Sen. Ahmad Lawan, President of the Senate, said that the generation and collection of taxes have continued to be Nigeria’s principal issues and that oil theft in the nation was driving the economy into a coma.
He claims that there has been a considerable loss of revenue due to oil theft, which is crippling and poses a severe threat to seriously destabilize the economy.
Speaking on Tuesday in Abuja in his welcome speech to fellow senators returning from a seven-week break, Lawan specifically stated that their focus must remain on ensuring a secure and safe country and an economy that works for all citizens.
He urged his colleagues to ensure that everything was done to curtail the sabotage, seriously bleeding the Nation’s economy.
He said. “Revelations about the scale of oil theft shows that, until government takes decisive actions, Nigeria could soon lose any revenue from that sector.
“In the next nine months, our attention and devotion should bring improvement to the current situations. This Senate is a Senate that will continue to work for all Nigerians at all times.”
In the upcoming three months, the upper legislative chamber’s focus will primarily be on the confirmation of the acting Chief Justice of Nigeria, Hon. Justice Olukayode Ariwoola, work on the 2023–2025 Medium Term Expenditure Framework and Fiscal Strategic Paper, MTEF/FSP, the 2022 budget, and supporting the country’s defense and security forces, among other things.
The Senate’s President noted that President Muhammadu Buhari is anticipated to present the 2023 budget estimates to the National Assembly’s joint session in the first week of October. He also recalled the Senate’s “serious concerns” regarding the nation’s security situation and expressed joy over the progress made by the security agencies to date.
In order to ensure that the engagements are maintained and to thank them for ramping up their operations, he said that the Senate would continue to interact with the defense and security agencies through the relevant committees.