The Senate has set up 18-Man Committee to establish agenda for its take-off.
Senate President, Bukola Saraki made this announcement while welcoming his colleagues back from a two-week recess.
Saraki said “In view therefore, may I seize this opportunity to announce to you the immediate composition of an 18-man Senate ad hoc committee comprising of the senate from each geopolitical zone, to immediately draw up a legislative agenda for the eight Senate within a week. The expected draft agenda, which will be laid on the floor of the Senate for your approval my distinguished colleagues, will give the Senate focus and cohesion in pursuing our set targets.
“Distinguished colleagues, now that we are back, there is no doubt that we have great legislative challenges to face and the high expectations of our people to meet. We must see the challenges we face today also as an opportunity to look inwards to find answers to our developmental problems. All that we need is patriotism, maturity and unconditional commitment to the course of change.”
He also urged his colleagues to prepare for the economic challenges facing the nation.
He said “In the light of this, distinguished colleagues and in keeping with our avowed commitment to lead from the frontline, I met last week with officials from the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC), the statutory body with the decision to set salaries and allowances for both the executive and the legislature to get accurate information on the true state of all salaries and allowances for members of the National Assembly.
“In the coming days after the leadership of the National Assembly is fully established, we shall be setting up an ad hoc committee to reappraise the structure of the National Assembly budget, make it more open, and ensure that the entire budget is in line with economic realities.
“With the falling price of oil in the international market and the attendant reduction in revenues, the fiscal stress is already beginning to tell on our economy with some states becoming hard pressed to pay even salaries of workers. Implementation of capital projects under the budget has become very challenging.
“These problems will not wait for us to settle down; we must get into the business segment and make priority efforts to have a closer review of the revenue stream. One sure task we must deal with to minimize the current crisis will be to find ways and means to shore up the revenues. To achieve this all cards will be on the table. Most importantly, we must reduce to the barest minimum revenue leakage points; strengthen oversight of the entire revenue collection and mobilisation architecture of the federation.”
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