9th Assembly inherited four major challenges – Senate President, Lawan

Nigeria’s Senate President, Ahmad Ibrahim Lawan on Wednesday said the 9th Senate under his leadership inherited four major challenges at the assumption of office.

H said the challenges were the reasons the 9th Assembly drew a comprehensive Legislative Agenda to guide lawmakers as they pursue their constitutional mandates.

In his address to mark the second anniversary of the 9th National Assembly on Wednesday, Lawan listed the challenges to be an underperforming economy, insecurity, unemployment and myriad of socio-economic problems.

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He stressed that his leadership worked out the Legislative agenda that would find solutions to the challenges, so as to restore the confidence of Nigerians who worked hard to have democracy put in place.

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He said: “We would recall that the Agenda was developed against the backdrop of an underperforming economy, security challenges, unemployment and a myriad of other socio-economic problems.

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“The thrust of the Agenda was, therefore, to contribute solutions to those and other challenges and restore the hope of Nigerians in their country, and their confidence in its democratic institutions.

Lawan said the legislature in the last two years has provided some legislative intervention that has led to reforms in some key areas of the economy, such as security, constitution amendment, anti-corruption legislation, judiciary reform, electoral reforms, and socio-economic development through poverty alleviation, jobs creation, education and healthcare.

This, he said was made possible through the primary responsibility of lawmaking.

He further reeled out the number of bills introduced, those passed and assented by President Muhammadu Buhari in the last two years.

He said: “The primary responsibility of Parliament is to make laws for the good governance of the country. That is also the priority of our Agenda.

“The Senate passed hundreds of bills, legislation, including confirmation of appointments for Executive Arm of Government.

“About 742 Bills were introduced during the two sessions of the Assembly, out of which 58 have been passed. 355 Bills have gone through the first reading, 175 have gone through the second reading and have been referred to the relevant committees for further legislative business, while 11 Bills referred by the House of Representatives for concurrence have also been passed.

“The Bills cut across all sectors and touch most areas of needs in the lives of our citizens”, he said.