From Adetutu Folasade-Koyi and Romanus Ugwu, Abuja

The Federal Government has boasted that President Bola Tinubu will campaign and win the 2027 presidential election based on his landmark infrastructural achievements across the country.

Presidential media team led by spokesperson, Bayo Onanuga, maintained that President Tinubu’s visible achievements in the areas of health, railway transportation, students loan scheme, among others will propel the Nigerian electorate to re-elect him seamlessly.

They dismissed insinuations that President Tinubu did not keep his campaign promise to the north, stressing that he has recorded tangible achievements to win their votes next year.

The presidential media team further boasted that unlike in the 2023 presidential election when he won riding on the crest of the late Muhammadu Buhari-led All Progressives Congress (APC) achievements, he will be campaigning and winning based on his achievements.

“We are trying to showcase all the achievement of Mr. President, articulate them and bring them to the whole Nigeria for them to see that a lot has been done in the last three years,” Tunde Rahman, Director of Media of Renew Hope Ambassadors, who was part of the briefing said, adding: “You know, as opposed to 2023 when he was elected essentially based on his credentials and what APC under President Buhari had done, this time around, he will be running on his own achievements, and we are saying that a lot has been done.

“A lot of people have said that the president has not kept his promise with the North. This is not correct, and you will see for yourself the project that the reforms put in place by Mr. President back in the north, in the area of works, road network, in the area of health, health facilities that have been put in place, and the transportation to the rail system. You will see the rail system from Kano down to Maradi, the progress of work that has been done there,” he said.

On his part, Rabiu Ibrahim, Special Assistant to the Minister of Information and National Orientation, said: “The government of President Tinubu sometime earlier this year actually commissioned the National Oncology or Cancer Centre, one of six across Nigeria.

“In terms of agriculture, for which the northern region is very well known in terms of lands, the Bank of Agriculture, which was weakly capitalised in the past, now has a capitalisation down to the tune of N1.5 trillion. This is unprecedented. Now it’s for farmers and people in agriculture and stakeholders to understand policies of government and drive within. And there is no big deal about that. Rather than anyone sitting down late, thinking nothing else is happening, agriculture is big. The financing and facilitation for agriculture is very big for this government.

“In terms of housing and transportation and what my friend alluded to, which is the NELFUND, it will surprise you or if you read very well, you realise that for all those who are beneficiaries of NELFUND in Nigeria, the statistics and data show that there are more northerners, northern young men and women in universities. This is unprecedented,” he said.

Director of Rail Transport Services, Ministry of Transportation, Finbarr Zirra, in his update said “the indirect effects from the train line is so enormous that by the time we start coming, we will feel the impact in other sectors. There will be dry ports along the line, so that we’ll be able to harness all those activities or commercial investment towards ensuring that with seamless effort, we’re able to bring them together. The train sector, if you say that it is cheaper compared to others, as you speak, even though it’s not just Kano, but it’s the ministry and us, they know that government alone would not be able to fund the train sector. Most of the time, when you ask people, how much money are you making? Well, we make money, but the effect is felt much more in other sectors.

“Now, there’s a high-speed train being proposed, and the cost of investment is about N200 billion by the private sector. That time, we start from Lagos to Kano, and then also Lagos to Port Harcourt, Port Harcourt to Kano. So you can see that Kano, northwest is central to what the government is doing – investing so much in that region.

“About $2 billion is being put into the Kano-Maradi railway project… is another huge investment. And like I said, it’s a standard gauge because the colonial masters built what we call narrow. This one is a standard gauge. The difference between this one is that it’s faster and it’s modern,” he said, lamenting that insecurity is constituting a very serious challenge to the plan to record more successes in that sector.

“Insecurity around the railway lines is a worrisome concern. We are really constrained with major concern about insecurity particularly the Abuja, Kaduna railway line. At a time it was impassable because of insecurity. People have vandalised most of the tracks.

“As we speak today, the stealing on the railway lines is a major problem. Even with the ongoing Kaduna-Kano line, insecurity is a major problem. The same way they are vandalising manhole covers is what they are doing to the railway lines, particularly the clips we use in joining the railway lines. It became so shameful that we even contacted a Chinese company to give us anti theft but they wondered what that means because they cannot understand how a normal human being can be vandalising public infrastructure. Most of the materials around some corridors have been vandalised. At a point, we had to use a manual method but they still removed everything.

“We are now exploring the option of using the communities living around the railway corridors to protect the lines and salvage the situation but we also noticed that the sense of ownership is not there. The modern one we are exploring now is to do the type we will use a special key and we hope they will not find a solution to it,” he noted.

“Tinubu has done well but it is very important that these achievements be taken to the grassroots where the ordinary Nigerians in the village can understand that they are projects executed by the federal government.

“We are aware of the Abuja Kaduna Kano gas project which is almost concluded. And when it is concluded, gas industries along that axis will come back to life.

“Many of the infrastructural projects have been significantly concluded. The children of the poor can now rely on the opportunity provided by the NELFUND to seamlessly graduate. We can boldly say that President Tinubu will campaign and win the 2027 presidential election based on his landmark achievements.”