Lawan made the appeal
against the backdrop of a meeting between the leadership of the National
Assembly and some Ministers and Heads of Government Agencies on Wednesday in
Abuja.
President of the Senate,
Ahmad Lawan, has called on the Federal Government to immediately devise ways of
providing relief for poor Nigerians whose daily livelihood will be
affected as
a result of the restriction on movement due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
According to the Senate
President, besides mulling a total lockdown of business activities in the
country, a plan must be devised by the Federal Government through the release
of funds specifically for the purpose of purchasing food and pharmaceutical supplies
for ordinary Nigerians.
He warned that not making
provisions ahead of time to address the basic needs of poor Nigerians may
likely lead to more problems for the government, and less result in controlling
the spread of the disease.
“Our prayer is that we are
able to overcome this menace of COVID-19 in good time, because it is really
taking a toll on our lives.
“If we have to eventually
shut down our country, then as a government we must be prepared to have some
relief for the most ordinary people.
“As a government, we must
find our own money to fund something for our people, because the United States
of America that is talked about or the British Parliament is because this
involves public funds.
“I’m not seeing anything at
the moment targeted at providing some relief. If we lock up Nigeria today, then
we will wake-up trouble, because majority of our citizens go to market everyday
before they can get something to eat.
“So, you lock them up in
their houses with a threat of disease and without food. We need to have
something, a plan of some sorts, in addition to making sure we don’t lock up
the farmers market for example, where people can easily go and buy something,
and of course pharmacies.
“We need to have some kind
of supplies to people, I don’t know how we can achieve this, but we have to be
ingenious.
“This is a time to think
deep and wide, to provide for our people, in order for us at least to deal with
this challenge at the moment,” Lawan advised.
The Senate President, in
addition, urged the Nigerian Centre for Disease Control to establish more
testing and isolation centres as soon as more funds are released to it by the
Federal Government.
He added that the Senate
Committees on Appropriation, Finance and National Planning will oversight the
Nigerian Centre for Disease Control on the strict application of the N6.5
billion to be released for the fight against the Coronavirus pandemic.
“I believe that our
Committees on Health, in the Senate and in the House, must be alert to this,
when funds are released, so that they (NCDC) don’t just go on jamboree spending
the money elsewhere, where we may not achieve this kind of spread that is
extremely necessary,” the Senate President said.
Lawan also assured the
Executive arm of government that both Chambers of the National Assembly would
be readily disposed should the need arise, to work on the planned review of the
2020 budget before the legislature reconvenes on April 7, 2020.
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