Revenue generating agencies don’t remit most revenues ― Senate President

The President of the Senate, Senator Ahmad Lawan on Monday unveiled the 9th Assembly ‘s plan to block all leakages through which revenues accrued to various Ministries, Departments and Agencies are filtered away.

Senator Lawan who gave the assurance while delivering a keynote address at the 3rd Convocation ceremony of National Institute of Legislative and Democratic Studies (NILDS)/UNIBEN, held at the National Assembly complex, Abuja, also directed all the Senate and House of Representatives’ Standing Committees to defend the 2020 budget reports of various MDAs they oversight before the Appropriation Committees between 30th October to the 5th of November, 2019.

The President of the Senate who affirmed that Nigeria is currently facing financial constraint, unveiled plans to engage respective revenue generating agencies with the view to reduce the burden of borrowing.

He said: “We are the course we hope that from the 30th of October to the 5th of November, we expect all our committees to defend their budget before the Appropriation Committees of both the Senate and the House.

“We are desirous and determined to ensure that the budget is laid the 28th day of November in both chambers. We want to ensure that we pass the budget before the end of December when we will go for Christmas and New Year break. So, we are determined to tow this path because it is the path to follow.

“What have we gained from a distorted and irregular budget circle? Nigerian economy depends largely on public expenditure and until the government sends money to pay contractors, nothing moves. That means that we need a budget circle that start early enough. January is good enough because it provides stability and a chance for our business people to plan what they can do. In fact, the economy will be better when we start implementing our budget in January and finish in December.

“Going forward, we also intend to ensure that the budget we pass is implemented. Of course, we know our constraints and it will be subject to the availability of revenue. Today, Nigeria is challenged by the availability of revenue. We can pass the budget in record time, but when it comes to implementation, we have to be subject to how much we are able to gather. Nigeria has a lot of revenue, but the majority of the revenue-generating agencies don’t remit most of these revenues and have forced the government to resort to borrowing.

“I think the time has come for the National Assembly to continually engage with the revenue-generating agencies to know what their challenges are. Once they have targeted, we must ensure that they meet the target and when they are not able to meet the target, we should find out why? Is it an institutional problem or a systemic issue?

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“Is there something we can do in the National Assembly to make them better or is it something that the Executive would have to do for us to get these revenues? We have so many areas of revenue generation every day and yet, we hardly see these revenues. I think it is a big challenge to the National Assembly and this National Assembly will go all the way, take the bull by the horn and look for our revenue where ever they are.

“We don’t have to continue to borrow. When you are a little poorer, you start looking for who is owing you. Now we have a problem and if we had a surplus before and ignore so many things. Today, there is paucity of fund and so every single kobo counts and we will look for that where ever it is,” Senator Lawan noted.

While reflecting on the education sector, the President of the Senate reiterated the resolve of the 9th Assembly towards addressing various challenges impeding the sector.

“We need a situation where we are able to minimise these interruptions in our education because these interruption forces people to look elsewhere and we lose billions of dollars.

“We need stability in the system. The current issue between ASUU and government is IPPIS. We will find a solution to that,” he assured.

Speaking earlier, Senator Ken Nnamani who delivered the Convocation lecture observed that Legislature as an arm of government finds it difficult to assert itself among the three arms of government even in the developed nations, despite being the only democratic institution.

The former Senate President who harped on the need to entrench good governance through effective discharge of legislative functions such as public hearings, oversight functions, law-making and repeal of obsolete laws.

He also tasked government on the need to respect the rule of law and citizens rights as guaranteed by the 1999 Constitution (as amended) and conduct government transactions transparently.

In his address, NILDS Director General, Prof. Olanrewaju Suleiman who expressed delight in the acceptability of the Institute by the citizenry disclosed that 65 graduates will be conferred with various degrees including Masters in Legislative Studies, 15 Masters in Legislative Drafting and 22 Masters in ParliamentaryAdministration.

While speaking on the mandates of Institute, Prof. Suleiman pledged that: “We gave a commitment that we should not wait till election before Nigerians are being sensitised on their rights, responsibility, during the election where other agencies have proved by not having a medium through which Nigerians are being educated on elections, democracy. Our institute is envisioning a situation whereby by next year we shall have a democracy radio through which we can reach out to Nigerian electorates and sensitised the people on the workings of the legislature and mobilise Nigerians on democratic ethos.

“If all these are within our vision which is encapsulated in the budget proposal that should give you what to expect in the budget.

“The institute is not just meant for those at the centre but it will percolate down to the state level. How do we put our services at the mercy of state legislators, the councillors, chairmen at the local government levels to be involved in what we do and most importantly how do we get ourselves endeared to stakeholders in the West African sub-region and in the continent? These have remained our mission which has been accepted by the leadership of the National Assembly.