JANUARY 19TH, 2018 NEWSLETTER.

OFFICE OF THE

SENATE PRESIDENT
DR. ABUBAKAR BUKOLA SARAKI (CON)
BENUE KILLINGS:
SENATE PRESIDENT,
SPEAKER, BRIEFED
BY PRESIDENT
On Sunday, January 14th, 2018 President
Muhammadu Buhari met with the Senate President,
Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki, and the Speaker of
the House of Representatives, Rt. Hon. Yakubu
Dogara, over the crisis in Benue State and other
parts of the country.

The meeting was held at the Presidential Villa,

Abuja.
Armed Forces Remembrance
Day: Senate President
Honors Our Heroes
On Monday, January 13th, 2018, the President of
the Senate, joined President Muhammadu Buhari;
Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo; Speaker, Yakubu
Dogara; Chief Justice, Walter Onnoghen; and the
Service Chiefs to honour Nigeria’s Armed Forces.

In posts on his social media pages, the Senate

President said:

“Today, we honour the dedication and sacrifice of

our Armed Forces and their families. We celebrate
their service and thank them for their commitment
to keeping our nation safe.”
“
5 THINGS THE SENATE
PRESIDENT SAID IN HIS
‘WELCOME BACK’
ADDRESS TO
SENATORS
On Tuesday, January 16th, 2018, the
8th Senate resumed its plenary
activities for the year. The Senate
President, Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki,
in his resumption speech, discussed
the work of the Senate and the way
forward. These are 5 of the major
things that he said.
“
ON FUEL SCARCITY
“We, as representatives of
the people, feel the pain of
the people.”
We, as representatives of the people,
feel the pain of the people. Things
being the way they were, we could not
but respond to the crisis. I therefore
had to direct members of the Senate
Investigative Panel on Fuel Scarcity cut
shor t t heir recess to commence
hearings into the lingering problem;
and that work is ongoing. I commend
t he committee f or t heir prom pt
response and the work carried out.
“ ON BENUE
KILLINGS
“Human Life is Sacred.”
Human life is sacred. We state without
equivocation that Nigerian life must
become sacred. When we fail in our duty
to protect Nigerian lives, it is a tragedy
and an indictment on us all…We were
concerned enough to have inaugurated
the Ad-Hoc Committee on Security in
November of last year… I really must
commend the committee for their swift
action in this regard; and I am happy to
note that the Interim Report is ready for
the consideration of this chamber.
“ ON THE SENATE
“We cannot lose momentum, nor
can we afford to rest on our
oars.”
Distinguished colleagues, the 8th Senate
has continued its historic run, because by
the end of 2017, we had passed 140 Bills
over a period of 30 months. The landmark
Economic Bills we passed, helped to
propel the country’s emergence from
recession, powering us upwards in the
Ease of Doing Business Report. While the
legislative feats of the year gone by shall
go down in the annals of lawmaking in
this country, what is also true is that we
cannot lose momentum, nor can we afford
to rest on our oars.
 ON 2019
“We must not allow the upcoming
2019 elections to overshadow our
work for the people.”

ON INTER-PARLIAMENTARY COLLABORATION
“2018 will be defined by the collaboration between the
two chambers of the 8th National Assembly”
“
Distinguished colleagues, it is my appeal to each and every one of
us, that our legislative duty to Nigeria and her people, must be
uppermost in our minds. We must not allow the upcoming 2019
elections to overshadow our work for the people that elected us -

“ Distinguished colleagues, let me opine that 2018 will be

defined by the collaboration between the two chambers of the
or distract us from that which we are mandated to do by the
constitution and the trust reposed in us by the people. This is my
appeal: it is too early for 2019 politicking to override the
8th National Assembly as regards the number of items due for legislative agenda and the larger work of governance. We have
begun a good thing with the economic core of our agenda; let us
concurrence. We must work to build on the very cordial
see it to its proper conclusion. It would be most insensitive to the
relationship between the two chambers as witnessed so far,
needs of the people of this country if we were to do otherwise.
and elevate the level of cooperation, for the benefit the
people.

“
BENUE KILLINGS
Senate Debates Emergency Report of Security Ad-Hoc Committee
On Tuesday, the Senate sat for six-hours in an extended plenary session to debate the killings in
Benue State and other parts of Nigeria.

