President Bola Tinubu has written to the National Assembly seeking an amendment to the 2022 supplementary appropriation Act to allow the Federal Government to source N500 billion for palliative to cushion the effect of subsidy removal.
The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Tajudeen Abbas, who read the president’s letter during plenary on Wednesday, said the money would be sourced from the 2022 supplementary Appropriation Act of N819.5 billion.
- The letter was titled: “Request for the amendment of the 2022 appropriation Act”, and reads, “I write to request the approval of the House of Representatives for an amendment of the 2022 appropriation Act in accordance with the law.
- “The request has become necessary in other to source funds to provide necessary palliatives to cushion the effect of the recent removal of fuel subsidy in Nigeria.
- “The sum of N500 billion only has been extracted from the 2022 appropriation act of N819.536 for the provision of palliatives to Nigerians to cushion the effect of fuel subsidy removal. I expect that the House will speedily consider the request.’’
The speaker said the lawmakers would consider Tinubu’s request at plenary on Thursday and asked members who will make contributions to be prepared to do so.
What you should know
- Recall that President Bola Tinubu during his inaugural speech on May 29, 2023, announced that fuel subsidy is gone as there was no provision for that in the 2023 budget from July 1.
- The President pledged his administration’s support to channel the money to provide basic infrastructural needs to Nigerians.
- The action of the president has been backed by some stakeholders and interest groups including state governors, legislators, oil marketers, economic and financial experts, among several others.
- However, this did not go that well with organized labour due to the spike in the pump price of petrol, leading to a declaration of a planned strike action and protest by the NLC and TUC.
- The strike was however suspended on the backdrop of the judgment of the Industrial Court which restrained them from going ahead with the strike as well as the outcome of the meeting between the leadership of the organized labour and representatives of the Federal Government.
- The Federal Government and organized labour had in June set an 8-week deadline for fuel subsidy removal palliatives.
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