THE Senate, yesterday, vowed to hold accountable, every appointee chosen by President Muhammadu
Buhari to help him address the nation’s myriad of economic problems.
President of the Senate, Bukola Saraki, who made the declaration at the
celebration of one year of the 8th Senate, sought the support and
co-operation of the President to discharge this oversight task.
Lambasting his colleagues for failing to take steps to come up with the
necessary policy and legislation to put the economy on the right track,
Saraki implored the President to look beyond his party, All Progressives
Party, APC, to get the best brains to help him run the economy.
SENATE CHAMBER DURING THE INAUGURATION OF THE 8TH NATIONAL ASSEMBLY IN
ABUJA ON TUESDAY (9/6/15).
SENATE CHAMBER DURING THE INAUGURATION OF THE 8TH NATIONAL ASSEMBLY IN
ABUJA ON TUESDAY (9/6/15).File photo.
He said: “We are confident that one year after, the President must by
now have better clarity on the capacity of his appointees. The Senate
would not hesitate to hold any appointee accountable for the work he has
accepted to do.
“We would like to seek Mr. President’s support and co-operation to
enable us discharge this oversight task.
“We have failed to take the necessary steps in policy and legislation
that would set us on the path to developing the kind of economy we
desire.’’
Senate worries over worsening economy, unemployment, militancy, others
Saraki expressed concern about the worsening economic situation in the
country, which had culminated in retrenchment, rising cost of living,
unemployment, insurgency and renewed militancy in the Niger Delta.
He said further in his address to his colleagues in the chamber: “These
are serious challenges that require all hands to be on deck. There is no
other time in our history than now, when the business of government
needs to be conducted with great inclusiveness.
“We must find a way to bring the best brains in our country on board
wherever they may be found. Even those who did not vote for us but
believe in the change that we all believe is necessary to move our
country forward should be given a seat at the table.
“If we are able to mobilize the best human resources that God has
bountifully blessed our country with, I have no doubt that with God on
our side, we shall overcome.
“We note the Federal Government’s plan to invest N500 billion in social
protection programmes in the current budget. We want to urge the
government to ensure that appropriate mechanism is devised to ensure
that the benefits of these programmes get to those who are genuinely in
need.
“It is important that, as we move forward in this fight, considerable
attention is paid to strengthening the anti-corruption agencies to
enable them discharge their functions with greater efficiency and
fairness.
“We want to assure Mr. President that the Senate will continue to play
its part in the fight against corruption, which we believe is cardinal
in our desire to improve governance in our country. We will also
continue to broaden the scope for increased openness and accountability
that we have promised at the legislative level.
Tasks FG on fight against mass poverty
“While government has made progress in the fight against Boko Haram and
in the fight against corruption, the fight against mass poverty remains a
daunting challenge. Rising cost of living, increased cases of
retrenchment and corresponding rise in unemployment, inability of state
governors to pay salaries and upsurge in ethnic-based agitation
potentially deny government the full credit of the great strides it has
made in other areas.
“The same energy that has been invested in fighting corruption and Boko
Haram must be invested in taking care of the people, in making life
easier and better for them. We need to begin to assure Nigerians that
the sacrifice that they make today will not be in vain. We need to begin
to show them that there would be light at the end of the dark tunnel.
So, we must not relent in our efforts in this area over the next years
ahead.
On N-Delta militants
“I cannot end this address without a note on the on-going security
challenges we are beginning to witness in the Niger Delta area of our
country.
“We urge the warring militants to embrace our democratic institutions
and channel their grievances through appropriate quarters as we can
ill-afford further damage to the ecosystem of this all important region
and any more disruptions in the system.
“In the same vein, we also encourage government to adopt dialogue and
engagement as a more lasting option towards resolving this challenge. We
also call on the leaders in the area to play their part and ensure
through mediation that this menace is comprehensively quelled.
“The collapse in oil price has, without doubt, brought huge shock to our
economy on a scale that perhaps, has never been experienced before.
This requires us to develop creative strategies that would stimulate
business and investments into other sectors.
“For decades, we have talked about the need to diversify our economy.
But we have failed to take the necessary steps in policy and legislation
that would set us on the path to developing the kind of economy that we
desire.
“The Ease of Doing Business Report that ranks our country 167 out of 189
countries is not likely to attract business into our economy. This
Senate understands this. With the support from our international
development partners, the organized private sector, we commissioned an
expert report which identified 54 extant laws that must be reviewed and
brought in line with international best practices in order to open up
our economy for private investments and business.
“For too long, Nigerians have challenged us to justify our presence in
this chamber. Many have wondered what exactly we do here or why we
should be entitled to certain privileges. I believe that the best answer
we can provide to all these is to continue to seek ways that would
enable the ordinary citizen feel the impact of the Senate in their
lives.
“I dream of a day when the poor woman sitting in her house in rural Awka
would be able to see the benefit of our work on her life. I dream of a
day when a child going to school in Gusau would feel the benefit of the
laws that we make.
