….Tinubu Restates Commitment

President Bola Tinubu has restated his commitment to growing and strengthening Nigeria’s economy to improve the well-being of citizens.

Tinubu restated the commitment while declaring open a retreat on Fiscal Policy and Tax Reforms for senators in Ikot Ekpene on Thursday.

The President, who was represented by the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Mr Wale Edun, said that he would do all within his powers to engender better life for all Nigerians.

He said that it was unacceptable to him that 63 per cent of the Nigerian population and over 84 million people formed the multi dimensionally poor.

Tinubu said that he would pay close attention to building women and youths, adding that he hoped to achieve that with the cooperation and support of the national assembly.

“The antidote to this is that, this government is committed to doing all we can to make Nigerian economy grow and achieve rapid, sustained and inclusive growth.

“I cannot do this alone, there has to be team network and of course legislators. The senators have a key role to play.

“At this time, when we are considering the medium-term economic framework and fiscal sustainability programme.

“It is topical and timely that we should be having this retreat, because after now, we will be considering the budget,” he said.

Tinubu tasked the National Assembly to be committed and ensure speedy passage of the budget for assent before December 31.

Speaking earlier, the Senate president, Sen. Godswill Akpabio, charged his colleagues to meet the expectations and hopes of people who voted into office.

While urging senators to work for development of the country,Akpabio said he would ensure the senate does not work at cross-purposes with the executive arm of government.

Akpabio said the major objective of the retreat was to improve the knowledge of senators and build their technical capacity to generate concrete and consistent legislation that would promote peace and sustainable development in tandem with the renewed hope and eight-point agenda of the Tinubu/Shettima administration.

He added that the retreat was aimed at deepening participants’ knowledge of public expenditure management, fiscal policy and tax reforms.

“We must unbundle the Federal Government. We cannot continue to vote money year in, year out for primary school construction, primary education and the Federal government does not have a single primary school in this country.

“Why then do we vote billions of naira at the centre,” Akpabio said.

Akpabio also said poor regulation of mining of natural resources across different states ,without remittances to the centre ,was a major cause of insecurity in the country.

The senate president called for a long- term plan to improve on the Internally Generated Revenue of the country.

In his welcome remarks,Prof.Abubakar Sulaiman, Director -General, National Institute for Legislative and Democratic Studies (NILDS), organisers of the Retreat,said the focus on Fiscal Policy and Tax Reforms demonstrates the commitment of the National Assembly to align with fiscal and sectoral reforms.

He said the retreat would strengthen measures to further enhance legislature–executive relationships and address issues of insecurity, which have hampered meaningful development.

“Painstaking efforts have been made to ensure that all relevant topics that touch on the economy, globally and nationally were included.

“Also the eight-point agenda of the President, alignment of the legislative agenda with the programmes of study of executive, security as well as electoral reforms are major areas that will also be discussed,” Sulaiman said.

In his remarks, Gov. Umo Eno of Akwa Ibom ,said the retreat showed the commitment of the 10th Senate to making laws for the economic prosperity and well – being of Nigerians.

Eno ,who was represented by the Deputy Governor, Sen. Akon Eyakenyi, said already the state government had keyed into prudent management of scarce resources by undertaking people -oriented infrastructural projects.

“With a growing population, volatility of the crude oil market and the diminishing relevance of fossil fuels, it has become imperative for governments at all levels to explore alternative sources of public finance and adopt creative means of managing same in order to keep meeting their obligations to the people.

“Permit me to say that the objectives of this retreat align with the policy of prudent management and transparency by our administration. We are irrevocably committed to transparency and accountability.

“In line with this, we have made a full disclosure of the details of our budget implementation. We believe our people reserve the right to know all our efforts at developing the state.

“Our commitment to prudent management of scarce resources is already yielding fruits as we are undertaking people -oriented and infrastructural projects across the State,” he said. (NAN)