The Arewa Consultative Forum, ACF, Middle Belt Forum, MBF, and Northern Christians yesterday disagreed over President Bola Tinubu’s claim that Northern Nigeria remained the biggest beneficiary of his economic reforms
While ACF and MBF described the President’s claim as surreal and cynical, having made the North the poverty capital of Nigeria, Northern Christians disagreed, saying Tinubu is doing better than the late Muhammadu Buhari did as president, insisting that the North is benefiting from reforms of the present government.
President Tinubu and All Progressives Congress, APC, had restated that removal of fuel subsidy by his administration was a difficult but necessary decision that redirected national resources into productive sectors, saying the North is the biggest beneficiary of the reforms.
This was as the APC pushed back against a proposal by former Vice President and African Democratic Congress, ADC, presidential candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, that he would restore the subsidy regime, if elected at the 2027 elections.
Indeed, the ADC concurred with Atiku yesterday, saying it remains committed to restoring fuel subsidy, describing the policy as a key part of its strategy to address the rising cost of living in the country.
This position was canvassed by the National Chairman of the APC, Prof. Nentawe Yilwatda, who represented President Tinubu at the second edition of the Policy Roundtable organised by the APC Professionals Forum, tagged the Asiwaju Scorecard Series, with the theme: “Dissecting the Renewed Hope Deliverables and Achievements,” yesterday.
Tinubu said his administration inherited “fuel subsidy distortions, multiple exchange-rate windows, weak revenue mobilisation, foreign-exchange shortages, rising debt-service pressures and years of inadequate investment in critical infrastructure” when Tinubu took office on May 29 2023.
He said gross external reserves had risen to about $52.7 billion by August 2026, while consolidated non-oil revenue grew from roughly ₦13.63 trillion in 2023 to ₦16.4 trillion in the first two quarters of 2026.
The President added that the merchandise trade position improved from a surplus of about ₦44.8 billion for all of 2023 to approximately ₦7.54 trillion in the first quarter of 2026 alone, with real Gross Domestic Product, GDP, growing by 4.43 per cent in the second quarter of 2026 and inflation easing to about 15.4 percent.
He linked the improved figures to his administration’s $1 trillion economy target by 2030, tying it to plans for an integrated five-port maritime and logistics corridor connecting Lagos, Ondo, Ibom, Port Harcourt and Calabar, complemented by rail and road links such as the Lagos-Abuja-Kaduna-Kano corridor, the Sokoto-Badagry Super Highway and the proposed Calabar-Maiduguri Trans-Sahara Super Highway.
He said: “The biggest beneficiaries of this economy will be the Northern part of Nigeria, because they will now be trading with countries, trading with Niger, trading with Chad, trading with Burkina Faso, trading with Southern Sudan, trading with Northern Cameroon, trading with Central African Republic… The North is the next business destination of Nigeria.”
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