“We came here to felicitate with the President and also wish him Baraka the Salah on this Eid al-Kabir and to also pray for him for continuous good health and wisdom and pray for our nation,” Akpabio said, adding that the delegation prayed “for those in captivity to be released and for peace to reign in Nigeria.”
Akpabio described the president’s reforms as “repositioning Nigeria on the trajectory of growth,” saying they have addressed structural problems that hampered non-oil economic growth when the administration took office in 2023.
“It’s very difficult to grow a non-oil economy because what we met on ground… we were not making money on the crude oil that we produce because of futures cells,” he said, referring to previous financial arrangements that limited revenue. “He has stopped all that. We met multiple exchange rates, he has stopped all that. We met a situation of false subsidies, he has stopped all that.”
The Senate President credited the administration with ending long fuel queues and harmonising outdated taxes. “In the last three years, he has brought the very long queues that people used to experience in filling stations to an end. And tangible things that people may not see… the harmonisation of taxes in Nigeria. Something that even taxes that some were as far back as 1939,” Akpabio said.
“For me, I think he has done excellently well. But we are saying that a lot still needs to be done.”
On security, Akpabio acknowledged improvements while stressing remaining challenges. “We can’t do it alone. National Assembly will assist him to ensure that we improve on the area of security. But it has actually improved,” he said, noting that insurgents now target “areas of soft targets” such as markets, schools, churches and mosques. “There is no part of Nigeria today that you have the flag of any insurgents, whether Boko Haram, being hoisted. And then all those organized bomb blasts everywhere have been brought to an end.”
He said the Senate will work with the executive and states to strengthen security through institutional reforms, including a framework for state policing: “We are looking at ways of creating a positive and not a negative state police and something that can have a national state police commission that will regulate the conduct of state policing and also promotion, training and all.”
Akpabio also outlined fiscal proposals to bolster policing and infrastructure. “Police in the country itself is a major issue that the National Assembly is looking at. You are actually looking at from 0.5% to 1% of revenue from the production account going into the police trust fund. That will be for police infrastructure and equipment. Of course the states will also add their own.”
On infrastructure and economic diversification, the Senate President urged increased crude-oil production and foreign direct investment. “Now that we have started selling crude in Naira and Dangote refinery is doing well and it’s taking a lot so we need to improve on production to enable us also export to earn foreign exchange to put in other sectors of the economy,” he said.
Akpabio singled out the coastal road and a multi-state dam project linking Lagos, Patigi and Sokoto — describing about 74 dams — as projects that will “revolutionize the agricultural sector.”
He concluded by pledging the legislature’s cooperation so long as executive proposals “are positive for the future growth of this country.” “We are assuring of the co-creation of the lawmakers in Nigeria, particularly National Assembly. And I will stand by him so long as everything he proposes is positive for the future growth of this country,” he said.
