Senate Presidency: Group hails Lawan’s agenda on poverty reduction

Sustainable Democracy Agenda (SUDA) on Monday expressed satisfaction with the legislative agenda of the leading aspirant for the position of president of the incoming Senate, Sen. Ahmed Lawan.

In a statement by its Convener, Ibrahim Usman, the pro-democracy group, said it had followed recent interviews granted by Lawan in the media where he articulated his agenda as Senate president.

“We have carefully followed the Lawan campaign train and have been satisfied by the issues that the aspirant raised pertaining to supporting legislations that will reduce poverty and create massive job opportunities in the country.”

Usman said Lawan’s disposition to creating enabling laws that would fight poverty and create jobs was imperative in the face of the present increasing rate of crimes in the country.

The convener recalled that Lawan was instrumental to the Senate panel that reviewed the nation’s security architecture.

Usman said as a pro-democracy group, SUDA had identified Lawan as capable of reuniting the people with the Senate, adding that in the last four years, the Senate lost public confidence due to its unnecessary quarrels with the executive arm.

He advised Lawan to include people in the budgetary process and other important legislations as part of his agenda.

“The Senate leadership under David Mark took the budget to the people for input. The National Assembly held zonal town hall meetings to collate inputs from various stakeholders on the annual budgets.

“This made the annual budget the peoples budget and is capable of deepening the democratic process.”

The convener called on the leadership of the APC to reject plans for secrecy during the election of NASS presiding officers.

He also advised APC to sustain consultations with its members to adopt candidates in both chambers ahead of the inauguration of the 9th NASS in June.

“Otherwise, the party may loss the presiding positions to the minority party, which is set to exploit the division in the APC. The party may have survived its inability to control the legislature the last time but mistakes are not meant to be repeated.”