Buhari to sign 2023 budget on January 3 - Senate President

President of the Senate Ahmed Lawan on Friday hinted that the 2023 appropriation Bill will be assented by President Muhammadu Buhari on Tuesday January 3, 2023, barring any last-minute changes.

The Senate President confirmed this to State House correspondents after a closed-door meeting with Buhari at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

Lawan revealed that he discussed some national issues with Buhari, including the president’s recent additional loan request, the legislature’s support to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) ahead of the general elections and the 2023 Appropriation Bill.

He said: “The NASS 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.”

Lawan lamented that the NASS would have passed the bill a week earlier had it not been for irregularities spotted in the bill.

“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 NASS 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 further stated.


FI