On the Fifth Federal Executive Council meeting for 2024 that was held on Monday, April 29th at the State House, Abuja, with President Bola Tinubu presiding.
The meeting was adjourned till Tuesday, April 30th to conclude deliberations on the agenda of the meeting. The meeting was coming about seven weeks after the last one held on March 25, 2024.
During the meeting, far-reaching decisions were taken and the deliberations will continue on Tuesday. According to Information and National Orientation Minister Mohammed Idris, who briefed newsmen after the meeting held at the Council Chambers, “The meeting is not yet concluded. Council meeting will continue tomorrow. Therefore, there will be no press briefing today. A lot of far-reaching decisions are being taken and the conclusions will be made available to you tomorrow. Thank you very much”.
According to the presidential spokesperson, Ajuri Ngelale, President Tinubu directed the mandatory procurement of compressed-natural-gas-powered vehicles by all government ministries, departments, and agencies. The President’s directive is in furtherance of Nigeria’s effort to transition to cleaner energy as CNG-enabled vehicles have been adjudged to produce lower emissions, even as they present a more affordable alternative for Nigerian energy consumers.
During the meeting, President Tinubu affirmed that there is no turning back in the energy reforms initiated by his administration. He directed the rejection of all memos brought by members of FEC seeking the purchase of traditional petrol-dependent vehicles. Instead, the affected members of the council were tasked to go back and diligently seek value-driven procurements of CNG-compliant vehicles.
The Tinubu administration, which launched the Presidential Compressed Natural Gas Initiative (PCNGi) last October, plans to roll out about 800 CNG buses, 4000 CNG tricycles, and 100 electric buses in the first phase in the next few weeks.
The President’s directive also extends to generators and tricycles being procured by the government and its agencies. The council approved the requests by the Nigeria Customs Service and the Shipper’s Council, an agency of the Marine and Blue Economy, which had sought approval to buy several hundreds of operational vehicles to be powered by petrol, but said they must be CNG vehicles. A request by the Federal Capital Territory to buy petrol generators was also approved, but the council insisted they must be powered by CNG or solar.
The Council also expects agencies to begin to convert petrol or diesel vehicles or generators to CNG. The Tinubu administration plans to unlock new investments in renewable energy, solar panels, and lithium batteries. The policy is climate-friendly and will reduce inflation as it will slash costs by about 60 percent.
At the commencement of the meeting, the FEC observed a minute’s silence in honour of two former Ministers; one-time Minister of Education, Professor Fabian Osuji, and former Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation, Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu, before going into closed-door session. The Council meeting was attended by the Vice President Kashim Shettima, Secretary to the Government of the Federation, George Akume, Chief of Staff to the President, Femi Gbajabiamila, the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, Dr Folasade Yemi-Esan, and most of the other members of the Council.
Earlier, President Tinubu sworn in two additional Federal Commissioners of the National Population Commission (NPC). Fasuwa Johnson Johnson (Ogun State) and Amidu Tadese Raheem (Osun State) took their oath of office before the President weeks after 17 of their colleagues took Oath of Office in March 2024.
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