Dr Bukola Saraki, the President of Senate, has brought to President Muhammadu Buhari’s attention the excruciating hardship and suffering that is presently plaguing the common Nigerian.Our people must see that the singular preoccupation of government is to search for solution for the current economic hardship and the commitment to ease their burden. They don’t want to know what political party you belong or the language you speak or the God you worship.
They have trusted their fate in our hands and they need us now more than ever before to justify that trust they have imposed on us. The people of Nigeria will pardon us if we do something wrong but they will not forgive us if we do nothing.
And that is why Mr. President we in the the two chambers have taken a position that whatever may be our differences, our opinion on the issues of the economy, we will work with one common purpose for this reason. I wish to reassure the President that the National Assembly will continue to seek opportunities to deepen this relationship because we are convinced that it is only by working together closely that our country can make the progress that we desire.
It is in times like this, when we are challenged from all sides, that we need to develop new friendships, new relationships and cultivate more friends. No one can clap with one and expect to be heard. This is the time when compromise, engagement is too necessary for successful collaboration and cooperation.
Mr President you could remember in 2015, I made a clarion call while receiving your Excellency’s budget for that the 2016. I said that budget needed to be bold and pragmatic to drive local production and promote made in Nigeria goods.
Today permit me, your Excellency to reiterate this call, the only way we can cut down on our foreign exchange needs is to create jobs, and stimulate entrepreneurship in this country is to promote local manufacturing and investment. And this is why the National Assembly injected the made-in-Nigeria amendment into the Public procurement Act and we are expecting that with your leadership, we will achieve even much more in this area.
It is the hope of the National Assembly that the 2017 budget will continue to proactively pursue this policy objective. Mr. President, though we are confident that we are receiving from you a very well articulated budget proposal, it is worth pointing out that the best produced budget from the executive arm at all times still remains the proposal according to our constitution, which the National Assembly will work assiduously on.
On behalf of the National Assembly we commit to work on the 2017 budget conscious of the responsibilities that the current economic situation imposes on us and driven by urgency to alleviate the suffering of our people and also bearing in mind your vision and aspiration for our people.
Also in a related development, Life and Times News gathered from several sources in the ruling All Progressive Congress (APC) leadership that the President is under intense pressure to shake up his cabinet because of what several people within the leadership of the party perceive as the “growing unpopularity of the party among the Nigerian masses caused by the inaction, non performance and ineptitude of several of the President’s ministers”
People with this view within the party leadership believe that if the present trend continues, the wing of the party led by President Mohammed Buhari will be effectively trounced in the 2019 Presidential elections for failing to deliver on the promises of change to Nigerians.
Key among elder statesmen who believe that President Buhari and his administration has strayed and performed dismally is former President Obasanjo who on November 24, 2016 advised President Muhammadu Buhari to stop blaming past administrations for the current economic woes and focus on implementing result-oriented policies and programmers that will turn the economy around.
He equally cautioned that if Buhari fails to fix the economy to relieve the pain and anguish of many Nigerians, the “gains of fighting the insurgency and corruption will pale into insignificance”.
The former president, made these remarks at the keynote address at the first Akintola Williams Annual Lecture in Lagos on November 24, 2016, said no administration can, nor should be comfortable with the excruciating pain of a debilitating and crushing economy- that is presently ravaging Nigeria.
“Now that we have had change because the actors and the situation needed to be changed, let us move forward to have progress through a comprehensive economic policy and programme that is intellectually, strategically and philosophically based.
“I am sure that such a comprehensive policy and programme will not support borrowing US$30 billion in less than three years. It will give us the short, medium, and long-term picture.
“Businesses are closing, jobs are being lost and people are suffering. I know that President Buhari has always expressed concern for the plight of the common people but that concern must be translated to workable and result-oriented socio-economic policies and programmes that will turn the economy round at the shortest time possible.
“We cannot continue to do the same thing and expect things to change. That will be a miracle which normally doesn’t happen in normal national economies. We have people inside and outside who can be brought together to help device the right economic policies and programmes to get us out of the pit before we fall over the precipice into a dark cave.
It is however difficult to predict how all these will play out with a very single minded and stubborn President Mohammed Buhari, his kitchen cabinet and closest power block led by the likes of Nasiru El Rufai, the powerful Governor of Kaduna State . Buhari’s inner circle are stuck in the believe that Nigeria’s present economic woes are a spill over of the the mismanagement of the previous administrations and it may well sway the President not to listen to critics who are calling for an injection of new blood and a shake up of his cabinet.
