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Tag: Senator Barnabas Gemade

  • Senate committee pushes for SON’s return to ports

    Chairman, Senate Committee on Industry, Senator Sam Egwu and his Deputy, Senator Barnabas Gemade has given reasons why the Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) should return urgently to the ports.

    The committee team that was on an oversight function at SON’s offices and laboratories in Lagos said if the campaign on ‘Buy Naija’  and  safeguarding the lives of Nigerians must be assured, it was imperative for SON to urgently return to the ports.

    The committee chairman said the absence of the agency was greatly felt at the ports and called on stakeholders in the sector to begin facilitating its return.

    He stressed that it was necessary for the agency to have first-hand information on goods berthing on the shores of the country before being allowed into the markets. He said Nigeria, a large scale importing country, must have its standards organisation at the point of entry, to ascertain the quality of goods coming in.

    Senator Egwu said: “We cannot overemphasise the issue of standardisation because it is the core for every manufacturing output. We are not happy that SON has not been allowed to operate at its maximum capacity especially with their presence being felt at the port.

    “Nigeria is import-dependent, with porous borders and for them not to be at the port to inspect these goods first hand is not good enough. They should be allowed to be at the port to see these products before they enter into the market.

    “We have observed some products come into the country from countries that do not have standards all cloned with SON logo. This is certainly not good for the Nigerian economy.

    “The discovery by the SON deterred such goods from getting into the hands of unsuspecting consumers, he said. He commended operations of the agency in its fight to combat fake and substandard goods and restated the committees support.

    “From what I have seen so far, I want to say that they have impressed us as a committee with their efforts to ensure that products are being standardised; they have also judiciously put to use the appropriated funds given to them to deliver on their mandate.”

    SON’s Director-General, Osita Aboloma, told the committee that steady progress had been made over the years under the current leadership of the Senate Committee on Industry.

    “We have never had it so good under any committee in the history of SON.

    “Not only did you bequeath a befitting SON Act, we have also been able to discharge most of our core mandate. I am also proud to tell the world that the issue of possession and co-ownership of the building where our operational office in Lekki is situated has been resolved in favour of SON due to your able leadership,” Aboloma said.

    Members of the committee were taken to SON’s one-stop office in Apapa and its multi-billion laboratory complex in Ogba with about 38 laboratories.

  • Senators decry poor delivery of values to Nigerians

    Senators decry poor delivery of values to Nigerians

    Senators under the aegis of Christian Legislative Fellowship (CLF) Wednesday lamented the poor delivery of public values to Nigerians.

    The lawmakers at a press conference in Abuja as part of activities to mark the 8th National Prayer Breakfast 2017 decried the situation where delivery of public values has ceased to be the essence of governance in the country.

    Most Nigerians, they said, can barely access basic necessities.

    The unhealthy situation, the senators said, has shaken the very foundation of Nigerians’ faith in leadership.

    President of CLF, Senator Barnabas Gemade, who read the statement of the group, noted that in the last seven years the political and socio-economic landscape of the country has been characterized by threats which have regional and international implications.

    Gemade said, “May I seize this opportunity to remind us that, since the past seven years, our political and socio – economic landscape has been characterized by threats which have both regional and international implications.

    “To Nigerians, those years could have seen our dear country emerge stronger from the shocks and effects of the global economic crisis.

    “We have, however, weathered these storms; we are still at present, a reflection of a country at the brinks. Recently, hate speech, divisive and secessionist quests raise their ugly heads, but we fortunately overcame.

    “The delivery of public values has ceased to be the essence of governance as our fellow countrymen can barely access basic social necessities. These challenges have shaken the very foundation of the Nigerian people’s faith in leadership.”

    He noted that by virtue of the 8th National Prayer Breakfast therefore, “it behaves on all of us to not just lead by the principles of Parliamentary practice, but by Godly virtues already inherent in all of us; moral forthrightness which is only attainable when we ask for leadership directions from whom we all acknowledge as our creator the all-knowing God.”

    Gemade said that for the past seven years, the Christian Legislators’ Fellowship of the Nigeria National Assembly has hosted the National Prayer Breakfast, a spiritual exercise that marked a water-shed in the history of our dear country.

    He noted that the aim of the epoch making event which holds significantly in the month of October, seeks to convene people of all faith, tribe and creed to appeal to God for righteousness and Godliness in leadership.

    He said, “The Nigerian Prayer Breakfast took its cue from the American Prayer Breakfast which President Dwight Eisenhower began in 1953. Eisenhower had stated after his election in 1952 that America needed spiritual renewal. For Eisenhower, faith, patriotism and free enterprise were the fundamentals of a strong nation. But of the three, faith comes first.

    “In the same vein, the Nigerian Prayer Breakfast is regarded as an opportunity to seek the Lord’s guidance and re-dedication of Nigeria and her people in re-alignment with Gods purposes.

    “God willing, on Thursday 26th October this year, the National Prayer Breakfast would be at its 8th year running.

    Gemade said that the theme of this year’s Breakfast is “Reconciliation: Gods Power and the New Pathway to National Unity”.

