.The Yoruba Professionals Foundation (YPF) has criticized Northern elders who opposed the decisions to relocate certain departments of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) corporate headquarters from Abuja to Lagos. The Northern elders warned President Bola Ahmed Tinubu that such relocations might impact Northerners' support in the 2027 elections, claiming it to be a strategy to hinder the North's socio-economic activities. YPF responded by stating that Nigeria does not belong to the North alone and that the federal government has the authority to move departments for the collective benefit of the nation.
The Yoruba group highlighted the concentration of about 90 percent of military formations' headquarters in the North, even though the majority of the resources used for constructing these establishments originated from the South. According to Oladapo Kayode, the Director of YPF, Southerners accepted this imbalance against the principles of federal character in the interest of the public. The Yoruba group argued that the relocation from Abuja to Lagos, done in the public interest, was met with resistance from Northern ethnic merchants, contrasting it with the acceptance of the disproportionate distribution of military formations.
YPF's statement, as reported by Sahara Reporters, emphasized that while 90% of military headquarters are in Kaduna, Northern Nigeria, Southerners, who contribute a significant portion of resources for these facilities, accepted this situation for the public good. The Yoruba group criticized the perceived double standard, where a relocation for public interest in Lagos is met with opposition, while the acceptance of military formations' concentration in the North, against federal character principles, went unquestioned.
Hear him: "90% of the headquarters of Nigerian military formations are in Kaduna State, Northern Nigeria. Nigerians from the South who own 90% of the resources used to build the formations sited against the principle of federal character in the North accepted everything in public interest, but a relocation from Abuja to Lagos done in public interest is generating hues and cries from ethnic merchants from the North."
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