…Presents budget copy to Ag. President
From: JULIANA TAIWO-OBALONYE, Abuja
Acting President Yemi Osinbajo on Friday received the official copy of the 2017 appropriation.
The budget which was finally submitted to the Presidency 12 days after it was approved by the National Assembly was delivered to the Presidency by the Presidential Laison to the Senate, Ita Enang.
Speaking to the State House correspondents after the presentation Enang said the Acting President will sign the budget after laid down procedures.
Enang recanted his earlier position that President Muhammadu Buhari would sign the 2017 appropriation bill.
“The 2017 budget will be transmitted to Mr President.The president will assent to the budget. The acting president is in office, and when the budget is transmitted, it will go through the processes and all those other questions will answer itself”, Enang had said on Channels Television Politics Today.
But in a swift return around 48 hours later, Enang after budget submission to Osinbajo in a closed door ceremony said, “The budget as passed by the National Assembly has just been transmitted to the Acting President. I just delivered it.
“Let me use this opportunity to clarify an issue. The Acting President has the power to assent to the budget and he will assent to it when the processes are completed.
“The Acting President has the power to assent to the budget. In February, he assented to 7 or 8 bills. Those that he didn’t agree with, he wrote the Senate and House of Representatives that he had withheld his assent from them.
“He has the power of the President to assent to it. But the assent to the Appropriation Bill will be after the completion of the standard operation process. The bill has 30 days within which it will be assented to but the process can be completed within two or three days.
“So, it is not possible to say it will be assented to in so, so and so day or in two or three days. It’s upon the completion of the process that it will be assented to by the president and the president here now is the acting president.”