The Senate has summoned the service chiefs and the economic team to appear before it this week over the state of insecurity and the economy in the country.
Security crisis
The lawmakers will grill the top brass of the military on Wednesday and Thursday to explain the causes and solutions of the rising violence and insecurity across the nation. The Senate had passed a resolution last week to invite the service chiefs after a series of motions on the security situation in different regions.
The Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, said the lawmakers were concerned about the security challenges and wanted to hear from the military commanders on their plans and strategies to restore peace and stability.
“We are very concerned, like all Nigerians, about the security situation in our country. We believe that we owe Nigerians the responsibility to intervene and work together with the executive arm of government, actually to work together with other tiers of government, the states and even local governments, to ensure that we change the way we approach the security issues in this country,” Lawan said.
Economic woes
The Senate will also quiz the economic team on Friday to assess the state of the economy and the impact of the government’s policies and programs. The economic team comprises the Central Bank Governor, Olayemi Cardoso, the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed, and the Minister of Trade and Investment, Niyi Adebayo.
The Senate Committee on Banking, Insurance and Other Financial Institutions had invited the CBN governor to appear before it on Tuesday, but the meeting was postponed due to the ongoing budget defense sessions at the House of Representatives.
The chairman of the committee, Senator Tokunbo Abiru, said the senators wanted to know the status of the economy, the exchange rate, the inflation rate, and the interventions of the CBN to support various sectors.
“We want to have a holistic picture of the state of the economy and what the CBN is doing to address the challenges. We also want to know the performance of the various intervention funds and how they are impacting the economy and the people,” Abiru said.
The Senate said it hoped that the engagements with the service chiefs and the economic team would yield positive results and help the government to tackle the problems facing the country.
The Senate also urged the citizens to support the efforts of the government and the security agencies to restore peace and prosperity.
“We are optimistic that by the time we are done with these interactive sessions, we will be able to have some information, some facts that will enable us to do our work better as a parliament that is interested in ensuring that Nigerians live in peace and harmony and that our economy provides for everyone,” Lawan said.
Source: Punch
