President Jonathan’s fresh N161.6bn request to fund fuel subsidy divided the House of Representatives members on Thursday.

Many lawmakers were agitated that Jonathan allegedly took Nigerians for a ride by proposing to spend additional N161.6bn on fuel subsidy in the last two weeks of the year.

They claimed that the President had not explained how he spent the original N888.1bn budgeted for subsidy in 2012.

However, there were lawmakers who argued that the House was to blame for supporting the retention of subsidy.

This group recalled that in January, Jonathan had planned to remove subsidy because of the burden it placed on the resources of government, but the House opposed it.

The House had on Wednesday deferred debate on the supplementary budget (N161.6bn) till Thursday to get briefing from the Committees on Appropriation, Petroleum Resources (Upstream) and Petroleum Resources (Downstream).

But, at the resumed debate on Thursday, the chairmen of the committees spoke in support of the N161.6bn.

The Chairman, Committee on Appropriation, Mr. John Enoh, said it was within the “statutory powers” of the President to request more funds so long as the expenditure was justifiable.

Enoh claimed that the initial N888bn budgeted for subsidy did not capture the “totality of the figure” required for subsidy in 2012.

Besides, he stated that the money included a backlog of subsidy claims from 2011.

“This request of N161bn is in order; the President is in order.

“What is important is where the revenue should come from”, he added.

His counterpart on Petroleum Resources (Downstream), Mr. Dakuku Peterside, told the House that of the N888bn, N340bn was paid out as subsidy on petrol, N350bn on kerosene and the balance used to clear outstanding arrears from 2011.

Like Enoh, he said this showed that the N888bn was not enough from the start.

He recalled that subsidy payment rose from N244bn in January 2011 to N2tn in December of the same year.

Of the amount, Peterside stated that petrol alone gulped N1.7tn.

“However, there are problems with the subsidy regime and we must take steps to plug the leakages in the interim until subsidy is removed,” he added.

The Chairman, Committee on Petroleum Resources (Upstream), Mr. Ajibola Muraina, also backed the N161.6bn request on the grounds that the problem was not subsidy “but it is how to check the fraud in the system.”

Similarly, the Chairman, House Committee on Rules and Business, Mr. Albert Sam-Tsokwa, supported the bill to the disappointment of some of his colleagues.

He argued, “What Mr. President has done is constitutionally authorised and obligated.

“We cannot stop the bill. We cannot advocate the sustenance of subsidy and at the same time say that we will not appropriate funds for it.”

However, the majority of members kicked against the proposal.

Chairman, House Committee on Drugs, Narcotics and Financial Crimes, Mr. Adams Jagaba, observed that there was no information on actual subsidy requirement.

“This additional N161bn will mean that the subsidy for this year will be over N1tn.

“What is the actual fuel consumption? We are paying money on subsidy, but do we have steady fuel supply?

“We have no reasons to pass this bill”, he said.

The Minority Leader of the House, Mr. Femi Gbajabiamila, opposed the proposal, saying Jonathan was withholding information from the House.

He noted that if the President acted on a forensic audit report to arrive at the N161.6bn, Jonathan ought to have availed members the details of the report.

“Where is the forensic audit report? Who conducted the audit?

“We want to see the report; we are not just to accept that Mr. President conducted an audit”, Gbajabiamila added.

He said he was aware that the President set up a committee to verify subsidy claims by marketers and not a forensic audit.

Another member, Mr. Jerry Manwe, expressed surprise that the same government that could not release funds for capital projects in 2012 was asking for more money to fund fuel subsidy.

“What happened to the capital projects, which are important to the economic well-being of Nigerians?”, Manwe stated.

In a voice vote, the subsidy budget (N161.6bn) was referred to the committees on finance, appropriation and petroleum resources for further work.

The speaker, Mr. Aminu Tambuwal, in his remarks, said government’s decision to seek N161.6bn in December confirmed the position of the House that the country was not facing revenue shortfalls.

Tambuwal spoke further, “They have proven by their action that there is no revenue shortfall.

“We need the details on actual revenue, fuel consumption and justification for approving or disallowing the budget.

“Let the committees go and work on the bill and answer these fundamental issues.

“We have to be discerning in taking our decision.

“We have to wake up and do serious oversight on the actual subsidy requirement.”

Meanwhile, House spokesman, Mr. Zakari Mohammed, hinted on Thursday that the House might extend the implementation of the 2012 capital budget to 2013.

According to him, the budget performance remains “poor and unimpressive.”

He explained that if the budget was not extended, there was the likelihood that funds voted for capital projects “will simply end up in the pockets of some private persons.”

http://www.punchng.com/news/jonathans-n161-6bn-subsidy-budget-splits-reps/

If the additional N161billion being requested is added to thealready spent N880billion, it means by the end of 2012, this country would have spent N1.06trillion on subsidizing the consumption of ONE ITEM(petrol) alone. Put this HUMONGOUS expenditure on petrol side by side with N100billion for roads, N400billion for education, etc in2012. This can only happen in an IRRESPONSIBLE country of IRRESPONSIBLE and MAD people. A people that sanction this SCANDALOUS pattern of spending can only be said to be INSANE, silly and headed for TOTAL DESTRUCTION. A people that can protest for this SCANDALOUS fuel subsidy to remain are silly, SILLY, FOOLS, INSANE and will eventually SELF-DESTRUCT. I weep seriously for this CRAZY country. A country of FOOLS, who pretend to want development, yet ethnoreligious and political sentiments ALWAYS take precedence over COMMON SENSE. Some persons think they can only remain relevant in the political space or ethnoreligioussphere of influence if they oppose EVERY govt policies and programmes. Can someone tell me HOW a country that spends N1trillion out of a total national budget of about N4trillion in subsidizing the consumption of ONE item(petrol) make progress? Where will the money to fix the roads, pump into education and health, build fast rail lines and power plants,etc come from?
To make matters worst, in all of these MADNESS, the media, so called public affair analysts, economic analysts and civil society groups have all kept quite. To further WORSEN our PRECARIOUS situation and SELF-DESTRUCTIVE tendencies, this N1trillion expended in subsidizing petrol does not IN ANY WAY help to grow the down-stream sector of the petroleum industry. Rather it further KILLS the sector and scare away investors.
I can only say SORRY to Nigeria, an IRRESPONSIBLE country of IRRESPONSIBLE and MAD people, who will eventually SELF-DESTRUCT.
Note: 2013 budget contains another almost N1trillion for fuel subsidy.