It has emerged that the absence of the Senate President, Bukola Saraki and Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Yakubu Dogara, from the country as at Wednesday made President Muhammadu Buhari defer the signing of the 2018 Appropriation Bill into law.
It has been the tradition for both leaders of the two arms of the National Assembly as well as Ministers of Finance and Budget and National Planning, as well as some other cabinet members to witness the signing of the Appropriation Bill into law by the President.
The National Assembly passed the budget on May 16 over seven months after the president submitted the proposals to the lawmaker.
The Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, told State House correspondents yesterday that his principal will assent to the 2018 budget next week, adding that “we will give you the specific date when it is confirmed”.
It was widely believed that the country will have a brand new budget yesterday but a source told ThisDay that the decision to stop the presidential assent ceremony was taken late Monday night because both Saraki and Dogara who were expected back in the country could not make the date.
“The signing of the budget was postponed because the Senate President and Speaker are not in the country. We expect them to be back before next week Monday and by Tuesday the budget would be signed and by next week Wednesday we would have the budget analysis,” the source explained.
The source added that the presidential assent would now be on Tuesday, while the budget analysis has now been fixed for Wednesday.
According to the report, while the Senate President is in Saudi Arabia for the lesser Hajj, the Speaker is in London for an executive leadership course at the London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE.
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