The House of Representatives has approved President Bola Tinubu’s five hundred billion naira palliatives request meant to cushion the effects of the fuel subsidy removal on Nigerians.
The House approved the request after taking the Bill For Alteration of the 2022 Supplementary Appropriation Act through first and second reading, Committee of the Whole, and third reading.
The leader of the House, Julius Ihonvbere, in his lead debate of the passage of the 2022 Supplementary Appropriation Amendment bill, urged the House to support the amendment because of its importance to the country.
He noted that since the removal of fuel subsidy by the government, there have been calls on the government to provide some measures to cushion the effects.
He stated that with President Tinubu’s proposal for N500 billion as palliative package, “Nigerians are waiting to hear from us. They are waiting to see how we are going to handle this.”
The minority leader, Kingsley Chinda, in his contribution, said in as much as the proposed palliative was a good initiative by the government, it must be administered in such a way that it would have impact on the citizens.
He noted that “for being responsive, we commend Mr President but the concern of Nigerians will always be the usage of the palliative. We want to see a palliative that will have positive effect on Nigerians and allow us breath not suffocate the ordinary man. We have bills that are skyrocketing, we want palliatives that we give not minimum wage but living wage to Nigerians, a palliative that will allow us breath and not to suffocate the ordinary man as Mr President said. NEPA bill is very high, we want to see a reduction. School fees is high. We want to draw the attention of the executive that (prices of ) things are high. We must be vigilant in the course of palliative not handing over five thousand naira as palliatives. It should be used for the purpose intended so that Nigerians cannot continue to suffer,” Hon Chinda said.
In her contribution to the Bill, Hon Beni Lar, said that the funds would go a long in reducing the hardship caused by the subsidy removal.
Other lawmakers also praised the president’s foresight.
President Tinubu, had in a letter to the speaker of the House of Representatives, Tajudeen Abbas, which was read at Wednesday’s plenary, requested the parliament to amend the 2022 supplementary Appropriation Act to make provision for N500 billion palliatives for the citizens.
Similarly,, President Tinubu has requested the House to approve $800 million loan for the Federal Government from the World Bank to fund the National Social Safety Network Programme.
The President’s request was contained in a letter titled: “Request for Approval of Additional Financing of the National Social Safety Network Programme by the National Assembly” and read by Abbas at Thursday’s plenary.
It noted that the facility is intended to expand coverage of the social safety net support for poor and vulnerable Nigerians.
According to the letter, “The Federal Executive Council led by President Muhammadu Buhari, approved an additional loan facility to the tune of 800 million USD to be secured from the World Bank for the National Safety Net Programme (Copy of FEC Extract attached hereby).
“Under the Conditional Cash Transfer of the programme, the Federal Government of Nigeria will transfer of N8000 per month to 12 million poor and low income households for a period of six months with a multiplier effect on about 6million Nigerians.”
Confidence Okwuchi
