Fuel subsidy removal: Tinubu urged to roll out palliatives

President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has been urged by the House of Representatives to roll out palliative measures so as to ease the pains suffered by Nigerians due to the removal of fuel subsidy.

The House of Representatives on Wednesday made this call on Tinubu as they submitted that life has been unbearable for poor Nigerians since the removal of fuel subsidy on the 29th of May, 2023.

The call was sequel to a motion titled “Urgent Need to Implement Palliative Measures to Mitigate the Effects of Fuel Subsidy Removal on Nigerians” moved at the plenary by Hon. Sani Madaki.

Madaki in his presentation of the motion recalled that on Monday, 29 May, President Tinubu in his inaugural speech announced the removal of fuel subsidy in the country.

The House of Reps member noted that as a result of the subsidy removal, the official pump price of petrol skyrocketed from the previous N195 per litre to a whopping N480–N577 per litre as the prices varied between States.

“The implication of over 200 per cent price adjustment in fuel prices is that nearly all prices of goods and services have drastically increased,” he said.

“The sudden fuel subsidy removal has left millions of Nigerians terrified, thus causing untold hardship as Nigerians grapple with the challenges of meeting up with, not only the high cost of petrol but also the consequent increase in the prices of goods and services.

“In response to the resulting financial strain of the subsidy removal on public workers, some proactive State governments introduced temporary measures to alleviate the situation by reducing work days from five to three days per week for the State-employed workers pending when other sustainable palliatives can be provided.

“The Nigeria Labour Congress and the Trade Union Congress recently suspended a planned strike over the removal of fuel subsidy in the hopes that the Federal Government would address its adverse effects on workers,” he said.

President Tinubu last week had a meeting with oil marketers in Abuja over the removal of subsidy on petrol.

Tinubu also directed the National Economic Council (NEC) led by Vice President Kashim Shettima to devise an approach and begin the process of working on interventions to mitigate the impact of subsidy removal on Nigerians.