President Buhari to Sign 2023 Budget Tuesday – Lawan

Lawan, who arrived at the State House few minutes before 3:00pm, said he discussed the President’s recent additional loan request and the 2023 appropriate bill.

He rued the signing of the appropriation bill is a bit later than that of the 2022 which was signed on December 31 2021.

The President of the Senate, Ahmed Lawan, on Friday said President Muhammadu Buhari will sign the 2023 appropriation bill on Tuesday, January 3 2023.

Lawan stated this after a closed-door meeting with the President at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
Lawan, who arrived at the State House few minutes before 3:00pm, said he discussed the President’s recent additional loan request and the 2023 appropriate bill.

Lawan said, “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 lamented that the National Assembly would have passed the bill a week earlier had it not been for irregularities spotted in the bill.

It 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 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 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.”

This pattern set by the federal government, Lawan explained, has trickled down to the states; most of which now pass their appropriation bills and assent to them before the new year.