Oscarline Onwuemenyi
12 Jne 2017, Sweetcrude, Abuja – Acting President Yemi Osinbajo on Monday signed the 2017 Appropriations Bill into law.
The ceremony followed a statement issued earlier on Monday by the Presidency announcing that the president has directed the Acting President, Yemi Osinbajo to sign the budget into law, putting to rest controversies bedeviling the signing of the budget.
Osinbajo signed the budget at about 4:41pm on Monday inside the Presidential Villa, Abuja in the presence of the principal officers of the National Assembly, presidential aides and other top government officials.
Senate President Dr. Bukola Saraki; Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Yakubu Dogara; Minister of Budget and National Planning, Sen. Udoma Udoma; Minister of Information, Lai Mohammed; Chief of Staff to President Muhammadu Buhari, Abba Kyari, and Minister of Finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun, witnessed the signing of the appropriation bill.
The budget was due to be signed a fortnight ago, but the exercise was put off for undisclosed reasons.
There were reports that it was cancelled in order to allow President Muhammadu Buhari to personally sign the budget when he return from his medical vacation in London.
But earlier on Monday, Mr. Garba Shehu, presidential spokesman, said the president had indicated that it was in the interest of the country that his deputy sign the budget.
“Following the receipt of a full brief on the 2017 appropriation bill as passed by the national assembly, and to buttress the unity at the highest level of government, President Muhammadu Buhari has indicated that it is in the interest of the nation’s economy for the Acting President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, to sign the appropriation bill into law,” the statement read.
Buhari presented a budget proposal of N7.298 trillion to the national assembly on December 14 but the senate which passed it on May 11 jerked it up by N143 billion.