Remark by His Excellency Senator (Dr.) Godswill Obot Akpabio, CON, The Senate President at the Senate Retreat on Fiscal Policy and Tax Reforms, holding at Ikot Ekpene on Thursday October 19, 2023.
Protocol
Your Excellency, the Vice President of our beloved country, Senator Kashim Shettima, GCON, thank you for honouring us again with your esteemed presence. Thank you for being such a great statesman and for your labours of love for our great country. Thank you for being a great and worthy ambassador of the Senate. We are proud of you. An old Annang proverb says that “no matter how high the eagle flies, its talons will keep pointing to the earth.” Your Excellency, no matter how high the position you occupy, we know that your heart will point to the Senate. Therefore, we will never be tired of inviting you to our programmes and we know you will never be tired of coming to your home, the Senate.
Your Excellency, for the first time, we have two senators emeritus running our country. Our dear president, His Excellency Senator Bola Tinubu, and your good self. Your success is therefore our success. Indulge me to speak another Annang proverb because we are in Ikot Ekpene, the headquarters of the Annang people. It goes this way, “He who does harm to his eldest brother, is doing harm to himself.” You two are our elder brothers in government. We can attest to your love for our country. We will continue to walk and work with you until our country’s hope is renewed and we turn a new chapter in our national story.
Today’s event is a demonstration of our commitment to walk and work with the Executive Arm in the interest of our beloved compatriots. The dust is yet to fully settle on the presidential election; but the President had long hit the ground running. In the course of the campaigns, the President and you sought to cut a covenant with Nigerians. You stated what you hoped to do for Nigerians in an 85-page document which sought to renew our collective hope. Nigerians kept their part of that covenant by electing you. Now it is up to you to keep your part of the covenant by doing what Nigerians are expecting. What Nigerians voted you to do.
As the voices and ears of our people, appreciative that they listened to you and voted for you, supportive of rights of Nigerians to the goodies in that document, we have come to deliberate on that document and to ensure that we do not work at cross-purposes with the Executive Arm. Because every action of man is based on a cost/benefit consideration, Nigerians weighed the benefits against the cost, and decided to vote for our President. Party differences must give way to national interest, and we, Distinguished Senators, must come together and ensure that the expectations and hopes of our people are not betrayed.
In this light, the major objective of this converge is to improve the knowledge of Senators and build their technical capacity to generate concrete and consistent legislation that would promote peace and sustainable development in tandem with the renewed hope and 8-point agenda of the Tinubu/Shettima Administration. This converge also aims to deepen participants’ knowledge of public expenditure management, fiscal policy, and tax reforms.
Your Excellency, my distinguished colleagues, I believe that the doors of the Senate should be open to all Nigerians, except pessimists. The Senate Chambers is a place for optimists who believe that no matter the darkness of the clouds which hang over our nation, there are silver linings. The Senate has no place for people who whine or do not believe in the greatness of our country. The hallowed chambers of the Senate is for those who believe that every setback in our country is a setup for a comeback.
Today more than ever before we must come together in optimism to toe the road map of Mr President and where we consider that changes may be appropriate, work with the executive to perfect the document. We must take our destiny in our own hands and make the legend of this country as the giant of Africa a reality. Let us build this country, and fix it in such a way that those who fled this country like Naomi fled Israel in the time of famine, in one of the stories in the Bible, would hear that the Lord has visited our country again and would run back cap in hand, like Naomi ran back to Israel.
I believe that our destiny is not in the hands or the fine prints of the World Bank. The bank may mean well, and can be of help to us, but they have not worn our shoes and they do not know where it pinches. It is our walk not their own, so while they talk the talk, let us walk the walk. We wear the shoes and we know where it pinches. Every major national development was based on a road map designed by citizens of the respective countries. The Frenchmen, Montesquieu and Jean-Jacques Rosseau, were the brains behind the French revolution. Kim Dae-jung changed the fortunes of South Korea. Lenin transformed Tsarist Russia and turned it into a super power. These people and more succeeded because they had plans and their countrymen and women followed their plans.
Let us follow the plan before us. The founding fathers of our nation (Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, Chief Obafemi Owolowo, Sir Ahmadu Bello etc.) had and followed a plan of development, and Nigeria, in their days, occupied a place of pride in the comity of nations. Since then, we have not had the kind of elaborate plan put forward by Mr President and which targets growth in critical sectors of our economy and seek to remove wastages in our economic cycle. Let us provide the launching pad for this audacious plan and acquit ourselves as patriots and worthy representatives of our people.
Every plan, no matter how lofty and noble, needs to be financed. That is why we need to be taught public expenditure management, fiscal policy, and tax reforms. Fortunately, the Renewed Hope plan is strong on the economic side. It proposes a ten percent economic growth, which experts claim are achievable. It singles out the digital economy as a quick win for foreign exchange and job creation. We should note that Nigeria is the seventh largest internet using country in the world with an estimated number of 104.4 million users.
Let us remember what the President said, “Our Renewed Hope Action Plan outlines goals for greater economic growth in our cities and rural communities. We are committed to an economy of double-digit GDP growth, greater food security and one with a strengthened manufacturing base, as well as an active digital economy where young people will have ample space to fulfill their dreams and aspirations.” These are lofty goals which should pull the strings of our hearts, and which we need to fully key into, understand, internalize, and market to our constituents. With these we can go back to our Senatorial Districts and proclaim to them that “Things are getting better.”
The policies of the Federal Government have sometimes been misunderstood by some of our people, but we understand. They are generally designed for long-term benefits. But we know that today’s pain shall lead to tomorrow’s gain. Out of the clouds of despair shall come showers of blessing. For example, the stock market is said to have jumped to N1.51 trillion as a consequence of the announcement to unify foreign exchange rates. Tax reforms, experts believe, could yield a N20 trillion tax gap in a nation with a tax-to-GDP ratio of 10.86%. There are several other benefits of the renewed hope program and the 8-point agenda of the present administration. These benefits we must know in the course of this retreat. When we do, gather this knowledge, this retreat will lead to a great leap for our country as we would accelerate legislation to renew the hope of our people.
We are back in school and for our nation’s good. I trust that the resource persons are as ready as we are. I look forward to a fruitful and engaging retreat. I hope for highly interactive sessions. That is why my thanks must go to the National Institute for Legislative and Democratic Studies and the Senate for organizing this timely retreat and putting everything in place to make it worth our time.
Your Excellency, very distinguished Senators, I believe that we are at an auspicious moment in our history. The kind of moment Shakespeare meant when he said “there is a tide in the affairs of men Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune; Omitted, all the voyage of their life Is bound in shallows and in miseries. On such a full sea are we now afloat; And we must take the current when it serves, Or lose our ventures.” We are cast on such a tide today and we must take the flood and set our sails right so that history will never forget us and posterity will say that this was the Senate’s finest hour.
Thank you for your very kind attention. God bless Nigeria.
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