Welcome to today’s roundup of Nigerian newspaper headlines, accompanied by our advocacy-focused calls for government action on pressing issues that impact citizens.
1. Daily Trust: Experts Link 194,876 Teachers Deficit to Poor Welfare
As Nigeria joined the rest of the world to commemorate the 2025 World Teachers’ Day, the Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT) and education experts expressed deep concern over the worsening state of the country’s education sector, citing an acute shortage of qualified teachers, poor welfare conditions, and inadequate funding.
Our Take: The Federal Ministry of Education and state governments must stop treating teachers like background extras in the movie of nation-building and start giving them the lead roles they deserve. With a deficit of nearly 200,000 teachers and welfare promises gathering dust, Nigeria cannot continue to chant ‘education is the key’ while leaving the teachers who hold the key unpaid and undervalued.
2. The Guardian: Fresh Violence, Mass Displacement Test Government’s Grip on Security
The Guardian reports that as kidnappings, killings, and displacement sweep across multiple states, Nigerians may have begun losing faith in the federal government’s ability to protect them.
Consequently, lawyers, youth groups, and opposition parties have demanded urgent intervention, warning that without decisive action, insecurity could further erode public trust and destabilise the nation.
Our Take: The Presidency, the National Security Advisor, the Inspector-General of Police, and the Chief of Defence Staff must stop holding endless ‘high-level meetings’ while citizens are packing their bags to flee their homes. When fear becomes the new postcode in communities like Oro-Ago, it’s no longer a matter of routine press statements but a wake-up call for real, coordinated action. It’s time these authorities prove that their job titles are more than ceremonial by deploying adequate security personnel, strengthening intelligence operations, and restoring safety to communities where governance now feels like a rumour.
3. Leadership: Alleged Certificate Forgery: Pressure Mounts On Science Minister Nnaji To Resign
Leadership reports that pressure is mounting on the minister of science, technology and innovation, Uche Nnaji, to resign from his cabinet position over an alleged certificate forgery.
Two prominent Civil Society Organisations (CSOs), the Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC) and Transparency International Nigeria, have called on the minister, who is involved in the certificate scandal, to resign and apologise to the nation.
Our Take: Minister Uche Nnaji should do the honourable thing, step aside, clear his name, and apologise to Nigerians rather than drag the integrity of his office through the mud. When the person charged with driving innovation is allegedly ‘innovating’ certificates, it’s time to pause and reset. Also, the Presidency and the Federal Character Commission must also stop treating governance like a family-and-friends enterprise and start enforcing strict, merit-based recruitment at all levels. If integrity remains optional in public service, we might as well rename the Ministry of Science and Technology to the Ministry of Creative Documentation.
4. Vanguard: SERAP to Governors: Account for N14 Trillion Fuel Subsidy Savings
Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) has urged Nigeria’s 36 state governors and the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike to ‘urgently disclose the spending details of the estimated N14trn fuel subsidy savings they collected from FAAC allocations, including details and locations of projects executed with the money, and the implementation status and completion reports, if any, on the projects’.
SERAP urged them to ‘provide details of the plans on how subsequent fuel subsidy savings they expect to collect from FAAC allocations, including details of any planned projects on which the money would be spent’.
Our Take: Transparency isn’t optional, hence Nigeria’s 36 governors and FCT Minister Nyesom Wike must immediately publish a full breakdown of how the N14 trillion fuel subsidy savings have been spent, project by project, naira by naira. This is public money, not party souvenir.
