The Minister of Information, Labaran Maku Wednesday said President Goodluck Jonathan is delaying assent to the 2014 budget because of distortions by the legislators.
The two Chambers of the National Assembly in April passed the Appropriation Bill of N4.695 trillion for 2014 fiscal year.
However, the amount passed is N53 billion higher than the N4.642 trillion presented by the Executive in December 2013.
Maku, who briefed correspondents after the weekly Cabinet meeting presided over by the President, however assured that the distortions are being sorted out.
According to him, Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister for the Economy, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, briefed Council on the progress being made in the ongoing reconciliation of the figures.
The Minister of Information said, “It is very sad that we have almost entered the middle of the year and we don’t have a budget.
“This indeed is sad that the budget has taken so long in coming and practically we have less than seven months to execute the budget”.
“There are few areas of distortions and there are those areas that are very serious and we think there is a need to look into them because of the negative impact those distortions may have on the implementation of the budget.
“We will do everything possible to reconcile the few differences that emerged in what was transmitted to the government by the national Assembly.
“Very shortly we believe that we are going to reconcile those areas and then the final budget will be announced to the nation by the President”.
According to Maku, Council also discussed extensively the video released by Boko Haram on Monday, showing the abducted girls reciting verses of the Holy Quran.
He however advised media organisations to rely only on information emanating from the communications centre set up on the ongoing operation to rescue the abducted Chibok girls.
Maku said the communication centre was set up “to cut off Chibok issue from politics”.
He spoke further, “We have seen the video clip, we are studying it to be sure of its content. We are also looking into the statement that accompanied the clip.
“Government has made it very clear that we are ready to go to any length to secure the release of these our daughters that have been in captivity. That is the statement we have issued and we stand on that statement.
“Other statements that have been made from different groups should be discountenanced. This is a clear position of government that has been announced through the centre on daily reporting of events on the rescue effort and state of emergency in the North East.
“The press should as much as possible utilise the daily information from the centre and help put more light into the issue.
“We are appealing to all Nigerians to leave sentiments and emotions aside and concentrate on efforts we can make collectively as a nation to rescue our girls.
“There has been a lot of pollution and information that may not be correct. We want to cut off Chibok from politics and that is why we are streamlining information.”
