Today's National Newspaper Healines/News - 25/5/2015

Good Morning,

Its Monday and the count down of President Jonathan handing over to President elect Buhari is on....

*tick tock,tick tock......

PUNCH

**** Jonathan is handing over a distressed country – APC ****

All Progressives Congress on Sunday accused the outgoing President Goodluck Jonathan-led administration of deliberately sabotaging the incoming administration by contriving crises without making any effort to resolve them.

The party said the Jonathan administration was leaving behind a fractured economy without electricity, with no fuel and disgruntled workers on strike over the non-payment of salaries.

This was contained in a statement issued in Abuja by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed.

The APC however appealed to Nigerians not to lose hope despite the daunting challenges currently being faced “in this atmosphere of contrived chaos, saying help is on the way.”

Mohammed said, “In a few days’ time, President Jonathan will hand over to the President-elect, Muhammadu Buhari. Never in the history of our country has any government handed over to another a more distressed country: No electricity, no fuel, workers are on strike, billions are owed to state and federal workers, $60bn is being owed in national debt and the economy is virtually grounded

“Today, Nigerians are roaming the streets, jerry cans in hand, searching for everything from kerosene to fuel to diesel to power their homes, keep their vehicles on the road and keep their businesses going.

“They are paying as much as N300 per litre for fuel, if at all they can get it. Yet their government is not saying a word about the situation.”

The APC also said while the Jonathan administration had “arrogantly told Nigerians that it remains in office and in power till May 29, all it had been doing is sacking people and making new appointments as if it had been deprived of the opportunity to do so in the past six years.”

The party lamented that the outgoing administration had shown no interest on how to end the fuel scarcity that had paralysed the socio-economic lives of Nigerians.

“They are not interested in how to raise electricity production from its unprecedentedly low level of 1,327 megawatts, they are not doing anything to end the strike by blue and white collar oil workers, or to stop the impending one.

“They say they are in office till May 29, but they do not care how workers in 18 states, who are owed a total of N300bn in salaries under their watch or federal workers who are owed N400bn, will be paid. Yet, they are running a budget of N1tn deficit,” APC said.

It also alleged that the administration had deliberately stopped meeting its obligations to oil marketers on fuel subsidy, which the party put at about N200bn.

The statement observed that if the current energy crisis was not solved soonest, the telecommunications sector could even be grounded in a matter of days as service providers would have neither electricity nor fuel to power their base stations.

“Of course, the aviation sector has already been left comatose by the fuel crisis. The whole scenario reeks of sabotage!,” the party said.

Mohammed said the “APC is ready, willing and able to begin to address the mammoth challenges facing us as a nation as soon as we assume office at the centre in a few days’ time.”

The party also expressed sadness that the nation had been on auto pilot for the past several weeks, as the outgoing administration had shown neither the capacity nor the willingness “to resolve any of the crises it has contrived and foisted on the nation.

**** I’ll remain in PDP – WIke ****

RIVERS State Governor-elect, Chief Nyesom Wike, has dismissed speculations that he was planning to defect to the All Progressives Congress.

Wike, who spoke with newsmen shortly after the dedication service at the St. Paul’s Anglican Cathedral ahead of his inauguration on May 29, 2015, explained that he would exercise his mandate as the governor on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party.

The governor-elect maintained that there was no truth in the rumour that he planned to defect to the APC, adding that he had no reason to take such an action.

Describing himself as a committed party man, Wike promised to execute programmes contained in the PDP manifesto.

“I have no plan to defect to the APC. I will serve the people of the state on the platform of the PDP,” the governor-elect insisted.

Wike, who read the first lesson during the church service, assured that his administration would be working with God’s guidance to restore Rivers State and ensure that the people’s standard of living improves.

The event was marked by prayers for Nigeria, Rivers State, the governor-elect, his deputy and the sustenance of democracy in the country.

*Senate presidency: Saraki, Lawan lobby Mark, PDP senators for support

*Senate presidency: Saraki, Lawan lobby Mark, PDP senators for support

*Fayose lifts curfew on Ekiti

*Rivers black marketers pray for endless fuel scarcity

*Fuel scarcity forces police to cut back patrols

*Gambari, Uwais urge Buhari to evolve fresh anti-B’Haram strategy.

VANGUARD

*I stole to help my friend treat kidney failure—suspect

*Kogi community heads drag FG to ECOWAS’ court

*Why we did not participate in Sen Chukwumerije’s burial —Abia govt

*At last, Lagos gets portal, number for non-emergency services.

*One dead, others injured as OPC, cultists clash in Ibadan

*Another ‘Genius’ Fails Nigeria: Okonjo-Iweala 

*Unpaid salaries: NLC backs strike in states

*Dangote’s $480m Ethiopian cement plant for commissioning June 5

*Kashamu’s attempted arrest: NGO calls for due process

THIS DAY

*Fuel Subsidy: Buhari’s Make or Mar Decision

*Obasanjo Loses Sister

*NDLEA Boss Explains Why Kashamu is Under House Arrest

*Elumelu Rallies Support for New African Private Sector Agenda

*Nigerians, Businesses Groan as Energy Crisis Worsens

*Fuel Subsidy: Buhari’s Make or Mar Decision

*Ngilari: War Not over Yet, Insurgents are Infiltrating IDP Camps

*We’re dying, Ondo electricity workers cry out

THE NATION

*Buhari to inherit N8.1b Presidential Villa debts

*Buhari can’t fix eight years rot overnight, says Obasanjo

*250 Ebola volunteers return amidst jubilation

*Osun worker had depression, says doctor

*Jonathan seeks prayer for Buhari ‘not to make mistakes’

*Manufacturers seek deregulation of oil sector

*Senate President: 37 senators-elect back Lawan/Akume ticket