Nigeria’s Acting President Yemi Osinbajo has signed the 2017 appropriation bill into law.
According to reports, the development came barely a few hours after receiving the nod from President Muhammadu Buhari who is on an indefinite sick leave abroad.
Osinbajo signed the budget at about 4:40 p.m. on Monday inside his conference room in the presence of the Chief of Staff to President Muhammadu Buhari, Abba Kyari; Senate President, Bukola Saraki, Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, Ministers and other top government officials with the final figure of N 7.44 trillion presented by the National Assembly.
The National Assembly passed the 2017 Appropriations Bill on May 10 after raising from the N7.28 trillion earlier proposed by President Muhammadu Buhari in December last year, to N7.44 trillion.
The Budget Signing event had been scheduled for Thursday 1st June, 2017 but in a dramatic twist, the presidency made a last-minute cancellation of the exercise.
A top Presidency source informed about the development had told SIGNAL the Budget Signing was frustrated by the power cabal within the Aso Rock presidency loyal to ailing President Muhammadu Buhari. The cabal, the source disclosed, blocked the Budget Signing based on claims that President Buhari was returning from his sick leave this week.
Following reports that President Muhammadu Buhari would no longer be returning to Nigeria as earlier disclosed by the Presidency to Reuters, news filtered into the Nigerian media on Monday that the Acting President has gotten approval from President Buhari to sign the budget.
It is the first time in recent years that an acting president would sign the budget into law.
More to come…
__________
Follow us on Twitter at @thesignalng
Copyright 2017 SIGNAL. Permission to use portions of this article is granted provided appropriate credits are given to www.signalng.com and other relevant sources.
