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President of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan, has said the National Assembly would ensure that the five demands made to the Executive by #EndSARS protesters are implemented.
Lawan gave the assurance during plenary after the upper chamber was briefed by the Senate Leader, Yahaya Abdullahi (APC – Kebbi North) on the intervention by the leadership to wade into the matter.
Giving details into the meeting between the Senate delegation and the protesters yesterday, Senator Abdullahi said, “we met with a view to pacifying the protesters and also extending our commiseration with them over what happened.
“They explained that in the course of their peaceful demonstration, they were accosted by some hoodlums who they alleged were directed by the police to attack them; and how they were able to weather the storm and assemble at the National Assembly to inform us of their travails.
“We sympathized with them and received verbally, the complaints that they wanted to submit to the National Assembly.
“They complained of damages to their vehicles, and some physical injuries that some of them sustained. Fortunately, there were no major injuries or even violent death.
“We implored them to submit a catalogue of their complaints and the damages or injuries that were inflicted upon them, so that these can be conveyed to the appropriate authorities for interventions.
“Today, the minority leader as we arranged yesterday was there on the ground to receive the catalogue of complaints. Unfortunately those complains are not ready, so whenever they are ready, the leadership is going to compile and submit them to the appropriate authority for attention.
“I just wanted to inform my colleagues, so that we put this particular issue on record.”
In his remarks, the Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, who described the demands by the protesters as legitimate, said the National Assembly would prevail on the Executive arm of government to ensure expeditious implementation.
He however urged the protesters to go back home so as to give the Federal Government the chance to see to the implementation of their demands.
“We took a motion sponsored by Distinguished Senator Oluremi Tinubu on the challenges that we face, especially with respect to the SARS activities across the country and, of course, we took far reaching resolutions.
“Nigerians, let me say, have the right to peaceful demonstration. When they feel very strongly about issues, they can do so to call the attention of the leaders of this country for appropriate action to be taken.
“I believe that the government has responded, SARS has been disbanded and all the five demands of the protesters have been accepted.
“What I’ll urged here is if such demands have been accepted, then we should expedite taking action to actualize them.
“I believe that when protesters demands are met, their goal should have been achieved. Therefore, there is need for our compatriots to go back home and give government the chance to quickly and expeditiously implement those demands.
“Both chambers of the National Assembly have identified with the protests that they are legitimate protests and demands.
“I think the next vital step is for the protests to stop because the initial reasons for the protests have been accepted as facts and government is trying to do everything possible.
“I urge government and that includes us, that we should push to ensure that those demands of the protesters that the executive side has accepted to implement are implemented as quickly as possible,” Lawan said.
Says Timely Passage Has Improved Implementation of 2020 Budget
Meanwhile, the Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, has said that the early consideration and passage of the 2020 budget which returned the country’s budget cycle to January – December, has significantly boosted the implementation of this year’s budget.
The Senate President made this known on Thursday during plenary on the third day of debate on the 2021 Appropriations bill presently before the National Assembly.
Lawan in his remarks on the country’s return to the January to December budget cycle, described same as a major achievement under the Buhari administration and the Ninth Assembly.
According to the Senate President, the low implementation which characterised previous budgets has been significantly improved upon as evident in the 2020 budget in which Ministries have so far recorded between 50 and 75 percent implementation rates on capital projects across the country.
He said, “in the last three days, we’ve witnessed submissions raising issues about the budget estimates presented to us by Mr. President.
“This is in continuation of our efforts to ensure the desirable cycle that we have taken the annual budget to (January – December) will be a legacy.
“This will be our legacy as the 9th National Assembly and the legacy of Me. President.
“We have been able to do this together and there’s definitely a difference in the implementation of the 2020 budget compared to the others.
“Some Ministries and projects have received up to 75 percent funding. There’s none that has received less than 50 percent.
“While this may not be exactly what we want, it is still an improvement and we will continue to urge the executive to implement the budget up to 100 percent.
“But I believe that we have seen the benefit of passing the budget in good time, and this is something that we will continue to do,” the Senate President said.
On monies generated by agencies of government, Lawan faulted the country’s low revenue earnings on the failure of revenue agencies to remit all sums to the Federation Account after collection.
He therefore advocated for improved revenue generation, collection and remittance methods as way of shoring the nation’s revenue figures.
“Like all of us, I also have some observations. Firstly, I think our revenue generation, collection and remittances need to be better.
“There are many agencies of government that are supposed to be generating revenues and they do so, but they don’t remit all that they are supposed to,” he said.
The Senate President announced that the relevant Committees would interface on a monthly basis with revenue generating agencies to evaluate their performance and device ways on how same can be improved where they underperform or fail to meet revenue targets.
He added that doing so would reduce the deficit contained in next year’s budget and subsequent ones, as well as reduce Nigeria’s dependence on loans to finance capital projects which the country direly needs.
“When we are able to get more revenues, we will reduce the deficit, because this budget has big deficit, and this is because we simply have no resources as at today and we need to have our infrastructure in place.
“So, the issue is for us to diversify the funding and finances of the projects. We may not do completely without borrowing, but we could do diversification of the sources of funding. We could go for Public Private Partnership like many Senators here suggested, so that we reduce the necessity to borrow.
“Whatever it takes, we have to provide infrastructure in this country, otherwise, we would never move beyond where we are,” Lawan said.
The Senate President while underscoring the importance of oversight by the National Assembly, harped on the need for the Federal Government to cut down on the cost of governance by merging some of its agencies.
“The responsibility of the National Assembly or Parliament is that whatever we appropriate is properly, economically and efficiently applied. This is an oversight function that we must continue to do.
“Before we pass the 2021 budget, we should be able to know how much of the 2020 has been implemented. This is because some projects need to be rolled over to 2021, and we need to know the extent to which they have been funded in the 2020 financial year,” he said.
The 2021 Appropriations bill which passed the second reading on Thursday was referred by the Senate President to the Committee on Appropriations for further legislative work.
The Committee, which is chaired by Senator Jibrin Barau (APC – Kano North), was given four weeks to report back to the Senate.