Subsidy removal: NASS gets N70B in N500B palliatives approval

BrandPower Magazine 13/07/2023Last Updated: 13/07/2023

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The National Assembly is to get N70 billion allocation from President Bola Tinubu’s N819 billion palliative meant to cushion the effect of fuel subsidy on Nigerians.

This was revealed as the National Assembly on Thursday passed A bill to amend the N819.5 billion 2022 Supplementary Appropriation Act to authorise the issuance of N500 billion for the provision of palliatives to Nigerians to cushion the effect of fuel subsidy removal.

The bill, passed at plenary in the Senate on Thursday, was sponsored by the Executive and presented by Senate Majority Leader, Bamidele Opeyemi (APC- Ekiti).

Bamidele in his lead debate said the bill seeks to amend the 2022 Supplementary Appropriation Act, to authorise the issuance of N500 billion for the provision of palliatives to Nigerians, to cushion the effect of fuel subsidy removal.

“Mr President, my highly esteemed colleagues, permit me to lead the debate on this very important bill which seeks to authorised the issuance of the sum of N500 billion.

“This sum has been extracted from 2022 Supplementary Appropriations Act of N819.5 billion for the provision of palliatives to Nigerians to cushion the effect of fuel subsidy removal.

“The bill was read in this hallowed chamber for the first time today, Thursday, 13th July.

“Mr. President, my highly respected colleagues, this request has become necessary in order to, among other things, source the funds necessary to provide palliatives to mitigate the effect of the recent removal of fuel subsidy on Nigerians.

“I believe that the proposal in this Supplementary Appropriation is laudable and will help cushion the suffering of the Citizens of this country owing to the removal of subsidy on Premium Motor Spirit (PMS),” Bamidele said.

Presenting further insight on the bill, Deputy President of the Senate, Sen. Barau Jubril(APC- Kano)said the 2022 supplementary budget was passed and assented to by the administration of former President Muhammadu Buhari.

He, however, said the then administration could not implement the supplementary appropriation act, because of the non-release of funds.

He said that President BolaTinubu, in an attempt to mitigate and cushion the effect of fuel subsidy removal decided to look in the direction of the 2022 supplementary appropriation act to pull out funds to provide palliatives for Nigerians.

He explained that the president had tried to get the fund from the service-wide vote, but was not successful, hence the request for amendment of the act to make for access of funds.

Barau said it was something good that President Tinubu was seeking for the amendment to enable him provide palliatives for the suffering Nigerians.

He urged his colleagues to support the amendment.

Sen. Adeola Solomon (APC – Ogun), collaborating said the essence of the amendment was to make provision of palliatives for Nigerians, given the ongoing reforms by government.

President of the Senate, Godswill Akpiabio said the Senate was amending the appropriation act which was already a law to allow the president to provide palliatives for Nigerians to mitigate the effects of the removal of fuel subsidy.

Senate having suspended its rule 78 (1) read the bill for second and thereafter having engaged in clause by clause consideration passesed the bill.

BRANDPOWER reports that, in the House of Representatives, Rep. Julius Ihonvere, the Majority Leader of the House, had presented for second reading a Bill from the 2022 Supplementary Appropriation of N819 billion.

According to the Majority Leader, this was for the provision of palliatives to Nigerians to cushion the effect of fuel subsidy removal.

Meanwhile, the Deputy Speaker of the House, Rep. Benjamin Kalu, has lauded President Tinubu’s decision, noting that the palliative would solve the challenges of the legislature.

Kalu lauded the President for having a listening ear, adding that the President’s boldness and courage was commendable.

According to him, there comes a time in the life of a country when leaders with boldness and courage are needed, and it will appear that Nigeria has gotten one in the person of Tinubu.

He said that it took courage and boldness for the President to remove subsidy, adding that “there comes a time in the life of a nation where a leader that is sensitive to the welfare of the people is needed.

“It appears we have gotten such a leader. This leader has a listening ear. The executive is responding to the yearning of the people and this money is not going to be a free bee.

He said the money was also to solve the challenges of the National Assembly, including the challenges of the House of Representatives.

BRANDPOWER reports that the summary of the amended 2022 supplementary appropriation act includes among others N500 billion for palliatives and other capital expenditure to cushion the effect of recent subsidy removal policy.

The breakdown includes N185.2 billion to Ministry of Works and Housing to alleviate the impact of the severe flooding experienced in the country in 2022 on road infrastructure across the six geopolitical zones.

N19.2 billion was allocated to the Federal Ministry of Agriculture to ameliorate the massive destruction to farmlands across the country during the severe flooding experienced last year.

Others are N35 billion to the National Judicial Council, N10 billion to the Federal Capital Territory Administration for critical projects and N70 billion to the National Assembly to support the working conditions of new members.