The Senior Special Assistant to the President on National Assembly matters (Senate), Mr. Ita Enang, said on Friday that Acting President Yemi Osinbajo has power to sign the 2017 Budget.
This was 24 hours after he said President Muhammadu Buhari will sign the budget and then transmit it to the acting President for other formalities to take place.
“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,” he said on Thursday.
However, Enang submitted the document to Osinbajo on Friday and clarified his earlier position, saying: “The budget as passed by the National Assembly has just been transmitted to the Acting President. I just delivered it.”
“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.
“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.”
In a tweet, the Senior Special Assistant to the Vice President on Media and Publicity, Laolu Akande, said the Appropriation Bill is undergoing diligent consideration.
“2017 Budget-Appropriations Bill now officially received in the Acting President’s office and undergoing very prompt and diligent considerations,” he tweeted.
The budget was passed by the National Assembly last week.
The post Osinbajo has power to sign 2017 Budget – Enang appeared first onThe Nation Nigeria.
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