Nigerian News Headlines Today

Nigerian major newspapers today, August 26, 2015, focused on the comments by President Muhammadu Buhari, as regards the monumental corruption in Nigeria’s oil sector.

The Punch reports that President Muhammadu Buhari on Tuesday said he was disappointed at the way Nigeria’s oil industry had been operated since he left office as a former petroleum minister and as a military Head of State in 1985.

Buhari said those who led the country since then had allowed the nation’s refineries to collapse in order to give their cronies the latitude to steal by importing refined petroleum products.

According to a statement by the president’s senior special assistant on media and publicity, Garba Shehu, Buhari spoke during a meeting he had with a delegation of the Revenue Mobilisation, Allocation and Fiscal Commission at the Presidential Villa in Abuja.

The Punch front page

According to Daily Sun, the president blamed past administrations for the current situation in which Nigeria is forced to spend billions of Naira annually on alleged subsidies for petroleum products.

The President urged the chairman and members of the Revenue Mobilisation, Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) , who availed him of their view on the vexed issue of petroleum subsidy payments, to go “back to the drawing board” and come up with more humane proposals to rescue ordinary Nigerians from the“wicked manipulation” of the country’s oil industry by corrupt operators.

He also said that the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, the Nigerian Ports Authority and other MDAs which previously relied on the laws establishing them to retain all or part of revenues collected by them, did so illegally and must now comply with the Nigerian Constitution by paying all revenues to the Federation Account.

Daily Sun front page

Meanwhile, Southern political leaders under the aegis of Southern Nigeria Peoples Assembly (SNPA) have criticised Buhari over what they described as selective appointments and war against corruption.

The leaders, drawn from all the three geo-political zones in the southern part of the country in a meeting in Akure yesterday, frowned at what they called politicisation of the war against corruption by the federal government.

They also flayed Buhari for what they termed ‘lopsided appointments’ and advised him to intensify the war against insurgency in the North-East geo-political zone of the country as a matter of priority, The Guardian reports.

The Guardian front page

Speaking at the meeting of the elders council held in Akure, the Ondo state capital, the SNP led by Elder statesman & former federal commissioner for information, Chief Edwin Clark, although expressed support for Buhari’s fight against corruption, but kicked against being selective.

Leaders of the council who also joined Chief Clark at the meeting were chairman of the presidential advisory committee on 2014 national conference, Senator Femi Okorounmu; leader of the Southwest delegation, Rt. Rev. Emmanuel Gbonigi‎; former vice president, Alex Ekuweme; a third republic senator, Ngoji Denton-West; former minister of transport and aviation, Chief Ebenezer Babatope; Prof Ikechukwu Madubuike, Kunle Olajide and former military administrator of Akwa Ibom state, Ndongesit Ekang.

Others were Senator Tony Adefuye, former Lagos state deputy governor,‎ Senator Kofoworola Bucknor-Akerele, Prof Olu Agbi among others, Vanguard reports.

Vanguard front page

Finally, the chairman RMAFC) said yesterday that no senator or house of representatives member should earn more than N1m monthly, going by the recommendations of the commission, which fixes salaries and wages for public officers.

Mbam spoke to reporters at the state house in Abuja after a meeting of the RMAFC with Buhari. According to him, a new pay structure that will reflect the economic realities will be proposed next month for all categories of public officers.

Mbam told reporters yesterday that if the lawmakers’ salaries are cut by the RMAFC after the review, they must abide by the decision. The Nation reports.