Fuel subsidy removal: House of Reps call back members for emergency session
– The fuel subsidy removal by the federal government is still generating reactions from different quarters
– The House of Representatives have jumped into the fray
– An emergency session of the lower house will hold on Monday, May 16
Plans are on the way for the leadership of the House of Representatives to convene an emergency special session to debate the hike in petroleum price announced by the federal government on Wednesday, May 11.
According to Orderpaper.ng, the session will begin at 12 noon on Monday, May 16, which is a day before the National Assembly was billed to reconvene from a short recess.
Speaker of the House of Representatives, Honourable Yakubu Dogara
The minister of state for petroleum, Dr Ibe Kachikwu, is expected to brief the house in plenary on the reasons why the government took the decision.
Since the announcement of the fuel subsidy removal, the emergency is the first official reaction of the House of Representatives.
Expectedly, there is outrage among the citizenry given the economic hardship the masses are facing at the moment.
Many Nigerians are angry with the Muhammadu Buhari administration over the decision, with some going as far as comparing the previous administration of Goodluck Jonathan and the present one.
Dr Kachikwu, however says the recently passed 2016 budget will serve as a short term palliative measure to cushion the effects of the policy on Nigerians.
All eyes will be on the lower house to proffer solution on the impasse as Nigerians are banking on their representatives to help them put pressure on the government to reverse the policy.
Meanwhile, the lawmaker representing Mainland constituency in Lagos state in the green chamber, Jide Jimoh, said the increment in pump price was aimed at the greater good of Nigerians.
According to him, “the increment in fuel price is not to put Nigerians into any form of hardship but to bring change”.
In a related development, Honnour Yakubu Dogara, the speaker of the house, has assured Nigerians that all the decisions taken by the government are for the good of the nation.
“We will never allow any measure to be embarked upon by the government that will further impoverish our people,” Dogara said.
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