Ita Enang: The Acting President is empowered to sign the budget

The Senior Special Assistant to President Muhammadu Buhari on National Assembly (Senate), Sen. Ita Enang, on Friday said 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 powers to assent to the budget. He has the powers as Acting President to assent to it,’’ Enang told State House correspondents after he delivered the 2017 budget passed by the National Assembly to Acting President Yemi Osinbajo.

“In February, he assented to seven or eight bills. Those that he didn’t agree with, he wrote the Senate and House of Representatives that he had withheld his assent to them.

Enang told State House correspondents that assent to the Appropriation Bill would be after the budget had been perused.

According to him, 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 days or in two or three days,” he said.

He said the Appropriation Bill would be assented to after all the process had been completed.