Chairman, of the Senate Committee on Diaspora, Non-Governmental
Organizations and Civil Societies, Senator (Dr) Surajudeen Ajibola
Basiru has said that enough of reliance on a Nigeria that is a
mono-economy relying solely on oil. The Honourable Senator made
this statement whilst delivering a Goodwill message at the Nigeria
Diaspora Investment Summit on the 7th November, 2019 at the
presidential villa banquet hall, Abuja.
According to him, we have to diversify our resources and that
has been the economic trust of the Present Administration. He noted
that the commitment of the National Assembly is to ensure that all
legislations that will assist in the realization of diversifying
our economy will be put in place. He added that the passage of the
deep offshore law has been one of the expeditious law they have
done and it put them in a good stead to have necessary revenue.
He also commended the Nigeria Diaspora Commission for bringing
ingenuity, creativity, commitment, integrity and sagacity to the
work of the commission on diaspora, adding that, the First budget
of the Diaspora commission is still in the pipeline, and that in
the absence of this, a lot of work has gone into trying to leverage
on the very important resources of our nation towards the path of
Economic growth.
“I want to join my colleagues in the House of Representatives to
commend the Nigeria Diaspora Commission particularly the CEO for
bringing ingenuity, creativity, commitment, integrity and sagacity
to the work of the commission on diaspora. The First budget of the
Diaspora commission is still in the pipeline, in the absence of
this, a lot of work has gone into trying to leverage on the very
important resources of our nation towards the path of Economic
growth.
“I want to assure you in the Diaspora that we have a new
National Assembly that works for Nigeria and we are committed to
supporting the developmental agenda of the Government of President
Muhammadu Buhari at the risk of political blackmail of calling us
rubber stamp. We believe that it is not by accident that Nigerians
decided to elect the President that form the Executive and elected
the majority of lawmakers from the same political party so we are
committed to the realization of the goal of security, economic
transformation and transparency which we believe will assist in our
drive towards economic growth.”
“Just as we have noted on the theme of this summit “Leveraging
on Diaspora Resources for Economic growth”, we are changing the
narrative of Nigeria. Enough of reliance on a Nigeria that is a
mono-economy relying solely on oil. We have to diversify our
resources and that has been the economic trust of the Present
Administration and the commitment of the National Assembly is to
ensure that all legislations that will assist in the realization of
diversifying our economy will be put in place.
“The passage of the deep offshore law has been one of the
expeditious law we have done and it put us in a good stead to have
necessary revenue. At the time we were debating the principles of
the 2020 budget, I remember I said that we need to change our
orientation, our country is not a rich country, it is a country
that needs serious revenue, serious productive activities, we need
serious actions towards economic growth so that we can unleash the
strength of Nigerians to take care of the unborn generations,” he
said.
Speaking further, he said that in a couple of decades, they are
going to have a country of about 400million people, adding that,
they have to start thinking how do they create an economy that is
not dependent on the vicissitude of international price of oil, and
how do they develop an economy that will bring at least 60% of our
population to the path of productivity.
He finally stressed that this is the lasting legacy they believe
the Present administration of President Muhammadu Buhari is doing
and they in the National Assembly are committed to the National
Assembly that works for Nigeria.