President of the Nigerian Senate, Ahmed Lawan, has said the 8th National Assembly did not perform optimally, assuring therefore, that the 9th Assembly would work harder to make up for lost ground.
Lawan, who served as the Senate Majority Leader in the 8th Assembly, spoke with journalists on Friday evening at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, where he had joined President Muhammadu Buhari at the Villa mosque for Friday prayers.
He promised that the legislature will be focused on performing its duties and remaining united this time around and that Nigerians would “see a positive difference in service delivery.”
His words: “The expectations from Nigerians is a National Assembly that is very focused, united, patriotic and nationalistic; and that is by the grace of God, the National Assembly that we shall have.
“If there is anyone that is deficient, it will cost the system some setbacks. So, we are going to work very hard, we would like to catch up the lost ground over the last four years. I am sure we did not perform to our capacity as a National Assembly in the last Assembly. This time round, we want to perform to full capacity and by the grace of God, Nigerians will see a positive difference in terms of delivery of service to our country men and women.”
The Senate President equally assured that the delays associated with the passage of the national budget have become a thing of the past, saying that the new National Assembly will reverse the trend.
“We’ll pass the budget within three months by the grace of God. But, I want to say here that it takes two sides of government to pass the budget in good time, and I am sure that the executive side will like to present the budget before the National Assembly in good time – in September or early October, and by the grace of God, we in the National Assembly will ensure that we carry out the budget defence and do the remaining parts of the processes. Before we leave for Christmas break, the budget would have been passed and Mr. President would have the budget before him to sign.”
Lawan stressed that minsters will henceforth get only one month window to defend their budget proposals, following which it would be shut, adding: “After that for example, every minister or head of agency who did not come to defend the budget of that institution, the National Assembly would go ahead to work on such a budget appropriately.”
