The Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, yesterday said 2015 Budget and the Constitution Amendment Bill were among the various issues that would receive priority attention of the Senate as lawmakers resume plenary today.

  Ekweremadu, who disclosed this after a meeting with a delegation of the School of Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University, Washington DC, U.S., stated that the Upper Chamber would immediately on resumption go through the second reading of the budget proposal and consequently send the same to the appropriate committees for their input.

  “Basically, we are resuming taking care of the issue of the 2015 Budget. God willing, we will go through the second reading and send the appropriation bill to our committees for a thorough work. That means we may have to break off from the plenary and deal with the budget”, he said.

  The lawmaker, who also chairs the Senate Committee on Review of the 1999 Constitution, gave assurance that there would be expedited legislative actions on the Constitution Amendment Bill.

  According to him: “We received the report on the Constitution Amendment Bill from the state assemblies shortly before the Christmas break.

 “We are hopeful that this week, we are going to report formally to plenary on the return from the states.

 “We will let Nigerians know the specific clauses that have been successfully amended; that is, those that received the positive votes of two-thirds of the 36 state assemblies. We are going to articulate it finally and send to the President for his assent.”

  He expressed hope that the presence of Johns Hopkins University delegation in Nigeria would help to boost the nation’s capacity for good governance and development.

  On the collaboration between the Nigerian Institute for Legislative Studies (NILS) and the Johns Hopkins University, Ekweremadu said it would help to meet the demands of many Nigerians who travel abroad to seek quality education or build their capacities.