“I dream of a day when a young lady in Osogbo would be able to say how
the Senate has helped her small business. I dream of a day when a farmer
in Ogoja would see how those of us gathered in this chamber have helped
to improve his life. I am confident that if we continue on the path
that we have walked in the past year, that day will come soon. “
PDP could have produced Senate president, others — Akpabio
Meanwhile, Senate Minority Leader, Godswill Akpabio, while reflecting on
what happened before June 9, which culminated in the election of Saraki
as Senate President, said with what was on ground at that time, the
Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, would have produced the Senate President
and other principal officers.
He said though his party had the number of required senators needed to
produce the Senate president, following the absence of some All
Progressives Congress, APC, lawmakers, it decided to put the interest of
the nation first.
Akpabio, who noted that some intrigues played out prior to the election
of Saraki as Senate President, said: “You (Saraki ) were jittery and
sweating on that day. If we had wanted to take over the Senate, the PDP
would have done that. We had the chance to take all the positions but
because we are not greedy, we decided to allow the APC take over.”
Speaking on the general state of affairs in the country, Akpabio warned
that if something urgent was not done, Nigeria would be plunged into
crisis.
He said: “In the South-South, people have abandoned their homes because
of activities of Niger Delta Avengers. The North is in turmoil; the
South-East is boiling because of agitation. The South-West is the only
peaceful area, but they still send mercenaries to other areas to fight.
“I want to urge the APC to market this country very well. The way the
APC is saying the country is full of criminals, investors will not come
here to invest. They must change the way they talk about Nigeria. Things
need to change.”
Only God gives power — Ekweremadu
Also speaking, Deputy President of the Senate, Senator Ike Ekweremadu,
urged detractors of the Senate to leave the institution alone to work,
saying it was only God that gives power.
He said: “I am proud of our accomplishment as a Senate. On June 9, 2015,
as I look back now, there are a number of our colleagues who were not
here, but today everybody is here.
“We were divided along the lines of Unity Forum, Like Minds and
Non-aligned, but today we are united as one indivisible Senate, working
for the progress of our nation. We can only remain patriotic. Our
parties may differ, but we have one country and we have one constituency
which is Nigeria.”
Also speaking, Senate Leader, Ali Ndume, who hailed the mutual trust and
understanding of lawmakers, stressed that unlike in the past, senators
have shown maturity and had been able to put their differences aside.
“I want to add and commend the mutual respect and relationship that
exist between the opposition and the ruling or governing party. In fact,
your maturity level has gone to an extent that you rightly behave as
minorities instead of opposition for democracy.
“That is very commendable. Their number is so much as the Senate
President says that he can be intimidated.”
Put the past behind — Adeyeye
In his remarks, Senate Chief Whip, Senator Olusola Adeyeye, urged
senators to put the past behind them and proffer solutions to the
myriads of problems bedeviling the country.
He said: “Some things have not gone right in the last one year. If we
say we have no sin, we lie and the truth is not in us. We need to tell
ourselves the truth. We need to put our pasts behind us and work
together.
“No matter the political party we belong to, the country is in turmoil.
The economy is in a bad shape; insecurity is very high; unemployment is
unimaginable. The next one year must not be like the last one year. We
must make a difference.”
Budgets must focus on capital projects, says Murray – Bruce
Also contributing, Senator Ben Murray-Bruce, PDP, Bayelsa East, took a
critical look at government’s activities and declared that national
budgets over the years, had been made to give undue priority to
recurrent expenditure.
He also noted that budgets must be structured in a manner that paid at
least fifty percent attention to capital projects.
He said: “We celebrate one year in office but I am very troubled by our
economy. A lot of things have gone wrong and we have no time to fix the
problems. Everybody complains that the price of oil has caused the
decline of economy.
“But everybody must understand that the oil sector contributes fifty per
cent to the GDP. The GDP cannot all of a sudden have a negative growth
of minus .36 per cent. And if we have this again this quarter, we go
into a recession.”
“We have a very serious problem, coupled with the fact that 18,000
babies are born in Nigeria everyday, more than the whole of Western
Europe combined and population growth with the declining economic growth
is a terrible combination to have.
“This is coupled with the fact that after one year, the budget has not
been implemented as Kemi, the Minister of Finance has said.
“It is very unlikely the budget would be implemented fully this year
because we have only six months to go.
“Now, let me make a request to President Buhari. When the budget for
next year is presented, he must give Kemi a direct instruction that
recurrent expenditure should not exceed 50 per cent of the budget.
“It is ridiculous for us to talk about capital expenditure of N1.5
trillion in a N6 trillion budget when, in fact, we should be talking
about the N6 trillion budget, the capital expenditure budget should be
the only budget. Recurrent expenditure is a fixed amount; regardless of
what happened, you have to pay salaries.
“As a country of 170 million people, the civil servants in Nigeria are
only 2.2 million. If 2.2 million people consume 75 per cent of our
entire budget, then we have a serious problem. What is going to happen
is that Nigeria can never develop.
“That is the fact of life. If we want Nigeria to develop, recurrent
expenditure can and should never exceed 50 per cent as a starting point
regardless of the consequences. No budget to be presented to the
National Assembly must exceed 50 per cent for recurrent.
“We want money for capital expenditure, we want money for healthcare, we
want money for education, we want money to solve our problems.
“We cannot survive as a nation if all we do is pay salaries for 56
years. It is a very serious problem and here is a subject nobody talks
about, population explosion 18,000 babies born every single day and
these are excluding babies born from rape victims. This is a serious
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