The House of Representatives has pledged to oversee the implementation of President Bola Tinubu’s palliative programmes.

The spokesman for the parliament, Akin Rotimi, stated this in a statement on Tuesday following the nationwide broadcast by Mr Tinubu.

The statement empathised with Nigerians, who had been distressed due to the gap between removing the subsidy and providing palliatives.

“I assure all Nigerians that the house will be alive to the constitutional obligation to effectively monitor all entities of government responsible for the deployment of the palliative measures,” said the legislator. “On our part in the House of Representatives, we will closely monitor every agency of government that will be involved in the implementation to ensure speedy delivery, equitable distribution, and transparency.” 

The statement recalled that on July 13, the parliament approved the request presented by Mr Tinubu for the amendment of the 2022 Supplementary Appropriation Act.

It said the amendment was to extract N500 billion from the budget for palliatives to cushion the effect of the removal of fuel subsidy.

“The house commends Tinubu for his interventions in the manufacturing sector via support for small and medium-scale enterprises. The house commends the plan to work with the state governments to invest in critical social and economic infrastructure and to deploy 3,000 commuter buses, amongst other measures,” the statement explained.

It added that the integrated interventions would stimulate economic productivity, boost agriculture production, create jobs, and improve living conditions. The parliament “also welcomes the planned upward review of the national minimum wage and will consider and approve it once transmitted to the National Assembly by the presidency.”

(NAN)