•Report by Mudasir Opeyemi
Senate President Ahmed Lawan has said that President Muhammadu Buhari is expected to sign the 2023 Appropriation Bill on the first working day next year, Tuesday, 3rd January 2023.
The lawmaker said this while addressing the State House Correspondent on Friday after a visit to the President in his office.
According to Lawan,part of the discussion he had with the President was the passage of the Appropriation Bill, the 2022 Supplementary Appropriation Bill and the Finance Bill, and General Elections among other issues of national interest.
He noted that while the National Assembly looks forward to the presidential assent on the first work day of the New Year, Lawan explained that the delay in the passage of the bill was owing to some errors in the figures presented to NASS.
“We are looking forward to Mr. President signing the Appropriation Bill 2023, by the grace of God, on Tuesday.
“This is because we signed 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, I believe that Mr. President will be signing the Appropriation Bill 2023,” he said
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Lawan said this would be the first time in four years that the Buhari-led government signed the National Budget in the New Year.
Explaining the delay, Lawan said, “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 anomalies, 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’s nothing that we missed.
Speaking about the relationship between the Executive and Legislature,Lawan said a seamless working relationship between the executive and the legislature has regularised the signing of the appropriation bills since 2018 resulting in a predictable January to December budget for our country.
He said this pattern had been extended to the states; most of which now pass their appropriation bills and assent to them before the new year.
“So it has this multiple impact on the polity. On the economy. When the Federal Government passes and assents to the appropriation bill, and the states do the same, the economy starts to receive injection of funds right from January of the following year,”he said.
On the 2023 elections,Lawan revealed that the electoral umpire, INEC, lacks nothing and the NASS will support it to deliver credible elections.
“We also discussed the 2023 general elections. The current National Assembly has always supported the Executive in terms of ensuring that INEC gets whatever is necessary for it to work to ensure that elections are supported, that INEC doesn’t lack in anything.
“So we have committed ourselves to ensuring that we give INEC whatever it needs for it to conduct a very free, transparent and credible 2023 general elections. And we are here at all times between now and June 11 when our term will also expire as a legislature in the National Assembly.
“But before then, whatever
INEC needs for 2023 to be a success, we will surely and certainly provide such support,” he said.