The Acting President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, this Monday evening signed the 2017 Appropriation Bill into law. The Appropriation Bill was passed by the National Assembly and transmitted to the Presidency since May 19 with some additional increment which the presidency may have been battling to find out if the act was a breach.
Business Hilights had earlier on Monday (today), carried a story that indications have emerged that the budget will be signed before this week’s federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting.
The assenting to the Bill today means that the presidency may have observed that what the lawmakers did was in order after all. Over N144bn was added to the total amount to bring the grand total to N7.441tn
Osinbajo appended his signature on the document at about 4:41pm inside the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
The brief event was witnessed by principal officers of the National Assembly, presidential aides and other top government officials.
There are also indications that the budget breakdown may be carried out before the end of this week by the Minister of Finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeousn or early next week to speed up economic financial activities.
There are news making the rounds that several government activities had since this month faced severe financial challenge as the 2016 budget had expired since end of May.
Moreover, there was a breaking news earlier today, Monday that president Muhammadu Buhari has directed Acting president to assent to the budget. It was not clear whether the move was to raise fresh controversy on the actual powers of the Acting President or a plot to apparently raise issues with what an Acting president can do and not do within the period. But some lawyers who spoke to Business Hilights on the sudden breaking news today described it as gimmick from quarters that currently felt that they do not have enough jobs to do.
