There is an increasing tendency among sections of the Northern political establishment to blame President Bola Ahmed Tinubu for the worsening economic and social conditions in Northern Nigeria. While the present administration cannot escape responsibility for its policies and performance, it is important that we distinguish between problems inherited by a government and those created by it.
The poverty, educational backwardness, insecurity and general underdevelopment of much of Northern Nigeria did not begin with Tinubu’s Presidency. They are the consequences of decades of poor governance, misplaced priorities, political complacency, corruption and the failure of successive Northern political leaders to invest adequately in their people.
For many years, the North had considerable access to political power at the federal level. What did it do with that opportunity? Why did successive administrations fail to address mass illiteracy, unemployment, poor healthcare, agricultural underdevelopment and the growing population of out-of-school children? These are questions the Northern political establishment must answer before conveniently transferring the blame to the present President.
The security situation also has a history. Boko Haram emerged long before Tinubu became President, and the insurgency has since expanded into a wider security crisis involving banditry, kidnapping and other violent criminal activities. These problems cannot reasonably be attributed to an administration that inherited them. Of course, the present government must be judged by what it is doing to contain them.
What is particularly disturbing is the attempt to turn these legitimate grievances into an electoral weapon. As the 2027 elections approach, some political interests appear more concerned with finding a convenient person to blame than examining the circumstances that produced the present situation.
There is nothing wrong with opposing Tinubu or supporting Atiku Abubakar or any other candidate. That is democracy. But political choices should be based on competence, ideas, records and credible programmes, not merely religious affinity, ethnic sentiment or the assumption that power must return to a particular region.
The North must be careful not to confuse political solidarity with genuine development. Having a Northerner in the Presidency does not automatically translate into prosperity for Northern Nigerians. The region has had its opportunities, and it must honestly examine what was achieved with them.
My position is simple: Tinubu should be held accountable for his own decisions, but he should not be made the scapegoat for decades of accumulated failures. The Northern political elite must accept its share of responsibility. It cannot spend years presiding over a system that produced poverty and insecurity and then pretend to be an innocent observer when the consequences become too obvious to ignore.
The North needs a serious development agenda, not another round of political blame-shifting. It needs investment in education, agriculture, industry, infrastructure, security and human capital. These are the issues that should determine its political choices in 2027.
A region that refuses to confront the causes of its problems will continue to change political leaders without changing its circumstances. The North must first have the courage to examine itself.
JD.Ephraim.
5/11/2026