Hon. Yakubu Dogara, Speaker of the House of Representatives, has challenged President Muhammadu Buhari to eschew partisanship and address the joint session of the National Assembly as a step towards reducing the hardship Nigerians are currently facing.

The Speaker during Wednesday plenary session said doing so, would afford the President the opportunity to inform both the lawmakers and the Nigerian people on steps and measures the government is taking to get the country out of recession as the state of the economy requires urgent attention.

While commending the President for the recent retreat for members of the federal cabinet, Dogara, noted that the recession calls for wider consultation and concerted effort by all stakeholders.

The Speaker said: “The recent retreat by Mr. President with his cabinet and sundry statutory appointees is most commendable. It is in this regard, that I urge Mr. President to consider holding a joint emergency session of the National Assembly to brief both the legislature and indeed Nigerians of his plans to pull Nigeria out of recession.

“This will provide opportunity for all stakeholders to be on the same page and to act in concert for urgent national recovery. It will also further consolidate existing ongoing consultations between the Presidency and the National Assembly on the way forward. We must never miss the opportunity the present travails offer us to launch Nigeria into its rightful destiny and place among the comity of prosperous nations.

“As representatives of the people we are well acquainted with the alarming state of the citizens’ penury. We will therefore collaborate with the Executive in fine tuning any observed limitations in policy formulation and implementation to ensure speedy delivery of services to our people.

“We need to immediately take a second look at the pace of budget execution; the spiralling rise of the dollar against the Naira and the multiple exchange rate regime, the impact of the Treasury Single Account on the economy, investment in infrastructure, tackling unemployment, among others.

“The state of our economy is of urgent and critical importance. That Nigeria has gone into recession is a very worrisome development that calls for emergency measures to be taken. All hands must be on deck to tackle the myriads of problems facing us.

“This is not the time for partisanship. This is not the time to score political points. This is not the time for grandstanding. This is not the time for blame games. The situation and the times call for bold, courageous, enlightened and purposeful leadership. This is a patriotic call to action from all stakeholders and indeed all Nigerians. We must unite as a people to rescue Nigeria from the shackles of poverty, social and economic underdevelopment.

“As leaders, we must take responsibility for the present economic situation although we are not directly responsible for it. We must admit that this is a difficult thing to do in the present generation that spurns responsibility. Everyone wants to blame someone for something that goes wrong.”

•Photo shows Speaker Dogara.

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