The 8th senate on Thursday, celebrated its second anniversary. Here is a list of 20+1 things the Senate has done for Nigerians in two years.
Senate initiated the first-ever National Assembly Joint Public Hearing on the budget. 3-day Public Hearing was to give the public, CSOs and stakeholders like labour organizations an opportunity to weigh-in on the 2017 appropriations bill.
Senate intervened in the Abuja Airport Closure. Stated that it would affect businesses operating in the capital. Pushed for alternatives to the closure of the Abuja airport.
Senate investigation exposed abuse of import duty waivers on rice: the senate in a motion mandated its ad-hoc committee to investigate the removal of import waivers on rice.
Senate intervention led to review of Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN policy to enable small business owner’s access to Forex.
Detection of the fraudulent activities involved in the implementation of TSA and resolutions to bring such act to a halt saving Nigeria N20 billion from the implementation of the TSA policy.
Senate’s mandated Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission, NERC to immediately abolish fixed charges on electricity consumption, and bulk marketing of villages and communities.
Motion by the Nigerian Senate on International Women’s Day 2016 on Gender Equality: This motion decried the rate of marginalization of Women and sought fair treatment for women in Nigeria.
The Senate has set up a Senate Committee on Legislative Compliance to hold Senators and Senate Committees accountable to their deadlines, mandates, etc.
In September 2016, the Senate established an 8-man Ad Hoc Committee on North East charged with ascertaining the total amount of funds that have been released to the Presidential Initiative on the North East and probing spending by the Federal Government on the humanitarian crisis in the North-east. This Committee indicted the Secretary to the Government of the Federation for misappropriating funds upwards of N200million.
In March 2016, the Senate allocated N10bn to IDPs in the northeast in recognition of the dire situation.
Senate, in a motion, halted the proposed hike in prices of data plan by the Nigerian Communications Commission.
Senate has moved to investigate the Revenue Generating Agencies over alleged Leakages, Non Remittance and Misuse of Generated Revenue.
Senate passes motion to investigate the non-remittance of over $3.4bn in revenue by the NNPC.
The Senate constituted an Ad-Hoc Committee to investigate the fraud and anomalies uncovered by the 2013 audit report of the Nigerian Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, NEITI. This report revealed that Nigeria lost over $9 billion in stolen, unremitted oil money in 2013.
The Nigerian Senate exposed how South African telecom giant, MTN, laundered billions of dollars ($12 billion) over a number of years from Nigeria and, failing to pay necessary tax in the country.
The Senate promised pharmaceutical manufacturers that it would intervene in the issue of additional tariffs charged on top of the CET for raw materials that are needed to produce drugs and vaccines. This promise was kept.
The Senate President promised to set up a technical committee to produce a report on the enabling laws that are needed to make sure that our pharmaceutical industry can meet the demands of the entire country. This promise has been kept.
The Senate promised to intervene in the issue of the death of 3 Queens College students. The Senate President promised that the Senate would set up a Stakeholder Summit to look into comprehensive education reform in the country; ensure that additional funds were included for Queens College’s infrastructural challenges in the 2017 Appropriation Bill. The second part of this promise has been kept.
In 2015, the Senate President promised to pass comprehensive electoral reform laws before the election season starts. This promise was actualized in April 2017.
Senate promised to release the budget of the National Assembly as part of #OpenNASS. Fulfilled this promise on the 11th of May, 2017.
To make the budget process more transparent, for the first time since 1999, the Senate laid the budget and its details on the floor of the plenary.
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