Senate Suspends Public Hearing on Tax Reform Bill

The Senate on Wednesday asked it’s committee on finance to put on hold the public hearing and other related issues on the Tax Reform Bills until all controversies surrounding the bills are resolved.

The Deputy President of the Senate, Senator Jibrin Barau who disclosed while addressing the Senate in plenary said Senate has also proposed a meeting with the Attorney General of the Federation on Thursday to sort out all the problems in the interest of this nation.

“It has been agreed by the executive and also by us that there should be a forum that will sit with the Attorney General of the Federation so that we can sit down and sort out all these problems in the interest of this nation.

“It’s on this note, that the committee on finance that the bills have been referred to, should put on hold further action on it’s public hearing and other issues until we resolve these issues,” he said.

Barau further said, “we understand at all times that this Senate is the highest assembly in this country. The Senate is composed of men and women of wisdom, of pedigree that this country has entrusted to legislate for them for the peace and tranquillity and the development of this country.

“The Senate of the Federal Republic, as known by everyone and indeed other Senate in the entire world, are known to be the stabilisers of every country. When there are difficulties and disagreements, the Senate of this country comes in with solutions through dialogue and consensus at all times to solve such problems, and the Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria has been doing that since 1999,” he said.

He said because of this, the senators decided to put politics, ethnicity, and regionalism aside to sit among themselves and find the way forward with respect to the issues surrounding the tax reform bills.

“We extended our view to the executive arm of government and it was agreed that there should be a forum to sit down to look at the areas that are creating disagreements to resolve them so that the entire country will remain united in our effort to solve our problems.

“Before the introduction of these bills, we know we’ve been faced with several problems and insecurity that we’ve been trying to proffer solutions to. The president has been trying, and we’re also working with him to solve issues about our economy, which is in line with global economic problems.
We also agree that we shouldn’t allow anything else to aggravate our country’s problems.

He further concluded by saying, “Barau all sides will be given the opportunity and we shall resolve the issues before anything is allowed to go”.