The lawmakers later came up with 8 resolutions on the killings, which they forwarded to President
Muhammadu Buhari. These resolutions were:

1. Condemn the killings in the strongest possible terms;

2. Give the Inspector General of the Nigerian Police Force 14-days to investigate and arrest the
perpetrators of the killings in Benue State and other parts of the nation;
3. Direct the Federal Ministry of Agriculture to urgently empower its officers to enforce
documentation protocols, quarantine animals and livestock movement at our borders;
4. Mandate the Senate’s Ad-Hoc Committee on the Review of Nigeria’s Security Infrastructure to
carry out a thorough reconsideration of the creation of state and/or community police and report
back to the Senate;
5. Urge the Federal Government to review and revamp the security infrastructure of the Nation;
6. Urge the Federal Government to ensure that those living in IDP camps are properly taken care
of;
7. Convene a National Security Summit to address strengthening the domestic security of the
nation; and
8. Mandated the Senate President to convey the Senate’s recommendations to the Executive.
REPORT OF THE SECURITY AD-HOC
COMMITTEE ON THE KILLINGS IN BENUE
THE SENATE PRESIDENT’S THOUGHTS
I commend my Distinguished Colleagues for their sincerity and patriotism during the course of the debate on the Benue killings. These killings are another
wake up call for all of us to put all hands on deck to address this crisis.

We appreciate Mr. President’s actions for meeting with Speaker Yakubu Dogara and I on Sunday night to brief us on the actions that have been taken to
address the killings till date. Hence, we owed it to him to tell him what we discussed at the Senate yesterday. This is why, on Tuesday night, I briefed Mr.
President alongside members of the Senate Leadership on the resolutions that we adopted yesterday at the Senate plenary on the killings in Benue.

We want to see immediate action. One point raised by many Senators is the issue of justice. Without justice we cannot see unity. Hence, justice stands as
one of our recommendations. In the next 14-days, the Inspector General of Police must find the perpetrators, arrest them, and the Attorney General of
Benue State must prosecute them. That is a minimum requirement — and it must happen.

One thing is clear: Benue is a wake-up call that we must urgently re-assess and address the issue of security. We cannot continue to allow this violence to
keep going on from one state to another. Those responsible for the planning and execution of these acts against humanity must be held accountable. We
must also have long-term solutions. The military cannot be the solution all the time. This is because sometimes they are overstretched.

We are hoping that our Ad-Hoc Committee on Security Reform urgently comes up with recommendations on what we need to do to strengthen the police —
apart from more man-power. There have been calls for a review of the recommendations to create state and/or community policing systems — and we will
look into this seriously. Moving forward, we must all begin to take concrete steps to re-assure Nigerians that we are not at the parliament to just talk. We
are there to impact the lives of our people positively. In this regard, all those that are responsible for perpetrating such violence in Benue and across the
country must know that this kind of mass slaughter must never happen again.

Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki (CON), President of the Senate

DAVID MARK, FORMER SENATE
PRESIDENT, COMMENDS
SENATE PRESIDENT ON BENUE
RESPONSE
On Tuesday, at the Senate plenary, the President of the 6th and 7th
Senates, Senator David Mark, commended the Senate President, Dr.
Abubakar Bukola Saraki, on his swift response to the new year
killings in Benue State.

Speaking during the debate of the emergency visit of the Ad-Hoc

Committee on the Review of Nigeria’s Security Infrastructure to
Benue State, Senator Mark applauded Senate President Saraki for
being proactive when the crisis started by calling off the Senate's
recess to assess the security in Benue through the Ad Hoc Committee
on Security.

Senator Mark also stated that Nigeria’s laws are outdated. He said:

“If these laws are not working, it’s our duty to create modern laws
that will work in order to protect lives and properties,” he said.
 S E N AT E ’ S B E N U E
K I L L I N G S R E S O L U T I O N

SENATE PRESIDENT
LEADS SENATE
DELEGATION
TO BRIEF PRESIDENT
“
 SENATE DEBATES INTERIM
REPORT ON FUEL SCARCITY
On Wednesday, January 17th, the Nigerian
Senate has debated a report by its Committee
on Petroleum Downstream on the cause of the
fuel scarcity which restricted activities during
the Christmas and New Year holidays.

The Senate resolved that the issue of the

subsidy and how it came about; as well as the
issue of the scarcity that is still ongoing and the
fraud in the volume of importation will go back
t o t h e S e n a t e Pe t ro l e u m D ow n s t re a m
Committee for a more comprehensive report —
while the issue of unauthorized public spending
in the sector will be looked into by the Senate
Public Accounts Committee.
INTERIM REPORT ON THE FUEL SCARCITY
CRISIS IN NIGERIA
THE SENATE PRESIDENT’S THOUGHTS
On Wednesday, the Senate debated the interim report of the Senate Committee on Downstream Petroleum on the Fuel Scarcity Crisis in the
country. This interim report stirred up a debate on the Floor about the ongoing scarcity, the subsidy regime and ways to make the oil and gas
sector more efficient.

