Senate President Ahmad Lawan, has urged Nigerians to identify with the policies and programmes of government to ensure that their needs are met.
Lawan said this after a meeting of the Tripartite Committee of the Executive, Legislature and the ruling All Progressive Congress, APC, chaired by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo at the Presidential Villa Abuja.
He said the business of governance is not only about federal government or the president, pointing out that every citizen has a stake in governance.
“While those that are elected to govern are doing their work, the citizens are also supposed to continuously identify with the programmes and projects of the federal government, the state governments and even the local governments to ensure that these programmes and projects are delivering to them what they want and what they need. That is why we are listening to what the people say.”
The Senate President said that tripartite committee has been working to review and assess the success of government programmes, policies and projects.
“The vice president presides over this committee and the idea is to continuously review our policies. How are we fanning the areas of these policies and programmes? And I think we are doing well.”
He said that the committee was set up “to review the various policies of government, their effectiveness and efficacy and where possible, we suggest ways of making them better.
“Of course as the political party in power, we are conscious of the fact of the need to have policies that will ensure that the ordinary man in Nigeria is protected; that life is easy.
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“The security situation, thank God, with new strategies coming from the newly-appointed service chiefs and the Chief of Defence Staff, things are coming up.
“We are seeing better situations, but we are also conscious of the fact that we need to do more to support security agencies across the country to help ease the situation in various parts of the country.”
He said the meeting was held to strategize on the best possible way of service delivery to the people of Nigeria.
On the extent to which the Committee’s work has made impact on the people, Lawan said that its meetings had always brought out ideas on how to make governance better.
“I am sure that each time we meet we come out with ideas on how to make governance better.
“You can see the federal government of Nigeria, working with the states, is making a lot of inputs into the lives of the people.
“This is the government that has done much more than any previous administration in terms of empowering the most vulnerable in our country.
“This is one idea that we want to continue to always oil and make even better.
“We have so many people living below the poverty line.This time the Covid-19 period is a very abnormal and unusual time for us.
“Therefore, there is need for us to continuously review our policies to ensure that they provide the kind of comfort and succor that we intend them to create.”
Speaking on food security, the Senate President noted that the appointment of the new service chiefs and their new strategies will create an enabling environment for farmers to go back to their farms and continue producing food.
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“Your might have listened to the president about two weeks ago when he met with the service chiefs.
“He said he was giving them six weeks or so to ensure that our rural areas, particularly where are farmers are, are free for farmers to go back to their farms.
“This is to ensure that we have a better environment for our farmers to farm and have a living and that ensures our food security.
“But in addition to that, some much funds are going into agricultural sector in Nigeria and only on Monday last week I was in Maiduguri to attend the graduation ceremony of soil doctors and extension service workers organized by NALDA, which is in the Presidency.
“The idea is to create a critical mass of young people in this country to support the agricultural sector through advice, making more scientific and making it more worthwhile.
“This is something that will ensure that we improve on our food security.’
Among those who attended the meeting were the Deputy President of the Senate, Ovie Omo-Agege, Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Boss Mustapha, Chief of Staff to the President, Prof. Ibrahim Gambari and Special Adviser to the President on Political Matters, Senator Babafemi Ojodu.
Editor Paul Akhagbemhe
