Here is a roundup of some Nigerian newspaper headlines, accompanied by our advocacy-driven demands for government action in addressing citizens’ concerns.
1. Daily Trust: 69 Days after Launch: Farmers Await Federal Government’s Tractors
Daily Trust reports that sixty-nine days after the federal government launched 2,000 tractors and other implements for mechanised farming, they are yet to be distributed to farmers.
This has sparked outrage among farmers’ groups who expressed concerns that this year’s wet season is slipping away.
Our Take: If 2,000 tractors can be launched with all the fanfare of a Nollywood premiere but can’t find their way to the farmers who need them 69 days later, then perhaps they were bought for display in a museum, not the farmlands. We call on President Bola Tinubu to direct the delivery of these tractors now, before the wet season becomes a wasted season and Nigerians are left harvesting promises instead of food.
2. The Guardian: Raw Material Crisis Threatens Industrial Revival, Nigeria First Policy
The Guardian reports that the renewed industrial revival aspiration, alongside President Bola Tinubu’s ‘Nigeria First Policy’, risks implementation challenges as insecurity and infrastructure deficit undermine the moderate gains in the backward integration programme (BIP).
Many manufacturing giants have scaled down considerably or suspended their previous backward integration plans as fiscal headwinds, including insecurity, take a toll on their operations.
Our Take: It is time for the Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment, alongside the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security, to prove that the ‘Nigeria First Policy’ is not just another slogan fit only for conference banners and press releases. If we truly want to buy Nigerian, then Nigeria must first be made a place where producing Nigerian goods is possible, otherwise, the only thing we’ll keep exporting is excuses.
3. Vanguard: No Sabotage in Abuja-Kaduna Train Derailment — Federal Government
The federal government has said there was no sabotage in last week’s Abuja-Kaduna train derailment and emphasised the continued safety of rail services nationwide.
Our Take: Minister Saidu Alkali and the NRC DG, Kayode Opeifa must move beyond press briefings that assure Nigerians of ‘no sabotage’ and instead ensure that the Abuja-Kaduna rail and every other corridor run with world-class safety standards, timely maintenance, and expanded services that don’t depend on ‘patronage mood swings’.
