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: Contractors Protest at National Assembly for Second Day
Daily Trust reports that indigenous contractors continued their protest at the National Assembly on Wednesday, lamenting what they termed the failure of the federal government to pay them for projects executed since 2024.
Our Take: President Tinubu and the Minister of Finance might want to take a stroll to the National Assembly, not for a committee hearing, but to meet the real victims of delayed governance: contractors turned protesters. When those who built classrooms, roads, and boreholes now sleep on the streets demanding payment, it is a national irony. If the government can find billions for foreign firms and political jamborees, surely it can spare some naira for the Nigerians who actually did the work. Pay the contractors, before the next infrastructure project becomes building tents for unpaid citizens.
2. The Guardian: Presidency, Manufacturers Agree on Privatisation of PH, Other Refineries
Director-General of the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN), Segun Ajayi-Kadir, has called for the full privatisation of all government-owned refineries, saying it is evident that the country may never succeed in restoring them to functionality under the present dispensation.
Also, Special Advisor to President Bola Tinubu on Energy, Olu Verheijen, said the Federal Government is open to selling the refineries of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL).
Our Take: President Bola Tinubu, in your dual role as Minister of Petroleum, and Minister of State for Petroleum (Oil), Heineken Lokpobiri, since even the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria and your own energy adviser, Olu Verheijen, now agree that privatisation is the way forward, maybe it is time to trade sentiment for sense.
The refineries have spent years perfecting the art of consuming money without producing a drop of fuel, maybe, just maybe, it is time to privatise them and let competence, not committees, do the refining.
3. Leadership: N6trn Subsidy Debt: Power Generation Firms Seek Clear Payment Framework From Government
Leadership reports that power generation companies (GenCos) in Nigeria are pressing the federal government for a clear and sustainable payment framework to address the alarming N6 trillion debt burden suffocating the sector.
Despite a critical investors’ meeting with the President on July 25, 2025, the Chief Executive Officer of the Association of Power Generation Companies (APGC), Dr. Joy Ogaji, revealed that there remains “no clarity on the bond issuance since July,” as the sector continues to bleed financially.
Our Take: Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu, with a N6 trillion subsidy debt strangling GenCos and no clear payment plan in sight, your ministry risks turning ‘power sector reform’ into a bedtime joke. It is time to switch from talk to transfer. Set up a transparent, workable payment framework now, before the only power left in Nigeria is the one used to complain about power.