The Nigerian President of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan, says the Ninth National Assembly has delivered on its legislative agenda for Nigerians.
Lawan made this known on Thursday while delivering an address to mark the
celebration of his 64th birthday in Abuja.
According to him, the ninth assembly after its inauguration stated its commitment to working for Nigerians with a robust legislative agenda that covered critical areas in need of immediate intervention.
Prominent amongst such areas are security, economy, revenue generation and
collection, education, and constitution amendment.
Speaking on the performance of the Ninth Assembly, he said, “We decided to be
focused, strategic, tactical, patriotic, tolerant, and patient in our work in the ninth
Senate.
In a statement by Dr. Ezrel Tabiowo, Special Assistant (Press), Lawan said: “We
defined what we wanted to do in the ninth Senate when we were campaigning. We said we will work for Nigerians, and when we drew our legislative agenda after we
inaugurated it, we worked on it. Thank God, almost everything we put there as a
legislative agenda, we finished with them in a good way.”
He assured Nigerians that the National Assembly would continue to collaborate with the executive arm to ensure that the challenges posed by insecurity across parts of the country are nipped in the bud.
The Senate President, while lauding the efforts of the federal government in the area of infrastructural development, underscored the need to improve on revenue generation and collection for the same to be adequately sustained.
“One other challenge is the lack of sufficient revenues for the government to undertake its numerous laudable and noble national development projects across the country.
“Most of what we do in terms of national development is to borrow funds for us to
execute those projects.
“I think we have to work hard to improve our revenue generation and collection because it is not looking too sustainable that we tolerate people and some agencies of government, to misapply or not even declare the revenues they collect. We can’t
continue with that”, Lawan said.
The Senate President stated that the upper chamber within the remaining period of its lifespan would engage revenue-generating agencies with a view to shoring up the country’s earnings.
He however advised the federal government to undertake a review of waivers and
concessions already granted to corporate entities.
Lawan noted that doing so would provide more revenue to the government and cause a boost to the nation’s economy.
He said, “So, for us in the Senate, we have decided that for the remaining part, we will continue to engage with our revenue-generating agencies until we get better outcomes from them. This is possible and has become imperative.
“Also, the concessions and waiver that the government has given, we need to review
that. Now every kobo counts because we are in a very difficult situation.
“Where a waiver cannot be justified anymore because of our present circumstance, then such waiver should be reversed or renegotiated. But definitely, we need to work hard to improve the revenue generation and collection by the MDAs and other government agencies.”
