The Senior Special Assistant to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu on Community Engagement in the Northwest, Abdullahi Yakasai has dismissed claims that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is losing support across Northern Nigeria, describing such assertions as politically motivated by opposition parties ahead of the 2027 elections.

Speaking in an interview with ARISE NEWS on Wednesday, the SSA maintained that the president still enjoys strong backing in the region despite growing criticism from opposition figures.

“For one to say that the political base and the support Mr. President has been having is no more there in the Northwest—I think these are just political negative statements. Honestly, what Mr. President has done, I think the northern part of this country should be happy,” he stated. 

Responding to concerns over worsening living conditions, Yakasai argued that President Tinubu has taken key steps to strengthen governance and development at the grassroots level.

“Mr. President has done his part by leveraging this subsidy money to go to the states and the local governments so there will be developmental strides across the three tiers of government. So my saying here is that the President has done his part by making sure state and local governments get enough funding,” he argued.

According to him, many responsibilities tied to citizens’ welfare fall under state and local governments, not solely the federal government.

“If the structures in the local government are working effectively, people will have a lot of jobs to do. Primary health centers and primary/secondary schools are all under the purview of state and local governments. But people always keep putting blame at the center, which is the federal government,” he said.

Adding, the APC member insisted that APC-controlled state governments are making efforts to improve living conditions, particularly in sectors such as agriculture, healthcare, and infrastructure.

“Mr. President directed that we should also inspect state projects. It is so surprising that a lot is being done in agriculture and healthcare. We’ve seen roads being constructed to ease traffic. Mr. President distributed 20 trucks of rice across the 36 states of the federation. To make sure he cushions the effect of the hardship on the side of the farmers. If you look at students, we have the Student Loan. It’s a game changer.

“Thirdly, in the health sector, the President has removed about 75% of the cost of dialysis in teaching hospitals. A whole lot of equipment is there. Mr. President just recently recruited primary health workers to supervise centers across the 774 local governments. Then on the security aspect, we’ve seen how the National Security Advisor and the security architecture were able, between 2023 and now, to free 11,000 people from captivity. That is a huge milestone,” he outlined.

Responding to allegations by the ADC that the Tinubu administration and APC governors diverted over N800 billion from FAAC allocations for 2027 election preparations, Yakasai dismissed the claims as false and misinterpreted.

“These are mere allegations, and we have come out categorically to deny them. The federal government has categorically denied these allegations. These are mere misrepresentations from the World Bank data. The Minister of Finance, Mr. Wale Edun, has said it: there are deductions, primarily maybe deductions from the Federation Allocation Account, such as tax levies for disbursement or consultancy fees,” he explained.

Addressing demands for a detailed public breakdown of FAAC spending, he said disbursement records are already accessible and that issues often arise from reimbursement processes and the return of unused funds into the federation account.

“We publish them. But where you have issues is because sometimes you get reimbursement into the FAAC account from the MDAs. But if you ask the financial experts at the Ministry of Finance, I’m sure they will be able to give Nigerians all this data,” he explained.

He also insisted that the allegations raised by the ADC remain unproven, stressing that the burden lies on the opposition party to present evidence supporting its claims.

“Since the Minister of Finance has come out to categorically deny these allegations, I think it should be on the ADC to come and prove to Nigerians that they have these records.”

Speaking on the current administration’s borrowing strategy, the SSA defended the strategy, insisting that debt is justified when directed towards productive projects.

“Borrowing is not a crime. If you are going to borrow money to put into a project, and that project becomes sustainable and allows you to pay back the funding by the time the debt is due, I think it is worth borrowing,” he insisted.

On the state of insecurity in Northern Nigeria, Yakasai maintained that the situation is being actively addressed despite its complexity.

“We will tell Nigerians the whole truth. As I said, this insurgency is hard to fight because it is not conventional warfare. I am on some of the committees where we interact with security agencies on this.” 

Addressing concerns about Kano’s political landscape, Yakasai insisted that the APC has consolidated significant grassroots influence in the state, citing widespread defections of local government officials and political actors into the party.

“Out of the 44 local government areas in Kano, all 44 local government chairmen have moved to the APC. All the ward chairmen and the councilors have moved,” he shared.

He also pointed to ongoing federal projects in Kano, including long-abandoned irrigation and infrastructure schemes now being revived, which he said are directly benefiting farmers and local communities. These developments, he said, are strengthening public confidence in the administration across the state.

“We went to his senatorial district and saw a 97-billion-naira project embarked upon by President Tinubu. This was a dam construction project stagnant since the Shagari era. No military or civilian government had come to support the farmers by channeling canals so water could reach their farms 12 months a year. President Tinubu is doing that.

” When we saw the jubilation on the faces of the people there—1,000 farmers getting access to boreholes, motorcycles, and “Keke NAPEP” to move their produce—it was clear. There is also the Jakara-Wuju-Wuju project, a 47-billion-naira contract the state couldn’t handle, which the President intervened in last month. All the people in Kano are aware of this, and they are happy,” he pointed. 

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