President of the Senate, Dr. Ahmad Lawan, yesterday disclosed that President Muhammadu Buhari will sign the 2023 appropriation bill next Tuesday.Dropping the hint after meeting with the President at the State House, Abuja, Lawan said the issue of the President’s recent additional loan request, the 2023 appropriate bill, 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 Chairman regretted that the signing of the budget is coming a bit later than that of 2022 which was signed on December 31 2021.According to him: “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 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 explained that the pattern set by the federal government had trickled down to the states, “most of whom now pass their appropriation bills and assent to them before the new year.”
On the forthcoming general elections, the Senate President said the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, “lacks nothing” assuring that the National Assembly will support it to deliver credible elections.
He said: “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 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.”