Tinubu’s Promise to Include Anambra In National Railway Plan After Soludo Endorsement, and Southeast’s Place in National Development

The recent visit of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu in the state of Anambra was marked both by the great political theater and a renewed examination on the exclusion of the southeast of Nigeria of critical planning of national infrastructure.

Speaking Thursday during a civic reception in Awka, Tinubu announced that the state of Anambra would be included in the national rail development plan. According to a statement published by the presidential spokesman Bayo Onanuga, the president assured that the Ministry of Transport would correct exclusion.

“I am in front of you to say that the Ministry of Transport is aware and will include connection in the master plan and will pay him attention,” Tinubu told Alex Ekwueme Square.

But just as applause has faded, the moment has given way to a deeper national conversation – not only on railways, but on actions, regional policy and long -standing flaws of Nigeria.

This conversation intensified when the governor of the state of Anambra, Charles Soludo, said Tinubu as candidate for the adoptive presidential election of the Great Progressive Alliance (APGA) for the general elections of 2027, although Tinubu is a member of the Congress of the Progressive All Decision (APC).

“In 2011, before joining the APGA in 2013, the party took an official position to support and collaborate with the political party and the government of the center.

“By coincidence, Mr. President, the current government of the center also professes progressivism. Like the first progressive party in Nigeria, APGA is ideologically and strategically aligned with the center. Those of the APC are our brothers and sisters,” he added.

This unprecedented approval, delivered to a civic reception funded by the State, raised critical issues on the integrity of federal development decisions. Many have asked: is the inclusion in the national Nigeria development program is now contingent to support the president’s political ambitions?

Rail projects and regional disparities

The national rail master plan is captured in the 2025 budget, which allocates 400 billion nairas to rail projects in four states – Kano, Kaduna, Ogun and Lagos – without arrangement for a southeast or south -south state.

The breakdown of allowances is as follows:

• 150 billion nairas in Kano state
• 100 billion nairas each in the states of Ogun and Kaduna
• 50 billion nairas in the state of Lagos for the tramway
• An N146.14 billion additional nairas in Lagos for the railway phase of a green line metro 1

This brings the total allocation of Lagos rails to 196.14 billion Nairas, the largest share among the four states. On the other hand, oil producing states like Rivers, Bayelsa, Delta and Akwa Ibom, as well as shopping centers like Anambra, Abia and Enugu, are excluded from any rail investment.

Many believe that this disparity is not accidental. Rather, it reflects a continuity of systemic exclusion which characterized the federal development strategy of Nigeria since after the civil war.

The South-East and South-South regions represent the major part of Nigeria’s oil revenues together, which remains the main source of federal income. However, in the main infrastructure projects, from motorways to railways to energy transmission, the regions would have been frequently left behind.

In 2021, under former President Muhammadu Buhari, the federal government controversially approved the construction of a Kano railway line in Maradi in the Republic of Niger. The project, evaluated at more than $ 1.9 billion, was reported by criticisms as emblematic of sectional favoritism, especially since no corresponding rail investment was planned for the South East.

Some political analysts have criticized what happened in Anambra, arguing that this may create a dangerous precedent where regions must swap their political independence to gain what should be their constitutional right.

It is believed that Tinubu’s decision to include Anambra in the National Railway Plan would have been motivated by policy, mainly, soludo approval of the president’s re -election in 2027.

The cost of marginalization

For many in the Southeast and South-South, the problem is much larger than a single train line. These are about decades of federal negligence that have stifled economic potential, an increase in young people’s unemployment and fueled separatist feelings.

The absence of critical infrastructure of the regions, such as functional maritime ports, is another reference point, leading to the conviction that this underdevelopment is by design, part of a national framework which promotes certain areas while undergoing others.

“The South-South and the South East should vehemently oppose this economic logic that the way of opening trade is to deliberately refuse the diversification of maritime operations in the eastern corridor,” said an economist, Kelvin Emmanuel.

He noted that instead of developing sea ports in the eastern corridor, the federal government builds a coastal road so that the containers and the liquid volume can travel on this road in the back and forth in the sea ports in Lagos.

“APAPA is a river port, and Lekki is the only deep waters in Lagos. Since Kwa Ibom has the shortest shore against the 16 km sea in Nigeria, the eastern corridor is even more suitable for maritime operations than in the western corridor,” he added.

The decisions of progress are supposed to be more political than economic, resulting in a lack of confidence in the Nigerian project and fueling long -standing calls for restructuring or even secession.

Although the commitment of President Tinubu can provide temporary optimism for Anambra, he did not lacade the greatest challenge, whether federal development will never be motivated by needs, merit and equity, rather than political feeling.