Senate invites experts for solution to recession

The Senate will, on resumption today, meet in a closeddoor session with experts, who will brainstorm with the lawmakers and help fashion out a workable blueprint on how to navigate the country out of the present economic recession.
This is even as the President of the Senate, Bukola Saraki, will also, in plenary, lead a comprehensive debate on the worrisome economic meltdown that has hit the country and subjected the citizenry to untold hardship.
The Chairman, Senate Committee on Rules and Business, Baba Kaka Garbai, made the disclosure in Abuja yesterday, while briefing journalists on issues that would top the agenda of the Red Chamber on resumption today. Garbai hinted that the senators used their twomonth recess to visit their constituencies, where they observed that the constituents were undergoing serious agonies as a result of the recession in the country. He said that sequel to this painful situation among the citizenry; the Senate would devote the next two months to engage on discussions pertaining to the economic crisis in the land and how to urgently proffer solution to the ugly trend.
His words: “Every senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria has gone to his/ her constituency during the annual recess which is coming to an end tomorrow (today). We have also seen that people are actually going through a lot of hardship because of the various problems we are undergoing as a result of the economic recession in the country. “The discussions, particularly within the next two months in the Senate, will be dominated by issues relating to economy, especially how to rescue the economy out of the recession we are currently facing. That is what will dominate this legislative session.
“We have several items in our order paper for tomorrow (today), but the discussion on the recession will dominate the session. And most part of the entire legislative session will be geared towards deliberations on how to bail out the economy from the current recession.”
He noted that five bills from the House of Repre- sentatives would be introduced for first reading for Senate concurrence while some pending reports would also be laid on the floor for consideration. He declined comments on the purported planned request for emergency powers by President Muhammadu Buhari, describing it as a media speculation and insisting that the Senate had not received any official communication to that effect.
Meanwhile, New Telegraph learnt that the leadership of the Senate, the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) caucuses would hold separate meetings on the state of the economy, preparatory to the sessions that would be devoted to discussions on the recession.
A source close to the leadership told our correspondent yesterday that the leadership was trying to harmonise the Chamber to rid it of partisanship while considering issues pertaining to the recession and other critical national issues in the present legislative session.
According to the source, the President of the Senate would preside over the meeting of the APC Caucus while the Deputy President of the Senate, Ike Ekweremadu, would lead the meeting of the PDP Caucus. It is after the separate meetings of the two caucuses, the source further revealed, that the leadership of the Senate would meet to articulate the various plans and ideas of the senators on how the apex Chamber would contribute towards rescuing Nigeria from the prevailing economic crisis.