Shall we give a resounding applause to the Nigerian Senate for closing plenary at 4.21pm today?
It must be a first for the lawmakers as Senate President, Bukola Saraki shared the information via his Twitter handle hours ago.
Just finished plenary at 4:21pm, we stayed back to make sure EVERY Senator had the opportunity to contribute to the debate on #Senateplan
— Bukola Saraki (@bukolasaraki) September 22, 2016
Remember he promised in his welcome speech at senate resumption two days ago that plenary sessions will run into nights if necessary? Let’s just say that promise was kept to a minimal level today. 4.21pm is a good way to start, we expect that subsequent sessions will last till later into the night, this recession must pack and go.
But what sort of deliberations kept the lawmakers going till evening?
Senator Saraki had earlier mentioned that the Senate upon resumption will be having an “exhaustive and comprehensive” debate on how to fix the economy. As seen in the Senate president’s tweet, every lawmaker got the chance to contribute to the debate.
The Nigerian Senate Twitter account shared some of the lawmakers’ contribution on the social platform with the hashtag #SenatePlans. Here’s a few to help you understand how plenary went today:
Senator @benmurraybruce takes the floor. He gives statistics of increasing prices of rice & gari while minimum wage was static.#CommonSense
— The Nigerian Senate (@NGRSenate) September 22, 2016
Senator @benmurraybruce says the Minister of Agriculture should look into the cost of transport of agricultural & food products.#SenatePlan
— The Nigerian Senate (@NGRSenate) September 22, 2016
Senator @benmurraybruce says money will only go to where there is peace. He adds 'currency is running away from Nigeria'.#SenatePlan
— The Nigerian Senate (@NGRSenate) September 22, 2016
Senator Ibrahim Kurfi now takes the Floor. He disagrees with the sale of Government assets. #SenatePlans
— The Nigerian Senate (@NGRSenate) September 22, 2016
Sen. Orji says he will be frank in saying that @NGRPresident shld do a nationwide address on the economy as soon as he's back from New York.
— The Nigerian Senate (@NGRSenate) September 22, 2016
Senator Dariye says Govt should look at public procurements and solid minerals. He argues that toll gates on federal roads should return.
— The Nigerian Senate (@NGRSenate) September 22, 2016
Senator @Georgeakume takes the floor. He says the blame game cannot end yet as we need a sense of history to move ahead. #SenatePlan
— The Nigerian Senate (@NGRSenate) September 21, 2016
Sen. Yahaya Abdullahi now speaks on #SenatePlan. He posits that the current financial crisis is peculiar as oil prices may not pick up soon.
— The Nigerian Senate (@NGRSenate) September 22, 2016
From these tweets, we see that Senator Ben Murray Bruce was the only one who addressed issues that affect Nigerians directly. On his own part, Senator George Akume is stuck in the past as he opines that we need to focus on the past to move forward. But how?
Apart from the Senate plan debate, a major issue was raised by Senator Dino Melaye as he detailed telecommunications company MTN’s alleged tax evasion and money laundering. That story is deserving of its own original post on the blog.
Summarily, we like the course the Senate’s plenary sitting took today but what we really need is less talk and more work.
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