Olalekan Adetayo, Abuja
President Muhammadu Buhari will sign the 2018 Appropriation Act into law on Wednesday.
The Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, confirmed this to our correspondent on the telephone on Monday.
“I can confirm to you that the President will sign the budget into law at midday on Wednesday,” the presidential spokesman said.
Our correspondent further learnt that the weekly meeting of the Federal Executive Council that normally holds every Wednesday will not hold on that day.
The meeting usually holds inside the Council Chambers of the Presidential Villa, Abuja at 11am on Wednesdays.
It was not clear as of the time of filing this report if the meeting was put off because of the signing of the budget.
The Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Mr Femi Adesina, had on Wednesday told State House correspondents that the budget would be signed into law this week.
Adesina, however, did not give details of the specific day and time the document would be signed this week.
He had said the details would be made available later.
“The budget will be signed next week. We will give you the specific date when it is confirmed,” Adesina had stated.
The Presidency had said Buhari would only take a stand on the document based on the advice he was expecting from the Minister of Budget and National Planning, Udo Udoma.
It noted that all ministers were expected to scrutinise the budget passed against the proposals they submitted and report their findings to Udoma.
It added that the budget and national planning minister would thereafter form an opinion based on the feedback from his colleagues and proceed to advise the President accordingly.
Udoma himself had, in a recent interview with State House correspondents, said the Executive was reviewing the document as passed by the National Assembly.
He added that the executive arm of government had a 30-day window to decide what to do with the document.
“The President is currently reviewing the budget. As you know, we have a minimum window of 30 days,” the minister had stated.
Pressed further on when the budget would be eventually signed, Udoma had said, “The President is currently reviewing it and as soon as he is through, he will sign it. That is what l can tell you for now.”
The two chambers of the National Assembly had recently passed the budget and transmitted it to Buhari to sign.
The lawmakers raised the total figure from N8.6tn to N9.1tn, six months after the estimates were presented to them.
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