At exactly 4:40pm on Monday, Acting President Yemi
Osinbajo signed the 2017 budget into law.
Senate President Bukola Saraki; Yakubu Dogara,
speaker of the house of representatives; Udoma
Udoma, minister of budget and national planning; Lai
Mohammed, minister of information; Abba Kyari, chief
of staff to President Muhammadu Buhari and Kemi
Adeosun, minister of finance, 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, 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.
TheCable
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