The Acting President, Yemi Osinbajo has revealed the reason why it took so long to sign the 2017 Appropriation Bill.
Recall that the Acting President signed the much expected and talked about 2017 budget into law a month after it was passed by the Nigerian Senate.
Speaking after the signing which had in attendance the Finance Minister and other top political office holders in the Muhammadu Buhari-led administration, the Acting President noted that the delay in the signing of the 2017 Appropriation Bill was due to the disagreements which ensued between the executive and the National Assembly.
He further admitted that “the final presentation and the signing of the budget has been considerably delayed,” adding that “this was largely due to disagreements we had about the changes introduced to our 2017 Budget proposals by the National Assembly”.
He continued: “the Executive took the view that the changes fundamentally affected some of our priority programmes and would make implementation extremely difficult and in some cases impossible.”
The Acting President, however, noted that the disagreements have since been resolved as the leadership of the National Assembly promised to reinstate budgetary allocations for important executive projects.
