Representatives of the Trade Union Congress (TUC), the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC), and the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) received 64 Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) buses from the Federal Government.
The buses were handed over on Sunday at the State House Conference Centre in Abuja, as part of Nigeria’s 64th independence anniversary celebrations.
The Minister of Finance, Wale Edun, was in charge of the government team at the handover event.
The delegation included Alhaji Mohammed Idris, Senator Abubakar Bagudu, and Mr Ayodele Olawande.
According to Edun, the buses will make transportation cheaper and improve public transit once they’re in service.
He said the buses were part of President Bola Tinubu’s promise to give affordable and efficient transportation to help Nigerians after removing fuel subsidies.
He made it clear that this initiative is all about helping the poor and vulnerable and pushing for economic stability.
The Minister said that giving away 64 buses on Nigeria’s National Day was just the start of a bigger plan.
“Today marks another critical milestone in the policies of President Tinubu. It is a transition to cleaner fuel. The emphasis is on mass transit,” said the minister.
“Mr President and the whole team are determined to ensure that we keep inflation coming down, and this is one of the major ways.”
“Today, it is CNG. Tomorrow, it will be helping farmers to cope with the remainder of the wet season planting and then the dry season planting, starting from November, with fertiliser, inputs, seeds, and herbicides.
“This is all to get prices down and get the economy moving again,” he said.
Comrade Nuhu Toro, the Secretary-General and Chief Executive of TUC; Comrade Lucky Emonefe, NANS president, and Comrade Uche Ekwe, the Head of the International Desk, NLC, commended Tinubu for the gesture.
They called for more CNG buses to be made available to the public.
Toro extended appreciation to the President for his role in bringing about the implementation of the ₦70,000 new national minimum wage.
Emonefe spoke highly of the government’s commitment to education and student welfare, emphasizing their efforts in implementing a student loan program for higher education.
The NLC representative emphasized that as more buses are deployed nationwide, the advantages of using CNG buses will become increasingly apparent.