    He said that the event is being organized both to commemorate the 57th independence anniversary of Nigeria’s nationhood as a “regular Christian Parliamentary responsibility of  reminding ourselves, leaders of Nigeria and from many other countries, that we need Gods blessing and auction in everything we do and in accordance with international parliamentary tradition.”

    The keynote address at the event will be delivered by the Vice President, Excellency, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, Gemade said.

  • Senate summons Adeosun over N2b planted in Housing Sector budget

    Senate summons Adeosun over N2b planted in Housing Sector budget

    The Senate Tuesday invited the Minister of Finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun to throw light on the vote of N2 billion discovered in the 2017 budget of the Housing Sector,

    Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola disowned the money saying he knew nothing about how the vote crept into the Housing Sector budget.

    Fashola told the Senate committee on Housing that the Ministry of Finance may have inserted the money in the 2017 budgetary profile of the Ministry of Housing as its own initiative tagged under “Regional Housing Scheme.”

    Chairman of the committee, Senator Barnabas Gemade had wanted to know how the regional housing scheme came about.

    Fashola said; “I know as much of it as you do because it is not our initiative”.

    Apparently not satisfied, Gemade ordered the committee clerk to write the Minister of Finance,  Adeosun to appear before the committee  to explain how the N2 billion was inserted into the budget.

  • Senate aborts debate of grazing bills

    Senate aborts debate of grazing bills

    The debate of the controversial bills for the establishment of Grazing Areas Management Agency and another for the establishment of National Ranches Commission was aborted in the Senate Wednesday.

    The bills entitled “ A Bill for an Act to provide for the establishment of Grazing Areas Management Agency and for other related Matters, 2016 sponsored by Senator Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso (Kano Central); A Bill for an Act to provide for the establishment of National Ranches Commission for the regulation, management, preservation and control of ranches and for connected purposes, 2026 proposed by Senator Barnabas Gemade (Benue North East) and A Bill for an Act to control the keeping and movement of cattle and related matters thereto, 2016 sponsored by Chukwuka Utazi (Enugu North), were withdrawn due to disagreement on the way forward.

    Deputy Senate President, Senator Ike Ekweremadu, told his colleagues that the upper legislative chamber lacked the power to legislate on livestock matters.

    Ekweremadu said that the states were better suited according to constitutional provisions to deal with the issues raised in the bills since the issues were residual matters.

    He said, “The issues at stake here are neither in the Exclusive List nor in the Concurrent List. I believe therefore it is a Residual matter; it is for states to decide how to deal with it.

    “I believe the matter here concerns everybody given the level of carnage and the conflicts going on in different states so I feel the concern of my colleagues but unfortunately we do not have power to legislate on matters relating to livestock in this Assembly.

    “It is a matter reserved for the states. So, I believe that the bills by Kwankwaso, Gemade and Utazi is beyond the reach of this National Assembly and should be accordingly withdrawn so that the states under the constitution should be able to deal with the matters which the constitution has prescribe for them.

    “I will like to see somebody to show me anywhere in the Exclusive List or Concurrent List that has given us powers to legislate on this matter because they are not in existence.”

    Ekweremadu quoted copiously from the constitution to buttress his position.

    Senate Leader, Mohammed Ali Ndume, in his contribution said that Ekweremadu raised fundamental issues that should not be ignored.

    Ndume said that there was no point the Senate wasting its time debating the Bills if it lacked power to legislate on the matter.

    He said, “I just want to join the DSP to explain. I just want to remind us of Order 81 and also appeal that we are the Senate. We should not allow any emotional or whatever this thing to guide us.

    “The point that the DSP raised is a very important one. Number one, if we don’t have the power to make laws if it is so, I think there is no need to even start arguing on it. But having said that if that is not even the case our rules 81 say second reading of bills.

    “On the order of the second reading of bill being read, a motion maybe made that the bill now be read the second time and a debate may arise covering the general merits and principles of bill. What is now before us to be very candid is just the heading of the bill which attracted us.

    “We should hear them out on the merits if that is possible but if it is not possible Mr President, it is because we don’t have the powers to do it then we just waste our time but if we have I think we should listen to the merits and principles of the bills.”

    Senator Gemade who spoke on the consolidation of the bills, noted that though the three bills seemed to deal with the same subject matter, the fundamentals of the bills are different.

    The Benue North East lawmaker, who noted that there must be things acceptable in the bills, said that the issue of consolidation of the bills should left for the committee stage.

    Senate President, Abubakar Bukola Saraki seemed not to be comfortable with the trend of debate of the bills.

    He said that since the understanding that the bills would be consolidated could not sail through, the bills should be stepped down.

    He noted that the only reason bills were captured in the Order Paper was on the understanding that they would be consolidated.

    Saraki said, “Before the point of order of Deputy Senate President, I had already put a suggestion that these bills are on the Order Paper based on the discussion I had with the sponsors that the bills will to be consolidated.

    “It is clear from the discussion today that it is not so and my view is that since the basis by which they came on the Order Paper has changed, the way forward is for us to step them down from the Order Paper of today.

    “I will want the leader to move that we step them down from the order paper of today to another legislative day.”

    After Saraki’s suggestion, Ndume promptly moved that the bills be stepped down.

    The motion was adopted.