8th Senate didn’t perform to capacity, says Lawan…..Assures early budget passage

The new Senate President, Ahmed Lawan, on Friday assured that
the Ninth Senate will move fast to cover lost grounds and support
President Muhammadu Buhari to implement people-oriented projects
and programmes.

He spoke with State House correspondents after observing jumaat
prayer with President Buhari at the State House mosque.

Lawan also assured of early national budgets passage.

He said “The expectations from Nigerians is a National Assembly
that is very focused, that is very united, that is very patriotic
and nationalistic and that is by the grace of God, the National
Assembly that we shall have.

“From my interactions with my colleagues when I was contesting,
every senator there when I was contesting, has one massive
experience or another.

“I saw my colleagues exhibited patriotism and desire to work for
Nigerians and therefore we hope to have a National Assembly that
will work for Nigerians optimally and patriotically.

“We also hope to have a National Assembly that will work with
the executive arm of government in a partnership and synergy to
ensure that we perform our functions as a government because we are
a single unit.

“I also foresee a National Assembly that will insist that
whoever has a responsibility in government performs that
responsibility because it takes all of us to work together to
ensure that no part or nobody is left behind.

“If there is anyone that is deficient, it would cost the system.
So we are going to work very hard, we would like to catch up the
lost grounds over the last four years.”

He noted that the last Senate didn’t perform to capacity.

“I am sure we did not perform to our capacity as a National
Assembly in the last National Assembly. This time around we want to
perform to full capacity and by the grace of God, Nigerians will
see a positive difference in terms of delivery of service to our
countrymen and women.” he said

On the timely passage of budget bills, the Senate President said
that the National Assembly is ready to speed up their passages.

He explained that national budgets will be passed before
Christmas break if the executive can send the proposal by September
or October.

He said “Well, this is a crucial thing that worries everyone,
every Nigerian wants to see the National Assembly passes the budget
in good time and what we have in mind we’ve campaigned with that
and it’s something all of us in the National Assembly have bought
into – that we’ll pass the budget within three months by the grace
of God.

“But I want to say here that it takes two sides of government to
pass the budget in good time and I am sure that the executive side
of the government would like to present the budget before the
National Assembly in good time – in September or early October and
by the grace of God we in the National Assembly will ensure that we
carry out the budget defence and do the remaining parts of the
processes and before we leave for Christmas break, the budget would
have been passed and Mr President would have the budget before him
to sign and assent.

“This requires sacrifice in the National Assembly and the
executive side of the government that we create a window for budget
defence only, a dedicate period and timeframe- say a month of which
only budget defence would be carried out in the National
Assembly.

“It is our desire in the National Assembly that every minister,
every chief executive officer of every agency comes to the National
Assembly and defence the budget of his agency or her agency before
going out of the country.

“That window is going to be available within the one month but
that is the only window that is going to be available. After that
for example, every minister or head of agency who did not come to
defend the budget of that institution, the National Assembly would
go ahead to work on such a budget appropriately.

“I believe that nobody would take pleasure in wasting the time
of this administration. We are in a hurry, we are thirsty to
perform, we want to support Mr President, we want to see Mr
President achieve those legacies dreams that he has and we are
going to work full course and full time to ensure that we give him
the maximum support that he requires.” he said

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