Lawmakers To Debate Economy As NASS Ends Two Month Recess

The debate, which will last for two days, will be led by the Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki.

Saraki will deliver a “major speech”, which will seek to analyse the economy at plenary, after which the Senate will enter into an executive session where a team of economic experts will brief the lawmakers.

After the briefing, Senators will take the floor one after the other to share their thoughts on the way forward and out of the economic crisis.

“The debate will not go along party lines and there won’t be any blame game. Everyone is expected to speak out his or her mind on the way out of this mess, that is all,” a source said.

Giving insights on the Senate activities on its resumption this morning, the chairman of the Senate Committee on Rules and Business, Senator Baba Kaka Garbai (APC, Borno), said the Senate was yet to receive any communication from the Executive on the speculated Economic Stabilisation Bill to reflate the economy.

He said, “We have also seen that people are actually going through a lot of hardship because of the various problems we are undergoing as a result of the economic recession in the country.

“The discussions, particularly within the next two months in the Senate will be dominated by issues relating to economy, especially how to rescue the economy out of the recession we are currently facing. This will dominate this legislative session.

“We have several items in our Order Paper for today but the discussion on the recession will dominate our today’s session. And most part of the entire legislative session will be geared towards deliberations on how to bail out the economy from the current recession.

“As far as I am concerned, the issue of the President requesting for emergency powers (on the economy) is speculative because we have not received any communication to that effect. I just read it the way you read it in the newspapers. So, I cannot go into it because officially, we don’t know anything about it,” Garbai said.