The Nigerian Senate issued a stern warning to President Bola Tinubu on Tuesday, cautioning against illegal spending and urging him to seek a supplementary budget for his Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) initiative. This advice came from the Senate’s Committee on Gas, led by Senator Jarigbe Jarigbe.
The Senate called on the executive branch to promptly present a 2023 Supplementary Budget to the National Assembly to kickstart the Compressed Natural Gas project. This request came just two days after President Bola Tinubu unveiled measures to alleviate the impact of fuel subsidy removal on Nigerians.
The lawmakers emphasized that extra-budgetary spending was against the law, and the Committee’s chairman, Senator Jarigbe Jarigbe, while commending Tinubu for the CNG initiative, warned against spending taxpayers’ money or funds without approval from the National Assembly for projects in the gas value chain.
The senators also discouraged extra-budgetary expenditure through ‘Ways and Means,’ emphasizing the legislature’s readiness to support and provide relief to the people.
Senator Jarigbe praised Tinubu’s CNG revolution for powering vehicles, stating that it would alleviate the citizens’ hardships. He stressed the need for a supplementary budget to fund the gas value chain, including CNG infrastructure and vehicles, as well as workshops and training for CNG adoption.
He stated, “The President should not embark on extra-budgetary expenditure because it would be inconsistent with the provisions of the law.”
Jarigbe further expressed the Senate’s commitment to supporting Tinubu’s programs and suggested that a 2023 supplementary budget would be more appropriate than the ‘Ways and Means’ approach used in the previous administration.
In his Independence Day speech, President Tinubu had pledged to alleviate the hardships faced by Nigerians, including the deployment of cheaper and safer CNG buses across the nation, which would operate at lower fuel prices and positively impact transport fares. He also mentioned plans to set up training facilities and workshops nationwide to provide new opportunities for transport operators and entrepreneurs.