The leader of the Senate, Opeyemi Bamidele, has said that the Red Chamber’s preoccupation is the adoption of a strategic partnership approach aimed at building resilient synergy with other arms of government.
This approach, he said, had been evident in all their parliamentary engagements since the 10th Senate was inaugurated a year ago.
Bamidele’s statement came on the heels of criticisms of the approach of the National Assembly in its relationship with the executive, which many said had made the legislative come across as a rubberstamp assembly.
But in a statement yesterday to mark the one-year anniversary of the 10th Senate, Bamidele noted, “From our observation so far, we are confident that Nigeria is now more stable and the future of our nation looks more promising than any time in our recent history.
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“In the last 366 days, the 10th Senate has been strategically collaborating with key public institutions, especially the executive arm, to defend our core interests as a federation, ensure macroeconomic stability, promote internal cohesion and foster unity among the ethnic nationalities that constitute our dear nation. Like never before, we have been utterly committed to this national assignment to position our nation, not just for more notable regional and sub-regional roles but also for global leadership.
“Driven by this ambitious national aspiration convincingly scribbled in our revised legislative agenda, the Senate has adopted a strategic partnership approach aimed at building resilient synergy with other arms of government and nurturing a competitive, functional and viable federation that works for all. Evident in all our parliamentary engagements, this has been our preoccupation since the inauguration of the 10th Senate as the foremost institution of representative democracy.”
He outlined some of the achievements recorded by the Senate during this period to include the passage of 25 bills and the adoption of 115 resolutions, as well as the screening of 215 nominees.
“As at June 11, 2024, our records revealed that at least 477 bills were initiated since the 10th Senate kicked off its activities, precisely on June 13, 2023. Of this figure, only 25 bills were fully passed into law, while others are currently at different stages before the Senate. Comparatively, this figure only accounts for 5.24 per cent of the entire bill introduced within the timeframe.
“Many people may measure our performance based on the number of bills that were fully passed into law,” he said, adding that different reasons account for the low number of fully enacted legislation, including other issues of highly fundamental national priority that occupied the attention of the Senate.
He said the Senate would “devote much of our time to developing legal frameworks that will further stabilise our fiscal and monetary spaces that will prioritise the security of lives and strategic assets and deescalate the consumer price index, especially food inflation. And that will engender a more functional governance structure.”
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