Nigeria’s Senate president,
Bukola Saraki, has said that April 18, 2018 was the saddest day of his tenure.
Mr Saraki said this Thursday
while delivering his valedictory speech. The valedictory session marks the last
sitting of the eight Senate.
After other senators had took
turn to reflect on the eighth Senate, it was the turn of Mr Saraki to deliver
the last speech.
Before reading his speech, Mr
Saraki asked his colleagues to observe a minute silence in honour of late
Senators Ali Wakili (Bauchi South), Isiaka Adeleke (Osun West) and Bukar
Mustapha (Katsina North) who passed away in the course of the eight Senate.
Mr Saraki thanked his colleagues
for their support even in the face of trials.
He noted that the Senate invasion,
which led to the theft of the mace, would remain ‘saddest’ moment for him.
“Distinguished colleagues, let me
thank each and every one of you for your contributions towards making this the
historic Senate that it is. When I think of the many trials and tribulations we
have faced as an institution, and my own personal travails, particularly at the
Code of Conduct Tribunal, I am humbled, because none of our achievements would
have been possible without the support and cooperation of the entire members of
this chamber.
“The invasion of the National
Assembly by armed security operatives in August 2018 will live in infamy. This
way down the line, however, I realise that the day of that invasion was the
saddest – but in many ways it was also a good day for asserting the
independence of the legislature and the triumph of democracy.
“It also turned out to be a
showcase of the special relationship between this chamber and the House, as
Honourable Members stood in unison with their Senate colleagues in defiance of
the invaders. I thank the House of Representatives for the remarkable unity of
the two chambers of the 8th National Assembly, for it was only in unity that we
could withstand the storm.”
Mr Saraki boasted of the conduct
of his colleagues who he said had no scandal in the last four years.
“In closing, distinguished
colleagues, let me say that I am quite proud of the fact that there was not a
whiff of scandal in this Senate. You carried yourselves with the bearing and
sense of probity worthy of the office. You played your part in strengthening
Nigeria’s democracy. May the work we have done here bear bountiful fruits in
the length and breadth of this great country of ours, and may it be so for
years to come.”
As part of achievement, Mr Saraki
mentioned the Senate’s effort on National Assembly Joint Public Hearing on the
Budget, Senate’s roundtable, intervention in the North East, intervention in
the two-year strike of the Ladoke Akintola University of Technology (LAUTECH),
engagement with the executive among others.
Other achievements, he said,
include making public the National Assembly budget and setting aside of one per
cent of the Consolidated Revenue Fund (CRF) for the Basic Health Care Provision
Fund.
“Just the other week, the
Minister of Health called the 1 per cent CRF a ‘game changer’, no doubt
because, by our activities in this chamber, we are touching the lives of
Nigerians and even those unborn.
“Speaking of commendations, our
interventions on health also won plaudits from international philanthropists
Bill Gates and Bono, as well as the Director-General of the World Health
Organisation (WHO). Similarly, our amendment of the Universal Basic Education
Act, guaranteeing free education for children aged nine to twelve, won praise
from education rights activist and Nobel Laureate, Malala Yousafzai.
“We cracked the code of several
Bills that had eluded Senates before us. We broke the decade-old Petroleum
Industry Bill (PIB) into a quartet of workable bills including the Petroleum
Industry Governance Bill (PIGB), whose passage stands as a major achievement of
the eigth Senate. The Companies and Allied Matters Act (CAMA) was the most
comprehensive reform law governing Nigeria’s business environment in nearly 30
years. The Nigeria Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU) Bill was one of the major
anti-corruption laws we passed; and it saved the country from being expelled
from the global body of the Egmont Group. And as recently as May 22, we passed
the Nigerian Football Federation Bill which had been caught in the legislative
bottleneck for 15 years,” he said
Mr Saraki advised his successor
to continue in that line.
On the other hand, the Senate
president urged a more cordial relationship between the executive and
legislature.
“And as we say all the things we
have done, we must also be reflective and candid enough to acknowledge the
things we didn’t do. It is my hope that the ninth Senate will improve on our
performance and deliver on those areas that we were not quite able to touch.
“It is also important that I make
some comments about Legislature-Executive Relations. My own take is that if the
Executive sees the National Assembly’s work on the budget as interference
despite the provision of the constitution, then there will continue to be
problems between both arms of government.
“If the presidency refuses to
have engagements and consultations with the leadership of the National Assembly
before the president submits the budget to the legislature, then there will
continue to be frictions.”
No comments
Post a Comment
Kindly drop a comment below.
(Comments are moderated. Clean comments will be approved immediately)
Advert Enquires - Reach out to us at NigerianEye@gmail.com