December 30, (THEWILL) – President Muhammadu Buhari, will on Tuesday, January 3, 2023, sign the 2023 appropriation bill into law.
Senate president, Ahmad Lawan, disclosed this to State House correspondents after a closed-door meeting with President Buhari on Friday.
Lawan said his discussions with Buhari centred on the 2023 appropriation bill, the recent additional loan request, as well as the legislature’s support to the Independent National Electoral Commission ahead of the general elections, were discussed at the meeting.
The National Assembly, on Wednesday, passed a budget of N21.83 trillion for the 2023 fiscal year.
Lawan regretted that the signing of the budget is coming in a bit later than that of 2022, which was signed on December 31, 2021.
“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 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 first thing on Tuesday, the first official working day of the year, I believe that Mr President will be signing the Appropriation Bill 2023.
“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 anomalous, 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”, he said.
On the 2023 elections, Lawan said the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), “lacks nothing” assuring that the National Assembly 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 and that INEC doesn’t lack in anything.
“So we have committed ourselves to ensure 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.
“There are some that will never say anything good in whatever it is. It’s unfortunate. You cannot do anything with people like that. But on the whole, the federal government of Nigeria under the leadership of President Muhammadu Buhari has done quite a lot.”
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