UK Pledges To Work With Saraki To Boost Legislative Capacity Of Senators

The newly elected President of the 8th Senate, Bukola Saraki, got international recognition yesterday, with a courtesy call on him by the British High Commissioner in Nigeria, Dr Andrew Pocook, who pledged the British government support for Saraki as the President of the Nigerian Senate.

The British envoy at the visit said the essence of the visit was to to make a commitment to new Senate President and to Nigerian Senate that the British government will continue to work very closely with the Senate on a whole range of areas in which the country can assist Nigeria.

He said: “We discussed capacity building for the senate both in general terms and also in areas of particular interest and difficulty, complex pieces of legislation”

Pocook also said they discussed the ways through which the British government could work with the Nigerian government and the Senate in terms of ideas on how to manage and diversify the economy of Nigeria.

“We discussed how we can assist with some ideas about the management of the Nigerian economy, areas in which the UK can make a contribution and we briefly discussed some of the security inputs that we might make to help with the stabilization of the security situation in the North East”, he said.

He said the basic structure of Nigeria’s economy needed to be changed a bit, regretting that even though Nigeria has huge potentials for revenue generation for the government, the country still depended solely on oil as the only source of revenue.

He added that how the National Assembly can make laws that will assist to diversify the economy from mono to multi commodity, and how to better the management of the resources through oversight and legislations is the area of interest to the British government.

His words: “We are not going to get drawn into discussions of party affairs. What we want to do is to talk to the President of the Nigerian Senate about how we can work with him individually, with institution, to strengthen the bilateral relationship”.Speaking earlier, the new President of the Senate, Bukola Saraki, commended the continued bilateral relationship between Nigeria and the United Kingdom.

He assured that the present administration is determined to fulfil its obligations to the betterment of the nation.

He stressed that Nigeria will always look forward to Britain in areas of infrastructural development and social security, saying “I am very delighted to receive Your Excellency in my office barely 48 hours to my assumption to office. This shows the level of commitment the British government has towards the course of Nigeria.

“We look forward for a very good working relationship in order to move our dear country forward. Nigerians deserve the best of governance”, Saraki said.

Saraki also reminded the British envoy of the task ahead of the new administration in the country, assuring that with the collaboration from the United Kingdom, those challenges are surmountable.

Senators in attendance included Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, Senator Abdullahi Ibrahim, Senator Abdulrahman Abubakar, Senator Misau Isah Hamma, Senator Dino Melaye, Senator Rafiu Ibrahim.