President of the Senate Mr Ahmed Lawan said Friday that the ninth National Assembly would be very focused, united, patriotic and nationalistic.
Lawal said this while fielding questions from State House correspondents after observing the Jumaat prayers with President Muhammmadu Buhari at the Presidential Villa in Abuja.
“The expectations from Nigerians is a National Assembly that is very focused, that is very united, that is very patriotic and nationalistic and that is by the grace of God, the National Assembly we shall have.
“From my interactions with my colleagues when I was contesting, every senator there has one massive experience or another. I saw my colleagues exhibited patriotism and desire to work for Nigerians and therefore we hope to have a National Assembly that will work for Nigerians optimally and patriotically,” he said.
He said the National Assembly would work with the executive arm of government in a partnership and synergy to ensure an efficient government.
“I also foresee a National Assembly that will insists that whoever has a responsibility in government performs that responsibility because, it takes all of us to work together to ensure that no part or nobody is left behind.
“If there is anyone that is deficient it would cost the system. So we are going to work very hard, we would like to catch up the lost grounds over the last four years.
“I am sure we did not perform to our capacity as a National Assembly in the last Assembly. This time around we want to perform to full capacity and by the grace of God Nigerians
will see a positive difference in terms of delivery of service to our country men and women,” he said.
The Senate President also assured of timely passage of appropriation bills by the executive, stressing that budget delays have always been a source of concern for the lawmakers.
“This is a crucial thing that worries everyone, every Nigerian wants to see the National Assembly passes the budget in good time and what we have in mind we’ve campaigned with that and it’s something both of us in the National Assembly have bought into – that we’ll pass the budget within three months by the grace of God.
But I want to say here that it takes two sides of government to pass the budget in good time and I am sure that the executive side of the government would like to present the budget before the National Assembly in good time – in September or early October and by the grace of God we in the National Assembly will ensure that we carry out the budget defence and do the remaining parts of the processes and before we leave for Christmas break, the budget would have been passed and Mr President would have the budget before him to sign,” he said.
