The Nigerian Senate yesterday summoned the Finance Minister, Mrs Kemi Adeosun and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor, Mr Godwin Emefiele on the state of the country’s economy.The senators want the duo to brief the upper legislative chamber on the monetary and fiscal policies adopted to salvage the worrisome economic situation.Adopting without debate, a motion sponsored by the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Gas, Bassey Albert Akpan (PDP, Akwa Ibom), the chamber expressed concern about revelations from several Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) that have roles to play in the economy regarding the gloomy picture of the nation’s economic condition.Already, experts, including the National Coordinator of the National Poverty Eradication Programme (NAPEP) under President Olusegun Obasanjo administration, Dr. Magnus Kpakol, have said that it is now clear that the country’s recessionary mode has become inevitable in the second quarter of the year ending June.They explained that the grim expectation was being accentuated by the recent scarcity of refined petroleum products; exchange rate crisis over imported goods; the high cost of electricity; increased transportation costs; reduction in food production; high cost of inputs; and low industrial output, which have taken the greater part of the period.Also, the delay in approving the budget, a document that is supposed to act as a catalyst for growth, kept the economy inactive, leading to the disengagement of workers and the non-expanding business cycle.The Senate particularly noted that the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) had last week released the nation’s economic scorecard for the first quarter of the year 2016 for Gross Domestic Product (GDP), inflation and unemployment, stressing that the report depicted that the nation’s economy was plunged into recession with a decline of 0.36 per cent year-on-year in real terms which was a drastic drop from 2.11 per cent in Q4 2015 in GDP.Bassey said: “From the report, unemployment rate rose to 12.1 percent in Q1, 2016 from 10.4 per cent in Q4, 2015. Underemployment also increased to 19.1 percent from 18.7 percent in the same period while the rate of inflation rose from 9.6 percent in January, 2016 to 13.8 percent in April, 2016 with the attendant increase in prices of basic food commodities and services in the country.“The declining Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and unemployment besides the current high inflation rate clearly shows that the economic policies are not achieving desired impact and requires an urgent review to avoid further plunge in our economy.”He further described as worrisome the continued complacency of the current state of the economy, saying, if allowed unchecked would set the tone for a full-blown economic recession by the end of June, 2016 as already confirmed by the CBN in its Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting of Tuesday.