The Presidency at the weekend confirmed that it has formally received the details of the 2017 Appropriation Bill from the National Assembly. The Senior Special Assistant to the President on National Assembly Matters (Senate), Ita Enang, presented the document to the Acting President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo SAN, at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
The Senior Special Assistant to the Acting President on Media and Publicity, Mr. Laolu Akande, confirmed the development. Akande said the bill was undergoing diligent consideration by the Executive arm of government.
“2017 Budget -Appropriations bill now officially received in the Acting President’s office and undergoing very prompt and diligent consideration,” he wrote. Shortly after presenting the budget to Osinbajo, Enang told State House correspondents that the Acting President has the constitutional power to assent to the bill once he is satisfied with the content.
He recalled that Osinbajo had in February during President Muhammadu Buhari’s first medical vacation of the year signed some bills into law in his capacity as the Acting President of the federal Republic of Nigeria. While saying there was a window of 30 days within which the document could either be signed or returned to the National Assembly, Enang said it would be difficult as of now to say when the document would be signed into law.
The presidential aide 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 seven or eight 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.”