The lingering controversy surrounding the 2016 Appropriation Bill has been finally put to rest as President Muhammadu Buhari will get the clean copy of the budget today. Since last week, Senators and members of the House of Representatives have engaged in marathon meetings up till yesterday to put finishing touches to the budget for onward submission to President Muhammadu Buhari for assent.
As part of moves to end the impasse, the leadership of the National Assembly and a select group from the executive arm of government began a meeting yesterday, primarily to arrive at a consensus on the final and clean copy of the budget. According to a source, the meeting was agreed on by both camps and coordinated by the Minister of Budget and National Planning, Senator Udoma Udo Udoma. The source said further that the meeting had one agenda: to make an appropriation bill that would be clean and made available for presidential assent today.
Prior to the meeting, which was held outside the National Assembly, the delegation from the National Assembly had met with the leadership of the Assembly to get a final position to be presented at the meeting. It was also gathered from a source close to all the arrangements to get the budget issues resolved, that the grey areas were being gradually reduced to the satisfaction of all parties.
