We must reduce cost of governance, economic leakage, Saraki tells Senate

As the eighth Sen- ate commenced legislative activi- ties after a two- week recess, Bukola Saraki, Senate presi- dent, on Tuesday, said the cost of governance in the country was ‘unsustainable,’ and also decring the cost of doing business in Nigeria.
Welcoming senators from the two-week recess after the inauguration of the eighth Na- tional Assembly on June 9, he stressed the need for the law- makers to fight for the plight of the ordinary Nigerians.

The Senate president charged the legislators to be alive to their legislative du- ties, saying: “Nigerians voted for change.

They demand that we deliver to them, tan- gible change.

They expect that we improve the quality of governance. “One sure task we must deal with is to ensure to mi- nimise the current crisis, will be to find ways and means to shore up the revenues. To achieve this, all cards will be on the table.Most impor- tantly, we must reduce to the barest minimum revenue leakage points, strengthen the oversight of the entire revenue collection and mo- bilisation architecture of the Federation.”

He described media re- ports of federal lawmakers’ wardrobe allowances as “false, reckless and mis- chief” campaign.

According to him, the falling price of crude oil in the international market and attendant reduction in rev- enue have made it impos- sible for some states to pay workers’ salaries and made implementation of capital projects under the 2015 bud- get “very challenging.”

Recall that the Socio- Economic Rights and Ad- vocacy Project (SERAP) had dragged state governments and the Federal Govern- ment to the International Labour Organisation (ILO) over unpaid workers’ sala- ries and pensions.

The complaint dated June 19, 2015, and signed by SERAP executive direc-tor, Adetokunbo Mumunim, was addressed to the organ- isation’s director-general, Guy Ryder.

Saraki posited that three issues currently agitate the minds of Nigerians in the new administration, which include: falling government revenues, current fiscal crisis in many states and unsustainable cost of governance in the country as well as the rising cost of doing business in Nigeria.

While calling for a reduc- tion of revenue leakages, he announced the composition of an 18-man Senate Ad-hoc Committee, comprising of three senators from each geo-political zone to imme- diately draw up a legislative agenda for the eighth Senate. He however, did not an- nounce names of members of the committee.

The Senate had earlier gone into a closed-door ses- sion, which lasted about one hour, to discuss the report of the chairman, Senate Ad- hoc Committee on Welfare, Shaaba Lafiagi, on allocation of seats and offices.

Also, senators have al-ready been allocated offices at the New Senate Building.

Ike Ekweremadu, deputy Senate president, had stood down a motion on unpaid salaries because of the meeting of President Muham- madu Buhari with the 36 governors.

Meanwhile, aides to sen- ators in the seventh National Assembly who failed to se- cure return tickets, on Tues- day, besieged the lobby to seek for new appointments from the 76 new senators.

At the close of plenary on Tuesday, Sergeants-at-Arm had a herculean task trying to clear the lobby for the senators to find their way out of the hallowed chamber.

A senator, who did not want his name in print, told BusinessDay that CVs he had received so far from ap- plicants had filled a ‘Ghana Must Go bag.’

The 469 members of the National Assembly are ex- pected to employ 2,445 leg- islative aides. The Red Chamber ad- journed sitting till Wednes- day.