President Muhammadu Buhari and Senate President Bukola Saraki met at the Presidential Villa, Abuja yesterday.

The meeting, which was termed private, held at the President’s office.

Speaking with State House correspondents after the jumaat prayer, Saraki said the economy of the country will mainly engage the attention of the legislature in 2017.

He said: “As we have started in 2016, in 2017, our attention will be on the economy because that is really a major issue for us as a country.

“We want to see some of the economic bills put forward passed to see that there is greater improvement in the budget process in 2017 and to see that the government implements the budget early.

“Also, one of our pet projects is Made-in-Nigeria products. We want to see that government continues to support Nigerians in this area so that we can begin to see the cushion of the difficult times Nigerians are going through.

“So next year is very important to us and I think on the part of National Assembly, we will continue to give our support to ensure that the right things are done.”

On the fall of Sambisa Forest, Saraki said: “It is a great progress from where we were.

“If you look at where we were a year and a half ago, the challenges we had in that area for us to recapture the place, I think is a great feat.

“It shows what we can do as a country when we have the commitment, purpose and the leadership required to do that.

“As we have done that in the North East, I believe the other issue before us is the fight against corruption, the economy, providing jobs, peace in the Niger Delta.”

Speaking on the President signing 17 bills into law in the past few weeks, the Senate President said: “It shows in part what we have been able to do in the National Assembly, and there are many more bills to come and the President is also responding to it.

“You are going to see more of that in 2017. There are a lot of bills lined up.

“For us in the Senate for example, in the last session, just this last three months, we did much more than we did in the entire year.

“The National Assembly is settling down and as such you will see much more bill passed for the President to sign.”

The Nation