Acting President Osinbajo on Monday after signing the budgetNigeria’s Acting President has obeyed the call by President Muhammadu Buhari to sign the 2017 Appropriation Bill into law.
He signed the appropriation bill into law on Friday, hours after the Presidency issued a statement that President Buhari who is battling with his health in London had granted him special permission to go ahead.
“Following the receipt of a full brief on the 2017 Appropriation Bill as passed by the National Assembly, and to buttress the unity at the highest level of government, President Muhammadu Buhari has indicated that it is in the interest of the nation’s economy for the Acting President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, to sign the Appropriation Bill into law,” President Buhari’s spokesman Garba Shehu said in a statement.
In a letter dated June 10, 2017, which he personally signed and addressed to the Minister of Budget and National Planning, Senator Udoma Udo Udoma, the President also said he was “pleased by the joint resolution that the Executive would submit next year’s budget proposals by October 2017 and the National Assembly will conclude the Appropriation process by December 2017, so that the country can return to a normal fiscal period from next year onwards,” Garba Shehu added.
His statement may raise further questions about rumours that Mr. Osinbajo was not given full powers to act as President.
This story will be updated.