Senate President, Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki has reiterated the commitment<\/p>\n
of the current Senate to supporting the Buhari administration’s fight
\nagainst corruption, saying “under my watch the Senate will never cover
\ncorruption except if the information didn’t come to us”.<\/p>\n
Speaking with a team of editors of the London based “The Economist”
\nnewspaper at the weekend, Saraki, according to the statement by his
\nSpecial Assistant on Public Affairs, Mohammed Isa, said the Senate is ever
\nready to partner with President Muhammadu Buhari to ensure the success of
\nthe\u00a0 anti-corruption war.\u00fd<\/p>\n
The Senate, he said had already demonstrated such commitment through its
\ninterventions on many alleged corrupt transactions such as its swift
\ninvestigation and adoption of a report on the management of the Treasury
\nSingle Account (TSA) that saved the nation about N7billion and the
\nexposure of the inconsistencies in the 2016 budget.<\/p>\n
The step, he said was a departure from the past where such reports were
\neither watered-down or not presented for debate and adoption. He cited the
\nreport he presented to the last Senate on the over N1trillion fuel subsidy
\nscam that never saw the light of the day.<\/p>\n
In furtherance to the commitment, the Senate President said Nigerians
\nwould in the next few weeks be availed with the details of the National
\nAssembly budget which will be a departure from the tradition of having one
\nline item budget.<\/p>\n
“For the first time we promised Nigerians to give out\u00a0 our budget
\nbreakdown. The committee will make its report available by next week. We
\nare resolved to break the tradition of one line item,” he emphasized.<\/p>\n
Saraki said though party differences exist between the senators, citing
\nexample of the leadership tussle, he, however said, national interest and
\nthe desire of each senator to fulfil the promises made to Nigerians have
\nbecome the guiding principle of the senate in their team work.<\/p>\n
On the\u00a0 economy, he said the Senate has embarked on series of legislative
\ninterventions to create conducive environment for the private sector, as
\nhe said, “it is only when the\u00a0 private sector thrives that the issue of
\nunemployment will be addressed and the nation’s GDP will increase.”<\/p>\n
“Few days ago, we received a report on the laws that need to be amended in
\norder of priority importance to ease doing business and overall private
\nsector participation in the stimulation of Nigeria’s economy. We will soon
\ncommence the implementation of the recommendations in the report in
\naddition to pushing for the amendment of the Procurement Act to stimulate
\nand protect our local industries,” he assured.<\/p>\n
He blamed lack of firmness and consistency in policy implementation by the
\npast administrations as the main obstacle for the growth of the private
\nsector.<\/p>\n
“If people have confidence that these policies have come to stay, nothing
\nwill stop them from coming to invest in the country,” he stressed.<\/p>\n
He allayed the fears that the low prices of oil will have negative impact
\non the implementation of the 2016 budget, saying that, “what we need to do
\nis to block leakages and show more transparency.”<\/p>\n
“If we can block leakages, stop the wastages and institute a culture of
\ntransparency in governance, the revenue in-flow will not be substantially
\naffected. Without these, even if oil is sold at more than a $100 per
\nbarrel, we will continue to witness a decline in revenue in-flow as we
\nwitnessed in the past,” Saraki said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Senate President, Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki has reiterated the commitment of the current Senate to supporting the Buhari administration’s fight against corruption, saying “under my watch the Senate will never…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":42161,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-47514","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-exclusive"],"yoast_head":"\n