Senate Ahmad Lawan, has assured that the National Assembly will ensure the judicious use of Covid-19 funds.
This is as he promised that the lawmakers will ensure that provisions are made for funds in 2022 budget for the battle against COVID-19 pandemic.
Lawan gave the assurance on Monday in Abuja while declaring open a National Summit on COVID-19 with the theme: ‘End the Pandemic and Build Back Better’.
He stressed that “in the 2022 appropriation, whatever is necessary will be provided for Nigeria to continue to fight the pandemic and beyond it.
“But there is a caveat, that those who will be given those funds need to provide the kind of prudence that is necessary – the economy, the efficiency in the deployment and application of those resources.
“And I will urge our committees who have been working very hard and very closely with the PSC to ensure very strict and rigorous scrutiny and oversight of our funds in 2022 when we are able to provide them to the Federal Ministry of Health and its agencies,” Lawan said.
He assured Nigerians that “members of the National Assembly and other political leaders of this country take the health of Nigerians very seriously and we will continue to be alive to our responsibility to ensure that our citizens are protected and are provided that kind of opportunity to take the vaccine”.
The Senate President also urged the relevant health authourities to do more to ensure that the vaccine hesitancy is minimised or eliminated if possible.
He commended the PSC for the great work it had done in effectively coordinating and mounting a formidable national response to the emergent global public health threat.
Lawan also paid tribute to patriotic and gallant health personnel who had sacrificed so much to fight the pandemic, stressing that Nigeria would remain indebted to them.
