The Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity Mr Femi Adesina has confirmed that President Muhammadu Buhari would sign the 2018 budget on Wednesday, June 20.
Adesina made the assertion in an interview with a national Television station.
Speaking via Skype hours after reports emerged that the President would be signing the 2018 Appropriation Bill into law the next two days, the Special Adviser noted that his principal would assent to the proposal by 12 noon.
He stated further that the Executive arm of government should not be blamed for the delayed passage of the budget by the National Assembly, stressing that it had been submitted to the lawmakers since last year.
“Naturally, every Nigerian should be worried and concerned,” the presidential aide said. “That budget was submitted on November 7, 2017, with the expectation that latest by December ending, it would have been passed.”
“But it wasn’t passed till May (2018) and that is quite worrisome for every right-thinking Nigerian.”
President Buhari received the appropriation bill from the National Assembly on May 25, 2018, more than six months after presenting a budget proposal of N8.612 trillion to the Legislature.
The lawmakers had accused the Ministries, Departments, and Agencies of frustrating the passage by failing to submit the breakdowns of their budget proposals, forcing a presidential order to that effect.
They had also increased the proposal by N508 billion, bringing the total figure to N9.12 trillion as against the initial estimate of N8.6 trillion.
Meanwhile, Adesina also confirmed that the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting would not hold this week.
According to him, the meeting was suspended because there won’t be enough time to prepare for it as a result of the Eid-el-Fitr celebrations.
The President’s spokesman said, “When the last FEC meeting ended on Wednesday last week, it was already pointed out that Friday (last week) and Monday (today) were going to be public holidays.”
“Those were days critical to the preparation of memos for FEC. So, the President already said let’s put FEC ahead by a week because there will be holidays on Friday and Monday,” he explained.
