2014 budget for second reading

The House of Representatives has passed the 2014 budget into second reading. The bill titled a bill for an Act to authorise the issue from the Consolidated Revenue Funds of the Federation the total sum of N4, 642, 000, 000 was passed into second reading after the second day of debates on general principle of the bill.
The bill was referred to the House Committee on Appropriation as well as Finance for further legislative action.

Members, who contributed to the debate on the budget expressed approval of the sum of N7 billion earmarked for the national conference.
According to Hon. Yakubu Dogara, the national conference is not a body known to law and that “the conveying of the conference is like passing a vote of no confidence on the National Assembly.”

“Now they have come to us for funding. If we have to fund the Conference, we might just fund the African First Ladies Peace Mission House which we had earlier turned down because it is a body not known to law,” he said.

In a related development, the House yesterday urged the Federal Road Maintenance Agency (FERMA) to urgently take steps to reconstruct the Aduhanhan Bridge on the Benin-Asaba expressway to check accidents caused by the collapsing bridge.
It also directed the Committee on Appropriation to ensure that adequate funds were allocated in the 2014 budget currently before the National Assembly for the re-construction of the Chanchaji Bridge.