Nigeria, Sept. 1 -- Who is keeping the people of northern Nigeria down? How can the people of the region be rescued from the vice grip of poverty suffocating their social, political and economic life?

These are the questions that come to mind when one considers the recent alarm raised by the leader of the New Nigeria People's Party (NNPP), Rabiu Musa Kwakwanso, supported by several socio-political groups in the North, that the federal government was marginalising the northern region of the country.

Kwankwaso alleged that the Tinubu administration was sidelining the northern region and that national resources were being disproportionately channelled towards developing southern Nigeria. He attributed the endemic poverty and insecurity in ...