Fuel Subsidy: President Tinubu Writes NASS, Seeking for N500 Billion Palliatives

President Bola Tinubu has sent a letter to the National Assembly, requesting an amendment to the 2022 supplementary appropriation Act. The purpose of this amendment is to enable the Federal Government to access N500 billion in order to provide palliatives that will help mitigate the impact of subsidy removal.

During the plenary session on Wednesday, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Tajudeen Abbas, read the president’s letter aloud. He mentioned that the funds for these palliatives would be obtained from the N819.5 billion allocated in the 2022 supplementary Appropriation Act.

• 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.