Speaker of the House of Representative, Yakubu Dogara on Wednesday emphaised the need for the present administration to demonstrate purposeful leadership in the bid to address the current socio-economic challenges facing the country.
Dogara who gave the charge while welcoming members from the two months annual recess, also called on President Muhammadu Buhari to initiate a joint emergency session of the National Assembly to brief both the Legislature and indeed Nigerians of his plans to pull Nigeria out of recession.
“These are not times like any other. I therefore call on all of us and indeed the National Assembly to continue giving legislative support to the Executive on all well thought out and effective solutions to our economic problems. More than ever before, we must be prepared to listen more, think more and work more. We must also consult the abundant pool of experts both in Nigeria and abroad to fashion out short, medium and long term measures for dealing with the present crisis and setting our country on the path of sustained economic growth.
“The recent retreat by Mr President with his cabinet and sundry statutory appointees is most commendable. It is in this regard that I urge Mr President to consider holding a joint emergency session of the National Assembly to brief both the Legislature and indeed Nigerians of his plans to pull Nigeria out of recession. This will provide an opportunity for all stakeholders to be on the same page and to act in concert for urgent national recovery.
“It will also further consolidate existing ongoing consultations between the Presidency and the National Assembly on the way forward. We must never miss the opportunity the present travails offers us to launch Nigeria into its rightful destiny and place among the comity of prosperous nations,” he said.
On the other hand, Speaker Yakubu Dogara mandated all the House Standing Committees to embark on fact finding exercise to ascertain the extent and level of 2016 budget implementation by various Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs).
While acknowledging the socio-economic hardship being experienced by Nigerians and the state of the economy, Dogara reiterated the House Commitment to “collaborate with the Executive in fine tuning any observed limitations in policy formulation and implementation to ensure speedy delivery of services to our people.
“We need to immediately take a second look at the pace of budget execution; the spiraling rise of the dollar against the naira and the multiple exchange rate regime; the impact of the Treasury Single Account on the economy, investment in infrastructure, tackling unemployment, among others.”
BusinessDay checks show that out of the total sum of N1.588 trillion approved for capital expenditure in the 2016 budget, Federal Government had earlier released N420 billion for capital project and additional sum of N350 billion was announced last Friday, raising the approval for capital expenditure to N770 billion as at second quarter of the year.
In the bid to ensure full budget implementation for the 2016 fiscal year, Dogara emphasised the need for increased budgetary releases for capital projects just announced and request for even more as provided by law.
“In furtherance of the constitutional responsibility of the National Assembly to act as an effective check on the Executive on behalf of the Nigerian people, I hereby direct various House Committees to conduct a fact finding exercise on the extent and level of budget implementation by various MDAs.
“We must take our oversight responsibilities very seriously and report back to the House. It is the report of the House Committees that will determine Appropriation to any MDA in 2017,” he noted.
The Speaker who bemoaned the “alarming state of the citizens penury” across the country due to the Economic recession, maintained that “Nigeria has gone into recession is a very worrisome development that calls for emergency measures to be taken. All hands must be on deck to tackle the myriads of problems facing us.
“This is not the time for partisanship. This is not the time to score political points. This is not the time for grandstanding. This is not the time for blame games. The situation and the times call for bold, courageous, enlightened and purposeful leadership. This is a patriotic call to action from all stakeholders and indeed all Nigerians. We must unite as a people to rescue Nigeria from the shackles of poverty, social and economic underdevelopment.
“To achieve the needed result, we must never shy away from telling our brothers and sisters that the change we seek can never be about what we are changing from but what we are changing to. That transformation has and will always be about what we embrace not what we have abandoned.
“As leaders, we must take responsibility for the present economic situation although we are not directly responsible for it. We must admit that this is a difficult thing to do in the present generation that spurns responsibility. Everyone wants to blame someone for something that goes wrong. Unfortunately, history teaches us that no one, no nation has ever achieved greatness except on account of the creative hunger that comes with accepting responsibility.
“It was Winston Churchill who summed up this lesson of history in six words, thus: ‘the price of greatness is responsibility.’ Every Nigerian must understand this so that together we will seize the opportunity this crisis presents to rebound and build a secure and prosperous future for our dear nation,” the Speaker observed.
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