I spent a lot of time on this fuel subsidy issue during the Seventh Senate (2011 to 2015). It was my Motion that brought this topic to the national
discourse — hence, it is something that I know a lot about.

There are three issues here that we need to separate: The first is, even as we speak now, there are still queues. The issue of the ongoing scarcity is
one problem that the Committee needs to go back to look into so that Nigerians can be reassured that this will not reoccur.

The second problem is that based on the figures that have been presented, it is clear that there is a bigger fraud that is being perpetrated with the
subsidy. Additionally, the amount of PMS that is allegedly coming into Nigeria cannot be consumed by Nigerians. We consume about 27 million
litres a day, while it has been alleged that 40 million litres a day of PMS is being brought in. There is a discrepancy somewhere. At the end of the
day, it is Nigerians that are paying for this subsidy fraud because it is not transparent, and it is only being run by one MDA.

The third problem has to do with the principle of MDAs incurring expenditures without the necessary approval by the legislature.

Therefore, in order to get to the bottom of these pressing issues, we will be breaking them up: the issue of the subsidy and how it came about; as
well as the issue of the scarcity that is still ongoing and the fraud in the volume of importation will go back to the Downstream Committee for a
more comprehensive report; while, the issue of unauthorized public spending in the sector will be looked into by the Public Accounts Committee.

Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki (CON), President of the Senate

 SENATE PRESIDENT READS
EXECUTIVE COMMUNICATION
FROM MR. PRESIDENT

On Thursday, January 18th, the President of the

Senate, Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki, read an
Executive Communication from President
Muhammadu Buhari on the 2017 Appropriation
Bill of the Federal Capital Territory.

The Executive Communication contained a Bill

seeking to extend the the 2017 Appropriation of
the FCT till March 31st, 2018, “or such other
time as the 2018 FCT Appropriation will come in
effect — whichever is earlier.”
HISTORIC!
National Assembly Passes Petroleum
Industry Governance Bill

President of the Senate, Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki,

has stated that the passage of the Petroleum Industry
Gover nance Bill (PIGB) by t he House of
Representatives on Wednesday, following the

19
Senate’s passage of the Bill last May, represents a
historic milestone in Nigeria.

Once it becomes law, the PIGB will help

stabilize Nigeria oil and gas sector and
alleviate those issues that lead to scarcity like
the limited supply of Premium Motor Spirit
(PMS) and the corruption, diversion and
smuggling — that leads to artificial scarcity.

THIS IS THE NUMBER OF YEARS THAT IT HAS TAKEN BOTH BRANCHES

The PIGB will fix the loopholes that currently
OF NIGERIA’S FEDERAL LEGISLATURE, THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY, TO
exist in the oil and gas sector, by promoting
PASS COMPREHENSIVE REFORM TO NIGERIA’S OIL AND GAS
openness and transparency in the industry;
INDUSTRY — SINCE NIGERIA’S RETURN TO DEMOCRACY.
clarifying the rules, and reducing corruption.
 Senate
NATIONAL President’s
ASSEMBLY’S Thoughts
PASSAGE OF THE on
PETROLEUM INDUSTRY GOVERNANCE
Passage BILL
of the #PIGB
THE SENATE PRESIDENT’S THOUGHTS
Yesterday, after nearly two decades of back-and-forth, near-misses and “near-passages”, the 8th National Assembly finally reached a
milestone with the passage of the Petroleum Industry Governance Bill — otherwise known as PIGB. This is historic.

Many of you will recall that in May 2017, the Senate took the first step in this direction, and yesterday, the House of Representatives did the
same by passing this Bill that is aimed at modernizing the Petroleum Industry and overhauling the entire system - to create a conducive
business environment for petroleum industry operations.

The PIGB will also promote openness and transparency in the industry — by clarifying the rules, processes, and procedures that govern the oil
and gas sector. This should eliminate, or at worse, reduce corruption significantly and make the sector more efficient and more productive.

Most important, with the ongoing fuel scarcity in many parts of the country, Nigerians should know that the PIGB, once it becomes law, will
help alleviate those issues that lead to scarcity, such as: the limited supply of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS); the poor import planning schedule
that leads to fuel importation constraints; the corruption, diversion and smuggling — that leads to artificial scarcity; and the absence of
deregulation in the sector.

This bridge that we have just crossed, is a part of the commitment of the National Assembly to remain focused, committed, and determined to
meet your expectations. Let me remind our people that this is another promise made and kept by the 8th Assembly. With this feat, we have
demonstrated that we have the will and capacity to deliver on our key promises aimed at rebuilding the national economy and improving the
standard of living of our people.

Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki (CON), President of the Senate