Tuesday continued their tirade against each other over the 2014
Appropriation Bill pending before the National Assembly.
While the government, through the Minister of Information, Labaran
Maku, said the APC, by asking its members in the National Assembly
not to pass the bill, was unwittingly asking Nigerians to commit
suicide, the opposition party argued that there was nothing
absolutely wrong with its directive to its lawmakers.
While the budget passed second reading in the Senate on Tuesday, in
the House of Representatives, the debate on it was stalled by the APC
legislators.
Maku, in an interview with State House correspondents at the
Presidential Villa, Abuja, urged the leaders of the APC to have a
rethink on the directive because it was not the right thing to do.
The minister, who described the budget as the oxygen of the nation's
economy, said the APC should not block the flow of oxygen merely
because it had a disagreement with the government.
He said, "I think if all of us agree that if there is anything today
that has worked, the economy of Nigeria has worked under President
Goodluck Jonathan and we need all the cooperation we can to move the
country forward. That doesn't mean they should not stand election
against the President or challenge our policies.
"Challenging our policies is different from blocking the oxygen from
flowing because the budget is the oxygen of the economy.
"So are you asking people to commit suicide because you have
disagreement with the government? I think this is not the right thing
to do and I am urging APC leaders to think again."
Maku said the APC directive to its lawmakers surprised him because
democracy was about service to the people.
He added, "I'm shocked that anybody will go to the National Assembly
and urge people to block the budget of a country.
"When you block the budget of a country, you are stopping the work of
the market woman, you are stopping the work of the farmer, you are
threatening the survival of the teacher , you are threatening the
survival of a patient in the hospital because a lot of what happens to
these people depends on the budget.
"We must separate narrow and negative partisan politics from the
survival of our people. So, we believe that every budget needs to be
robustly debated by the National Assembly but not on the standpoint
that my party asked me to stop passing the budget.
"If they do that, then Nigerians must hold them accountable. They are
not yet in power, but they are already threatening the live wire of
the country; so how can we then trust them with power?
"So, if tomorrow they come to power what are we to expect? It means
the nation will not have a budget? This is very serious, no argument
is acceptable for anybody to go and ask people to block a budget.
These arguments pale into insignificance when you look at the real
danger that that kind of call places on the live wire of Nigeria."
But the APC defended its decision , saying that its members in the
House of Representatives acted in tandem with the provisions of the
law when they stalled debate on the budget on Tuesday
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