The Senate is reportedly gearing up for a showdown with the presidency over the speculated move to secure emergency powers for President Muhammadu Buhari, aimed at addressing the present economic crisis in Nigeria.
Reports are rife that the present administration, disturbed by the day-to-day worsening of the nation’s economy, is seeking emergency powers from the National Assembly to be able to kick-start the economy and get it back on track as quickly as possible.
Ripples Nigeria gathered that a proposal from the Economic Management Team (EMT), headed by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, mooted the idea after it studied several policies so far introduced and their impacts on the economy.
The team is said to have resolved to get an executive bill entitled, “Emergency Economic Stabilisation Bill 2016,” which it plans to present to the National Assembly when the Senate and the House of Representatives resume from vacation on September 12.
The aim of the bill is to shore up the value of the naira, create more jobs, boost foreign reserves, revive the manufacturing sector and improve power generation and supply.
This came after the EMT decided that unless there is urgency which some of the present laws will not permit, it will be difficult for the country to come out of its present economic recessio, which has brought so much hardship on the people.
The office of the Vice President, in a statement signed by Senior Special Assistant to the Vice President on Media & Publicity, Laolu Akande, confirmed that indeed the EMT is looking at several policy options to revive the economy.
He said that some of the measures may require legislative amendments and presidential orders. He however said that the options are yet to be made known to President Buhari.
The statement reads, “The Economic Management Team has indeed been considering several policy options and measures to urgently reform and revitalise the economy.
Read also: Economy: Buhari seeks emergency powers
“Some of these measures may well require legislative amendments and presidential orders that will enable the Executive arm of government move quickly in implementing the economic reform plans.
“As far as I know, this has not been passed on to the President, the Federal Executive Council or the Legislative arm of government. So at this point, there are no further details to share.”
Meanwhile, the Senate has vowed to oppose any such bill claiming that such a bill will mean transforming President Buhari into a tyrant and imposing a dictatorship on the nation.
Some senators who expressed their opinion on the rumoured bill to Ripples Nigeria, but would not want their names mentioned, said such thing will never be allowed to happen in Nigeria.
Some of them claimed that allowing such will amount to returning the country to a military era where a single man will run the country at his whims and caprices.
One of the senators claimed that at a time the opposition is accusing the president of fighting a one sided corruption war; Christians saying he is only appointing his Muslim brothers; non-northerners alleging he is favouring northerners in his appointment and when even some northerners are accusing him of nepotism, appointing his relatives into exotic offices, that Nigeria will end up in a totalitarian government, if anything like the rumoured emergency power bill is passed by the Senate.
There are also claims by some senators that such powers will more or less reduce the National Assembly to a rubber stamp of the executive.
The bill, Ripples Nigeria learnt, is meant to be sent to the National Assembly by the president upon resumption from its summer vacation and after the Eid el Kabir holidays.
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