12 October 2011, Sweetcrude, Abuja- The Nigerian Senate is expected to debate the crucial issue of management of the country’s fuel subsidy today.
Nigeria’s Federal Government says it will withdraw subsidy on petroleum products by January next year but the plan has come under attack from organised labour.
Chairman of the Senate Committee on Media, Information and Public Affairs, Enyinnaya Abaribe told journalists in Abuja yesterday that a motion calling for an investigation into the fuel subsidy management, sponsored by Senator Abubakar Saraki (Kwara Central) would be debated during today’s Senate session.
The sponsor of the motion, last week, raised the issue on the floor of the Senate after it had been listed for about two weeks without being debated.
In the motion co-sponsored by 14 other senators, the mover noted that the Federal Government operates a fuel subsidy scheme “with the policy purpose of making petroleum products available in order to cushion the effect of the true market prices of petroleum products on the populace.”
He further averred that the need had arisen to make the scheme more transparent, corruption-free and competitive within an appropriate legislative frame-work.
