Jonathan appeals to NASS members over 2014 budget

    
President Goodluck Jonathan on Thursday appealed to members of the National Assembly to expedite action on the 2014 Appropriation Bill currently before them in order to ensure that his administration delivers dividends of democracy to the people.

Jonathan, who was represented by the Minister of Labour and Productivity, Chief Emeka Wogu, made the appeal in his remarks during a stakeholders forum of the Subsidy Reinvestment and Empowerment Programme held inside the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

When the debate on the bill entered the second day in the Senate on Wednesday, some Peoples Democratic Party and All Progressives Congress senators had described the document as anti-people.

They chided the  Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, for the way the bill was packaged and therefore called for its review.

The APC had last week directed its members in the National Assembly to block the passage of the 2014 budget and the screening of presidential nominees for both civilian and military positions.

The party based its directive of the Presidency’s alleged meddling in the Rivers State crisis.

Jonathan’s appeal came barely 24 hours after the Minister of Information, Mr. Labaran Maku, said the leaders of the APC were endangering the survival of Nigerians with their directive.

The President specifically appealed to the Chairman of Senate Committee on SURE-P, Senator Abdul Ningi, who attended the event, to help him prevail on his colleagues in the National Assembly to speed up their consideration of the budget.

“Let me appeal to Senator Ningi, who chairs the Senate committee on SURE-P, to please help urge his colleagues in the National Assembly to expedite consideration of the 2014 budget which is currently before them in order for us to continue to deliver dividends of democracy to our people,” he said.