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Tag: Bukola Saraki

  • Nigerian Senate celebrates 117 bills feat

    At the resumed sitting of Nigerian Senators for the first time in 2017, the Nigerian lawmakers, lead by Senate President Bukola Saraki, celebrated a total of 117 bills, which, some passed through third, and others passed through second reading in the House within the period of four months in 2016.

    In his speech to address the Senators as they resumed from Recess in the New Year 2017, the Senate President stressed that the four month feat of the Senate is historic.

    “It is already historic that within the last quarter, which incidentally is the second quarter of this session, we all rolled up our sleeves, with sweat on our brows and successfully passed 49 bills through 3rd reading and 68 bills through second reading,” Saraki said.

    TheNewsGuru Senate House correspondence reports that the Senators were seen to be overjoyed by the feat they have pulled in the quarter under review as evident at the Senate House sitting in Abuja today.

    “This is a record-setting feat, which has never been matched in the history of the National Assembly. That within a period of 4 months in the middle of the term of any past National Assembly, 49 bills are passed in a single quarter,” he added.

    Saraki said that 2016 was a very challenging year for the Senate, but said that the efforts of the Senate is compensated by the results achieved.

    The Senate President while reiterating commitment of the Senate of passing only laws that would make a difference in the lives of Nigerians assured that the achievement of 2016 has set a stage for greater and better accomplishment in the New Year 2017.

    “…as long as our economy is still in recession, our work is not done,” Saraki said, stressing that “Because our people are still being laid off; so long as factories are closing shop, for as the hardship in the land continues to bite harder, investment continues to dwindle and the foreign exchange market remains fragmented, I will be demanding even much more from us to get all our economic reform bills passed”.

    “Ideally, we would like to see them pass together with the 2017 budget,” he noted.

    Saraki, therefore, urged all committees involved with priority bills to double efforts to ensure that by the end of the first quarter of the New Year the bills are readied.

    “We promise to pass our priority economic reform bills to help aid our economic recovery. This is a promise we must keep,” the Senate President said.

  • Senate President, Bukola Saraki announces #MadeInNigeria Challenge

    Senate President, Bukola Saraki announces #MadeInNigeria Challenge

    ImageFile: Senate President, Bukola Saraki announces #MadeInNigeria Challenge
    Nigeria’s Senate President, Bukola Saraki.

    Nigeria’s Senate President, Bukola Saraki, has on Tuesday announced the launch of the #MadeInNigeria Challenge.

    The President of the Senate took to the social media profiles to make the announcement of the challenge and the guidelines for it.

    “As promised, we kick-start the soft launch of the #MadeInNigeria Challenge,” a post read on the President’s Facebook page.

    “This campaign is organized to showcase everyday products that are used by Nigerians and produced by Nigerians locally that serves as an alternative to imported products,” the post continued.

    Saraki said that in the next few weeks, he hope to have identified products and ideas that can be matched with investors and government agencies.

    “To wrap up the Challenge in March, we will be inviting some of the finalist to a Made In Nigeria Roundtable at the Senate,” he said, adding that “This Roundtable will allow us, legislators, Government Agencies, business owners, and everyday Nigerian consumers to review and update the report of NASSBER, the National Assembly Business Environment Roundtable, which was held in 2016 to improve the ease of doing business in the country”.

    Saraki said that as part of Senate’s oversight of government agencies, “we will also use the opportunity to get feedback on the Public Procurement Act passed by Senate in 2016 which mandates government agencies to give preference to local manufacturers in Procurement of goods and services”.

    While wishing participants good luck in the Challenge, he advised participants be sure to use the hashtag #MadeInNigeria in all submitted videos.ImageFile: Senate President, Bukola Saraki announces #MadeInNigeria Challenge

  • Despite expected release tomorrow, Ibori not coming home

    Former Delta state Governor, James Onanefe Ibori, who has completed his jail term in London and is due to be released tomorrow has dispelled rumours that he is returning to Nigeria immediately.

    Chief Ibori, in a statement signed by his Media Assistant, Tony Eluemunor, called on his well-wishers to disregard the rumours.

    A section of the media had speculated that the former governor, whose conviction and jail for corruption and money laundering in the United Kingdom has taken different turns in recent times, would return to Nigeria on December 23.

