The invitation of the CBN governor incidenintally, happens to be the only recommendation contained in the motion, as a result of which, Senate President, Bukola Saraki said he would not allow contribution by senators on the motion until Emefiele would have appeared and made his presentations on the issue. Saraki presided briefly at yesterday’s plenary before leaving the chamber to return to the Code of Conduct Tribunal, CCT, to continue his trial over allegation of false assets declaration and money laundering. Akpan in his lead presentation expressed worry that the declining Gross Domestic Product, GDP, and unemployment besides the current high inflation rate clearly shows that current economic policies are not achieving desired impact and requires an urgent review to avoid further recession. This was also as he feared that the current economic contraction is the first major drastic slump since June 2004, which according to the CBN is a 12-year low, while the World Bank’s position is 21-year low. The lawmaker recalled that the CBN had in March, deployed a contracting monetary policy, increasing benchmark interest rate from 11 per cent to 12 per cent and cash ratio from 20 per cent to 22.5 per cent. The move, he said, raised the question as to why contracting monetary policy instead of expansionary monetary policy of boosting economic activities at such a critical time as now. According to him, the current economic situation coupled with lack of required foreign exchange to boost imports of raw materials for the domestic industries will worsen the unemployment and poverty situation in the country. Akpan further posited that he was convinced that with the current economic slump, meeting the key revenue projections of the 2016 budget is practically impossible and thus the need to have a rethink to avoid deepening deficit or poor budget implementation]]>