By Ken Afor
Amid the current economic crisis, which has led to a staggering hike in food prices in Nigeria, members of the Lagos State House of Assembly have advised President Bola Ahmed to consider reducing foreign trips as one of the ways of cutting the cost of governance.
This was contained in the resolution made on Tuesday by the House.
While highlighting the amount of money spent on trips for seminars and conferences by government officials in ministries and departments of agencies, the House urged both the federal and state governments to devise ways of reducing such trips.
On the issue of the consistent depreciation of the Naira against the Dollar, the Speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly, Hon. Mudashiru Obasa, called on the leadership of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to aggressively embark on sensitizing citizens about the steps being taken by the apex bank to alleviate the burden on the Naira.
This trails the data released on Tuesday, which indicated that the Naira hovered between N1,474 and N1,500.
The Speaker said, “In my opinion, the CBN and government should embark on sensitisation and information dissemination to make people understand what the government is doing.
The pressure on the naira is too much, but the CBN should make sure that national interest is supreme.
“To save the naira, the federal government and states can stop foreign conferences and seminars. If possible, we can bring the resource persons to Nigeria to deliver their lectures. We all need to look inward to support the government.
“Locally, some people in Nigeria doing businesses demand dollars instead of naira. Even at parties now, you see people spray dollars instead of naira. We need a way out and to do this, we need the support of citizens. That’s the essence of sensitisation.
Hon. Obasa, who presided over Tuesday’s plenary, expressed dismay at the continued downward trend of the Naira against the US Dollar. He commended the apex bank for its bold steps, hoping that such moves would yield a positive impact on the nation’s economy.
Furthermore, he called on the government to initiate strict measures on religious pilgrimages, as these trips by faith-based organizations attract unnecessary demand for the Dollar while suppressing the Naira.
On his part, Hon. Femi Saheed, representing Kosofe Constituency 2, criticized the embattled former Governor of the CBN, Mr. Godwin Emefiele, for the current pressure on the Naira due to his policies while in office.
He, however, expressed optimism that the Naira would bounce back if critical steps such as fixing the nation’s refineries and strengthening the education and health sectors are taken.
He called on the CBN to appeal to individuals to release their Dollars from their domiciliary accounts to ease the pressure on the Naira.
“I think the current CBN governor should work on moral suasion to get people to pull out the dollars in their domiciliary account,” he said.
