The Chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Public Assets, Ademorin Kuye, has urged state governors and local government chairmen across the country to adopt compressed natural gas-powered mass transit schemes to reduce the burden of high transportation costs on workers.
Kuye made the call on Friday while reacting to the rollout of 37 CNG-powered buses in the Federal Capital Territory by the Presidential Compressed Natural Gas Initiative.
The buses are expected to provide subsidised transportation for civil servants and other commuters in Abuja amid rising transport fares and the wider cost-of-living crisis following the removal of the petrol subsidy.
Commending the Federal Government for the initiative, the lawmaker said the intervention came at a critical time for workers whose earnings were being increasingly consumed by transportation costs.
He said, “The high cost of transportation has for months constituted heavy burdens on the take-home pay of Nigerian workers, with fuel-dependent transit fares consuming a disproportionate share of monthly earnings for junior and mid-level workers.
“By providing a subsidised, low-emission mass transit option, the Federal Government has taken a concrete, measurable step towards cushioning the effect of the removal of the petrol subsidy on the ordinary worker.”
According to Kuye, the initiative would provide direct relief to civil servants who spend a significant portion of their salaries commuting to and from work, while also reducing dependence on petrol.
He added that the use of CNG-powered buses could provide environmental and public health benefits because of their lower emissions compared with petrol and diesel-powered vehicles.
The lawmaker, however, said the deployment of 37 buses would be insufficient to meet the transportation needs of the Federal Government workforce in Abuja, stressing that workers in states and local governments were facing similar challenges.
“While this step by the Federal Government is commendable, 37 buses cannot adequately meet the transportation needs of the government’s workforce in Abuja, let alone the millions of state and local government employees across the federation who face the same cost-of-living pressures.
“I therefore call on state governors and local government area chairmen to emulate this initiative and urgently procure CNG buses for conveying civil servants or convert existing buses to CNG for the transportation of civil servants and other passengers,” he said.
Kuye described a functional mass transit system as a more sustainable intervention than one-off cash transfers, arguing that regular access to affordable transportation could provide continuous relief to workers.
He also urged state and local governments to collaborate with the PCNGI and private operators to improve access to CNG conversion kits, affordable financing and technical expertise.
The lawmaker called on the Federal Ministry of Transportation and the PCNGI to accelerate the expansion of the programme beyond Abuja, saying a wider rollout would enable more workers and commuters to benefit from cheaper transportation.
He also urged members of state Houses of Assembly to use their oversight responsibilities to encourage their respective governments to establish similar mass transit schemes.
The Federal Government introduced the CNG initiative as part of measures to cushion the economic impact of petrol subsidy removal and promote a shift from petrol and diesel to natural gas.
The Abuja rollout is expected to complement other government interventions aimed at reducing transportation costs, although the scale and speed of expansion remain critical to determining how widely CNG-powered mass transit can ease the burden on Nigerian workers and commuters.
