Senate Leader Opeyemi Bamidele has called for concerted efforts of critical stakeholders in resolving the economic challenges and tackling insecurity.

At the just concluded retreat for all senators in Ikot Ekpene, Akwa Ibom, he proposed a strategic collaboration between the Federal Executive Council (FEC) and National Assembly as one of the strategies to decisively address hydra-headed challenges that beset Nigeria.

The 2023 retreat for senators came to a conclusion last weekend with renewed hope for the future of Nigeria. This was evident in the pattern of frank discourses that took place at the two-day retreat under the theme, “Fiscal Policy and Tax Reforms in Nigeria.” The retreat explicitly delved into diverse issues that placed Nigerians under undue socio-economic burdens in the last two decades.

Obviously, it was not another talk shop. Rather, it was a gathering of patriots, who were curiously in search of antidotes to hydra-headed challenges that viciously beset Nigeria. Its mission was unambiguous from the inception. For the President of the Senate, Senator Godswill Akpabio, it is a forum for building capacity, which every legislator requires to function effectively.

Facilitated by the National Institute of Legislative and Democratic Studies, Akpabio set the stage for this purely legislative retreat, where resource persons freely shared divergent views about many challenges confronting the federation and proposed convergent strategies, which they believed, would restore stability in the country’s macro-economic environment and promote peaceful coexistence if each arm of governments pursues its goals with political will.

Capacity building is just one of the rationales for the parliamentary retreat, according to Akpabio. Besides, the senate president observed that the retreat was designed to develop pro-people legislations that could promote enduring peace; guarantee sustainable development and deepen peaceful co-existence, among all Nigerians, irrespective of their ethnic nationalities and religious leaning. .

For these reasons, the retreat was never a mere convention for senators across the federation. In good numbers, also, members of the Federal Executive Council attended the retreat that placed the interest of Nigeria above their political allegiance. Among others, Chief of Staff to the President, Mr. Femi Gbajabiamila; Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Mr. Olawale Edun; Minister of Budget and Economic Planning, Alhaji Atiku Bagudu and Deputy Governor of Akwa Ibom State equally graced the two-day retreat.

Read Also: Insecurity: Flights resume operation at Kaduna Airport

From its inception to conclusion, the country’s socio-economic realities poignantly came to the fore in the presentation of nearly all guest speakers and resource persons. However, beyond the rhetoric of grim realities that currently eclipse Nigeria, there was a consensus on the significance of developing creative legislative frameworks in response to the country’s socio-economic realities.

 But is the retreat sufficient to activate the consensus, especially at a time of global crises that directly impinge on domestic economies and politics?

Bamidele set the agenda on how to transform the consensus to reality in nearly all sectors of Nigeria’s economy.

He said legislative intervention is critical to every initiative directed at making Nigeria an investment destination or ensuring stability in all parts and sectors of the federation. But Bamidele specifically recommended a forum where the executive and legislature would always meet to perfect institutional approaches to addressing  vicious challenges that threaten Nigeria.

 He further delineated the need for such regular sessions, an initiative comparable to quarterly executive-legislative parleys that successive governments in Lagos State have embraced since 1999 to tackle governance challenges through strategic collaboration and collective responses among arms of government. And the outcome, as far as Lagos is concerned, has been enviable. Can such an initiative work at the federal level? Bamidele did not specifically refer to the case of Lagos. But he suggested that such sessions should be held quarterly or biannually. Also, they should be tailored practically at discussing and perfecting coherent and logical responses to a myriad of socio-economic challenges that complicate the conditions of living and undermine the unity of Nigeria.

On this account, Bamidele explained the imperative of holding regular executive-legislative sessions, which other speakers agreed, would open a new vista of strategic collaboration in the overall interest of Nigeria and her teeming populations. First, according to him, such sessions will give the National Assembly and Federal Executive Council to work out modalities of mainstreaming Tinubu’s eight-point agenda into the programmes of the National Assembly.