by Mohammed Bello Doka
The truth is uncomfortable, but it must be said plainly and without apology: the North’s greatest danger is not an external enemy. It is internal greed, silence, and complicity.
For years, Northern Nigeria has perfected the art of blaming outsiders—southerners, presidents, regions, conspiracies—while refusing to confront a far more damning reality: those who speak in the North’s name have consistently traded its future for personal access to power.
This is not rhetoric. The numbers are there. The votes are there. The budgets are there. The silence is there.
The Votes That Built Power — and the Expectations They Created
In the 2023 presidential election, President won 8,794,726 votes nationwide. Of that total, between 63 and 65 percent—about 5.6 to 5.8 million votes—came from the North.
Kano delivered 517,341 votes.
Katsina delivered 482,283.
Kaduna delivered 399,293.
Borno delivered 252,282.
Without these votes, there would be no presidency. The North was not a minor partner; it was the backbone of the victory. Expectations were therefore not imagined—they were earned.
The Budget Reality the North Pretends Not to See
Let us talk figures, not feelings.
The 2024 federal budget stood at ₦28.7 trillion.
The 2025 budget followed at ₦27.5 trillion.
Yet agriculture—the economic spine of Northern Nigeria—received:
- ₦362 billion in 2024 (1.26% of the total budget)
- ₦395 billion in 2025 (1.4%)
International benchmarks recommend 10%.
This is not marginalisation by accident. This is policy sustained by approval.
Northern governors sit on the National Economic Council. Northern lawmakers dominate key committees in the . These budgets passed with over 90% legislative support, including overwhelming votes from Northern representatives.
No walkout.
No bloc vote.
No rebellion.
No lawsuit.
Silence. Approval. Compliance.
Infrastructure: Where the Money Is Actually Going
While the North debates emotions, hard infrastructure is being cemented elsewhere.
Between 2023 and 2025, the federal government:
- Flagged off the Lagos–Calabar Coastal Highway in May 2024
- Secured between $1.12 and $1.26 billion in financing for its first phases
- Approved ₦1.65 trillion for sections passing through the South-West
- Approved ₦712.3 billion to overhaul Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos
- Advanced the Sokoto–Badagry Superhighway, with its economic gravity ending in Lagos
At the same time:
- FAAN headquarters was moved from Abuja back to Lagos in January 2024
- CBN departments were redeployed to Lagos
- A new Bank of Industry headquarters was approved for Eko Atlantic
These are not symbols. They are foundations of future power.
Power, Poverty and the Geography of Neglect
Northern Nigeria today receives 6–8 hours of electricity daily on average. Southern urban centres receive 12–18 hours.
Nigeria’s power grid collapsed 12 times in 2023 and 8 times in 2024, with Northern feeders the first to be shed each time.
Poverty figures are brutal:
- North-West: ~49% multidimensional poverty
- North-East: ~46%
- South-West: ~13%
Security is worse:
- About 70% of banditry incidents occur in the North-West and North-Central
- Over 3.2 million internally displaced persons are overwhelmingly Northern
Yet defence spending rose to ₦3.25 trillion in 2024 and ₦3.5 trillion in 2025—with no structural shift in outcomes.
Again: knowledge without resistance equals complicity.
The Governors and Lawmakers Who Cannot Claim Ignorance
Northern governors are not spectators. They are not victims. They are actors.
They:
- Attend NEC meetings
- Receive allocation tables
- Review security briefings
- Approve budgets
- Mobilise lawmakers
The Northern Governors’ Forum issued no collective rejection of these allocations. No emergency summit. No constitutional challenge. Public endorsement replaced public defence of regional interests.
This is not weakness. It is choice.
The Youth, the Influencers, the Campaigners — and the Lie They Sold Themselves
Now to the most tragic layer of all.
Thousands of Northern youths, social media influencers, online warriors and so-called support group leaders threw themselves into defending the administration—even while the data stared them in the face.
They saw the budgets.
They saw the projects.
They saw the relocations.
Yet they shouted louder.
Why?
Because they believed the oldest lie in Nigerian politics: “endure now, your turn will come later.”
It will not.
The national cake is not distributed by loyalty tweets, hashtags, or blind defence. It is distributed by institutional power, and the North is surrendering that power one approval at a time.
The Media Failure That Sealed the Narrative Against the North
Perhaps the most unforgivable negligence is media.
For decades, Northern elites failed to invest seriously in modern, aggressive, data-driven media. No strong continental platforms. No sustained investigative outlets. No coordinated narrative machinery.
The result?
- Other regions frame national conversations
- Northern issues are explained about the North, never by the North
- When crisis comes, the North is already guilty in the court of public opinion
This is not coincidence. Narratives follow investment. Influence follows preparation.
The Final Truth the North Must Face
The North will not be destroyed by Tinubu.
It will not be destroyed by the South.
It will not be destroyed by outsiders.
It will be destroyed—if it is destroyed at all—by Northern elites who chose access over legacy, silence over strategy, greed over preparation.
History does not forgive regions that refuse to confront themselves.
The handwriting is not just on the wall.
It is written in budgets, power lines, highways, agency headquarters, and voting records.
And it is crystal clear.
Mohammed Bello Doka can be reached via [email protected]