AKPABIO, OLUJIMI, OTHERS COMMEND SENATOR ADEOLA ON LOCAL CONTENT

As the 8^th Senate gradually draws to a close, a former Senate Minority Leader and the incumbent Minority Leader and others have commended Senator Solomon Adeola (APC, Lagos West), the chairman of Senate Committee on Local Content for the way he ran the committee as its pioneer chairman in the Senate history in Nigeria.

At the closing ceremony of a two day retreat/valedictory for members of the committee and management of the Nigerian Content Development Monitoring Board(NCDMB) in Abuja, Senator Godwin Akpabio (APC, Akwa Ibom North West), the former minority leader of the Senate and the vice chairman of the Committee said the leadership of the Senate has been justified in  excising of the Local Content Committee from the Petroleum Upstream Committee stressing that Senator Adeola has done well for the 8^th Senate in driving the agenda of local content to public glare in its short history of about two years.

“I enjoyed being a member of the Committee as Senator Adeola was always able to carry all members along. In our meetings you always have over 90% attendance by members who are equally chairmen of other committees. The reason for that is the drive of Adeola, his inspiration in how legislative oversight should be handled and more importantly, the urge to put Nigeria interest first which is the essence of Local Content” he stated.

On her part, Senator Abiodun Olujimi( PDP, Ekiti South) the Minority Leader of the Senate said it is a novel thing that Senator Adeola is doing by organizing a valedictory retreat for members of the Committee to take stock after just two years of existence for the first time in the Senate stressing that it will be a good recommendation for all other Senate Committee to carry out similar exercises as away of ensuring institutional memory is established for the incoming 9^th Senate.

“I want to commend Senator Adeola for his sagacity in such a short time of chairing the committee and making it a force to be reckon with in the oil and gas industry. His plan of a smooth transition for the Committee in the 8^thSenate to in incoming Committee for the 9^th Senate is welcome and I will suggest that a broad stakeholders summit on Local Content to brainstorm on the challenges of implementing the law should be a priority for the next Senate and the Executive arm of government” she stated.

Senator Abubakar Gumel(APC, Jigawa North), another member of the committee noted that only an experienced legislator would have managed the cream of the members of the 8^th Senate so well and achieved so uch with the short history of the committee stressing that Senator Adeola demonstrated that leadership is of essence in any human organization.

“The Committee have two principal officers of the 8^th Senate as members, all the 18 members of the committee are chairmen of other important committee of the 8^thSenate and for Adeola to have successfully carried everybody along in fighting for the interest of Nigeria shows that he is a good material for leadership in the affairs of Nigeria” he stated.