The plenary session of the Senate on Wednesday, May 25, 2016 witnessed the consideration and passage of three Motions. The Motions passed into Legislative Resolutions include:
1) An urgent need to address the present economic state of the nation, sponsored by Sen. Bassey Albert Akpan (Akwa Ibom North East).
Sen. Akpan asserted that the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), last week released the nation’s economic scorecard for the first quarter of the year 2016 for Gross Domestic Product (GDP), Inflation and Unemployment. He observed that the report depicts that the nation’s economy plunged into recession with a decline of 0.36 per cent year-on-year in real terms which is a drastic drop from 2.11 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2015 in GDP.
The law-maker expressed worry over the declining Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and Unemployment besides the current high inflation rate clearly showed that the economic policies are not achieving the desired impact and require urgent review to avoid further plunge in the economy. The Motion sailed through with a single Resolution below:
a) Invite the Minister of Finance and the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria to brief the Senate on the Monetary/Fiscal policies adopted to salvage the current economic situation.
2) Senate Intervention on the Reforms and Strengthening of Local Government Administration in Nigeria, sponsored by Sen. Abdullahi A. Gumel (Jigawa North-West) and six others.
Accordingly, the Upper Legislative Chamber is deeply worried by the flood of petitions from Nigerians and stakeholders in particular on the current situation of State-Local Government Relations (SLR) especially in the light of rampant dissolution of elected Local Council officials and enthronement of unelected “Care-Taker Committees” (CTC), and the long standing issue of funding for the Councils in line with their constitutional responsibilities.
Sen. Gumel admitted that the various attempts to resolve the SLR impasse via alteration of the 1999 constitution of Nigeria have failed and yet to be addressed. This negates and hurts the attainment of lofty goals of democracy and inclusiveness at the grassroots, which may indeed lead to the collapse of the Local Government System in some States of the federation. Ultimately, the Motion scaled through with one resolution below:
a) Mandate the Senate Committee on State and Local Government to conduct a Public Hearing on the Reforms aimed at Strengthening the Local Governments Administration in Nigeria within the context of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended) and other extant laws; and make recommendations.
3) Financial Inclusion: A tool for Socio-Economic Development and Stability sponsored by Sen. Mustapha Bukar (Katsina North).
According to Sen. Bukar, the Senate noted with dismay the impact of the National Programme for Socio-Economic Development and associated CBN Interventions have been negligible and ineffectual due to poor concept, inefficient coverage, lack of awareness, poor implementation framework, lack of stakeholders’ buy-in commitment and dearth of rural infrastructure to support the strategy, amongst others. Interestingly, the Motion was passed with three prayers below:
a) Urge the Federal Government to invest in enabling infrastructure in the Telecommunication and Power sectors to facilitate extending financial services to the Financially Excluded segment of the society.
b) Direct the Committees on Banking, Insurance and other Financial Institutions and Industries to liaise with the relevant Federal Government Ministries, Department and Agencies (MDAs) to prioritize financial inclusion by designing suitable programmes and strategies to extend the current frontiers of financial inclusion to cover all regions and segments of the society.
c) Urge the CBN to take proactive measures to enhance financial inclusion through increased rural banking and financial services, especially in the disadvantaged States and Local Governments, by specifically requiring all Deposits Money Banks (DMBs) to develop and extend suitable products and channels to financially excluded segments of the society within 24 months.
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