What is he coming to promise again? Will he promise to rebuild Tudun Biri, a resettlement scheme that was already completed and commissioned in January 2026, months before his campaign flag-off? Will he promise to complete the Abuja-Kaduna road that his administration revoked, re-awarded at 752 billion naira, and now claims will be finished by November 2026, just in time for the election? Will he promise the Kaduna Light Rail, a project still in the mobilisation phase, with contractors yet to fully break ground? Will he promise the Mando-Birnin Gwari road, flagged off in August 2026 with a 24-month completion window, meaning it will not be finished until after the votes are counted? What exactly is new? What exactly is sincere? What exactly is not a campaign prop?
The Northwest is the de facto capital of poverty in Nigeria. The National Bureau of Statistics reports a multidimensional poverty rate of 75.8 percent in the region, second only to the Northeast. The Cadre Harmonisé report shows 4.2 million people in the Northwest facing crisis-level food insecurity, with projections rising to 5 million in the 2026 lean season. UNICEF data shows primary school net attendance in the Northwest at just 47.3 percent, meaning more than half of school-age children are out of the classroom. Human Rights Watch, citing SBM Intelligence, recorded 2,938 kidnappings in the Northwest between July 2024 and June 2025, over 60 percent of the national total, with Kaduna alone recording 629 cases. Nigeria Watch recorded 3,974 deaths from rural banditry in 2025, more than double the figure for 2024. These are not political talking points. These are institutional figures. And yet, in the face of this avalanche of suffering, the president has been absent.
What will he tell the mother in Tudun Biri who lost her children to a Nigerian drone? What will he tell the father in Kachia whose family was abducted and never returned? What will he tell the farmer in Kajuru who buried his brothers after bandits attacked? What will he tell the flood victim in Zaria who lost everything? What will he tell the millions of out-of-school children roaming the streets of Kaduna while he commissions rail lines in Lagos? What will he tell the hungry, the poor, the abandoned, the forgotten? What will he promise again?
He will promise roads. He will promise rail. He will promise security. He will promise jobs. He will promise a better future. He will promise everything he promised in 2023 and failed to deliver. He will stand on a stage in Kaduna, surrounded by governors and senators and party chieftains, and he will tell the people that he cares. He will tell them that he has not forgotten them. He will tell them that the best is yet to come. And then he will fly back to Lagos, where the projects are real, where the money flows, where his people live.
Kaduna is not a campaign stop. Kaduna is a crime scene. And the man who is coming to campaign there is the same man who ignored the bodies, ignored the abductions, ignored the floods, ignored the hunger, ignored the children, ignored the pain. He ignored it all for three and a half years. Now he wants their votes. What will he promise again? What will he say that has not already been said? What will he do that has not already been abandoned? The people of Kaduna are waiting. But they are not waiting for promises. They are waiting for justice. They are waiting for a president who shows up when it matters, not when it is convenient. They are waiting for a leader who sees their suffering, not one who sees their votes. Will Tinubu be that leader? Or will he come, wave, promise, and disappear again?
Mohammed Bello Doka can be reached via [email protected]
Abuja Network News
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