I’ll never cover up corruption, says Saraki

Senate President Bukola Saraki has reiterated the commitment of the senate to supporting the anti-corruption fight of President Muhammadu Buhari, saying “under my watch, the senate will never cover corruption except if the information didn’t come to us”.

Speaking at the weekend with a team of editors from The Economist, Saraki, according to the statement by Mohammed Isa, his special assistant on public affairs, expressed the readiness of the senate to partner the president to ensure the success of the anti-corruption war.

The senate, he said, had already demonstrated such commitment through its interventions on many alleged corrupt transactions such as its swift investigation and adoption of a report on the management of the Treasury Single Account (TSA) that saved the nation about N7bn and the exposure of the inconsistencies in the 2016 budget.

The step, he pointed out, was a departure from the past where such reports were either watered down or not presented for debate and adoption. He cited the report he presented to the last senate on the over N1trn fuel subsidy scam that never saw the light of the day.

In furtherance to the commitment, he said Nigerians would, in the next few weeks, be availed with the details of the national assembly budget which would be a departure from the tradition of having one line item budget.

“For the first time, we promised Nigerians to give out our budget breakdown. The committee will make its report available by next week. We are resolved to breaking the tradition of one-line item,” he emphasised.

Saraki stated that though party differences exist among the senators, citing example of the leadership tussle, national interest and the desire of each senator to fulfill the promises made to Nigerians had become the guiding principle of the senate in their team work.

On the economy, he said that the senate had embarked on series of legislative interventions to create conducive environment to the private sector.

“It is only when the private sector thrives that the issue of unemployment will be addressed and the nation’s GDP will increase,” he said.

“Few days ago, we received a report on the laws that need to be amended in order of priority importance to ease doing business and overall private sector participation in the stimulation of Nigeria’s economy. We will soon commence the implementation of the recommendations in the report in addition to pushing for the amendment of the Procurement Act to stimulate and protect our local industries.”

He blamed lack of firmness and consistency in policy implementation by the past administrations as the main obstacle to the growth of the private sector.

“If people have confidence that these policies have come to stay, nothing will stop them from coming to invest in the country,” he stated.

He allayed the fears of some people that the low prices of oil would have negative impact on the implementation of the 2016 budget, saying that “what we need to do is to block leakages and show more transparency”.

“If we can block leakages, stop the wastage and institute a culture of transparency in governance, the revenue in-flow will not be substantially affected,” he said. “Without these, even if oil is sold at more than a $100 per barrel, we will continue to witness a decline in revenue in-flow as we witnessed in the past.”