President Bola Tinubu in a letter sent to the House of Representatives called for the amendment of the 2022 Supplementary Appropriations Act to provide N500billion to fund palliative measures against the impact of fuel subsidy removal.
The 2022 Supplementary Appropriation Act which was passed by the immediate past president, Muhammad Buhari, provided a sum of N819,536,937,813 for capital projects. Of this, the exant President, Tinubu, is seeking the sum of 500billion to cushion the effect of the removal of subsidy.
The Speaker of the House, Tajudeen Abbas, while reading the letter of request from the president to the house during plenary session on Wednesday, announced President Tinubu is seeking to extract N500 billion from the N819,536,937,813 supplementary budget.
The request which according to the Speaker would be considered today by the house was read as thus:
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“I write to request an amendment to the 2022 supplementary appropriation Act in accordance with the attached. The request has become necessary in other to, among other things, source funds necessary to provide palliatives to mitigate the effect of the recent removal of fuel subsidy on Nigerians.
“Thus, the sum of N500 billion has been extracted from the 2022 supplementary budget of N819 billion for the provision of palliative. I hope the House will consider this request expeditiously,” the President’s letter reads.
However, on Thursday, the Punch reported that the Nigerian Labour Congress and the Trade Union Congress have rejected the president’s proposal , seeking a 300 percent increase in workers salaries instead.
“The Nigerian Labour Congress and the Trade Union Congress have thumbed down the N500bn palliative proposed by President Bola Tinubu, stating that it is grossly inadequate to assuage the hardships confronting workers sequel to the fuel subsidy removal.
“They are demanding a 300 per cent salary increase to enable workers to cope with the challenges imposed by the deteriorating economic situation that came with the removal of the controversial fuel subsidy,” the report stated.
The Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC) had initially planned a nationwide strike to protest the removal of the fuel subsidy. But after negotiation and an agreement was reached between the two unions and the government, the planned industrial action was suspended.
