Senate rejects assets sale Hold your fire, no decision yet – Udoma

The Senate has rejected the plan by government to sell some national assets to raise money to bail the economy out of recession.

But the government, reacting almost immediately, asked those opposed to the plan to hold their fire, saying no decision has yet been taken on asset sale in its stimulus package.

The rejection of the proposal by the senate followed the acceptance of the plan by the National Economic Council last week.

The council is headed by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo and made up of all the state governors.

Senate president, Bukola Saraki in a speech at the opening of parliament last week backed the plan.

But at plenary yesterday senators said it was a sensitive issue and should be handled as such.

They argued that the “common patrimony of Nigerians” must be prevented

from “falling into the hands of sharks, assets strippers ... while also guarding against the fuelling of further inequities in the society and polity.”

The Upper chamber asked President Muhammadu Buhari to urgently prepare an economic stimulus Bill containing all the fiscal stimulus packages, investments, and incentives designed to pull the country out of recession and send it to the National Assembly for accelerated passage.

The senate called for constant meeting of fiscal and monetary authorities for harmonisation of all policies, particularly lower interest rates for genuine investors in the real sector as well as medium and small scale farmers and processors.

To raise the country’s oil production, the senators asked the executive to engage the aggrieved Niger Delta militants in dialogue to avoid escalation of the unrest in the region.

“To this end, the Senate advises Mr. President to as a matter of urgency, appoint a Senior Special Assistant who should lead a team that coordinates the government’s engagement with all stakeholders in the region.

“This team should include elective representatives from the Zone and should oversee and advise on all the interventions and negotiations that are necessary to bring peace and stability to the region, “the Senate said.

It also urged the President to reconstitute the Board of Central Bank (CBN) and all other critical agencies and allow them operate in accordance with the enabling laws.

Furthermore, the Senate adopted recommendation seeking for the amendment of section 162 of the constitution to make it possible for federal government to save money for the rainy day.

The Senate also resolved that the recommendations should be personally delivered to the President by the Senate President.

In his remarks, Saraki said the recommendations if implemented would get the country out of the recession, pointing out that the rejection of his advice by his colleagues is democracy in action

However, speaking at the annual conference of the Nigerian Economic Society yesterday in Abuja, Minister of Budget and National Planning, Senator Udoma Udo Udoma urged those opposed to sale of assets to hold their fire.

He said the government was yet to decide on assets sale in its stimulus package.

Udoma said the issue was just a proposal within the stimulus package to scale up revenue but yet to be finalised or even agreed on.

Sen Udoma said before any such decision, government would consult widely and give chance to hear views on the cost and benefit of it.

He said the government was taking three measures to shore up revenue for the budget. “First, we are taking measures to stop the disruption in the Niger Delta that is the fastest way to get more revenue; secondly, we are fast racking our effort to raise the foreign loans from our partners, such as AfDB, World Bank and the China Exim Bank and thirdly looking at our stimulus package.”

He said nothing had been finalised yet adding that the stimulus package is not about assets sale but many other including recourse to recovered looted funds.

He said the challenges the country was facing were obvious and glaring, due to the crash in the price of crude oil and the renewed militancy in the Niger Delta.

He said crude oil production in August fell to 1.1 million barrels per day from the 2.2 million estimated production target in the budget.

He said it was just this week that the production went up to 1.9 million barrels even though it was still below the target.

The minister further explained that the Nigeria’s foreign reserves reduced from $26.51 billion from the second quarter of 2016 to $24.74 billion in September.

The minister said that the strategy held high promise for the foreign reserves and further stabilising the Naira.

In January, the CBN estimated that Nigeria’s Forex earnings declined from around 3.2 billion dollars monthly to about one billion dollars monthly.

He said diversification country would problems soon.

“We are working to fast track procedures through presidential directives and legislation.

“We should see this crisis as an opportunity for us as a country to make those major structural changes needed to change this economy for good.

“We should use this crisis to implement the reforms needed to unlock the economic potentials of the non-oil and high employment sectors.” with plans solve the the the