Jonathan, Mark, Tambuwal meet on state of the nation' Senators deny 'no confidence vote' moveA DAY after the Senate went into an executive session and resolved to meet with President Goodluck Jonathan over their misgivings with the state of affairs in the country, President Jonathan yesterday met with a cross section of members of the National Assembly at the Banquet Hall of the Presidential Villa, Abuja. Senate President, David Mark, led the lawmakers, alongside Speaker, House of Representatives, Aminu Tambuwal, chairmen of committees of the Senate and the House of Representatives, to the meeting. The closed-door meeting provided a platform for members of the National Assembly to discuss the issues of governance, security, fuel subsidy removal, balancing the budget and how to make 'sure that government works for the benefit of the people.' Although no communiqu was issued on the outcome of the meeting, The Guardian gathered that the lawmakers insisted that the executive must have a rethink over the proposed removal of oil subsidy, making it 'abundantly clear that removing the subsidy this time when things appear hard is not the best thing to do.' However, it was also learnt that the executive delegation, which also included Head of the Economic Management Team and Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and Minister of National Planning, Shamsudeen Usman, among others, strenuously explained the imperative of removing the subsidy, saying the economy would bleed further 'if it is not removed now.' At this juncture, the lawmakers asked the executive to allow them go back and give further thought to the idea. But on the issue of insecurity, the lawmakers and the executive agreed that more work need to be done and jointly agreed to explore ways of tackling the matter. The lawmakers told the executive that six committees of the National Assembly had already been mandated to come up with a new action plan and collaborate with the security agencies in the country to solve current security challenges. Former spokesman of the Senate and Chairman of the Committee on Works, Ayogu Eze, who was at the meeting, said it was 'a very useful exchange. It was a very useful interaction and we hope that at the end of the day, it will produce desirable results for our people.' Eze stated that the meeting discussed 'a whole lot of issues - governance issues. We discussed security, subsidy and the issue of balancing the budget and just making sure that government works for the benefit of the people.' On whether the reaction of the Senate on the state of affairs in Nigeria meant that both parties failed to understand each other, Eze noted: 'No, it will be premature to say that we have failed to understand ourselves. This is the first interaction. We have listened to him (President) and we are going to take it further.' Asked to react to the alleged threat by the Senate to pass a vote of no confidence on President Jonathan, Eze said the issue 'never came up at the Chamber of the Senate. We were scandalised when we read about it this morning. Such a matter was never discussed. But I can take you into confidence that a lot of our colleagues at the closed session were concerned about security issues in the country and about lives and property. And of course, it is not unusual for them to be worried about that.' On when the next meeting would hold, he stated: 'There is no date yet but it is assumed that it is going to continue. And I can see two or three more meetings before we can come to comfortable platform.' Also, Presidential Adviser on National Assembly Matters, Senator Joy Emordi, denied that the Senate mulled over passing a vote of no confidence on the President. She said: 'There was nothing like that. I am telling you. Don't forget that I was a member of the National Assembly. If anything like that happened yesterday (on Tuesday), definitely, they will not be here today. These are people with integrity. So, if they felt strongly yesterday on anything about Mr. President, definitely, they will not come here. 'I told you people that it is going to be a different administration this time. My aim as the Special Adviser on National Assembly Matters is to forge good relationship, harmonious relationship between the NASS and Mr President. And that was exactly what happened today. There will be regular consultations in order to better the lots of the people of this country.' On what President Jonathan wants from members of the National Assembly, Emordi stated: 'Mr. President saw everybody as leaders whereby the Executive and Legislature should join hands together to find solutions to the few challenges facing our nation. It goes to show clearly that Mr President is not a dictator. He wants to carry the legislative arm of government along in whatsoever decision he is going to take and that was why he requested for this interactive session and it is going to be a regular affair.
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