By Sunny Anderson Osiebe...
It was the Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki, who during the Eid-el-Kabir holidays had hinted that the Senate will on resumption look into the biting economic recession in order to proffer solutions to the Executive arm of government for implementation as a way out.
And on Tuesday, September 20, 2016 when lawmakers resumed from their recess, the Senate deferred the debate to the next legislative day in order to observe a parliamentary tradition in honour of a deceased member of the House of Representatives, Hon. Elijah Adewale, who had died on Thursday, July 21, 2016 - same day the Assembly went on recess.
But before the adjournment of the day's proceedings, Saraki delivered a thought-provoking speech, which effect is still reverberating.
In fact, many erroneously mistaken the Senate President's opinion as that of the institution of Senate or the National Assembly and the reason behind this is not farfetched - Saraki's 9-point agenda or what he described as "needful" measures to end the recession are far-reaching.
He said the steps are what President Muhammadu Buhari-led Federal Government should take in order to demonstrate that it was ready to turn the nation's economy around for the better.
Saraki opined that government should, among others, raise capital from asset sales and other sources to shore up foreign reserves; consider tweaking the pension funds; the Executive must immediately put in place leadership-level engagement platform with the private sector.
Others are re-tooling of export promotion policy scheme with incentives such as the resumption of the Export Expansion Grant (EEG); meaningful engagement and dialogue with Niger Delta militants and avoiding an escalation of the conflict in the region.
He urged the federal government to consider immediate release of funds to ensure the implementation of the 2016 budget for the near short term to inject money into the economy.
By Wednesday, September 21, 2016 when the debate started with Senators taking the turn to make contributions and Thursday, September 22, 2016 when it ended, they virtually agreed on most recommendations except the idea of selling off the national assets to raise funds.
Recall that the Senate had on Thursday, September 22, 2016 setup an adhoc committee to harmonise all contributions and come up with an official position of the Senate on the matter, it is however pertinent to point out that all positions attributed to the Senate by both conventional and new media were wrong as the Red Chamber was yet to take a decision until Tuesday, September 27, 2016 when it reconvened.
While Saraki is for sale of assets, his deputy, Senator Ike Ekweremadu, disagreed with the notion, pointing out that it will be unfair to the coming generations.
Ekweremadu however noted that if the sale of national assets becomes imperatives, only the non-performing ones should be sold for the new owners to turn around and create employments.
For his part, Senator George Akume, also called for caution, saying that a lot of money had been reported to have been stolen from the nation's coffers, recalling that a former Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) governor, Charles Soludo, once raised the alarm over a stolen $60 billion.
Akume added that another former CBN governor, who is now the Emir of Kano, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, also raised the alarm over another $20 billion oil proceeds that was stolen, which could be recovered.
“From these and from monies going through other sources at least we should be able to recoup over $50 billion. If we succeed in doing this, do we still have to sell our assets as is being canvassed?
“The thing is very straight, there is a buyers market and there is a sellers market, if we want to dispose of your oil assets at this time when the prices of oil has crashed, precisely how much are you going to realise?," Akume said.
Many Senators who opposed the sale of assets opined that if critical national assets are sold off now in order to end the current economic recession, there would be nothing left to sell if the phenomenon re-occur in future, warning that it will be suicidal to do.
Apart from the lawmakers, Nigerians are also divided on the idea of selling assets to end the recession even as they don't care about several other measures being canvassed by individuals, experts and various professional groups on the way out.
On Tuesday, September 27, 2016 when the adhoc committee, which collated Senators' views, chaired by Senator Yahaya Abdullahi (APC, Kebbi) submitted its report and subsequently adopted after amendments, it became clear that the Senate was officially opposed to sale of assets.
Instead, the Senate in its recommendations urged Buhari to come up with an Economic Stimulus Bill to be considered by the National Assembly and eventually passed into law in order to turn around the economy.
The Red Chamber also urged the Executive to harmonise all policies that lower interest rates for genuine investors in real sector and medium and small scale farmers and processors even as Senators urged the government to explore every avenue to restore the oil production target of 2.2 million barrels per day and adopt peaceful means to stop the vandalisation of petroleum and gas assets in the Niger Delta region, among others.
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