TheCable

Ita Enang, special adviser to President Muhammadu Buhari on national assembly matters, says Acting President Yemi Osinbajo “is now the president here” to assent the 2017 budget.

Speaking to state house correspondents after the delivery of the 2017 budget to Osinbajo on Friday, Enang clarified his initial statement that “Mr President will assent the budget”.

“The budget as passed by the National Assembly has just been transmitted to the Acting President. I just delivered it,” he said.

“Let me use this opportunity to clarify an issue. The Acting President has the power to assent to the budget and he will assent to it when the processes are completed.

“The Acting President has the power to assent to the budget. In February, he assented to 7 or 8 bills. Those that he didn’t agree with, he wrote the Senate and House of Representatives that he had withheld his assent from them.”

Enang went on to maintain that the budget will be signed by the president as he earlier said, but the president here now is the acting president.

“He has the power of the president to assent to it. But the assent to the Appropriation Bill will be after the completion of the standard operation process.

“The bill has 30 days within which it will be assented to but the process can be completed within two or three days. So, it is not possible to say it will be assented to in so, so and so day or in two or three days.

“It’s upon the completion of the process that it will be assented to by the president and the president here now is the acting president.”