Welcome to Tuesday’s roundup of Nigerian newspaper headlines, where we scan the papers and then gently remind power that citizens are still awake.
1. Daily Trust: FCT Grounded as Workers’ Strike Enters Day Six
Abuja has basically gone into low-power mode as the Joint Union Action Committee (JUAC) strike entered its second week. Since last Monday, workers of the FCTA and FCDA have been on an indefinite strike over five months of unpaid wage awards and 14 other demands, and the effect has been immediate, AGIS, AEPB, the FCT Water Board and other agencies all shut their doors. To make the point even clearer, teachers and local government workers under NUT and NULGE joined in, bringing academic activities in primary and secondary schools across the six area councils to a halt.
Our Take: At this point, the silence from the very top is loud. The Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, the FCT Administration, and the six Area Council chairmen must step out of observer mode and act. This strike is no longer an internal labour issue, it is a full shutdown of Abuja’s daily life. If leadership means anything, now is the time to convene JUAC, approve the payments, and resolve the outstanding issues.
2. The Guardian: Residents on the brink as rents spike above yearly income in major cities
The Guardian reports that rent across much of southern Nigeria has quietly climbed to a new peak, and for many residents, affordability has simply packed its bags and left. From Lagos to Ogun, Oyo, Ekiti, Osun, Ondo, Akwa Ibom, Delta and Bayelsa, the housing market is feeling the strain of a chaotic real sector and young families and low-income earners, especially those living on the N70,000 minimum wage or just slightly above it, are finding it nearly impossible to keep up with landlords’ demands.
Our Take: At this point, Nigerians should stop whispering their rent woes and start demanding answers, loudly, from the people paid to fix them – state governors, commissioners for housing, state housing corporations, and the Federal Ministry of Housing and Urban Development under Minister Ahmed Dangiwa. Nigerians must insist on rent regulation frameworks, accelerated public housing for low- and middle-income earners, transparent land allocation processes, and real incentives for affordable housing developers, not policy documents that live only on shelves.
3. Punch: Military investigation ends: DHQ moves to arraign alleged coup plotters
The Defence Headquarters says any military officers found culpable after investigations into alleged misconduct—including claims of a plot to overthrow the government—will face trial before a military judicial panel, stressing that the matter is being handled in-house.
Our Take: President Bola Tinubu and the DHQ must ensure that any military judicial panel is not only swift but fair, public enough to inspire confidence. If the allegations are serious enough to cancel an Independence Day parade, then they are serious enough to be conclusively addressed, because national security is too important for guesswork, and Nigerians deserve more than whispers, denials, and a promise that the truth will emerge ‘at the appropriate time’.
