The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Abbas Tajudeen, stated on Wednesday that lifting Nigerians out of poverty, caused by a myriad of economic challenges, would require a paradigm shift.
Speaker Abbas, addressing a delegation from the Civil Society Leaders Forum on Social Protection led by Dr Otive Igbuzor in Abuja, observed that the current challenges faced by Nigerians due to fuel subsidy removal would soon be history.
He called on Nigerians to view the current economic hardship as the natural consequence of tough decisions, stating that a level of difficulty has to be experienced before things can get better.
“Restructuring takes time, as it has to get difficult before it gets better. This is just the beginning. People need to understand that there will be difficulties along the way to better days,” the Speaker said.
Reacting to statistics presented before him by the forum on Nigeria’s place in the global poverty index and why conditional cash transfer (CCT) should be seen as a verifiable tool for achieving social protection, the Speaker assured the delegation of his leadership’s readiness to partner with civil society to engineer lasting solutions to the socio-economic challenges faced by Nigerians.
He said: “Since I became Speaker, I don’t think I have engaged with any organisation that has made me feel a bit down about the revelations of where we are as a country and the enormous challenges that we are facing (like yours).
“Thank you so much for being blunt, frank, and sincere about where we are, the likely consequences, and how things can turn out if things are not done right. But I assure you, under my leadership, we will act.”
Speaker Abbas stressed the need for a shift from the old way of approaching policy issues to achieve new results.
He also mentioned that his office would take up the challenge by creating a channel for social dialogue between civil society and the legislature, as suggested by the forum.
“We need to partner with you so that you can continue to provide us with information about where we are.
You should continue to keep the pressure on us to be on the right track so that we will be able to deliver and change the fortunes of this country.”
Speaker Abbas also spoke about the question of partnership between civil society and the legislature for better budgetary allocation to critical sectors of the economy.
“I must also emphasise that when it comes to budgeting, a key issue in Nigeria is low revenue generation. We need to widen our scope in enlightening Nigerians on the need to pay taxes.
“Taxation is key to financing the budget in any nation, but we have a very low tax revenue generation ratio compared to other sources.
“If we can come up with an initiative on how to expand the revenue nets of the government, I’m sure more resources will be made available for critical sectors, including education, infrastructure, agriculture, and health that you mentioned earlier,” he said.
Earlier, the leader of the delegation, Dr Otive Igbuzor, outlined the challenges faced by poor Nigerians due to the inability of successive administrations to prioritise social protection as a means of tackling poverty.
He also informed the Speaker that there are six key areas of concern that the 10th Assembly must urgently intervene in using relevant legislative instruments.
These included a permanent dialogue mechanism between civil society and the legislature, partnership on budget and policy issues, effective implementation of the Public Procurement Act (2007), and proper oversight of the National Social Investment Programmes Agency, among others.
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