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: Tinubu Seeks Fresh $2.3 Billion Loan
President Bola Tinubu has written to the House of Representatives seeking its approval to raise a total of $2.347 billion from the international capital market to fund part of the 2025 budget deficit and refinance Nigeria’s maturing Eurobonds.
Our Take: While President Tinubu’s fresh $2.3 billion loan request sails to the National Assembly wrapped in the familiar ribbon of ‘budget deficit financing’, citizens must once again ask the age-old question: who really benefits when our future is mortgaged for today’s expenses? Citizens should press their representatives to debate this request openly and demand clear accountability on how previous borrowings were used, lest we keep refinancing old debts like a country addicted to credit with no repayment plan.
2. The Guardian: North Central: Anxiety Lingers over Insecurity, Fate of Displaced Persons
The Guardian reports that a humanitarian catastrophe is unfolding in Nigeria’s northcentral, where banditry, kidnappings, and communal violence have killed many Nigerians and uprooted millions, crippled agriculture and exposed the depth of fractured peace in tackling one of the country’s deadliest internal security crises.
In Benue, Plateau, Niger, Kogi, Kwara, Nasarawa, and parts of Adamawa, criminal groups have sustained the grim pattern, especially in the two years since the inauguration of President Bola Tinubu’s administration.
Our Take: As North-Central Nigeria bleeds and its displaced citizens turn IDP camps into semi-permanent addresses, it is time for President Tinubu to treat insecurity as more than a press statement topic. Citizens must demand real protection, not just condolences after each attack, because if this ‘slow war’ continues, we may soon need IDP camps for entire states while leaders debate whose responsibility it is to bring peace.
3. Leadership: Alleged Certificate Forgery: Science Minister Nnaji Resigns
Minister of Innovation, Science and Technology Geoffrey Nnaji, has resigned from President Bola Tinubu’s cabinet amid allegations of forgery levelled against him.
Our Take: As Minister Nnaji bows out under the cloud of alleged certificate forgery, it’s time for those who screen and confirm ministers, our ever-diligent lawmakers and security agencies, to finally level up their vetting game. Nigerians deserve leaders whose credentials can survive more than a quick Google search, not appointees who make it to the cabinet only to fail the ‘post-confirmation truth test’.
