Senate Agrees With Reps To Invite Buhari For A Joint Session On Economy

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The Senate on Wednesday, has concurred with the House of Representatives on the decision to invite President Muhammadu Buhari to a joint session of both chambers on ways to navigate the country out of recession.

Recalled that the lower chamber had on Thursday, 22nd September, 2016 passed a resolution to invite Buhari, for a session on the state of economy.

Entitled “Concurrence to House resolution” the motion seeks to “Invite the President C-in-C, to address a Joint Session of the National Assembly to intimate it on plans to get the country out of recession to enable the House take further legislative action.”

Senate President, Abubakar Bukola Saraki, sought the approval of the Senate through a voice vote to concur with the House resolution.

They upper chambers  claimed there was need for the president to clarify the actual state of the economy, in view of alleged conflicting signals, coming from different officials of the administration, especially on the steps to getting Nigeria out of recession.
The Senate had sometimes last week submitted a 20-point resolutions to the president on ways to solve the economic recession currently battling the country.

Part of the submission to the President was the resolution of the Senate that the proposed sale of some national assets should be dropped.

The Senate also “urged the executive to ensure constant meeting of fiscal and monetary authorities for harmonization of all policies, particularly lower interest rates for genuine investors in the real sector as well as medium and small scale farmers and processors.”

It said that “Government must engage in meaningful and inclusive dialogue with the aggrieved Niger Delta militants to avoid escalation of the unrest in the region and ensure protection of Nigeria’s oil and gas assets to facilitate increase in oil production and boost revenue there from.

“That the President should as a matter of urgency, appoint a Senior Special Assistant who should lead a team that coordinates the government’s engagement with all stakeholders in the region, specifying that the team should include Senators from the Zone.

“The President to reconstitute the Board of Central Bank (CBN) and all other critical agencies in order for them to operate in accordance with the enabling laws.”

However, no date for the joint session has been taken, even though the matter according to the federal lawmakers is of utmost importance and requires an urgent solution.

To indicate how important the situation was, the Minority Leader of the House, Toby Okechukwu as well as some other lawmakers, Leo Ogor and Oluwole Oke, outlined the factors they believe led to the recession.

Most of them identified the Treasury Single Account Policy, Foreign Exchange Policy and the structure of Nigeria as some of the issues that needed to be addressed.