By Adedapo Adesanya
The House of Representatives has called on the federal government, following the subsidy removal, to suspend all Direct Sales Direct Purchase (DSDP) contracts.
At the plenary on Thursday, it also called on the new administration to cushion the effects of the subsidy removal for Nigerians through the provision and procurement of Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) buses as an alternative transport system with cheaper fuel consumption.
The DSDP contracts are high-stakes agreements used to supply nearly all of Nigeria’s petrol needs as well as cover some of its diesel and jet fuel consumption.
It also called on the government to outrightly remove subsidies on all petroleum products and introduce intermodal, regional and national transport systems to ease the mass movement of people across the country.
The House made these resolutions after adopting the report of its ad-hoc committee, which investigated the country’s subsidy regime.
President Bola Tinubu on Monday, during his inauguration, said the country’s fuel subsidy is gone, one month before its proposed demise.
“We commend the decision of the outgoing administration in phasing out the petrol subsidy regime, which has increasingly favoured the rich more than the poor. Subsidy can no longer justify its ever-increasing costs in the wake of drying resources.
“We shall, instead, re-channel the funds into better investment in public infrastructure, education, health care and jobs that will materially improve the lives of millions,” he said.
The lawmakers, however, want the FG to immediately design measures and palliatives that will see the already felt impact of the move ease on Nigerians.
The legislators also called for further investigation through a forensic audit by the office of the Auditor General of the Federation to check whether the N413 billion borrowed from the CBN for subsidy payments was refunded after the passage and assent of the 2015 budget as earlier approved by the President.
Modupe Gbadeyanka