Dr. Babangida Aliyu, a former Niger State Governor, has declared that President Bola Tinubu’s administration is delivering a good performance but lacks an effective communication strategy to amplify its achievements to Nigerians.
Aliyu, who also chairs the Board of Trustees of the Sir Ahmadu Bello Memorial Foundation (SABMF), made this known while speaking on a current affairs programme on Arise Television on Thursday, July 31, 2025.
His comments were a reaction to the outcome of a recent public accountability session held in Kaduna – a forum that brought together federal ministers and top government officials to present the Tinubu administration’s performance to northern stakeholders.
The event was organised following ongoing claims from some northern politicians that the current administration is marginalising the region in terms of appointments and developmental projects.
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Reflecting on the discussion at the Kaduna forum, Aliyu concluded that the Tinubu administration is facing public dissatisfaction not because it has failed to deliver but because it’s failing to own its story effectively.
“What I understood from all the discussions that we’ve had is that the government officials are either shy or are not communicating well. You do not depend only on the Ministry of Information to be able to communicate with the citizens,” he said.
“Every minister, every head of parastatal should be able to tell the people what he’s been doing and we saw so many evidence that many parastatals have been doing very well but people are not aware.
“And with the cumulating problems, particularly insecurity, kidnapping and poverty, that I think also dented the government approach to matters. In other words, the government needs to be more of advocate, the government needs to be very straight forward and communicate properly with the people, not paying too much attention to political trends.”
Aliyu says northerners’ demands are normal
The former Governor noted that it’s appropriate for northern political leaders to make demands of Tinubu’s administration, given that the region accounted for the largest share of the votes that brought him to power.
“Let the people understand what is happening on the ground. If by what we say that 63/64 percent of the vote came from the north, it is only logical that the north will be expecting so much from the government. But from what we have seen so far is that the government is doing well but they do not know how to communicate very well,” he added.
Pulse reported that former Kano State Governor, Rabiu Kwankwaso, reignited the alleged northern marginalisation debate after claiming that the current administration is neglecting the region while concentrating the nation’s resources on developing the southern part where Tinubu hails from.
“Let me advise the Federal Government on the distribution of federal resources.
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“From the information available to us, it’s like most of the national budget is now tilting in one direction in this country,” Kwankwaso said while speaking at the Kano State Stakeholders’ Dialogue on the 2025 Constitutional Amendment in the North-West state last Thursday.
