Smuggling: Senate Commends Buhari On Temporary Closure Of Land Borders

The Senate has commended the recent decision by President
Muhammadu Buhari to temporarily close all land borders to address
smuggling and its impact on the Nigerian economy.

The commendation came after the consideration of a motion
titled: “The impact of border closure on the Nigerian economy”,
sponsored by Senator Adamu Aliero (APC, Kebbi Central) at
Wednesday’s plenary.

The Senate, in its resolutions, urged the Nigerian Customs
Service and security services to intensify the curbing of smuggling
across the borders and assured them of the upper chamber’s support
in their onerous task of ridding Nigeria of smuggled goods and
services.

Leading the debate, Senator Aliero said, “Fuel smuggling has
significantly reduced thereby saving the country billions of scarce
foreign exchange spent by the Nigerian National Petroleum
Corporation to import fuel into Nigeria.”

Aliero noted that smuggling of textile and vegetable oil
imported from Malaysia through the land borders has negatively
affected local production and grounded it to a halt.

“The Federal Government’s action has led to the revival of local
production of vegetable oil, and increased employment generation,”
the senator said.

…Senate seeks more aid and donor fund for Nigeria

Meanwhile, the Senate on Wednesday urged the National Planning
Commission (NPC) to develop a policy framework that creates
mechanisms for development cooperation and aid effectiveness in
Nigeria.

The upper chamber counseled its relevant standing committees to
monitor and oversee Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs)
that are beneficiaries of developmental aid and grants across
Nigeria.

The Senate further asked States’ Planning Commissions and Houses
of Assembly to domesticate and implement federal policies and laws
to enable states to achieve aid effectiveness.

The resolutions were reached at Wednesday’s plenary following
consideration of a motion titled: “The need to make development aid
more effective to work for Nigerians.”

The motion was sponsored by Senator Yahaya Ibrahim Oloriegbe
(APC, Kwara Central) and co-sponsored by 52 other Senators.

Senator Oloriegbe said, “Nigeria as a developing country
receives aid from bilateral countries and multilateral
organisations; despite not being an aid-dependent country, as the
support to it is about five percent of the national budget.”

He bemoaned the failure of the National Planning Commission to
effectively perform its role of ensuring the monitoring of donor
assistance with national priorities in all sectors of the
economy.

In his remarks, the President of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan, said
the true application of aid for the benefit of Nigerians will form
part of the legislative agenda of the ninth Senate.

“Giving aid to Nigeria should not be treated like it is treated
in other countries that are lesser than Nigeria. We must be able to
know exactly what the aid is for, and then streamline the aid with
our national developmental objectives.

“The Chairman of Diaspora and NGOs Committee has the task of
engaging the National Planning Commission together with the
Chairman of the Committee on National Planning to ensure that that
we know what the processes and procedures are and the regulations
and guidelines and if we are not satisfied, then we have to come up
with the legal framework that will ensure that if there is any aid
to us as a country, our people benefit from the aid,” Lawan
said.

Subscribe ToNairalaw News!