    “When the time comes, any important information will be made available to the public and nothing would be left for conjecture,” Ibori said.

    ‘Ribadu’s excesses, not me, removed him from office’

    Chief Ibori also in the statement berated an online news platform for dragging his name into the Senate refusal to confirm Ibrahim Magu as chair of Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC.

    According to Chief Ibori, “What makes it galling is that the matter under contention was the Department of State Security’s report that stopped the Senate from confirming Mr. Ibrahim Magu as the Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, and did not warrant the dragging in of my name at all”.

    Chief Ibori particularly took exception to a report in Premium Times which said “based on pressure from political gladiators of the period (among which were former Governors James Ibori and Bukola Saraki), then President Musa Yar’Adua unceremoniously removed Nuhu Ribadu as chairman of the EFCC”.

    Ibori explained his position that Governor Nasir el-Rufai has exposed this claim as a terrible lie in his book, The Accidental Public Servant, adding that el-Rufai stated the source of the trouble the former EFCC chair, Ribadu had with President Musa Yar’Adua.

    “On page 358, in a section entitled ‘Umaru Asks Nuhu for Support: the Beginning of Our Trouble’ he (el-Rufai) wrote that Ribadu was so maddened that former President Olusegun Obasanjo had favoured Yar’Adua above Nasir el-Rufai to succeed him as President in 2007 that he told Yar’Adua to his face: “Well, Obasanjo has not told me, and as far as the presidency is concerned, I have my candidate for president, and that is El-Rufai”.

    “El-Rufai continued on page 359: ‘It took sometime before Nuhu figured out Obasanjo’s games and what was really happening. Nuhu’s instinctive reaction was that of a typical policeman – dust off EFCC’s files and comb for petitions against Umaru. Nuhu did not realize it at that time, but he was the one in trouble not Obasanjo or Umaru. He dusted off all the files against Umaru and launched investigations. He was clearly trying to take Yar’Adua out of the race and narrow all options to zero except for El-Rufai,” Ibori said.

    Ibori continued: “It is clear that from El-Rufai’s that there was no way a clear-headed Yar-Adua would have appointed a power-drunken Ribadu, who had unjustly arrested some Katsina state’s LGA chairmen just to demonize Yar’Adua to remain as EFCC Chairman, to continue to arrest people unjustly, play politics with his office and hypocritically claim to be fighting corruption when he was neck deep in the worst corruption, maligning others just because of politics.

    “Ribadu’s excesses, not me, removed him from office,” Ibori said.

  • Buhari sets date to present 2017 Budget

    Buhari sets date to present 2017 Budget

    President Muhammadu Buhari will present the 2017 budget proposal to a joint session of the National Assembly on Wednesday, Dec. 14.

    This is contained in a letter to the Senate and read by the President of the Senate, Dr Bukola Saraki, at the floor of the upper chamber on Tuesday in Abuja.

    The letter reads: “I crave the indulgence of the National Assembly to grant me the 10.00 hours on Wednesday Dec. 14, to formally address a joint session of the National Assembly on the 2017 budget proposal.’’

    The President will also address the joint session on plans to get the country out of recession.

    “Please extend, Mr Senate President the assurances of my highest regards to the distinguished senators as I look forward to addressing the joint session.”

    Meanwhile, the Senate is yet to approve the Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) and the Fiscal Strategy Paper (FSP).

    The two documents convey the estimates upon which any budget is predicated.

    The Senate had spotted ‘loop holes’ in the documents and had asked the executive to fill the missing gaps.

    However, the Minister of Budget and National Planning, Udo Udoma, stressed that the document was well prepared. He said his ministry had adequately addressed the observations made against MTEF by the National Assembly.

    “Naturally, the estimates, every time you improve on your estimate based on the latest estimates. For instance, one of the issues they raised was about the exchange rate.

    “That we used 290 as the exchange rate, and that was the exchange rate of the time.

    “So, you only use the exchange rate that is valid at that time. Naturally by now you will change that.

    “But that MTEF was extremely well prepared consistent with the best possible methods of ‎preparation by people who are very experienced in preparing MTEFs,” he said.