Pres. Buhari is set to approve 2016 budget today

[P]resident Muhammadu Buhari is set to sign this year’s budget today after receiving the clean copy of the document yesterday. The 2016 Appropriation Bill was presented to the President last month after passage by the National Assembly, but the President declined to assent it after discovering that many key projects had been removed as some constituency projects were added by the lawmakers.

The N6.08 trillion proposal was presented by the President to the joint sitting of the National Assembly on December 22, last year.

A source, who spoke on condition of anonymity yesterday, said all was ready for the President to assent the bill today.

He said: “All things being equal, the President will today assent the 2016 Appropriation Bill.”

“The two committees have finished their work and a clean copy is now with the Presidency.” Earlier yesterday, the chairman of the committee set up to reconcile the grey areas in the document, Deputy House Speaker Yussuff Lasun, presented the clean copy to President Buhari’s National Assembly Advisers – Ita Enang (Senate) and Sumaila Kawu (House of Representatives).

The presentation was conducted behind closed doors.

The Deputy Chairman of the House Committee on Media, Jonathan Gaza, told reporters yesterday: “Don’t forget that we are also Nigerians and it is our desire for the country to move forward. I am quite optimistic and I enjoin all other Nigerians, including yourselves, to be as optimistic as me that in the very near future, this budget will be signed into law.

“Well, I honestly believe that we have to be quite careful with our choice of words; over time, there have been differences and both arms of government sat down to look at what those issues were.

“Most importantly, what we want is to see our country and our economy moving forward. To this end, just as I earlier stated and I want to reiterate, both sides of the divide are working hard and the budget before long is going to be signed into law.”

The House adjourned plenary till May 12 to enable members of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) attend their congresses.

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