Barring any hitch, President Buhari will on January 3, 2023 sign the 2023 Appropriation Bill of about N21 trillion.
The Senate President, Dr Ahmad Lawan, announced this after a close-door meeting with President Buhari on Friday at the Presidential Villa.
“We are looking forward to Mr. President signing the Appropriation Bill 2023, by the grace of God, on Tuesday,” he told reporters.
Lawan attributed the delay in passing the budget to the “anomalous figures” discovered in the bill presented to the National Assembly.
He said:“This is because we passed the documents yesterday, having lost some time because of some anomalous figures we had in the bill presented to the National Assembly.
“But thank God, the National Assembly in both chambers have passed the Appropriation Bill 2023 on Wednesday, and I’m sure that Mr. President and his team on the Executive side will work on what we have done.
“And the first thing on Tuesday, the first official working day of the year (2023), I believe that Mr. President will be signing the Appropriation Bill 2023.
“We are very pleased that we have been able to, in the last four years, ensure the passage of the appropriation bills in record time before every Christmas, and Mr. President had always signed before the end of the year.
“This year, particularly, is because of the anomalous, very undesirable and unfortunate situation that we had to delay a little bit.
“You will recall that the National Assembly had to cut down its Christmas recess to come back on Wednesday for the sole purpose of passing the appropriation bill which we could have passed a week before. So all the same, there is nothing that we missed.”
Lawan also said the Legislature would continue to support the Independent National Electoral Commission ahead of the upcoming general elections.
He disclosed that a recent loan request by the President was also discussed by the lawmakers.
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