SENATE RECEIVES VIREMENT AND PASSES FIVE MOTIONS
The Senate on Tuesday, October25, 2016 received a letter from President Muhammadu Buhari requesting it to approve a virement (extra budgetary request) to fund Capital and Recurrent Expenditures in the 2016 budget. Major highlight of the request was the estimates of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) for the mobilization of Corp members in the forthcoming NYSC orientation programme across the country.
The letter was read on the floor of the Chamber by the Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, who presided over the session.
Meanwhile, the Senate has deliberated upon and passed five Motions. Among the Motions that received legislative nod include:
1) Need to include Pan-Africanism in Nigerian Secondary School Curriculum, sponsored by Sen. Shehu Sani (Kaduna Central). The Motion scaled through with a single resolution below:
a) Urge the Federal Ministry of Education to include Pan-Africanism in Nigerian Secondary Schools’ curriculum.
2) Need to re-visit the regulatory conflict between the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB) and Nigerian Universities in offering admissions in Nigeria, sponsored by Sen. Umaru Ibrahim Kurfi (Katsina Central). It sailed through with one prayer below:
a) Urge the Senate to direct JAMB to develop strategy to ensure efficiency in the conduct of JAMB examination.
3) Need for the re-establishment of Toll Gates on Federal Highways, sponsored by Sen. Suleiman Nazif (Bauchi North). The Motion scaled through with a single resolution:
a) The Senate Committee on Works should liaise with relevant stakeholders on the need to concession the Federal Roads for efficiency aimed at producing a holistic package to generate adequate funds for roads maintenance, and the money realized should be judiciously utilized in order to restore confidence in the masses.
4) Urgent need to review the Implementation Status of Nigerian Automotive Industry Development Plan (NAIDP), sponsored by Sen. Ali Wakil (Bauchi South) and Sen. Fatima Raji-Rasaki (Ekiti Central). It sailed through two prayers below:
i) Direct Senate Committees on Industry, Trade and Investment, Customs and Excise and Finance to conduct a Public Hearing to:
a) Ascertain the current implementation status of the Nigerian Automotive Industry Development Plan and the Nigerian Industrial Revolution Plan.
b) Ascertain the status of accumulated National Automotive Council (NAC) levy fund generated over the years domicile in the CBN in the implementation of the policy.
c) Ascertain the beneficiaries of the loans, grants and the circumstances surrounding the disbursement and execution of such funds generated by the (NAC) and other relevant revenue generating Agencies.
ii) Recommend appropriate measures including identification of key legislations for reform to address the menace faced by the industry.
5) Menace of Street Begging and the need to Rehabilitate Beggars, sponsored by Sen. Isa H. Misau (Bauchi Central). The Motion was passed with four resolutions below:
a) Call on government at all levels to strengthen the social welfare programme to make it more meaningful so as to check the tide of physically challengedm gravitating to street begging as the only means of survival.
b) Call on the Federal and State governments to set up Rehabilitation Centers and Vocational Training Centers to provide beggars with alternative means of livelihood thereby making them useful to the society.
c) Provide articulate policy to re-integrate Almajiris into the educational system thereby discouraging them from being used for street begging.
d) Call on the National Orientation Agency and other relevant government information communication agencies to embark on aggressive enlightenment campaign to educate the populace on social consequences of street begging.