Former Senate President, Dr Bukola Saraki, has said he championed fiscal accountability and reforms during his tenure as head of the National Assembly, insisting that Nigeria’s low tax-to-GDP ratio remains one of the country’s biggest obstacles to sustainable development.
Saraki stated this on Tuesday while speaking at the Global Strategic Advisory Group meeting in Villa La Collina, Lake Como, Italy, where he participated in a panel discussion on “Development Policies—Withdrawal of the U.S. from International Development: Opportunities and Challenges.”
Reflecting on his years as Senate President between 2015 and 2019, Saraki said the Eighth National Assembly prioritised fiscal oversight through open budget hearings, scrutiny of government revenues and reforms in the petroleum sector.
He said, “During my tenure as Senate President, we placed strong emphasis on fiscal oversight, introducing open budget hearings, confronting the issue of unremitted revenues held outside the treasury system, and working on petroleum sector governance reform.
“These were not easy fights. But they were necessary ones, because the alternative is permanent external dependency.”
