The Senate is highly disturbed by the spate of kidnapping, ethnic conflicts, rural and highway banditry, herdsmen and farmers’ conflict and cattle rustling in the land, it was learnt Tuesday.
President of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan, who disclosed this in his welcome address on resumption from an eight weeks annual vacation, said that it was time to overhaul the security architecture of the country.
He said that the Senate would revisit the report of its adhoc Committee constituted by the 8th Senate and also seek new efforts to check pervasive insecurity in the country.
Lawan said: “It is time we probably review our security architecture. The 8th session of the senate set up an adhoc committee to review the security arrangement of the country.
“We will revisit the report of the committee in addition to making new efforts at finding solutions to the security challenges presently facing our nation.
“We commend our security agencies for working hard to tackle these challenges. We cannot however overemphasize the need for collaboration amongst them.
“Other than adequate funding, we might need some structural changes to enable them perform at the optimum. We must strengthen the agencies to make them more efficient.”
He said that the Senate would review and pass the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) towards reforming the nation’s petroleum sector.
“The Petroleum Industry is long overdue for reform,” Lawan said. “Several efforts and attempts were made in the past three sessions of the National Assembly but they were unfortunately not successful.
“It, however, remains a legislation that should succeed. We are going to renew and redouble our efforts at the reform, by doing things differently this time.”
He added: “The previous efforts were lone efforts either on the part of the executive, as witnessed in the sixth and seventh sessions of the National Assembly, or the part of the legislature, as seen in the eighth session.
“Perhaps an early consultation and collaboration between the two arms of government will yield the desired outcome in the overriding national interest. Our priority is to have an oil industry that is functional and productive, in a fair, just and transparent environment.”
He noted that youth unemployment remains a challenge cannot allow to continue.
“Youths are ideally a present and a future fulcrum of a nation’s work force,” Lawan said.
“They are therefore a priceless asset of a nation’s population.
“While noting the ongoing reform in the agricultural sector, an improved agricultural road map could make the sector attractive to our youths and then contribute to resolving the problem of youth unemployment.
“To further improve on the agricultural sector, peasant farmers should continually be encouraged through funding, materials and mechanization, to increase their productivity, towards national self-sufficiency in food production.”
He called on the Senate to be bonded in goals and in objectives irrespective of political affiliation
He said: “We should not be pulled apart in matters of good governance for the sake of our people.
“The challenges of unemployment, insecurity, illiteracy and inter-ethnic conflict are not partisan challenges.
“They are challenges that affect everyone. The challenges are therefore our collective challenges and can only be addressed if we work together in truth.”
“As a Senate, we are saddled with the responsibility of providing different levels of leadership.
“In leading therefore, our focus should be the satisfaction of the interest of Nigerians.
“We cannot also lead alone. We have to continue to work with our sister arm, the House of Representatives, and indeed the Executive.”
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He noted that the recent xenophobic attack against Nigerians in South Africa was a sad development.
“I appreciate the response of the Federal Government to the unfortunate incident. In the light of this and other previous xenophobic attacks on Nigerians, we need to review and strengthen our citizen diplomacy.
“We are ready to support the Executive to ensure that our citizens are safe and protected anywhere they choose to live in this world.”
He also lauded the steps taken so far by the Federal Government to reverse the 9.6 Billion judgement debt against Nigeria.
He said: “Let me also commend the Federal Government for the appropriate response to the $9.6 Billion judgement debt against Nigeria, in favour of Process and Industrial Development (P&ID), by a British Court.
“The case is another reminder on why we should strengthen our processes and procedures, so that questionable firms would not take advantage of us.
“The Senate is following government’s efforts with keen interest and is hopeful that issues around the scandalous transaction are quickly resolved in favour of Nigeria.”
He said that the National Assembly is pleased by desire of the Federal Government to lift 100million Nigerians out of poverty over the next ten years.
“The alleviation of poverty is an honorable cause worthy of appropriate legislative interventions,” Lawan said. “Senate also notes government’s social investment and related programmes geared towards economic growth.
“We are not just interested in the continued expansion of available opportunities in these spheres, but also in their sustainability.
“We will collaborate with the executive arm of government to ensure the realization of these laudable efforts towards meeting the outlined targets.
“Let me commend President Muhammad Buhari for setting up the Economic Advisory Council (EAC).
“The Senate and, indeed, the National Assembly will work with the executive arm of government to ensure that our economy continues to receive the necessary legislative support to perform better.
“The Nigerian economy must be on the trajectory of sustainable growth and should be an all-inclusive one.”
Meanwhile, The Senate Selection Committee Tuesday named members of special and standing committees of the upper chamber.
Lawan, who read the names of the Chairmen and members of the 69 special and standing committees in plenary said the committees remained the engine room of the Senate.
He said “I will at this stage pray that our committees will work so hard. We are already primed for that to ensure that we provide the legislative intervention to enhance the performance of MDAs that we oversight.”
Lawan said that the Senate leadership would do its best to support the committees to ensure that they perform optimally.
He said: “Our committees remain the engine room of the activities of the Senate.”
He said that the leadership of the Senate would soon introduce the presentation of report of oversight in plenary.
The introduction of presentation of report of oversight, he said, will enable the Senate to understand what is happening in various sectors the committee’s oversight.