BEVERLY HILLS, AUGUST 22, (THEWILL) – The spokesman of the Vice President of Nigeria has confirmed reports Monday that President Muhammadu Buhari will seek emergency powers from the National Assembly to urgently reform and revitalize the ailing economy which is in a recession, following the unexpected crash in the price of crude oil, Nigeria’s main budget financier.
Olaolu Akande, who speaks for Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, who heads the Economic Management Team, said in a statement Monday that “The Economic Management Team has indeed been considering several policy options and measures to urgently reform and revitalize the economy. Some of these measures may well require legislative amendments and presidential orders that will enable the Executive arm of government move quickly in implementing the economic reform plans.”
He further said, “As far as I know, this has not been passed on to the President, the Federal Executive Council or the Legislative arm of government. So at this point, there are no further details to share.”
THEWILL as well as some other media had previously reported that the objectives of the action-plan on the economy includes shoring up the value of the naira, creation of more jobs, boosting of foreign reserves, reviving the manufacturing sector and improving power.
The proposed executive bill to be sent to the National Assembly when it resumes on September 12, 2016, is titled: “Emergency Economic Stabilisation Bill 2016”.
The bill will be asking for the President to be given sweeping powers to set aside some extant laws and use executive orders to roll out an economic recovery package within the next one year.
Buhari will also be seeking powers to abridge the procurement process to support stimulus spending on critical sectors of the economy; make orders to favour local contractors/suppliers in contract awards and abridge the process of sale or lease of government assets to generate revenue.
The President will also seek budgetary allocation to projects that are urgent, without going back to the National Assembly; amend certain laws, such as the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) Act, so that states that cannot access their cash trapped in the accounts of the commission because they cannot meet the counterpart funding, can do so.
Although the president has the power to order the sale or lease of any government asset to raise cash, the procedure is cumbersome and long, thus, the draft bill is meant to ease the process.
The government source said about nine government assets may be leased or sold to generate around $50billion to shore up the nation’s foreign reserves and the value of the naira against the United States dollar.
“Nigeria may be broke at the moment but we are not a poor country, given our assets and capability,” the source revealed.
“About N58 billion is trapped in UBEC’s coffers because the states cannot access it as a result of the key condition, which is the payment of 50 per cent counterpart funding. The government is seeking an amendment to the law so that states will pay only 10 per cent as counterpart funding.
“The objective is that state governments will have access to cash to develop education. This will facilitate creation of jobs since contracts will be awarded for the projects.
As for contract awards, the government, by the provisions of the law, cannot mobilise contractors with more than 15 per cent of contract sum. This is considered to be undesirable by the economic team given the pace the government wants to move in turning the economy around and in the provision of critical infrastructure. The bill will seek to allow the government to mobilise contractors with 50 per cent of contract sum.
For the power sector, the government plans to truck gas from source to the power plants to enable them get what they need for generation.
THEWILL learned that President Buhari will engage the leadership of the National Assembly before their resumption to solicit support for the bill’s quick passage as Nigeria moves to turnaround the ailing economy from all fronts having successfully gotten the NDA, the militant group in the Niger Delta, to end its destruction of oil facilities.
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