Members of the All Progressives Congress and their counterpart from the Peoples Democratic Party clashed on Thursday over a motion on the alleged plan by President Muhammadu Buhari to remove subsidy on petrol.
Also, the House had asked the President to lay before the National Assembly, a new formula for sharing revenue among the three tiers of government.
The fuel subsidy removal motion, which was moved by a PDP member from Osun State, Mr. Albert Abiodun-Adigun, sought to halt the President’s alleged plan on the grounds that Nigerians would face harsher times without fuel subsidy.
However, the APC lawmakers quickly shouted him down on the excuse that the motion was “speculative.”
An APC member from Benue State, Mr. Herman Hembe, was the first to oppose the motion.
Hembe said Abiodun-Adigun was making “assumptions,” adding that the motion failed to produce “facts” suggesting that there was indeed a move by Buhari to remove fuel subsidy.
He got the backing of the House Majority Leader, Mr. Femi Gbajabiamila, who also argued that the motion was “speculative.”
Gbajabiamila said, “This motion has no evidence at all. Mr. President has repeatedly told the nation that there is no plan to remove fuel subsidy. As a matter of fact, only yesterday (Wednesday), the Federal Government paid out huge sums of money as subsidy claims to fuel marketers.
“I don’t see how a government that is paying for subsidy could be said to have plans to remove subsidy.”
Gbajabiamila had hardly sat down when the House Minority Leader, Mr. Leo Ogor, came to the defence of his PDP colleague (Abiodun-Adigun).
He said, “There is nothing speculative about a motion that has not even been heard.Let the member be allowed to move his motion. That is the spirit of fair hearing.”
But, while the APC members and Ogor argued out the issue, Abiodun-Adigun hurriedly applied to withdraw the motion to the disappointment of the minority leader.
His decision resulted in a loud laughter on the floor, as members sensed that he chickened out.
The Speaker, Yakubu Dogara obliged him by dropping the motion.
Earlier, the House had asked President Buhari to lay before the National Assembly, a new formula for sharing revenue among the three tiers of government.
Nigeria’s economy is mainly dependent on crude oil revenues generated and paid into the Federation Account.
Funds are drawn monthly from the account and shared by the federal, state and local governments in the country, with the Federal Government taking the lion’s share.
But on Thursday lawmakers said the current sharing formula, which favoured the Federal Government, was no longer realistic.
They demanded a review of the formula to make more money available to other tiers of government.
The resolution came after a member, Mr. Rotimi Agunsoye, had moved a motion on “Call for New Revenue Allocation Formula for the Federation.”
The House recalled that the current formula in place was enacted in 1982 and was amended once in 1992, about seven years before the 1999 Constitution came into effect.
However, members noted that the constitution in Section 162(2) made provisions for the President, on the recommendation of the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission, to lay a proposal for a new revenue formula before the National Assembly.
Leading the debate on the motion, Agunsoye observed that the constitution had been consistently flouted on revenue sharing formula.
He stated that a similar provision was made in the RMAFC Act, 2004, for a special committee on revenue sharing formula.
Part of the motion read, “The House is aware that Section 6(1)(b) of the RMAFC Act, Cap. R7, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004, prescribes for a certain committee within the agency to review the revenue allocation formula from time-to-time, to reflect current and contemporary realities.
“The House is worried that the effectiveness of the current applicable formula, which is over 30 years old, will appear doubtful to reflect the realities facing the financial needs of the three tiers of government. “
Members endorsed the motion in a majority voice vote at the session, which was presided over by Dogara.
