, MBF Tackle Tinubu Over ‘North Biggest Beneficiary Of His Gov’t’ Claim
The Arewa Consultative Forum, ACF, and Christians communities in North known as Middle Belt Forum, MBF, have faulted President Bola Tinubu’s claim that Northern Nigeria is the biggest beneficiary of his economic reforms, describing it as surreal, cynical and funny.
The ACF said the President’s assertion does not align with the realities of poverty, insecurity, agriculture collapse and poor infrastructure confronting millions of people in the North.
ACF spokesman, Prof. Tukur Muhammad Baba, said Tinubu failed to provide verifiable details to back the claim.
“The statement is so surreal and even cynical and in sour taste. Well, he may be excused because he neither gave concrete and verifiable details nor said how or in what ways. Perhaps he’s mistaking Lagos for the North,” Baba said.
He queried how the North could be described as the biggest beneficiary when its agriculture “has been brought to its knees by deliberate food imports” and insecurity on which the Federal Government “has been all but utter failure.”
Baba also cited skewed federal appointments in favour of Lagos and the South-West, deplorable roads across the North, a large number of out-of-school children and rising poverty.
“By the glaring evidence of the rising poverty profile of people in the North, being actually Nigeria’s poverty capital where more and more people are impoverished and traumatised by economic and existential challenges by the day?
“The statement, indeed, comes as the most counter-intuitive and this is sad, very sad!” he said.
He advised the President to seek alternative sources of information if his claim was based on briefings from his officials.
“If the President made the statement based on information supplied to him, he needs to resort to alternative sources. Perhaps it is the case that his sources hide the truth from him or that they are bent on ridiculing his government,” Baba added.
Similarly, National President of the Christians communities in the North (MBF), Dr. Bitrus Pogu, described Tinubu’s claim as “funny” and an attempt to score cheap political capital.
“It is unfortunate that a policy that affects the whole of Nigeria would be applied to the benefit, specifically, of a section of the country. Whether it is the North or South, East or West, the policy affects everybody.
“For him to say that Northern Nigeria is the greatest beneficiary is a funny assertion. Politics should go along with some sincerity,” Pogu said.
He argued that fuel subsidy removal and introduction of Compressed Natural Gas, CNG, have not positively impacted Nigerians anywhere.
“The policies he was talking about, the reforms and removal of fuel subsidy, have they impacted the people positively? Have they impacted the North positively, or the country as a whole? I don’t think so,” he said.
“The crude is ours. As far as I am concerned, its price should not be determined by international market forces.”
Tinubu’s claim
President Tinubu had on Monday at the second edition of the Asiwaju Scorecard Series / Policy Roundtable organised by the APC Professionals Forum in Abuja, said the North will be the biggest beneficiary of his reforms and his $1 trillion economy target by 2030.
Represented by APC National Chairman, Prof. Nentawe Yilwatda, Tinubu said his administration inherited fuel subsidy distortions and forex crises but has stabilized the economy, citing $52.7bn external reserves as of August 2026, N16.4trn non-oil revenue in H1 2026, 4.43% GDP growth in Q2 2026 and 15.4% inflation.
He said a five-port corridor linking Lagos, Ondo, Ibom, Rivers and Calabar, plus Lagos-Abuja-Kaduna-Kano rail, Sokoto-Badagry Super Highway and Calabar-Maiduguri Trans-Sahara Highway, will make the North “the next business destination of Nigeria” through trade with Niger, Chad, Burkina Faso and Central African Republic.
Chairman, Board of Trustees of APC Professionals Forum, Dr. Isa Yuguda, said over N15trn has been saved from subsidy removal and warned that Atiku Abubakar’s promise to restore subsidy risks reversing gains.
Meanwhile, Chairman of the Northern Christian Association, Rev. John Hayab, disagreed with ACF and MBF, saying Tinubu is performing better than former President Muhammadu Buhari. He cited ongoing roads like Akwanga-Maiduguri, Jos-Jalingo and Kaduna-Birnin Gwari-Mokwa-Lagos, as well as a Federal University and Federal Medical Centre in Southern Kaduna, and significant northern representation in government, insisting “the North cannot pretend to say that it has not benefited.”
