The Katsina Elders’ Forum has urgently called upon Chief Bola Tinubu to halt the proposed relocation of the refurbished airport rescue and firefighting vehicles project from the Umaru Musa Yar’Adua International Airport in Katsina to the south or face consequences by 2027.
This collective of Katsina State senior citizens, representing the forum, also cautioned the president against transferring select departments of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) to the southern region.
Aliyu Mohammed, the secretary of the forum, addressed journalists in Katsina following a closed-door meeting, highlighting their resolutions. He condemned the relocation as a deliberate attempt to undermine the socio-economic dynamics of northern Nigeria.
According to Mohammed, the contractor overseeing the airport project penned a letter to the Minister of Aviation, Festus Keyamo, advocating for relocation due to unsubstantiated reasons.
He further asserted that President Tinubu, influenced by what he termed adversaries of Nigeria’s unity, was misguided in considering the relocation of the Katsina airport project, CBN departments, and FAAN facilities to the southern region.
Mohammed said: “Therefore, we are warning Mr. Bola Ahmed Tinubu, as long as he is interested in coming back in 2027, as long as he is interested in the votes of the Northerners, to reverse these unconstitutional decisions. Whoever is advising him to take such decisions is an enemy of the country.
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“Such a person is not interested in the Nigeria project. And the North is not afraid of telling Tinubu to his face that we are not ready to re-elect him in 2027 once he starts moving all these critical departments to Lagos.”
He, however, alleged the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, of deploying all tactics to infiltrate Abuja with kidnappers to fine-tune the federal government plan of relocating such projects.
According to him, “The FCT Minister is inviting the Israelis to come and provide security to Abuja. We have never known anything like kidnapping in Abuja until Wike came into Abuja as a minister.”
The forum’s secretary urged President Tinubu to prioritize addressing the numerous security challenges plaguing the North instead of transferring economic-boosting projects from the region to other areas of the country.
“Despite the insecurity situation in the North, Tinubu is not making any effort to curb the insecurity and is moving all these departments,” he added.