• Says Kaduna, North will repay President with votes
From Juliana Taiwo-Obalonye, Kaduna
Kaduna State Governor, Uba Sani, has challenged opposition politicians seeking to unseat President Bola Tinubu in the 2027 election to present their records in office, insisting that northern extraction alone is not enough to earn voters’ support.
Sani, who declared that the North would repay Tinubu with votes, argued that the President’s interventions in road infrastructure, security, education, healthcare and agriculture provided evidence of his administration’s performance.
The governor spoke on Saturday at the Ahmadu Bello Stadium, Kaduna, during the All Progressives Congress Presidential Campaign Flag-off, where he welcomed Tinubu and other party leaders.
“When someone comes to us and says we should vote for him simply because he is a northerner, we ask him: can you show us your track record?” Sani said.
He added that opposition candidates had yet to demonstrate comparable achievements, particularly in road construction and development in the North-East.
The governor recalled that Tinubu, then a presidential candidate, visited Birnin Gwari Local Government Area of Kaduna State on December 22, 2022, despite security concerns over the area.
According to him, the journey from Kaduna to Birnin Gwari took four hours, with the candidate escorted by 27 armoured vehicles.
Sani said Tinubu made two major promises during the visit: to reconstruct the 123-kilometre Kaduna-Birnin Gwari Road, which he said had been abandoned for more than 40 years, and to tackle insecurity along the corridor.
He claimed that both promises were being fulfilled, disclosing that ₦170 billion had been released to the contractor handling the road project.
“Today, you can travel to Birnin Gwari with your eyes closed without a single police escort. That is progress, Mr President,” he said.
The governor also said that, when he assumed office in 2023, insecurity had forced the closure of more than 300 schools and over 150 primary healthcare centres across eight local government areas in Kaduna State.
He said all the affected schools and healthcare centres had since reopened, attributing the development to improved security.
On other infrastructure projects, Sani said work had commenced on the Zaria-Soba-Pambegua Road, following Tinubu’s intervention.
He also disclosed that $865 million had been approved for the Kaduna metropolitan rail project, adding that the contractor had informed him that $300 million had been released for the project.
Sani further praised the Federal Government’s commitment to the Abuja-Kaduna-Kano Expressway, describing it as a strategic route linking 12 states across the North-West, North-Central and North-East and connecting northern Nigeria to the South.
He said the road project, which he put at ₦740 billion, had recorded substantial progress, with 95 per cent of the section under reference completed.
The governor argued that improved security along the Abuja-Kaduna corridor had helped restore confidence in road travel, claiming that many supporters who attended the rally travelled by road without experiencing kidnapping incidents.
Beyond infrastructure, Sani cited federal education and skills-development interventions as evidence of Tinubu’s impact in the North.
He said the North-West had received ₦84 billion under the Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND), benefiting about 414,000 students.
He also said 34,000 artisans across the region had benefited from the Federal Government’s skills-development initiative, with support for training and starter kits.
Sani commended Tinubu’s support for agriculture, saying the administration had provided assistance to subnational governments to strengthen agricultural production and livelihoods.
The governor urged northern voters to assess political candidates based on their records rather than regional identity.
He also alleged that opposition parties had shifted from campaigning on social media platforms to using artificial intelligence-generated content, urging APC supporters to remain vigilant against what he described as misleading material.
“The opposition are only campaigning with AI, no real campaign,” he said.
Sani concluded by expressing confidence that voters in Kaduna and across northern Nigeria would support Tinubu in the 2027 election, citing the President’s infrastructure and social-sector interventions as reasons for the party’s appeal in the region.
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