Politics
THE President of the Senate, Godswill Akpabio has urged Nigerians to support the Renewed Hope Agenda of President Bola Tinubu as it was designed to make Nigeria the “toast” of Africa.
Akpabio made the call at the Seventh convocation of the National Institute of for Legislative and Democratic Studies (NILDS)/ University of Benin in Abuja on Monday.
Represented by the Chairman, Senate Committee on Finance, Sani Musa, Akpabio said the Renewed Hope Agenda would restore the glory of Nigeria.
He recalled that decades ago, Nigeria was the world’s largest producer of cocoa, palm produce, groundnuts among others.
According to him, we had groundnut pyramids in the north, the cocoa houses in the west, and palm plantations in the east.
Akpabio said that going back to agricultural production in addition to oil earnings would boost revenue generation in the country.
The lawmaker said that government currently spent more than its revenue, saying that it was bad for the country; hence one reason why the petroleum subsidy had to go.
“Spending more than its revenue leads government to three choices; raising taxes, printing more money or borrowing from loan sources. None of these options is good for any country. So, we should not put ourselves in that tight corner.
“Thankfully, the Bola Tinubu government has shown a commitment to increasing our revenue generation and effectively managing our expenditure.
“We in the National Assembly, in our oversight function, will also act to ensure that parastatals and agencies of government are in step with the expectation of the Tinubu Administration and Nigerians in expenditure management.
“Nigeria is a great country. We have everything needed to make our country the toast of the African nation and the black world.
“This is what the Renewed Hope Agenda is all about, and I urge all Nigerians to hitch onto the bandwagon.
“Let us drill out of the rock of popular doubt, the stone of collective hope, let us break the chain of ethnicity with the hammer of love, let us turn our fists into handshakes.
“When we do these things, together we will one day see and live in the Nigeria we sing about everyday in the National Anthem,” he said.
Addressing the graduands, Akpabio said that Nigeria was looking for men and women who have faith in the Nigerian project, who could run with that faith and could proclaim that faith everywhere.
He urged them to be agents of the Renewed Hope Agenda and be willing to respond to Nigeria’s call at any time of day.
In his remarks, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Tajudeen Abbas said that the convocation coincided with preparations by the house to unveil its Legislative Agenda.
He said the agenda committed itself to the development and reform of the education sector.
According to him, given education’s importance to national development, we have identified education as a cardinal objective.
He said that plans were on the way to sponsor a bill to regulate Artificial Intelligence (AI) to maximise its benefits for the development of education in the country.
“Out of 258 million out-of-school children worldwide, an estimated 62 million are in Sub-Saharan Africa and Nigeria accounts for a substantial percentage of this number.
“President Bola Tinubu is committed to repositioning and revitalising the education sector to make it more suited to meet contemporary challenges.
“Of particular interest is the need to reform and update school curricula to ensure relevance in a rapidly changing global landscape.
“This is important given that we live in a highly digital world and innovations are evolving at the speed of light.
“Technological and scientific innovations such as in the field of AI are presenting opportunities hitherto thought impossible.
“Accordingly and in recognition of the opportunities and threats posed by AI, the 10th house of representatives will engage stakeholders and experts on this and related issues to leverage their potential and address issues of privacy, accountability, ethics, security and intellectual property.
“We will work with the executive to ensure the integration of emerging technologies like artificial intelligence, robotics, and renewable energy into the curriculum.
“Therefore, in the coming weeks, I will introduce a Bill to regulate artificial intelligence and ensure better conditions for the development and use of this innovative technology in Nigeria.
“This will be the first of such effort in Africa and one of only a few undertaken by parliaments worldwide,” he said.
Earlier, the Director-General of the Institute, Prof. Abubakar Sulaiman said that they were 81 graduands from six programmes.
He said the programmes were Master’s Degree in Legislative Studies, Master’s Degree in Law (LLM) Legislative Drafting, Master’s Degree in Parliamentary Administration, Master’s Degree in Elections and Party Politics, and Post Graduate Diploma in Elections and Political Party Management.
He said the ceremony manifested the institute’s commitment to actualising her foundation objective and mandate to provide intellectual support services to the legislature and to deepen democracy.
The Vice Chancellor, University of Benin, Prof. Lilian Salami charged the graduands to be good ambassadors of the university and the institute.
She said the university remained committed to academic excellence and churning out graduates that would be able to compete globally and make significant contributions to nation building.
The high point of the ceremony was the confirmation of award and induction of Sen. Ahmed Lawan, former senate president, Mr Femi Gbajabiamila, Chief of Staff to the President as fellows of the institute among others. (NAN)
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October 31, 2023 @ 16:26 GMT|
Tags: Godswill Akpabio President Bola Tinubu
